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Post by Dante on Mar 28, 2009 3:45:15 GMT -5
The Great 667 Re-Read: Week 5 - The Austere AcademyThis is the fifth week of rereading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. In the absence of our usual host, I'm opening. This week we're re-entering a world of harsh rules, child labour, advanced computers, casserole lasagna, and kidnapping. Read on! |
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Post by cwm on Mar 28, 2009 4:12:39 GMT -5
This is the first book in the series I have with me, so I can offer a more detailed analysis than usual.
Chapter One
kidnapping, murder, nasty phone calls, disguises, poison, hypnosis and atrocious cooking
Kidnapping - he is almost successful in abducting them in TRR but I can't think of any actual kidnappings.
Murder - of Uncle Monty and Aunt Josephine.
Nasty phone calls - in TWW.
Disguises - obvious.
Poison - murder of Uncle Monty.
Hypnosis - if you can't work this one out, give up now, because the long words I'm going to use in this post are probably too much for you
Atrocious cooking - in TBB. Note that after a list of nasty misdemanours this one is meant to be more humorous, like the list in the 'dear reader' for TBB
It is truly awful that this keeps happening, but that is how the story goes.
This is quite similar to the 'I am sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes' in TBB. Not sure if that's intentional or not.
dark moss
There was moss in the Finite Forest. It's almost like moss is an indication of a guardian worse than the previous.
a jar of mustard would...probably do a better job of keeping the Baudelaires out of danger
This is quite unfair on Mr. Poe. Jars of mustard have no arms, legs, or brains, so I doubt they would be able to do what he does.
Prufrock Prep is described as a 'fine academy'. One wonders why this impression has never been corrected by children; are there simply no holidays and writing letters home discouraged?
The scene where the Baudelaires first encounter Nero via his door is curiously similar to Sunny re-encountering Nero in TPP.
The advanced computer is hardly advanced by our standards. Lemony suggests in TUA that it would be capable of forging photographs, however.
Nero's laugh is described as a little similar to Count Olaf's voice, being 'wheezy'.
Sir at least treated the Baudelaires equally. Nero is stupid as well as cruel; by the time of TPP he seems to have completely forgotten that Genghis was a notorious villain in disguise.
Uncle Elwyn is, like several of Lemony's friends, never elaborated on.
How the Quagmires escaped the fire is never elaborated on, but we'll go into more detail about that in TSS.
Olaf's opinion of the Baudelaires' intelligence still doesn't increase. He doesn't even consider that they might be tricking him into thinking they've fooled them; he genuinely believes that he has fooled them. TPP is the only time when he shows them any respect of any kind.
That's chapters 1-5 done...
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Post by Sora on Mar 28, 2009 23:33:21 GMT -5
Thanks Dante- I've been really busy this week, just couldn't get round to it. This is the first book in the series I have with me, so I can offer a more detailed analysis than usual. I'll just build on your notes for now - but yes this is by far my favorite book of the earlier half of the series- and the first book with real mystery. For the kidnapping I presumed it was a reference to when Olaf kidnapped Sunny and locked her in the cage at the top of the tower. And I do enjoy the light flavour of the last bad thing that has been done/will happen in Snicket's lists. I often find it queer how much Snicket apologizes for the atrocities he details to us. Snicket wants people to know of the Baudelaire story, yet he insists that they shouldn't read the books because the events are too traumatic. The double standard may be for the purposes of backward psycology, but still its odd. ....which is absolutely nothing. Which is what a jar of mustard does. And at least you can throw a jar of mustard at someone and possibly stun/blind the person in the process. The worse Mr. Poe could do would be boring you into oblivion with protocol and beaurocracy. Maybe the children have never known better. And according to LSUA, the school has a very well equipped library, and Nero himself says the door rooms are very clean. Maybe the majority of the students don't mind the sub standard levels of education. Carmelita certainly doesn't. Well this is the intent of Snicket in furthering the anachronistic nature of the series. This is the same series that has horse-drawn carriages and Victorian era clothing styles. An advanced computer with only two buttons is apt. I honestly don't think he noticed or cared in the first place. He was seemingly oblivious to the fact that Mrs. Bass was a bank robber. As long as he gets to play his violin, everything is honky dorey. The whole affair of the Quagmire fire is entirely up in the air - and I think we can hardly count on Quigley's story in TSS to be any truthful representation of it. For one thing the time line is entirely incorrect. If the fire occured after the events of TRR, then how have the two triplets managed to be at the school for two terms? I'll wait till TSS to go into this further, but yes, this has always perplexed me. Olaf has problems with his superiority complex. I think that Olaf needs to suppress the Baudelaires intelligence in his mind in order to make himself feel more superior and dominating in their encounters. More soon I suppose. |
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Post by cwm on Mar 29, 2009 6:51:00 GMT -5
Chapter Six:
Prufrock Prep has been closed since Mrs. Bass was arrested for bank robbery. There's all kinds of arguments over this and the fire in TPP; Prufrock Prep is apparently still open at that time, so she must have not been arrested, meaning she survives the fire at least.
