Meet Scotty: The Voice of Addiction
By Jenna Mason
[It] wasn’t something that I started out with. I was writing about this person who’s a drug addict who’s having a terrible time. I was writing in this voice, and I thought, âThis is kind of a fun, trashy voice to write in.â Then Darlene changed; I changed my mind about what kind of character I wanted her to be.
But I still had this voice, and I thought, âWell, who is this, then, if this isn’t her misplaced thoughts? Oh, my God, it’s the drug.â
Thatâs what James Hannaham told the L.A. Times. Scotty, the voice of crack cocaine, delivers dark humor, which Hannaham employs to help the reader cope (L.A. Times). Scotty broaches topics that courteous characters might sidestep, like when he incredulously describes Darleneâs attempts at prostitution: âShe ainât had the look down at all. My girl had on flats and a skirt that went below the kneeâno lie!â
Later, he shares her drug-induced thoughts:
Hustling this hard at the Peckerwood National Savings Bank, sheâd be the damn manager. Hell, thought Darlene, Iâd be the CEO. Itâd be an easier job, too. In that air conditioning? I have put this paper in this folder. Now I will return this pen to its holder. Done. I am leaving for the day. Hey, Mrs. Secretary! Where did you put my golf clubs?
Hannaham wrestled with Scottyâs dialect. âAt a certain point I said to myself, âWhy is crack speaking in a black vernacular kind of voice?ââ he told NPR. ââIs that kosher? Can I do that? Is the NAACP going to, like, run me out of town?ââ
The authorâs discomfort stems from the fact that some Americans consider educated, âproperâ English as âwhite.â âI remember nearly clocking a white girl in the face for saying that I talked âwhite,ââ Hannaham explained to Sonya Chung. âA high number of my ancestors have been teachers and ministers, so to me, that [educated] voice is as black as any other âcode.ââ
Since publication in 2015, Hannaham has emphasized that addiction is not the primary focus of Delicious Foods: âThe inclusion [of addiction] in the book really has much more to do with the real life cases than it does my interest in examining [addiction as a metaphor for slavery],â he told Guernica. Instead, Hannaham sought to expose the modern slavery, which occurs on farms in the southern United States.
In many cases, he has said, âone reason they would get abducted by modern slavers is that a drug addiction had made them vulnerable, desperate, and easy to control. Desperate enough to leave children behind.â Faced with her husbandâs murder, failed attempts at justice, and abandonment by her sister, Darlene becomes the ideal recruit for the Delicious Foods operation.
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James Hannaham will speak at the SFA Fall Symposium, set for October 11-13 in Oxford. Tickets go on sale August 1. In a lead-up to that event, this SFA series situates Delicious Foods in the broader narrative of Southern foodways, asking challenging and open-ended questions.
We invite you to read along during our five-part web series. Grab a copy of the novel from your local bookstore. Weâre keen on Square Books here in Oxford. Or if your summer includes significant time on the road, we highly recommend listening to the audiobook, read by James Hannaham himself.
Series topics:
What Weâre Reading: Delicious Foods
Fact and Fiction: Meet James Hannaham
Meet Eddie: Race in Delicious Foods
Meet Darlene: The American Dream
Meet Scotty: Addiction and Trauma
Additional Resources:
Bowe, John. Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy. New York: Random House, 2007.
Estabrook, Barry. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Detroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2012.
Rawal, Sanjay. Food Chains: The Revolution in Americaâs Fields. 2014.
Coalition of Immokalee Workers