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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 20, 2012 12:51:56 GMT -5
I'd be very interested in taking part in this for sure. Additionally, a map would not go a miss. Others have tried documenting the days and weeks as they are referenced in the series, with varying success. Generally, the final books are a little more precise, but in the series' earlier books time spans become more the work of estimation than that of textual certainty. I'm not sure how this could be represented as a map, but I think it would be possible to present any discoveries as some sort of visual - albeit a visual with a considerable amount of gaps and guesswork. In fact, I think I recall a table which attempted such a feat. A week is more or less accurate for TRR. Mr. Poe says at the beginning of the novel he'll bring the children their luggage at the end of the week for their trip to Peru, and on the last day of their stay at Dr. Montgomery's Mr. Poe says, "I hurried over here this morning, to finally bring them their luggage," confirming the week has been completed.
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Post by Lost In Des Moines. on Aug 20, 2012 13:01:21 GMT -5
Yeah I found the map afterwards, interesting to see how everyone imagines it to look.
I personally think a timeline is very very possible, obviously not to exact dates but a generalisation is feasible.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 20, 2012 13:11:12 GMT -5
Feel free to start such a timeline yourself. I'd certainly be interested to see how the events play out over the stretch of time, and willing to help resolve any gaps.
I've also been trying to locate some of those past threads concerning timelines in the series, with no success. They all seem to redirect to discussions of what point in history the series takes place. But I think the relevant threads, if found, would prove a valuable starting point for a project of this sort.
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Post by Lost In Des Moines. on Aug 20, 2012 13:13:31 GMT -5
I've just been re-reading the series, going over things Lemony has said about himself that we might find out about in the new series. I think another re-read is in order to piece everything together.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Aug 20, 2012 15:25:22 GMT -5
I think it's less than one year from TBB to TE (without chapter 14), because Violet's and Klaus' birthdays are mentioned, and I think if it was Sunny's birthday during that time it would have been mentioned too. But I have no real reason or proof for it, it's just a thought.
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Post by Lost In Des Moines. on Aug 20, 2012 16:08:24 GMT -5
I don't think it's even close to a year at all, I'll jot down what my recent estimations from re-reading books 1 through 10 are:
TBB, I have no idea, but they're with Mr. Poe for a good few days before settling in with Olaf for no less than a week or so. TRR lasts a week, if not only 5 or 6 days, we know this indefinitely because of how they bump into Mr. Poe at the end of the week they started living there. TWW lasts 2 days? Nothing suggests otherwise. TMM I can not comment on, but if memory serves me right the bald man trips Klaus on his first day at work and it doesn't take Violet too long to solve the hypnosis mystery. TAA, I have literally no idea for the first section of the book before Coach Genghis's arrival but I'm pretty sure it doesn't take him long to show up, and again if memory serves me right the Baudelaires have to run laps for 9 consecutive nights before their exam? (I don't think I'm making this up but I could be confusing it with something else). TEE lasted a couple of days. TVV lasted 3/4 days (due to the fact the Baudelaires receive 3/4 couplets from the Quagmires, I thought it was 3 but you can't spell FOUNTAIN with the first letters of 6 lines). THH lasts 2/3 days (I think, I've read it recently and I am under the impression they spend 1 day under Babs, another realising Olaf is in the building before breaking into the library then one last day in which Violet is supposed to be operated on). TCC lasts again 2 or 3 days (They arrive late one night, spend a day working as freaks, then by the night Olaf has brought the VDF lions, which is followed by Olivia's death the next day and their departure). TSS lasts around 24 hours if not a little longer, the Baudelaires only sleep once. TGG, I haven't re-read this yet but I believe it is the same as The Slippery Slope? Haven't read it since it initially came out so I expect to be wrong here. TPP, can not comment for reasons the same as the above, TE (Excluding Chapter 14), same as above.
I am definitely willing to accept I could be wrong in a few places here, but this is the best I can do without re-reading purely looking for the timespan.
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Post by Hermes on Aug 20, 2012 16:18:18 GMT -5
In TAA they have lost count of the days before Genghis shows up. Of course, that might be quite easy to do if the days are indistinguishable from one another. It does say somewhere that they were at Prufrock Prep for a half-semester, though some people have speculated that 'semester' is used in an odd way at PP.
What makes it really hard to calculate, though, is the gaps between books, when they are with Mr Poe - we really don't know at all how long these were.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Aug 20, 2012 16:34:50 GMT -5
I never thought they stay with Mr Poe longer than one day between the books, but I think you're right, it must take some time to find a new place to stay for them.
Lost In Des Moines, your list looks really good. TAA is really the most diffiult to say, it must be longer than the others, because before they can take theie exams they must have spent some time in class.
