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Post by Uncle Algernon on Apr 16, 2019 13:00:36 GMT -5
(Hopefully this is the correct board… does The Tragic Treasury count as an appendix?)
Now, it's not always clear who narrates the Gothic Archies songs, but usually it's easiest to assume that it's Lemony Snicket himself — it certainly is the case for Dreary, Dreary, as the Wiki informs me is canonized by the Limited Edition of The Bad Beginning.
With Shipwrecked, though — the conceit is that it's being sung by some sort of psychopath to the woman he loves. The "twist-ending" last line reveals the narrator and his beloved have already been shipwrecked on an island once, which is why he's so eager to try again. Now, in terms of characterization, and considering what book the song is supposed to fit with, the most obvious theory is that it's Count Olaf singing to Kit Snicket. But then, that would imply Olaf and Kit were once stranded on the Island, and that can't be right, or he would have known the Island already rather than assumed he was its first settler. Or were they stranded on a different island altogether?
I know some people like to think Bertrand was far from a good man, so it would kind of fit for him to be singing it to Beatrice, I suppose.
Any other ideas?
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Post by Dante on Apr 16, 2019 15:04:41 GMT -5
I think you're reading too much into the lyrics; the songs are really just broadly inspired by any of the ideas or images presented in the books, rather than being in-character commentary.
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Apr 16, 2019 17:07:13 GMT -5
I don't know about that… I mean, you can hardly say In the Reptile Room and Beware of Count Olaf aren't direct descriptions (sung rather than written) of elements from their stories; ITRR even mentions an event from the book ("where the baby screams"). Dreary Dreary, without even bringing in the reference in the Limited Edition, is quite explicitly a song about Lemony mourning Beatrice; it mentions her by name. And When You Play the Violin doesn't contain much at all, but what is there is very obviously a song that someone is (dreaming of) singing to the face of Vice Principal Nero.
Granted, some f the other songs are of vaguer nature — Things Are Not What They Appear, etc. — in that they're not narrative at all; but their forlornly comical tone has always led me to me believe that tey are reflections by Mr Snicket.
All told, and excepting the two non-book-based songs, Shipwrecked is the only Gothic Archies I can think of that's simultaneously narrative, and yet not directly matched to the plot of the book it illustrates.
Whether or not that narrative is set in the Averse (and the previous evidence detailed in the paragraph makes me think iti is), the fact is that Shipwrecked has a narrative; it is perhaps the most narrative song in TTT. Were we to take that narrative purely on its own terms, without trying to match it to characters and places we know… then what, what the sugar bowl, should we make of that cryptically, supremely snicketian “Again” at the end? You say I'm "reading too much", but you don't include a game-changing last word like that and then not expect your audience to ponder its meaning some more, especially when that audience is made up of ASoUE fans. Really now.
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Post by Skelly Craig on Apr 16, 2019 20:26:13 GMT -5
It's not that you're reading too much into the song per sé, just trying too much to make the lyrics fit into the ASoUEverse, to which they're (like Dante said) only thematically and tonally connected, with the occasional shout out to an ASoUE character (and Scream and Run Away being the only song all about an ASoUE character directly). That is not to say that there isn't anything to be read into the songs by themselves, which in this case (as you've pointed out) the word "again" at the end does indeed invite, even if only as a humorous twist ending.
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Post by Dante on Apr 17, 2019 2:31:24 GMT -5
Terry's exactly right, and in that sense, you might draw an analogy to something like The Story of Queen Debbie and Her Boyfriend, Tony. It's a narrative, yes, but that narrative is not about people who exist in the Averse; it's an illustration, or at best a spin-off. Likewise, the audiobook songs might be described as "inspired by", and by and large their narratives are to be enjoyed on their own merits even if they muse on themes and images from the text. (Even Scream and Run Away diverges slightly; consider the "long-nosed bald man with warts," who conflates two separate individuals (though granted one of those individuals is rather problematic).)
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Apr 17, 2019 6:23:24 GMT -5
Fair enough, though I still think it's hard to argue When You Play the Violin isn't about Nero, and Dreary Dreary about Beatrice.
But the question remains: taking the Shipwrecked narrative purely on its own terms, what's the "Again" supposed to mean?
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Post by Foxy on Apr 17, 2019 9:28:26 GMT -5
Hmm... maybe by the end of the song, they are off the island, and now the singer wants to be shipwrecked on the island yet again. Maybe the "again" refers to an event he hopes happens in the future.
Why do some people think Bertrand was "far from a good man"?
And where is "latitude 0 and longitude 8"?
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Apr 17, 2019 10:12:56 GMT -5
Why do some people think Bertrand was "far from a good man"? ¨shrugs¨ I don't know. I've just seen sentiments in that direction expressed here and there on 667. Perhaps it's the Olaf Parents Murder. |
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Post by bear on Apr 17, 2019 10:58:08 GMT -5
It's not that you're reading too much into the song per sé I think he actually is reading too much into the song ípsô fàctõ |
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Post by Skelly Craig on Apr 17, 2019 11:48:20 GMT -5
It's not that you're reading too much into the song per sé I think he actually is reading too much into the song ípsô fàctõ sorry I meant "purr say" |
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