The Baudelaires think very quick on their feet. They manage to find a way of avoiding Olaf thinking that they know who he is almost at once.
The Baudelaires once more ponder Olaf's death, with Isadora's poem about Genghis being hit by a truck. One wonders how seriously they are taking it - certainly I think the death of Olaf would come as a relief to them.
Chapter Seven:
Genghis' plan is probably unnecessarily complicated. Nero is so selfish if the Baudelaires just disappeared he might not notice, but Olaf is clearly the type of person who prepares for all eventualities. By TEE he seems to have given up on become the children's legal guardian to get the fortune.
Chapter Eight:
The first helicopter flight was in 1907; we'll see more about them in TEE. Albeit here we have a computer of some description so these sorts of pointers towards the series' timeline are probably pointless.
Lemony implies in TGG that there is a crouton of some significance to V.F.D. It seems unlikely that the croutons in the Prufrock Prep salad are related.
I believe this is the first indication that Beatrice was married to someone other than Lemony. He says 'short life', but the Baudelaire parents were together for at least fifteen years.
Chapter Nine:
Chapters Six-Nine take place over the course of slightly more than a week. Add this to Duncan and Isadora informing the Baudelaires that Saturday and Sunday are regular schooldays one Friday - presumably their first Friday at Prufrock Prep - and we have maybe two-three weeks?
Nero is described as 'running' the school. What happened to the principal, if Nero is the vice principal? Was the word 'vice' simply chosen because of its other meaning?
Isadora patting Klaus on the hand in forgiveness is the only indication of any 'Klausadora' I ever see in the books. Sorry.
What qualifications does Nero have, since he can't do basic multiplication? Was he simply chosen for his cruel qualities to demoralise the children at Prufrock Prep? Or because the other candidates were far too sensible to take the job?
One wonders if Genghis gave Nero the idea for the comprehensive exams, just to give his plan a little push, at the same time as the offer of the 'homeschooling'.
Chapter Ten:
I admit I only recently understood the meaning of the chapter picture.
Duncan and Isadora find several stories about a man matching Count Olaf's description in the newspapers. The arrival of V.F.D. throws whether or not these people were him into doubt.
Nikola Tesla rose to fame in the first half of the 1900s; Lord Byron the 1800s; Dorothy Parker died in the 1960s. None of these are particularly helpful.
Thinking that Quigley dressing up as a baby would work is perhaps a little naive.
Chapter Eleven:
First reference to the duchess of Winnipeg.
Second connection between Count Olaf and Beatrice. The first is in TMM, where it is stated that she asked 'Where is Count Olaf?' shortly before her death.
The Baudelaires once again consider running away. Olaf is getting his information from the High Court judges and Madame Lulu's archival library, so this could actually work if they weren't found.
Chapter Twelve:
Nero doesn't care about how well the students do, he just wants to expel them. He clearly has no qualifications whatsoever.
Staplers were invented in the late eighteen hundr--Oh, forget the dating.
Mr Remora and Mrs Bass are actually quite reasonable people here. They at least want to expel a genuinely bad student.
Chapter Thirteen:
Nero doesn't care if Sunny is killed?!
Nero has no knowledge of terms used for multiple children being conceived by the same pregnancy.
