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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 2, 2011 15:52:45 GMT -5
Two of the other three are real. You've heard of Lisa Gerrard, right? She was the one who wrote (not in real life obviously) that telegram to Lemony in the above entry (apologies if you knew that already from E. R.'s note at the bottom). She is a musician who was part of the group Dead Can Dance with Brendan Perry, and they will be touring later next year. She has done film scores and solo and collaboration work with others. Jerry Goldsmith is a composer, and the Welsh person is fictitious (as far as I know, since I made that name up). Did you look up their corresponding Dewey Decimal room numbers?
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Post by Hermes on Jul 2, 2011 16:46:59 GMT -5
Oh gosh, I hadn't noticed this. Excellent as ever! I too, wonder whose the commoplace book is. I'm stuck by the way you see Olaf's transformation as happening quite late in life. I also think it's very interesting the way you draw real people into VFD. Did you look up their corresponding Dewey Decimal room numbers? Just checked them. Esme's is particularly appropriate. But 789 is given as 'not assigned or no longer used', so I'm not sure what the significance of that is.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 2, 2011 17:29:19 GMT -5
I used that for Jerry Goldsmith as he has been dead for seven years in real life.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Jul 3, 2011 9:13:00 GMT -5
jacques Snicket: Thank you for answering my questions concerning the guests. Besides Esme, I was not familiar with any of these people until now. I just now researched the room numbers, and was amused to see how well they match up with each person. I agree with Hermes on how perfect 391 is for Esme. Mr. Goldsmith's passing is quite unfortunate, however.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 5, 2011 11:42:16 GMT -5
To My Kind Editor,
I am currently in the position of listening to the music of Arvo Pärt in order to receive the coded message my sister informed me of in her latest telegram. I am waiting, a word which here means "doing volunteer work by listening to a coded piece of music written by a coded volunteer while standing in a room with no chairs or tables whatsoever which perplexes my situation even more." I hope this wait is not too long, for I fear that the key to the room I am currently standing in will soon be taken out of its conspicuous teapot hiding place out in the hallway if it has not already been taken by most likely a ferocious enemy of mine.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
It appears that the piece Mr. Snicket was listening to, "Fratres", also contained a reference to a location frequented by members of our organization before that terrible fire left it in ashes. — E. R. ————————————————————————————————————
11.12 — Collected specimens from rock pool 11.30 — Cup of tea and sugar with J.S. 12.23 — Filed away important evidence (drop off at Heimlich Hospital's Library of Records later) 01.23 — Went to visit Dairy, they were out of cheese, time for second option 02.45 — Newspaper article on burned-down mansion drew my attention 03.00 — Tried phoning Bertrand Baudelaire, no answer 03.13 — Had tea and scones at the Veritable French Diner, waiter serving me looked familiar 03.32 — Read the Classifieds, hut on a rock for sale, must inform Isaac at once 04.22 — Met a very strange man on the way to Veblen Hall, for a moment he reminded myself of a very untidy and unkempt classmate back when we were mere students at the Valley of Four Drafts, suspicious
This fragment of a commonplace book belonging to an old friend of mine I had once thought lost had been handed to me by a strange waiter at the Anxious Clown café. It seems to detail a day in the life of a volunteer, most notable is his or her failure to contact the Baudelaire father, and that was after he or she had read about a mansion fire in the paper. Suspicious. — E. R.
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TO: D. D. FROM: J. S.
AT AROUND THIS TIME THREE ORPHANS WILL ENTER THE HOTEL DENOUEMENT STOP. I HAVE CONTACTED YOUR BROTHER CONCERNING THE SIGNAL SIGNIFYING THE THREE CHILDREN'S HIRING AS CONCIERGES STOP. AT NO MOMENT MUST YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH THE BAUDELAIRES STOP. BEST TO STAY IN THE SHADOWS STOP.
