bobette
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Post by bobette on May 14, 2005 20:10:48 GMT -5
I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but all the VFD mansions are described as "Green Mansions" . When you speak of Green Wood, you're talking about wood that is fresh, and is still a greenish color. Green wood doesn't burn as well as dried wood. Would building a mansion out of fresh would help avoid arson? just a thought.
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Post by Dante on May 15, 2005 2:09:57 GMT -5
That's probably the idea behind it. One of V.F.D.'s aims is preventing arson, and so building their headquarters and mansions out of wood which doesn't burn easily would be a good way of showing that. It's also worth mentioning that they obtained their "emerald lumber" from the Lucky Smells Lumbermill.
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Antenora
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Post by Antenora on May 15, 2005 5:39:46 GMT -5
Interestingly enough, VFDers also mention painting their headquarters green(in the UA meeting transcript).
I think the emerald lumber was wood both literally and metaphorically green. When VFD ran out of it, they continued to build green sanctuaries, even if these buildings weren't arsonproof anymore. Because of its association with arson-prevention, green became VFD's color. Hence the green notebooks.
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Post by Ennui on May 15, 2005 12:56:10 GMT -5
Well, hence Lemony's green notebook. Other volunteers prefer subtler colours.
(Scribbled note to file: blue as water unsullied by ash.)
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Post by RockSunner on May 15, 2005 13:45:10 GMT -5
"Green Mansions" is also a literary reference to a famous novel by W.H Hudson. We know this novel was familiar to the V.F.D., because Kit taught from it (LSUA p. 131) and Lemony included a quote from it (LSUA p. 173). Hudson himself might have been a V.F.D. member and put coded messages in his books. In Lemony's world, probably the book was named for the V.F.D.'s headquarters and not vice-versa.
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Antenora
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Post by Antenora on May 15, 2005 15:10:01 GMT -5
I think my grandfather owns Green Mansions...I should have asked him to borrow it when I visited him a week ago. Anyone read it? Well, hence Lemony's green notebook. Other volunteers prefer subtler colours. Lemony and Duncan both have green notebooks, but it seems that black and purple are also used.
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Post by SnicketFires on May 15, 2005 18:38:09 GMT -5
Swans made a thread about this ages ago. I believe she's read it. Please don't post in the linked thread, as it is over two months old. I started reading Green Mansions, but I didn't finish it.
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 16, 2005 0:17:59 GMT -5
Interesting stuff. Wouldn't the wood eventually dry out though, even if the buildings were built while the wood was still green?
And I looked for Green Mansions at the library about a month ago, but couldn't find it.
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Antenora
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Post by Antenora on May 16, 2005 5:53:55 GMT -5
Interesting stuff. Wouldn't the wood eventually dry out though, even if the buildings were built while the wood was still green? Possibly, or maybe the Emerald Lumber had some special property that made it less likely to dry out and become more flammable.
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bobette
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Post by bobette on May 16, 2005 6:43:15 GMT -5
maybe they were depending on the wood's greenness to protect them from arson, oblivious to the fact that it dries out eventually. But I also like the idea of a way of protecting the greenness. It didn't really help at all, did it?
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 16, 2005 8:22:38 GMT -5
The wood probably did have some sort of special property, now that I think of the way the words "emerald lumber" have been used in the books. What I want to know is why the Baudelaire orphans never noticed that their mansion was green, since their mansion is built with this special lumber.
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Post by Dante on May 16, 2005 10:48:01 GMT -5
What I want to know is why the Baudelaire orphans never noticed that their mansion was green, since their mansion is built with this special lumber. Perhaps they never saw any purpose in commenting on it?
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on May 16, 2005 11:36:23 GMT -5
Maybe not. But if I lived in a house with green wood, I would want to tell anyone that would listen. Maybe it's just me.
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Antenora
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Post by Antenora on May 16, 2005 11:41:14 GMT -5
Maybe not. But if I lived in a house with green wood, I would want to tell anyone that would listen. Maybe it's just me. If I had lived in a green-wood house all my life, I'd probably not think much of it. Also, the Baudelaires might not have known that their mansion was made of green wood--what if the house had been painted?
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Post by Ennui on May 16, 2005 11:48:08 GMT -5
Or maybe there's more than one Baudelaire mansion. A Green Mansion in a city seems contradictory (though that of course doesn't rule it out). I like to envisage all the emerald Mansions as being secluded country villas. In this case the Baudelaires have probably never seen their Green Mansion-its existence was either kept a close secret, or it was burnt down in a separate fire before Violet's birth.
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