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Post by Dante on Dec 20, 2012 3:24:18 GMT -5
I think that with The Nameless Novel, they were clearly hinting at something, but in canon, I'm not so sure. There are, what, two bowls of fruit in the entire series, both before the sugar bowl's even mentioned? The one in TBB is mentioned once offhand, and the one in THH is a plot device to emphasise Hal's poor eyesight.
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Post by Hermes on Dec 20, 2012 15:50:03 GMT -5
I'd agree they didn't mean anything when first introduced. (Actually there is a third, which oddly isn't mentioned in TNN - the bowl of fruit in each student's room at Prufrock Prep - but still.) But it does seem to me that something is going on in TNN. True, there are a lot of red herrings there, but in most cases their redness became obvious as soon as the book appeared, while this one is more subtle.
Handler did not need to be involved very deeply - though presumably he did write 'Ants in the Fruit Salad'. Suppose the compilers asked him 'What is in the sugar bowl?' and he said 'bitter apples'. That would have given them enough to work with.
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Post by Dante on Dec 20, 2012 16:31:24 GMT -5
Well, the bitter apples are, I think, quite clearly not the solution intended for every direct reference to the sugar bowl, and I've addressed the Baudelaire parents' comments in a fashion I am completely confident is what was meant. However, the villains didn't know until TGG that the Medusoid Mycelium even still existed, and certainly didn't have a sample. Horseradish's usefulness would have been no greater than that of any other condiment, so there would be no reason for anyone to search for it, particularly given that V.F.D. has the Opportune Odours factory producing horseradish even now. The comment about the vessel can be adequately explained by other means, at that (although I wouldn't be surprised if Handler intended that line to be misleading). Specifically, the "vess"(el) is the jar of beans aboard the Beatrice in Chapter One; the horseradish could've been hidden beneath a superficial layer of beans. Remember that that jar hadn't been opened in years - presumably since the time the Baudelaire parents were operating it.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Dec 20, 2012 16:38:25 GMT -5
Sorry if you have already thought about this, but thinking about the bitter apples and the sugar bowl I noticed that if you put sugar to the apple makes it less bitter. So the sugar bowl could contain something that makes the horseradish apples sweet = not bitter = not helping against the medusoid mycelium. Something that can make the horseradish useless? (Sorry, I'm not able to make understandable sentences now. tired.)
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Post by Charlie on Dec 20, 2012 22:05:36 GMT -5
That all makes sense, but then why would villains want sugar in their tea, while noble people do not (supposing there is a direct distinction, and Kit's philosophy for tea applies to every noble person). I mean, maybe I'm being nitpicky and all, or maybe I'm just being stupid. Good thought though Anka
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Post by Dante on Dec 21, 2012 4:51:02 GMT -5
When people ask for sugar in their tea, that seems to be a coded signal that they're searching for the sugar bowl, and doesn't necessarily indicate that they actually do prefer tea with sugar. I think it would be a little unfair of me to suggest that villains have more of a sweet tooth than volunteers, but they might be not quite so good at regulating their appetites - see Nero, who goes to an Indian restaurant and orders candy.
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Post by Hermes on Dec 21, 2012 10:40:56 GMT -5
Ishmael says that his student was being poisoned in her tea, and he thought that an antidote might be hidden - and at that point Sunny interrupts. It seems quite likely that he was going to say 'in a sugar bowl' - later, certainly, Klaus connects what he says here with sugar bowls. He (Ishmael) goes on to say that he then came to prefer tea as bitter as wormwood. I suspect that this means either that volunteers prefer tea as bitter as wormwood because it contains an antidote, or that they prefer tea as bitter as wormwood because there is no sugar available, since their sugar bowls contain antidotes.
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Dec 21, 2012 11:41:13 GMT -5
I suspect that this means either that volunteers prefer tea as bitter as wormwood because it contains an antidote, or that they prefer tea as bitter as wormwood because there is no sugar available, since their sugar bowls contain antidotes. Probably they were afraid that thing inside the sugar bowl would poison them?
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Post by zombiesinthesnow on Dec 22, 2012 16:00:14 GMT -5
This is all fascinating to catch up on, and its very neat to see all the evidence and referencing to the fruit bowls. Concerning the tea code, it does makes sense that the noble volunteers prefer "bitter as wormwood" given that in TE the sugar is suggested to be hiding the presence of poison. The wormwood, bitter taste is the direct antidote, and would be easily recognized. Sweetened with sugar, as mentioned above, hides bitterness, thus alluding to perhaps extra things on top of the antidote, or even a way to hide the antidote. Also, it is interesting to note that if this is the case, Count Olaf's bowl was of "apple cores," so perhaps he and some of the other volunteers have a permanent side effect from Medusoid Mylecium? Perhaps it was used as a weapon in the schism days, and the antidote at first was a rare thing to come by, or unknown to one side of the schism.
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Post by The Duchess on Dec 23, 2013 18:45:44 GMT -5
This is a thread to post/disprove any theories about the Sugar Bowl.
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Post by Teleram on Dec 23, 2013 20:35:37 GMT -5
Pretty sure there's already about 20 threads like this
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Post by Dante on Dec 24, 2013 3:46:03 GMT -5
I'm afraid I have to agree that you're going to have a hard time replacing " What Is The Sugar Bowl Secret?", which netted over two hundred replies. I appreciate that the topic is still a pressing one, though, so I'll bump it, which you may take as being as good an indication as any that that topic is by dint of "tradition" the "official" one, insofar as the designation makes any sense on a fan forum. Which leaves this thread rather redundant, I'm afraid. Fortunately I can simply merge this into WITSBS, so it doesn't trail off into infinity. I suspect there's little further progress to be made on the issue, though, barring certain developments in ATWQ.
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Post by The Duchess on Dec 24, 2013 7:38:19 GMT -5
Thanks. I didn't see this.
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Post by Dante on Dec 24, 2013 8:47:17 GMT -5
That's fine; I understand. Sometimes it's appropriate to start a new topic for an idea that's relatively undiscussed, but in the case of the sugar bowl then this thread renders any new topics redundant...
But won't you tell us your own theory about the sugar bowl?
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Post by The Duchess on Dec 24, 2013 12:39:04 GMT -5
My theory is that the sugar bowl contains sugar. I think that the fight isn't about what's inside, it's the bowl itself. It must be very pretty.
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