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Post by Lost In Des Moines. on Aug 20, 2012 16:36:40 GMT -5
We don't have semesters as a school time measurement over here in the UK so I honestly don't know how long that is, but considering they don't have weekends there, I doubt they'd have holidays to know themselves. If I used the British school term time in place of it, in which half of a school term is 6 weeks, we could presume they were there for part of the January/February term before departing (this has to be the case given how little time there is between the books following TAA and considering that False Spring occurs in TSS, 5 books/a few weeks later maximum). As for Mr. Poe's care for them, I presume it's the same amount of time as the first book, a few days. Either way I don't think the book even comes near 6 months never mind a year
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Aug 20, 2012 16:49:19 GMT -5
Isn't a semester always half a year minus the holidays? But I don't think they stayed a whole semester, only a few weeks, just long enough to learn the stuff for those exams, which is even shorter if you don't have weekends.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 20, 2012 17:01:54 GMT -5
TBB, I have no idea, but they're with Mr. Poe for a good few days before settling in with Olaf for no less than a week or so. I wouldn't disagree with this; I think it's possible to get an exact count until Snicket says something like "a few days," so a week is reasonable. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the lengths of semesters are ambiguous, and indeed the Baudelaires themselves lose track of the days. So the time in TAA can be either shortened or lengthened as needed. (Half a semester for me, incidentally, is nine weeks.) They receive the final couplet on the same day they receive the third, only it's delivered to them in prison. That amounts to three days. They sleep once, but they also spend some time in the grotto, and are underwater for the majority of the book, so I think it's possible to stretch time a bit more here (whereas TSS is less flexible).
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Post by Lost In Des Moines. on Aug 21, 2012 7:07:15 GMT -5
Here's a go at working out an actual timespan for the series.
21st of February is my initial estimation of False Spring, so I'm going to try and work out a little timespan right here. The dates in brackets are my estimated start dates for each novel.
February 21st - False Spring - 24 hours approximately, The Slippery Slope (Feb. 20th) - 48 or so hours, The Carinvorous Carnival (Feb 18th) - 72 hours approximately, The Hostile Hospital (Feb 15th) - 72 hours approximately, The Vile Village (Feb 12th) - 96 hours approximately, interlude at Mr. Poe's (Feb 8th) - 96 hours at least spent at 667 Dark Avenue, The Ersatz Elevator (Feb 4th) - Another 96 hours approximately spent at Mr. Poe's (Jan 31st) - Let's say nine weeks for the semester at boarding school, that's 1512 hours or 63 days, The Austere Academy (Nov 29th) - Another 96 hours approximately spent at Mr. Poe's (Nov 25th) - 72 hours at least spent at The Miserable Mill (Nov 22nd) - Another 96 hours approximately spent at Mr. Poe's (Nov 18th) - 48 hours approximately sums up The Wide Window (Nov 16th) - Another 96 hours approximately spent at Mr. Poe's (Nov 12th) - Presumably 5 days, no more than a week spent during The Reptile Room (Nov 7th) - Another 96 hours approximately spent at Mr. Poe's (Nov 3rd) - I would presume around 336 hours for the Bad Beginning which is 2 weeks at least (Oct 20th) - Several days are spent at Mr. Poes, is it safe to say 5 or 6? lets go with 6 to be safe, 144 hours (Oct 14th)
I doubt this is right at all, so, lets look at some other factors that can help us get to a more accurate timing. Lets theorize that the Austere Academy starts at the beginning of the american semester, September 7th, putting the start of the Bad Beginning back to 23rd of July. From there we could conclude that the Austere Academy ends on the 9th of November, adding 21 days onto that (the time between my initial calcuation of false spring and my inital calculation of the end date for the Austere Academy) we would have November 30th at the date for False Spring.
I'm very aware it's highly unlikely that they started dead on the beginning of the semester as there were already kids attending the school in the 'playground', and I'm also aware that November is Fall, not Winter, so let's take another factor into consideration.
But now I take into account that The Bad Beginning could have lasted a month, pushing the start date of The Austere Academy further back. All of these calculations are taking the 4 days estimation for time spent at Mr. Poes into account.
The Bad Beginning, 36 days (July 23rd to 28th of August) The Reptile Room, 9 days (August 28th to September 6th) The Wide Window, 6 days (September 6th to September 12th) The Miserable Mill, 7 days (September 12th to September 19th) The Austere Academy, 67 days (September 19th to November 25th) The Ersatz Elevator, 8 days (November 25th to December 3rd) The Vile Village, 7 days (December 3rd to December 10th) The Hostile Hospital, 3 days (December 10th to December 13th) The Carnivorous Carnival, 2 days (December 13th to December 15th) The Slippery Slope, 1 day (December 15th to December 16th) False Spring = December 16th
This is probably inaccurate, as I believe the series is just simply supposed to take place any time and any place, not taking the timespan into actual account when written, but if we were to use logic to put it together, this is what I think the timespan is.
I'll come back and edit the rest when I get around to going through The Grim Grotto (my least favourite book so I've been putting it off), The Penultimate Peril and The End again, but this is the best I can do to estimate an actual timespan for A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 24, 2012 14:57:59 GMT -5
It's sometimes hard to remember each book takes place over the course of only a few days, since so much happens in each installment. I think we could spread out the time spent at Mr. Poe's a bit more - a week, perhaps - but there are a few adjustments in the second portion I believe need to be shortened. We know TRR lasted no more than a week, for instance, and TVV at a maximum of four days. Also, I don't think the precise dates are as important as the time lapsed overall; we can say False Spring occurs on the 16th of December every year, but what does that uncover about the ASOUE universe?
Good work on compiling this, though. I'm sure there's a fair amount of research to be done, and this is a fantastic start.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Aug 24, 2012 15:12:07 GMT -5
Wow - i should have been here earlier. I Recently re-read the series, and made a day to day list of events, and it ran for just under 6 months, with no specific dates - i could post this if you guys are interested
Edit ; And it also includes page and chapter references (as well as UA)
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 24, 2012 16:13:14 GMT -5
I'm sure we'd be happy to see your timeline, misterm. Involving the UA I imagine presented something of a challenge, but of course that all depends on your approach.
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