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Post by lizzy2darcy on May 13, 2012 6:13:31 GMT -5
From Damocles dock, which alludes to the sword of Damocles, the Greek myth, to Veblen hall where consumerism obsessed people come to sell fashionable items, the names mean a lot to asoue. Any remarks?
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Post by Dante on May 13, 2012 6:19:31 GMT -5
It's not just names of places. The names of many of the characters are equally allusive. You can find as near a complete list as we're likely ever to see here: www.quidditch.com/lemony%20snicket.htmAs to why they're there - ASoUE places a lot of importance on learning. That's why there's a library in every book even though Klaus is the only one whose talent is specifically reading-oriented, and you can see that the later books place increasing importance on the reading of literature. V.F.D. pays homage to a number of historical and literary figures, and the way they hide secret messages in books and plays is arguably a reference to the way we can find meaning in literary texts through critical reading. The books are, ultimately, all about introducing younger people to the wide world of literature and to a scholarly community of authors and readers. ...That's my theory, anyway.
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Post by B. on May 13, 2012 6:27:05 GMT -5
It is as though ASoUE is a VFD training manual in itself.
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Post by Kensicle on May 13, 2012 6:36:47 GMT -5
^Almost, yeah. You'll be surprised about how many literary allusions you'll find in the series. The majority of places, and characters for that matter (as Dante said), allude to some great work of literature or a famous author. Handler's stated that it's because he's bad at making up names. By the way, here's some information about the allusions in some all of the TE islanders' names.
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Post by Christmas Chief on May 13, 2012 6:59:38 GMT -5
Erudition is one of the values Lemony seeks to instill in his readers. It's not just that there are libraries everywhere the Baudelaires go, or that answers so often come from books read prior to the crisis or even during the crisis (in the case of TMM, for instance). Allusions contribute to the series' message in an overarching, intertextual way, so that readers might be inspired by the books, reading them in hopes of gleaning some uncovered information.
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Post by Dante on May 13, 2012 11:24:20 GMT -5
Many 667ers have been inspired to read the various works of literature mentioned or alluded to in the series. A good example would be J.D. Salinger's For Esmé, With Love And Squalor; a more obscure one, W.H. Hudson's Green Mansions.
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Post by Christmas Chief on May 13, 2012 19:12:54 GMT -5
When I think of the works I've read because of ASOUE, I actually realize most of it was poetry: T.S. Eliot, Lewis Carroll, Dante, Baudelaire, Frost, Wodehouse, Guest, Browning, Saxe, Swinburne ... I'm sure there are more, and equally sure others could easily top my list. That might be a good idea for discussion one day, actually.
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Post by A on Jun 1, 2012 19:51:54 GMT -5
Now when I see JD Salinger, Lewis Caroll, Edgar Allen Poe, Guest etc. I go "Wow! I must read that!" In the past, I would see LC and think, "Oh yes, Alice in Wonderland." I even borrowed this very tedious book of not scary at all Ghost Stories just because EAP wrote one of them. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is a book that I am trying to find in the school lib so I can find ASOUE references in it.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Jun 2, 2012 8:07:14 GMT -5
I think I remember being frustrated at not being able to find Ivan Lachrymose: Lake Explorer in my library, or anywhere for that matter, but that was some years ago.
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Post by Dante on Jun 9, 2012 12:38:20 GMT -5
Sometimes it must be hard to distinguish between what's real and what's fake in ASoUE. Sometimes the authors are real and the works are fake, making it even harder.
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Post by A on Jun 11, 2012 1:10:54 GMT -5
It's hard to distinguish between anything in ASOUE! You don't know who's villain or noble, for example!
Please post about some of the fake works by real authors. I am quite interested in that. Will they be like Flying Apples by Edgar Guest etc?
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Post by Dante on Jun 11, 2012 3:00:04 GMT -5
I was thinking more about The Coded Poetry of Edgar Allan Poe - real poet, real poem, fake book.
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