Dewey Denouement, of course, disregarded the last piece of advice when he showed himself to the three children. The third manager was risking his life by showing himself ever since his parents were murdered by a woman with hair but no beard and a man with a beard but no hair. — E. R.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Jul 5, 2011 13:49:26 GMT -5
I like the allusion to Arvo Part. Thank goodness for Google, which informs me there are a couple versions of Fratres. I wonder which one our dear Mr. Snicket was listening to? Then again, I suppose such a question is best left to the imagination, as is the case with so many mysteries in ASoUE. Is it safe to assume that the Valley of Four Drafts is actually the Training School? I've never considered this possibility before, let alone given much thought to the meaning of 'Four Drafts'. Thank you for giving me something to ponder. The bit about Dewey steering clear of the Baudelaires is very interesting, and once more something I never considered until now. And the Denouement parents were murdered by those who made even the blood of Olaf and Esme run cold? Yet another detail I can see having occurred in the canon.
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Post by Hermes on Jul 5, 2011 15:16:10 GMT -5
I must admit, Jacques, that things are not becoming any clearer to me as I read this. Anyway: Arvo Part is a member of VFD! I am more and more struck by how many people turn out to belong to it. I'm afraid I can't decode the secret message in his music, though. The Bertrand thing is interesting. The question is whether this relates to the Baudelaire fire, or another one. Of course, if the volunteer was calling Bertrand just after the fire, he may not yet have known that he was dead. Should I know who Isaac is? Is it safe to assume that the Valley of Four Drafts is actually the Training School? I've never considered this possibility before, let alone given much thought to the meaning of 'Four Drafts'. Thank you for giving me something to ponder. I think the description of the headquarters in the VFDrafts in TSS shows it was a training centre, among other things - we're told that Kornbluth was an instructor there, for instance. Though from TBL there seems also to have been a VFD school in the city. I'd always supposed 'drafts' meant currents of air, but it would be nice if it referred to drafts of essays as well.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 5, 2011 15:26:39 GMT -5
There is no real life code in Pärt's "Fratres." I just made that up for the story. Isaac could refer to ichthyologist Isaac Anwhistle who was the late husband of Josephine, though he could be another Isaac.
Yeah, the Valley was where the Headquarters was situated (and it was only logical that V.F.D. classes would be held there as well).
Answers lead to questions, lots and lots of questions, like a trail of bread leads to a wicked witch who plans on devouring you whole (or something to that effect). But in this case the questions are not life-threatening.
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Post by Hermes on Jul 5, 2011 15:50:15 GMT -5
There is no real life code in Pärt's "Fratres." I just made that up for the story. Oh, I didn't think there was: I was just entering into the game there. Oh, of course! (Do we know he was an ichthyologist? His brother, of course, was an ichnologist. I wonder what the third brother was.)
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 5, 2011 16:19:10 GMT -5
I mixed up Gregor and Isaac Anwhistle on the ichnologist issue. Isaac was a doctor of something (possibly ichthyology?), but I can't remember.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 6, 2011 17:19:31 GMT -5
To My Kind Editor,
I am currently hiding among the burnt remains of the Baudelaire mansion. It is three hours after midnight, a phrase which here means "it is very very late," and I am still in the process of drying my face from the tears that I have been crying when I had realized what it actually felt like to learn of the death of my dear Beatrice and her husband in the fire. Tears stain my already morose face anew as I turn my turbulent and guilt-filled thoughts to the three Baudelaire children who are now, I am truly saddened to say, orphans. I was wrong when I suggested years ago that my sister had been conveying secret information, a phrase which here means "acting as a double-agent should by ingratiating oneself with one side if only to later betray that side to the other side." Kit had been innocent all along, and it was instead Olaf who went over after his parents' deaths. One cannot help but think that everything thus far could have been avoided but for one small detail, a small detail that would later turn out to become relevant to the much larger picture.
