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Post by Strangely on Feb 17, 2010 11:13:25 GMT -5
In TSS Quigley recounts how he survived the fire and how he went through a secret passage to uncle Monty's house. This would imply that Quigley arrived after the Baudelaire's had been there. But this doesn't makes sense because in TUA it states that the Baudelaire fire was more recent than the Quagmire fire. also in TAA it states that the Quagmires had been attending the academy for over three semesters, which would mean over a year and a half. By TAA this would only be a few months after the Baudelaire fire. So I'm confused if the Quagmires house supposedly burnt before the Baudelaire's than how did Quigley get to uncle Monty's after the Baudelaire's had been there?
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Post by Dante on Feb 17, 2010 12:08:19 GMT -5
I think the U.A. only implies that the Quagmire fire was more recent than the Baudelaire one. This is the reference in Mr. Helquist's letter to the Quagmire case, right? Since he doesn't explicitly refer to a fire, then we can pretend that he's referring to another Quagmire incident we don't know about. That way we can shift the time of the Quagmire fire to during or just after TRR. As for the reference to three semesters, that depends on how long your semester is. While I understand it literally stems from a six-month period, in educational institutions then the term is used nominally for much shorter periods; some measurements of a semester only last fifteen to eighteen weeks, and mine are twelve, for instance. Three of those semesters would be between half a year and a year. That's still far too long, but it opens up the possibility that Prufrock has even shorter semesters, especially since all seven days of the week are school days, with no holidays. It's very probably a series of retcons, but we can work around this.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Feb 17, 2010 15:39:58 GMT -5
Prufrock is an odd school anyway. It's possible Nero could have, say, eighteen very short semesters in a single year, to make the school year seem longer than it is, or some flawed logic along those lines.
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Post by Strangely on Feb 18, 2010 12:39:19 GMT -5
I guess that's true, really though the only way we'd ever know for sure is if Snicket ever elaborates on that.
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Post by Dante on Feb 18, 2010 12:48:05 GMT -5
He probably won't, though. If you're a committed enough reader to become aware of this plot hole, you're probably also capable of inventing or finding a potential explanation.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Feb 18, 2010 15:56:19 GMT -5
Of all the things I'd like him to elaborate on, I'd be kind of disappointed if he chose this. Not because it's unimportant, but because the timeline of the series has never made much sence anyway, and if he tried to fix this it'd most likely result in ending up with a plot hole somewhere else.
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Post by Hermes on Feb 18, 2010 16:21:38 GMT -5
Evidence that the Quagmire fire happened before the Baudelaire fire:
The 'three semesters' thing. It's true that a semester doesn't have to be literally six months, but I take it it is part of the concept that there are just two of them in a year; the 'semesterisation' which a lot of UK universities have gone through recently is a change from a three-term year to a two-term year. It's true that Prufrock Prep, being an absurd establishment, can do anything it likes, but I'd still rather 'semester' meant what it ought to mean. (And the 'half-semester' that the Baudelaires spent there was long enough that they lost count of the days. )
The reference to the Quagmire affair in TUA - it's true it doesn't actually say 'fire', but starting fires is what Lemony is usually accused of.
Evidence that the Quagmire fire happened after the Baudelaire fire:
Quigley's story. At one time it seemed possible that Quigley was lying - and there were other indications of this as well (why didn't he mention hiding in a snowman?) But if so, nothing came of this.
A suggestion in the Rare Edition that the logs chopped by the Baudelaires were used to burn down the Quagmire house.
Likely real world explanation: Handler changed his mind.
Possible in-story explanations: er, Quigley went into a coma after the fire, and only recovered a year and a half later? And the bit about the logs might perhaps refer, not to the Quagmires, but to the mysterious other family which produced the two orphans later recruited by Kit - one of whom might also, as Dante has proposed, have hidden in a snowman.
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Post by Dante on Feb 18, 2010 17:50:24 GMT -5
Possible in-story explanations: er, Quigley went into a coma after the fire, and only recovered a year and a half later? Even though this is completely baseless, it would actually be pretty good. Maybe not in aSoUE, but for a fanfic, perhaps, then that would be really interesting to write or read. Another possible theory, albeit still outlandish: The tunnel Quigley went through from his home to Dr. Montgomery's was actually an enormous and complex but completely abandoned tunnel network full of supplies, literature, and whatnot, in which he spent months in a fugue state before emerging in the Montgomery mansion. The recent newspaper about the Quagmire fire could be worked around with various embellishments; Quigley could've picked it up underground, or Dr. Montgomery could've held onto it. Although both of those would only create more problems. To be honest, I'd rather just take the likely real world explanation of Handler changing his mind and use that to offhandedly justify a few fig leaf theories.
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