indyrams
Reptile Researcher
Posts: 38
Likes: 9
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Post by indyrams on Dec 12, 2012 12:37:12 GMT -5
In Austere Academy Isadora mentioned a helicopter landing as part of Olaf's plan... So That could be used to determine?
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Post by Dante on Dec 14, 2012 11:51:01 GMT -5
In Who Could That Be At This Hour?, Lemony recommends Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World, which wasn't published until 1975. All details of Lemony and Beatrice's life suggest they were roughly the same age - contemporaries at school, engaged to be married - so if Snicket's twelve in ATWQ, allow ten years at least to be of marriageable age, and that's 1985 for Violet's birth at the earliest. Then allow fourteen years for Violet's life from birth to the beginning of ASoUE, that's 1999. ASoUE therefore takes place in the year of its publication at the very earliest; any later, and it takes place after it was published, and thus is technically set in the future.
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Dec 14, 2012 12:00:06 GMT -5
In Who Could That Be At This Hour?, Lemony recommends Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World, which wasn't published until 1975. All details of Lemony and Beatrice's life suggest they were roughly the same age - contemporaries at school, engaged to be married - so if Snicket's twelve in ATWQ, allow ten years at least to be of marriageable age, and that's 1985 for Violet's birth at the earliest. Then allow fourteen years for Violet's life from birth to the beginning of ASoUE, that's 1999. ASoUE therefore takes place in the year of its publication at the very earliest; any later, and it takes place after it was published, and thus is technically set in the future. I second that opinion.
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Post by Liam R. Findlay on Jul 30, 2014 12:14:35 GMT -5
I agree with the suggestions that it's a stylised, non-specific period, designed to have its own appeal and work how Snicket wants it to in its own special way. If we're going to treat it as real, then we can note that Vice Principal Nero mentions Matilda by Roald Dahl in The Unauthorized Autobiography, which was published in 1988. And I just can't imagine Snicket's world being set in the 80s.
EDIT: Sorry, just re-visiting this forum and posting. I didn't notice how old this thread is! I hope it's 'in' around here to post on old threads. I have also just seen Dante's final comment, which seems to more or less confirm the non-specific period.
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Post by Eponine on Dec 28, 2015 13:32:52 GMT -5
Somebody has probably already pointed this out, but I think Snicket put elements from all sorts of different time periods to confuse readers, and I feel that there's no real "Time period" in these books, but rather just a story with a bunch of made up locations that has a few real life elements scattered through them. I mean, we all know Snicket, and he's all about secrecy and mystery.
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Post by Dante on Dec 28, 2015 16:31:18 GMT -5
I approve of that idea, though I don't know if it was exactly to "confuse." I think there may well have been an element of that, but I also think the series was intended to feel both universal and distant, with some elements you could recognise and others you couldn't relate to.
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Post by Seymour Glass on Dec 28, 2018 1:09:03 GMT -5
I did have it set in the mid-70s, but now I'm thinking of having it be 1989-1990.
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Post by counto on Aug 15, 2020 3:23:23 GMT -5
I think the series takes place in the early 60's or 70's. The prequel takes place in 1934 prior WWII.
One because in All The Wrong Questions, they're a ton of references towards jazz musician Duke Ellington. They even have a character that's name is Ellington. At some point even a record plays a song that Lemony whistles too.
She had not told me the name of the tune. It was a mystery, like what the S stood for in Theodora's name. I kept walking, with nothing but Solitude for company. 'Solitude' is a fancy name for being all by yourself. It's not a bad name, I thought.
Solitude was a song composed by Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong in 1934. Lemony is suppose to be a 12 years old throughout ATWQ, making him likely to be born in 1922. His siblings Jacques and Kit were born before him (somewhere around 1920?). Meaning the schism took place in 1924-25.
Another point I'd like to add that in the story one character is a war hero (Colonel Colophon), however it's never said what war he fought in. But if it was set in 1934, it probably would have been World War One or The Great War at the time.
Moving forward to ASOUE, at one point Captain Widdershins says the Duke Ellington in a panic during the Grim Grotto. Captain Widdershins also made a minor appearance in When Did You Last See Her? He was likely in his early 20's at the time.
In the Hostile Hospital the Baudelaires send a telegram, telegrams fell into obscurity in 1977. So telegrams are still accessible in the time setting.
I might also mention that the year ASOUE takes place is on the year of the rat (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, ect).
Meaning either ASOUE takes place in 1960 or 1972.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Aug 15, 2020 5:21:21 GMT -5
In Who Could That Be At This Hour?, Lemony recommends Roald Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World, which wasn't published until 1975. All details of Lemony and Beatrice's life suggest they were roughly the same age - contemporaries at school, engaged to be married - so if Snicket's twelve in ATWQ, allow ten years at least to be of marriageable age, and that's 1985 for Violet's birth at the earliest. Then allow fourteen years for Violet's life from birth to the beginning of ASoUE, that's 1999. ASoUE therefore takes place in the year of its publication at the very earliest; any later, and it takes place after it was published, and thus is technically set in the future. I found it incredible that I and you finally had such a similar way of thinking. I think the series takes place in the early 60's or 70's. The prequel takes place in 1934 prior WWII. One because in All The Wrong Questions, they're a ton of references towards jazz musician Duke Ellington. They even have a character that's name is Ellington. At some point even a record plays a song that Lemony whistles too. She had not told me the name of the tune. It was a mystery, like what the S stood for in Theodora's name. I kept walking, with nothing but Solitude for company. 'Solitude' is a fancy name for being all by yourself. It's not a bad name, I thought.
Solitude was a song composed by Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong in 1934. Lemony is suppose to be a 12 years old throughout ATWQ, making him likely to be born in 1922. His siblings Jacques and Kit were born before him (somewhere around 1920?). Meaning the schism took place in 1924-25. Another point I'd like to add that in the story one character is a war hero (Colonel Colophon), however it's never said what war he fought in. But if it was set in 1934, it probably would have been World War One or The Great War at the time. Moving forward to ASOUE, at one point Captain Widdershins says the Duke Ellington in a panic during the Grim Grotto. Captain Widdershins also made a minor appearance in When Did You Last See Her? He was likely in his early 20's at the time. In the Hostile Hospital the Baudelaires send a telegram, telegrams fell into obscurity in 1977. So telegrams are still accessible in the time setting. I might also mention that the year ASOUE takes place is on the year of the rat (1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, ect). Meaning either ASOUE takes place in 1960 or 1972. I finally understood your way of thinking. It is a hypothesis with evidence. Congratulations on pursuing this. Please, remind me. Do you, counto, believe that Lemony published the books a few years after the events narrated in TBB? Or are you one of those who believes that Lemony published the books during the events narrated in ASOUE?
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Post by counto on Aug 15, 2020 20:38:19 GMT -5
I believe in the book universe of ASOUE, Lemony had gathered the information ten years after the events when he meets Beatrice II. Which around that time VFD would no longer exist. I think he choose to leave out the parts that Beatrice II filled in because he felt that a happy ending would give the reader's mixed messages about this. Also he would want the Baudelaires to live without anymore problems involving VFD, by making people believe they're dead.
At the point of when he did publish it, I'm not to sure. Might've been the real life time Lemony first published in 1999-2006. In any case most people who read it would confuse it for fiction.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Aug 15, 2020 23:11:05 GMT -5
How do you understand the secret letter in TSS? Do you think it was written at the time of the main events narrated in ASOUE or was it written years after the main events described in ASOUE?
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Post by Dante on Sept 5, 2020 4:00:16 GMT -5
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