Mr Remora and Mrs Bass don't argue the Baudelaires' case. They're better than Nero but still pretty cold-hearted.
Genghis may actually be telling the truth when he says that he put the Quagmires to work in the cafeteria. He simply left out what happened next.
'Whisked away', of course, means 'taken away'.
'Foisted' at least shows that Nero has some education in English.
'Twenty-nine bags of candy' from Chapter Nine has suddenly become 'twenty-eight'. Either this is an error or Nero isn't even consistent with has bad mathematics.
Mr. Poe is completely idiotic when he first meets Genghis. He fails to realise that both Genghis' eyebrow and ankle are hidden from view. A few seconds ago he correctly points out that Sunny should be in a preschool enviroment. He then however does ask Genghis to remove his shoes, but only to prove that he *isn't* Count Olaf. After TBB and TRR Mr. Poe rapidly becomes extremely dim-witted.
Lemony's offerings of picturing the Baudelaires' history a different way to how they actually turn out begin to be replaced by simply telling the reader not to continue reading. TEE is the last time they're used.
Nero doesn't even allow Mr. Poe to use his phone. Sir at least did.
V.F.D. is introduced, the Quagmires are kidnapped, and the series' first real ongoing storylines begin.
The final full-page illustration is the only time the Quagmires are properly illustrated.
Climbing down onto the train-tracks is quite risky, but I suppose Lemony has to ensure nobody else gets the manuscript; I guess he has made arrangements to ensure his editor comes to no harm, but they must be elaborate.
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Post by Dante on Mar 29, 2009 7:11:35 GMT -5
A couple of thoughts: Nero is described as 'running' the school. What happened to the principal, if Nero is the vice principal? Was the word 'vice' simply chosen because of its other meaning? Possibly, and it adds an extra layer of bureaucracy, although I also think it's because Handler doesn't like to be straightforward. It's much like Esmé being the city's sixth most important financial advisor - the other five aren't important. What it means is perhaps that it would be somewhat inappropriate for them to be higher-ranked. I also think it adds an element of barminess. If I recall correctly, they're cut off before talking about a newspaper from the Baudelaires' hometown - and that probably was something important. At least at the time. I wonder if Handler actually knew what they were going to say, as characters seem to be interrupted quite a bit during the series, and whenever they are it seems that what they were about to say would have been very interesting indeed. |
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Post by cwm on Mar 29, 2009 12:39:20 GMT -5
It is, but they never resume their train of thought. Page 158:
"And then we found a newspaper from your hometown that said - "
"I don't mean to interrupt," Isadora said,
And then they begin discussing how to survive the exams without flunking. Note that Isadora interrupts, not one of the Baudelaires.
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Post by Hermes on Mar 29, 2009 13:32:45 GMT -5
I love this book. First with the Quagmires, first with VFD, first with Carmelita (I think Carmelita is a bit overdone later on, but I really like - i.e. hate - her in this one), lots about Beatrice (the triptych, the lucky man who married her, the masked ball). Unfortunately I am very busy, and also I'm afraid my internet access may be restricted at some point in the near future. Will try to comment in dribs and drabs. For now, a few responses. Chapter Six: Olaf is clearly the type of person who prepares for all eventualities. By TEE he seems to have given up on become the children's legal guardian to get the fortune. In TEE his girlfriend is their legal guardian, so he doesn't have to worry about this. After that, certainly, he seems to settle for a simple grab - though of course in some of the later books getting the Baudelaires isn't his main aim anyway. I may have more to say on this when we reach TEE. I think the most up to date piece of technology we hear about is the fax, in TWW. But I agree - it's clearly a world that has developed rather differently to ours, so using technology to fix the date is indeed pointless. Yes - I wondered at first if this was evidence Beatrice was not the Baudelaires' mother at the time this book was written (come on, you know what I mean), but then it occurred to me that the masked ball passage shows clearly that she lived for at least fifteen years after her breakup with Lemony, so 'short life' must be meant only by comparison with the normal human span. We're told elsewhere - perhaps in the letter to the editor at the end of TMM - that they were there for a half-semester. I don't see anything to rule this out; we