What do you call the author?

[Little Snicket Lad]

I do as well. It isn't worth going into all of the trouble of saying stuff like Daniel Handler, because the less intensive readers have no idea what we mean. It doesn't say 'A Series of Unfortunate Events, book the first. By Daniel Handler who is, in this series, choosing to call himself lemony snicket.'

[PJ]

Little said:

I do as well. It isn't worth going into all of the trouble of saying stuff like Daniel Handler, because the less intensive readers have no idea what we mean. It doesn't say 'A Series of Unfortunate Events, book the first. By Daniel Handler who is, in this series, choosing to call himself lemony snicket.'

Yes, but Lemony Snicket and Daniel Handler are two completely different persons. Lemony is writing a tale about kids, and is part of VFD, and Handler is writing a series in which the narrator is Lemony Snicket.
Handler has created it all, whilst Lemony is simply reporting what he has discovered, so if there was a plot hole, we couldn't blame Lemony, but we could blame Handler.

[Antenora]

I think I worked out something to explain the Snicket/Handler thing at some point, that was vaguely like this: Daniel Handler created Lemony Snicket, who exists in the alternative reality of the books and has written down the "true" story of the orphans. So, basically what PJ said. But Handler ("D.") also seems to exist in the reality of the books, which confuses things somewhat.

[PJ]

Antenora said:

I think I worked out something to explain the Snicket/Handler thing at some point, that was vaguely like this: Daniel Handler created Lemony Snicket, who exists in the alternative reality of the books and has written down the "true" story of the orphans. So, basically what PJ said. But Handler ("D.") also seems to exist in the reality of the books, which confuses things somewhat.

Yes, Lemony's friend is Handler, who is in all ways the same Handler who wrote the books, except for the fact that he did not, in fact, write the books, in the parralel universe.

[Antenora]

PJ said:

Yes, Lemony's friend is Handler, who is in all ways the same Handler who wrote the books, except for the fact that he did not, in fact, write the books, in the parralel universe.

That makes sense. We're dealing with two Handlers--the real one, also known by the name of the Baudelaire biographer he created; and the fictional one, who acts as that biographer's representative in the Snicket-world.

I think Dante once explained this situation another way, or maybe in a similar way. Time to go look at old threads.

[Dante]

Antenora said:

I think Dante once explained this situation another way, or maybe in a similar way. Time to go look at old threads.

I did. In my final explanation, there were five figures in total.

1. Book Lemony. He writes down the true stories of the Baudelaire orphans, discovered by following their tracks and investigating the events which surrounded them.

2. Book Handler. He is Lemony's official representative in all matters legal, literary, and social, and as such may choose to talk with HarperCollins about the publishing date of the books, or refute allegations against Lemony in a trial, or turn up in Lemony's place at a dinner party or meeting.

3. Pseudo-Real Lemony. He writes the books, occasionally does interviews, may appear in short filmstrips, etc.

4. Pseudo-Real Handler. He is Lemony's official representative in all matters legal, literary, and social. He generally appears at book-signings because Lemony cannot appear, for whatever reason. He also occasionally does interviews, may appear in short filmstrips, etc.

5. Real Handler. He writes the books, and occasionally masquerades as Lemony Snicket for the purposes of television interviews and such.

[Antenora]

Ah, I remembered there being five Handler/Snickets. Thanks for typing that up again. It's more comprehensive than what I'd come up with.

[jcgsebald]

I call him L. not Lemony or Lemony Snicket but I marked Lemony Snicket.

Oh I almost forgot which five marked god.

[SnicketFires]

jcgsebald, you double posted. I have merged your posts, but am going to have to give you an official warning. If you feel the need to add something to an existing post of yours, please use the modify button to the right of your post instead of making a new post.

[Ablaze4God614]

I call him Lemony Snicket, but most of the time I just say or write L.S.

[Little Snicket Lad]

teelasotherluck said:

I put God, but there are reasons. First, though, I'd like to say that I usually refer to the author as Mr. Snciket, or perhaps Lemony Snicket.

Reasons I put God...
1) Where I volunteer (at a museum), we have many people we "worship". The bigs ones are...

Jeff (the vengeful god of the museum)
Jeff (a musician)
Edward Gorey (Yes, the masterful Edward Gorey)

2) He should be called that, considering he can (to an extent) control what we think about the characters. Remember, it's all about perspective.

Yay! My name's Jeff...Aren't a very inter-personally kindly named person! I use the name Lemony most often since most aren't as awknowledgeable to the story, if any, to know his real name.

I put god !

[hookhandedgirl]

the god thing's little creepy... i just call him lemony.

[shizzuru]

I put God too. He's created a world, what other beings do we know that create worlds? Gods.

[xocharmed3xo]

i call him lemony snicket because thats what i think he would like to be referred to as. and it fits in more with the storyline, like he is following them and he wrote a journal and turned it into a book about the events that occured.

[xobrwneydbabiixo]

Lemony Snicket, because thats the name he put on his books. I think that he wants it to be more believable in how he follows them and records all the unfortunate events that occur with them.