Ella Minnow Pea: A novel in letters, a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable, by Mark Dunn.
Discussion led by Linda Smith
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What was your reaction to Ella Minnow Pea?
2. Letter Form
Mark Dunn: "I'm on a mission that every new novel I write is going to bend or tweak narrative as much as I can. I think writers need to be a little more daring. There are a lot of ways to tell stories and construct narratives that writers shy away from because they want to be either traditional or safe. I decided that's not going to be my mission."
Why has the author chosen to tell this story through letters rather than a more straightforward narrative? How does the structure of the novel enhance Dunn’s purpose?
3. New words/expressions
All the inhabitants of Nollop are forced into linguistic contortions to avoid being prosecuted by the High Council, substituting words like "cephalus" for "head" and "sub-terra" for "underground" . Sometimes hybrids
are made that combine the sounds and meanings of two different words,. Example: leapdash, vocabulazy. Also Dunn invents a number of phrases to express an idea without the use of a banned letter.
Example spinal-defectives
What are some of the more amusing verbal acrobatics the people are forced to perform?