With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket
This letter was found discarded in a wastebasket just outside the lounge of the Hotel Preludio, presumably by villains who had captured Mr. Snicket for some period of time later to set him free. The connection of the Baudelaire fire to these particular villains remains unknown as far as I know. — E. R.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Jul 7, 2011 9:53:31 GMT -5
Oh! What a tragic state of affairs that last part was. :,( You've portrayed the emotion very well, though, making the reader truly believe it to be a section taken straight from the pages of ASoUE. I found the part about Lemony's suspicion concerning Kit's loyalties very interesting. It's nice to know she was on his side all along, though I can see why he would assume otherwise.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 10, 2011 10:37:10 GMT -5
To K.,
I am writing to inform you that I am going to discontinue my manufacture of poison darts for our organization. I know you will inquire as to why I have made my choice and so I find it prudent to save you time and air and answer you here with the written word. As we all understand, to our grief, the schism that has beset our organization has been progressively getting worser and worser every day; friends fighting amongst themselves, families being torn apart, and one out of three siblings being framed for crimes they did not commit and being falsely presumed dead a countless number of times. I feel wearied by this, Kit. I worry that I, too, will forsake the noble ideals of our organization just for a quick spit at revenge. I have recently heard from L. about her work regarding a sanctuary from all the trouble and wickedness in the world, and I hope she succeeds in the construction of her ideal sanctuary, a last safe place, a feeling that is often expressed in her vocal music. Once we had sanctuaries across the globe, but now that is faded into a dream. I fear the worst.
The world is quiet here,
Eltaan Renefeso
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TO: ARTHUR POE FROM: J.S.
THIS IS URGENT STOP. THE THREE BAUDELAIRE CHILDREN WILL BE AT THE BRINY BEACH TOMORROW STOP. YOU ARE TO BRING THEM TO THE CITY HIGH COURT TO ANSWER FOR CHARGES OF ARSON, MURDER, AND BEING THE ACCOMPLICES OF COUNT OLAF STOP. DO NOT TRUST KIT SNICKET STOP. DO NOT BRING A TAXI EITHER STOP.
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Dear Dairy,
I have just been to the premiere of Al Funcoot's new play "How Fortunate The Man With The Family Fortune" an indescribably bad piece of dramatized literature focusing on a drunk and avaricious count and his scheming troubadours who set their uncouth eyes upon a young landholding peasant who had recently inherited his father's titles and property. The plot moves forward at a juggernaut pace, a phrase which here means, "the count orders his henchpeople to ingratiate themselves with the inheritor of a family fortune when the plot could be shortened to the simple yet treacherous deed of the count simply calling for the peasant's assassination and taking the fortune all for himself, but Funcoot seems to be a playwright of theatrical grandiosity it seems." It further seems to me that Mr. Funcoot is of a far more devious nature than is exhibited in the subject and process of his script writing.
J. S.
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Post by Emma “Emmz” Squalor on Jul 11, 2011 19:26:09 GMT -5
I like how you've expanded on the details surrounding the poison darts - I suppose Beatrice and Bertrand must have acquired theirs before the manufacturing ceased. Unless, of course, they obtained them from someone else, or maybe stolen them. Such possibilities are quite endless! Did you come up with the reason for Mr. Poe's arrival at Briny Beach at the end of TGG, or was such mentioned in the remaining volumes or companion works of ASoUE? If you are indeed the creator of this idea, then I'm very impressed. I must ask the same of How Fortunate The Man With The Family Fortune. I ran the title through the Google search engine, and the closest result I received was for something entitled How Fortunate the Man with None.
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Post by Jacques Snicket on Jul 11, 2011 19:58:49 GMT -5
I don't think the reasons for Mr. Poe's arrival at Briny Beach were stated in canon as far as I remember.
"How Fortunate The Man With None" is a Dead Can Dance song, the title of which I based one of Count Olaf's obnoxious plays, the song itself having nothing to do with my plot.
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