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667 Dark Avenue: Noble Enough :: The Burdensome Books :: The Trouble Begins :: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
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AuthorTopic: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes (Read 236 times)
JTB
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JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Thread Started on Jul 30, 2009, 12:27pm »
Part Two of "JTB's Re-Read Notes" - The Reptile Room. These come straight from my commonplace book. Enjoy! :)


Pg. 2? 3?* Lousy Lane is surrounded by large fields of apple trees. It is also very near Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory. Horseradish+apples = the poison diluting apples from TE. Perhaps Ishmael was from Tedia, and he knew how he could get them from Lousy Lane to the Island?

Pg. 8 Helquistt's beginning illustration doesn't match house's description at all, unless the house was drawn from the backside.

Pg. 10 "Hello hello hello!" V.F.D. greeting?

Pg. 20 "...torn apart by wild animals." Reminds me of Lulu and Baldy in TCC.

Pg. 37 Fireproof canoe? Possible V.F.D. vehicle? Side V.F.D. note - Monty's house is primarily green. Emerald Lumber from Lucky Smells Lumbermill? (also, side-side note - Lucky Smells = Opportune Odors)

Pg. 39 "The stain never really came out." Parents' deaths = stain on childrens' lives.

Pg. 99 I find it interesting that in a world of elevators, computer systems in schools, automobiles, and motorcycles, the primary methods of sea-wide travel are sailing ships.

Pg. 103 Mr. Poe will correct his name before showing suprise or sympathy of Monty's death. Poe is beginning to become suspicious.

Pg. 107 Poe describes Olaf as 'clean-shaven' - this is not true. Strike Two, Poe.

Pg. 131 Mail-order catalogues? For what? I have a suspicion that these are 'IN' Catalogues.

Pg. 152 Bela = anagram of Abel. Curiously, the typical way to spell 'Bela' is 'Bella', so it seems this might have been intentional. Perhaps Bela was betrayed in some way?

186 Bruce has a diamond watch, but he is the director of marketing for the Herpetological Society? I have a suspicion this watch was bought for him by the Spats Fortune.


This concludes The Reptile Room. I'm off to re-read The Wide Window, and take notes. Hope you enjoyed! :)
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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #1 on Jul 30, 2009, 1:40pm »

Jul 30, 2009, 12:27pm, JTB wrote:
Pg. 2? 3?* Lousy Lane is surrounded by large fields of apple trees. It is also very near Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory. Horseradish+apples = the poison diluting apples from TE. Perhaps Ishmael was from Tedia, and he knew how he could get them from Lousy Lane to the Island?


I'm inclined to call coincidence on this - the apples in The End are apples for far better reasons than to tie in to a one-word reference on the first page of the second book. I'm also not entirely clear on what you're saying about Ishmael, but I suspect it's not backed up by the established timeline of his life.


Quote:
Pg. 8 Helquistt's beginning illustration doesn't match house's description at all, unless the house was drawn from the backside.


The porch is a bit different, but the rest is hardly objectionable. Handler very rarely describes anything or anyone, so Helquist fills in a lot of details.


Quote:
Pg. 10 "Hello hello hello!" V.F.D. greeting?


More likely to be a reference to Olaf's identical greeting in TBB - the same words herald vastly different first impressions.


Quote:
Pg. 107 Poe describes Olaf as 'clean-shaven' - this is not true. Strike Two, Poe.


Hmm. While Olaf is described as "unshaven" in TBB, and has a little beard in Helquist's illustrations, I think it's fair to say that neither are anything like Stephano's long beard.


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Pg. 152 Bela = anagram of Abel. Curiously, the typical way to spell 'Bela' is 'Bella', so it seems this might have been intentional. Perhaps Bela was betrayed in some way?


I think you're over-reading. "Bela" is an acceptable alternative spelling, which you will see used by certain people, albeit often with an accent. And at that, there are also several "Bela"s in the Bible. Like Gina-Louise and Madame diLustro, I'm dubious as to how deeply we should be reading this. At best it's probably a fairly straightforward allusion to a novel; at worst it may have been chosen at random.


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186 Bruce has a diamond watch, but he is the director of marketing for the Herpetological Society? I have a suspicion this watch was bought for him by the Spats Fortune.


Conceivably, especially in a more retroactive reading, but marketing is the Devil's trade, and probably pays highly in the setting of aSoUE. I think Bruce being related to Carmelita is probably something Handler came up with when he was planning TSS, and no earlier. There are more similarities between Bruce and Sir, for example.
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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #2 on Jul 30, 2009, 3:52pm »

Jul 30, 2009, 1:40pm, Dante wrote:

Jul 30, 2009, 12:27pm, JTB wrote:
Pg. 2? 3?* Lousy Lane is surrounded by large fields of apple trees. It is also very near Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory. Horseradish+apples = the poison diluting apples from TE. Perhaps Ishmael was from Tedia, and he knew how he could get them from Lousy Lane to the Island?


I'm inclined to call coincidence on this - the apples in The End are apples for far better reasons than to tie in to a one-word reference on the first page of the second book. I'm also not entirely clear on what you're saying about Ishmael, but I suspect it's not backed up by the established timeline of his life.


The fact that the apples are sour, though - not exactly the same as bitter, but close enough to be striking - suggests a connection. I don't think anything can have been in Handler's mind when he wrote this, but in retrospect one can try and think of links. I think when we read this during the reread it was speculated that the apple trees in Lousy Lane may have been the result of an earlier experiment towards the result achieved in The End.


Quote:
I think you're over-reading. "Bela" is an acceptable alternative spelling, which you will see used by certain people, albeit often with an accent. And at that, there are also several "Bela"s in the Bible. Like Gina-Louise and Madame diLustro, I'm dubious as to how deeply we should be reading this. At best it's probably a fairly straightforward allusion to a novel; at worst it may have been chosen at random.


Examples are Bela Bartok, the composer, but perhaps more significant here, Bela Lugosi, the actor, famous for playing horror roles such as Dracula.

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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #3 on Aug 24, 2009, 5:35am »
There are some interesting points being made here! It's good seeing what one can come out with when looking into things in detail.
I think that although Helquist's illustrations fill in for Handler's lack of description, he sometimes does it alternatively to provided descriptions, like in the paperback of T.B.B., in his picture of the children in the tower, they aren't dressed in night-ware is described in the text. I'm not sure about Olaf's beard either... it's always confused me, as in T.C.C., it's said to be fake when Sunny uses it as a disguise, but in illustrations and description in T.R.R., it's said to be real. Perhaps it's just an unplanned change from Handler later on in the series?

EDIT: Although, I note that even after it was published that Stephano's beard was fake, Helquist still drew it as real in the newer Reptile Room paperback...
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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #4 on Aug 29, 2009, 2:59am »
I think Helquist is quite firm on his use of artistic license; some of his illustrations of Olaf's disguises for The Complete Wreck deviate rather from the text, but we overlook these things because they're very good.
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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #5 on Aug 30, 2009, 9:21am »
That's true. I suppose the illustrations just symbolise the scene in their own way rather than completely transfer it from the text. It could be considered to be a reflection in a window rather than a clear mirror.
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Re: JTB's The Reptile Room Notes
« Reply #6 on Sept 20, 2009, 10:48am »
We must keep in mind that Brett Helquist as closely identified with the story and characters as we put them, are not really clear representations of the characters.We can always imagine them differently, but who needs to do so when Helquist's work is there?he's one of my favorite artists right now.^^
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