Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Dec 14, 2022 11:41:48 GMT -5
Message Recorded, Message Receivid, Nervous Wreck - I find these snippets very interesting and reveal something about VFD. The organization didn't have very good codes when Lemony was a teenager. I think this concept is important to understand VFD in ASOUE.
Lemony and Olaf had the same basic training, which involved learning weak codes. The codes used by Lemony in ATWQ were weak codes, where an untrained person could easily deduce the meaning. At the time Lemony was in STBS, VFD did not have an acknowledgment code, as evidenced in Message Recorded. Similarly, adults did not usually send encrypted written messages, as evidenced in Message Receivid (since the postcard contained a secret message addressed to VFD headquarters written by a person connected with Lemony's training evaluation, we can deduce that if If something like the Sebald code used extensively by VFD already existed, that code or a similar one would have been used). And as demonstrated in Nervous Wreck, there was a code to be sent in theatrical plays, however it was extremely simple to be decoded, something like a prototype of the Sebald code.
Some examples of weak codes that appear in ASOUE are:
1 - Use of Anagrams. (Olaf used this, as did Lemony when he was about 11 or 12 on TBL), something that ?3 ratifies.
2 - Coffee stains on a map: Olivia T used this, and Olaf recognized the code. Both had the same training when they were children and therefore resorted to simple codes.
However, that all changed when Gustav Sebald invented the Sebald code when he was a child prodigy, which is stated in LSTUA. If Lemony Snicket had the ideals capable of starting a faction within VFD (and the events in SBTS gave him the opportunity to do a laboratory on how to lead a faction), Gustav Sebald's genius allowed him to operationalize the sending and receiving of information secrets within Lemony's faction. Evidently the Sebald code was the first complex code used by Lemony Snicket's faction. That code wasn't taught in VFD schools, so Uncle Monty never learned the code. It is important to note that this is why one of the Denouement brothers tried to use the Sebald code to communicate with the Baudelaires. That's because the Sebald code was known to supporters of Lemony's faction, not the entire VFD. So Lemony was able to send a letter to R, indicating that he would indeed attend the party, since he knew that the letter could fall into the hands of his enemies (many of them people who received training in VFD), but these people would not have learned the Sebald code.
To fully understand what I mean, it's important to realize that Olaf and Esme were not part of the Great VFD Schism that occurred in Lemony's childhood, shortly after he was taken by VFD. Lemony and Olaf were classmates. Still, Olaf didn't know the Sebald Code. We can extend this to several other complex codes found in asoue:
Mamba du Mal Snake Code
Mozart's 14th Symphony
Verbal Fridge Dialogue
Verse Fluctuation Declaration
"I didn't realize this was a sad occasion."... "The World is Quiet Here" (Code recognizing that you have found a member of your VFD faction).
Things start to make sense like this: Jacques found it necessary to explain to Lemony in a letter in LSTUA what the "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion" code was like.
In other words, Lemony's faction was encouraged to create increasingly complex codes, as indicated by the writings found in TGG.
It is important to understand how critical the management of covert communication is in a covert organization that formed within a covert organization. And we can better understand who is communicating when we read their writings.
For example, on two occasions the term "one of us" is used in Sebald code in the books: once in the secret message in the film Zombies in the Snow, and once in Lemony's reply letter to Beatrice. Lemony decided to use the Sebald code because he believed that Beatrice's stage partner could read the letter, and he believed that in this case, he himself would not realize the existence of the Sebald code. Evidently Beatrice's stage partner was a member of VFD, but was not yet a recognized member of Lemony's faction. It's also important to understand that Lemony lost control of the very faction he created just as he did in ?4. He taught his co-factionals how to make piecemeal plans, and soon he was not master of the plan, but just another piece of the plan. Everything indicates that the masters of Lemony's faction's fragmented plan were actually Jacques and Kit Snicket.
So, returning to the secret codes, we can better understand the Snicket File, first mentioned chronologically in Message Receivid. Maybe it's not the same file. But for me, one of the contents of the Snicket File from the ASOUE era was some of Lemony's new faction codes. I know this because only after reading the Snicket File did Olaf, Esme, and the other two realize that Sunny might be using the "green smoke cigarettes" to call for help. Evidently that information was in the Snicket File. It is possible to deduce that the Snicket File contained a lot of content related to Lemony's faction, and perhaps even the directions of the fragmented plan.
