The Parfumier and the BFG

He stepped off the sidewalk into the doorway of the boutique and lounged casually against the polished doorframe.
“Is that Chanel you’re wearing?” he asked the surprised woman behind the counter.
“Yes,” she replied as she looked quizzically at this stranger.
“I thought so,” the man replied as he turned to leave.  “I could smell the scent as I was walking past,” adding as an afterthought as he left, “…I’m a parfumier.”

The power of our senses to capture and store emotions is not to be underestimated.  It’s what we rely on when we attempt to convey emotion in writing.  We train our students to write, drawing on their senses to create atmosphere.   Harnessing our imagination we develop original descriptive language, using metaphors and similes which resonate with all that we have experienced before.  Hasn’t every teacher asked their students to “close your eyes and picture…” before eliciting a written response?  It’s all about the senses and the memories they conjure up – especially the sense of smell.

The parfumier and the incident above are real.  He lives in London and he specialises in creating scents for exclusive clients.  These are no ordinary perfumes to be worn on the wrist or neckline.  These scents are designed to enhance the atmosphere of mansions owned by the rich and famous and the Uber rich. With a starting price of $25 000, these scents are unique and complex compilations designed to create an emotional response, and to give the mansion a specific persona.  The parfumier works with the client to design the exclusive perfume and many of the layers of the scent recall specific memories. For example, one layer may remind the client of her father’s aftershave, another layer the woods on a misty morning. He then works his magic to weave them together into a bespoke, and very expensive, scented candle.

In Roald Dahl’s “The BFG”, the Big Friendly Giant takes this one step further as he bottles dreams and blows them silently into childrens’ bedrooms with his dream trumpet.  These are physical memories he has captured and bottled in Dreamland.  The BFG blows happy dreams from his glass bottles.  The parfumier creates happy  memories through his perfume, which he then bottles.

It’s this kind of sensory immediacy and emotional connection with the reader, which we seek when we ask our students to review their writing and to include more descriptive language; to show not tell; and to try to convey the emotion and personality of the character through the words they choose to use.  If only it were as easy as opening a bottle or lighting a scented candle.