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Post by Dante on Feb 7, 2015 13:26:41 GMT -5
-~< Train travel! Murder! Librarians! A Series Finale!On all other nights, the train departs from Stain'd Station and travels to the city without stopping. But not tonight. You might ask, why is this night different from all other nights? But that's the wrong question. Instead ask, where is this all heading? And what happens at the end of the line? The final book in Lemony Snicket's bestselling series, All The Wrong Questions. >~- Courtesy of Hachette's product page for "Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?" Learn the truth on 22nd 29th September.
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Post by Cafe SalMONAlla on Feb 7, 2015 13:39:16 GMT -5
It's happening!
That was a valuable comment, Lemona.
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Post by Dante on Feb 7, 2015 15:29:47 GMT -5
This is kind of off-topic, but every single time I read that tagline, I think it says "time travel" and feel weirded out.
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Post by bandit on Feb 7, 2015 16:59:08 GMT -5
Similarly, I keep thinking this thread is called "?4 Porno Synopsis" and feeling weirded out.
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Post by gliquey on Feb 7, 2015 17:21:43 GMT -5
Interesting... is the first explicit mention of murder being ?4's thematic crime (although there was very little doubt anyway)?
I should know the answer to this, but have trains been mentioned before in the series? (I blame Dante - ?b has confused me.) If so, why did Theodora and Snicket not take the train to Stain'd, as Snicket was expecting to travel by train anyway?
The first page is always what fascinates me most about ATWQ: so far, in the middle of the first sentence's rule of three, we've had "girl", "statue" and "librarian". Ellington and the Bombinating Beast are both crucial to the plot throughout the series; ?3's "librarian" suggests Qwerty is more important than we think. Following the conversation he had with Snicket in ?3, and the possibility of him being the V.F.D. member tracking Snicket's progress, and the mention of "librarians" (is the plural used just because it sounds better?) here, I think Qwerty will be a key character in ?4.
I reckon it's a pretty slim chance, but since it was preceded by the wrong question, one of the following questions mentioned above might be the question Snicket should have asked: "where is this all heading?" or "what happens at the end of the line?"
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Post by Hermes on Feb 7, 2015 17:35:03 GMT -5
In book 1, Theodora explains that they cannot go by train, as the trains have stopped running. As she speaks, they see the train going over the viaduct. It's a sign of Theodora's not-well-informedness.
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Post by Teleram on Feb 7, 2015 18:46:43 GMT -5
Yes
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Post by Dante on Feb 8, 2015 3:34:40 GMT -5
I should point out that, per ?1 page 55, the train passes through town about once a month. This renders the synopsis a little problematic, as the most obvious interpretation of it is that the train runs nightly; I suggest that we interpret "on all other nights" as referring not to every night in general but to the other nights spread throughout the year on which the train runs. (There's a similar issue with the train departing at night but arriving in ?1 in the middle of the day, but I guess there's no contradiction to it stopping in the town for several hours.)
This implies that the experience being described in the synopsis is very much a one-time-only event; it seems unlikelyi that, for instance, the characters notice the train stopping midway along its journey and resolve to take the train themselves the following day to investigate. It seems to me that they must be on the train itself. Perhaps Lemony follows Qwerty and Ellington onto the train as they are packed off to the city? Perhaps he follows Theodora, who in that one illustration we were given appears to be sneaking out (or in, to be fair) of the room by night? At any rate, it's pretty obvious where the train must be stopping. The bridge passes through Offshore Island, and therefore right by Wade Academy.
It also occurs to me that, if we're going to be on board a train, perhaps that allusion in ?3 to Murder on the Orient Express was foreshadowing...
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Post by gliquey on Feb 8, 2015 5:38:09 GMT -5
I should point out that, per ?1 page 55, the train passes through town about once a month. This renders the synopsis a little problematic, as the most obvious interpretation of it is that the train runs nightly; I suggest that we interpret "on all other nights" as referring not to every night in general but to the other nights spread throughout the year on which the train runs. (There's a similar issue with the train departing at night but arriving in ?1 in the middle of the day, but I guess there's no contradiction to it stopping in the town for several hours.) This implies that the experience being described in the synopsis is very much a one-time-only event; it seems unlikelyi that, for instance, the characters notice the train stopping midway along its journey and resolve to take the train themselves the following day to investigate. It seems to me that they must be on the train itself. Perhaps Lemony follows Qwerty and Ellington onto the train as they are packed off to the city? Perhaps he follows Theodora, who in that one illustration we were given appears to be sneaking out (or in, to be fair) of the room by night? At any rate, it's pretty obvious where the train must be stopping. The bridge passes through Offshore Island, and therefore right by Wade Academy. "On all other nights" - it really does seem like the train runs daily from the synopsis. I guess you can interpret it as "on all other nights [where the train passes through Stain'd]", but is it possible that ?1 is going to get retconned? How thoroughly did Handler think this through? It's possible that the train will have to travel every night - but if as you say, it's only running through once a night, it definitely does indicate the characters will be on the train when something weird happens. The other option is that the product page is simply wrong: it's certainly not canon, won't be anything like the blurb and could well be misinformed. Who writes these synopses? Handler? His editor? Someone at Hachette with a vague idea of the basic plot?
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Post by Dante on Feb 8, 2015 12:19:21 GMT -5
These particular synopses don't appear on the books themselves, so I would imagine they're written by Hachette assistants. I really do think it's more likely that the implication that the train goes daily is erroneous. I hope so, anyway.
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Post by Hermes on Feb 8, 2015 13:06:55 GMT -5
Who in the book says that the train only goes once a month? Might they be lying/mistaken?
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Post by Dante on Feb 8, 2015 15:36:25 GMT -5
It's Moxie, and she introduces the factoid as one of many examples of Stain'd-by-the-Sea's decline. It seems to me a pretty credible provenance.
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Post by gliquey on Feb 8, 2015 17:26:29 GMT -5
Perhaps Hangfire needs to use the trains for something so he starts making them run daily again - it wasn't wrong for Moxie to say they ran monthly at the time, but in the several months Snicket was in Stain'd, that's changed.
But I agree that it's reasonably likely, and perhaps best, if the person who wrote the synopsis made a mistake.
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Post by A comet crashing into Earth on Feb 8, 2015 17:47:21 GMT -5
Perhaps Hangfire needs to use the trains for something so he starts making them run daily again - it wasn't wrong for Moxie to say they ran monthly at the time, but in the several months Snicket was in Stain'd, that's changed. I thought of this, too, but all of Hangfire's schemes so far have worked towards the desolation of Stain'd. It would seem suspicious, I think, if in the middle of this devline, suddenly trains starting running on a daily basis again, and it would be thematically out of place. I agree with you that it's probably best if the synopsis turns out to be a simple error.
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Post by Violent BUN Fortuna on Feb 9, 2015 16:56:23 GMT -5
Ooh, how exciting to have this sort-of-synopsis! I guess that -- unless the people at Hachette made a mistake -- it does just mean all other nights that the train runs, not all other nights of the year. I suspect the murder might very well take place on the train -- I was thinking about the Murder on the Orient Express allusion too, and it does seem rather like it might be foreshadowing. Perhaps also, then, an indication that whatever murder occurs, there will be several culprits? Perhaps another fragmentary plot -- certainly a complicated one, if we know anything about Snicket. The mention of the end of the line is intriguing -- of course, we think that's the city, so maybe, if the train does eventually get to the end of the line, Lemony and Kit's storylines will finally cross over? Which might make Kit the character from ASOUE due to turn up at the end of the book.
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