Lemony and Olaf had the same basic training, which involved learning weak codes. The codes used by Lemony in ATWQ were weak codes, where an untrained person could easily deduce the meaning. At the time Lemony was in STBS, VFD did not have an acknowledgment code, as evidenced in Message Recorded. Similarly, adults did not usually send encrypted written messages, as evidenced in Message Receivid (since the postcard contained a secret message addressed to VFD headquarters written by a person connected with Lemony's training evaluation, we can deduce that if If something like the Sebald code used extensively by VFD already existed, that code or a similar one would have been used). And as demonstrated in Nervous Wreck, there was a code to be sent in theatrical plays, however it was extremely simple to be decoded, something like a prototype of the Sebald code.
Some examples of weak codes that appear in ASOUE are:
1 - Use of Anagrams. (Olaf used this, as did Lemony when he was about 11 or 12 on TBL), something that ?3 ratifies.
2 - Coffee stains on a map: Olivia T used this, and Olaf recognized the code. Both had the same training when they were children and therefore resorted to simple codes.
However, that all changed when Gustav Sebald invented the Sebald code when he was a child prodigy, which is stated in LSTUA. If Lemony Snicket had the ideals capable of starting a faction within VFD (and the events in SBTS gave him the opportunity to do a laboratory on how to lead a faction), Gustav Sebald's genius allowed him to operationalize the sending and receiving of information secrets within Lemony's faction. Evidently the Sebald code was the first complex code used by Lemony Snicket's faction. That code wasn't taught in VFD schools, so Uncle Monty never learned the code. It is important to note that this is why one of the Denouement brothers tried to use the Sebald code to communicate with the Baudelaires. That's because the Sebald code was known to supporters of Lemony's faction, not the entire VFD. So Lemony was able to send a letter to R, indicating that he would indeed attend the party, since he knew that the letter could fall into the hands of his enemies (many of them people who received training in VFD), but these people would not have learned the Sebald code.
To fully understand what I mean, it's important to realize that Olaf and Esme were not part of the Great VFD Schism that occurred in Lemony's childhood, shortly after he was taken by VFD. Lemony and Olaf were classmates. Still, Olaf didn't know the Sebald Code. We can extend this to several other complex codes found in asoue:
Mamba du Mal Snake Code
Mozart's 14th Symphony
Verbal Fridge Dialogue
Verse Fluctuation Declaration
"I didn't realize this was a sad occasion."... "The World is Quiet Here" (Code recognizing that you have found a member of your VFD faction).
Things start to make sense like this: Jacques found it necessary to explain to Lemony in a letter in LSTUA what the "I didn't realize this was a sad occasion" code was like.
In other words, Lemony's faction was encouraged to create increasingly complex codes, as indicated by the writings found in TGG.
It is important to understand how critical the management of covert communication is in a covert organization that formed within a covert organization. And we can better understand who is communicating when we read their writings.
For example, on two occasions the term "one of us" is used in Sebald code in the books: once in the secret message in the film Zombies in the Snow, and once in Lemony's reply letter to Beatrice. Lemony decided to use the Sebald code because he believed that Beatrice's stage partner could read the letter, and he believed that in this case, he himself would not realize the existence of the Sebald code. Evidently Beatrice's stage partner was a member of VFD, but was not yet a recognized member of Lemony's faction. It's also important to understand that Lemony lost control of the very faction he created just as he did in ?4. He taught his co-factionals how to make piecemeal plans, and soon he was not master of the plan, but just another piece of the plan. Everything indicates that the masters of Lemony's faction's fragmented plan were actually Jacques and Kit Snicket.
So, returning to the secret codes, we can better understand the Snicket File, first mentioned chronologically in Message Receivid. Maybe it's not the same file. But for me, one of the contents of the Snicket File from the ASOUE era was some of Lemony's new faction codes. I know this because only after reading the Snicket File did Olaf, Esme, and the other two realize that Sunny might be using the "green smoke cigarettes" to call for help. Evidently that information was in the Snicket File. It is possible to deduce that the Snicket File contained a lot of content related to Lemony's faction, and perhaps even the directions of the fragmented plan.