just have to suppose that quite a lot of time passed with nothing much happening, until Genghis arrived. (This makes this the last book that really gives us time to play with; from this point on they all have rather strict schedules, except that there's room for the orphans to spend a bit of time with Mr Poe at the beginning of TEE and TVV.) He died? (So why wasn't he replaced, I hear you ask. Well, perhaps the school couldn't afford to replace him - it seems to be rather short-staffed in any case. ) Or he disappeared? Perhaps he went on a mission for VFD and never came back. Hm. There's certainly less indication of it than there is of Violet/Duncan; he doesn't just pat her hand in sympathy, but keeps his hand on hers throughout the concert. Perhaps Nero noticed this, which is why he later called Duncan 'your boyfriend'. Still, Klaus and Isadora do seem to be developing a definite rapport, as a pair, not just as members of the group. As it is, they're just friends, but it might have developed in a romantic way if they had had the chance. This reread has actually made me more sympathetic to Klaus/Isadora than I was before. (tk, are you reading this?  ) True - though I guess quite a lot of them were; I don't think we know of anyone else who has both the single eyebrow and the tattoo, except Jacques, who wasn't a villain. Though in THH the reverse - Sunny dressing up as a nurse - seems to work. Strangely, earlier he did call Duncan a triplet. Presumably he thinks he had two siblings who were killed in the fire. Sora: Yes, the date of the Quagmire fire is a puzzle all right - I don't think you can just say Quigley is lying (even if that theory led anywhere, which it doesn't seem to), because I think the BBRE notes support a later date as well. (They suggest the Quagmire mansion was burnt with the logs chopped by the Baudelaires when they were at Olaf's house.) On the other hand TAA - and I think also Brett Helquists' letter in TUA - suggest an earlier date. Story-externally, we can say Handler changed his mind. Story-internally, I have no idea. |
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Post by cwm on Mar 29, 2009 15:02:09 GMT -5
We don't know how long semesters are at Prufrock Prep given there are seemingly no breaks.
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Post by Very Funky Disco on Mar 29, 2009 15:26:25 GMT -5
My own theory is, being as Prufrock Prep is far from being a conventional school, they probably use a very liberal definition of the word "semester" - and, thus, explaining the whole time discrepancy.
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Post by Hermes on Mar 29, 2009 15:42:45 GMT -5
I'm feeling dim; what's the discrepancy? Yes, it's possible that 'semester' doesn't mean what it normally does, but I just don't see anything that forces that. We just aren't told how much time passed between the Baudelaires' arriving and Genghis turning up. Indeed, it's likely it was quite a long time, as they had lost count of the days.
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Post by Very Funky Disco on Mar 29, 2009 16:15:45 GMT -5
I was referring to the discrepancy between how Duncan and Isadora were apparently at Prufrock Prep for several semesters - but that, according to Quigley, the Quagmire mansion fire occurred after the Baudelaire mansion fire. When Quigley showed up at Monty's place, it was after the Baudelaires had left. I don't think that much time has passed during the events of The Wide Window and The Miserable Mill.
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Post by Hermes on Mar 29, 2009 16:25:55 GMT -5
according to Duncan, the Quagmire mansion fire occurred after the Baudelaire mansion fire. . Quigley, surely? OK, I get the point now. (But there's still Brett's letter in TUA to mess things up - writing just after the Baudelaire fire, he says he never believed what people said about Lemony in connection with the Quagmire affair, which implies the Quagmire fire happened first.) 'Semester' actually means half a year - it comes from a root meaning 'six months'. So the length of semesters shouldn't change. However, I believe at Eton terms are called 'halves' even though there are three of them, so you never can tell. |
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Post by Very Funky Disco on Mar 29, 2009 16:39:23 GMT -5
Just edited my last post. I just finished re-reading LSTUA, which was more than a little confusing for me. I'm looking forward to getting to the re-read of that book.
Without weekends and normal academic learning, Prufrock Prep seems like a warped enough school as it is. So there might be a number of other things warped about that place.
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Post by Hermes on Mar 30, 2009 9:19:16 GMT -5
OK, some comments on the first few chapters.
As I mentioned before, there's a lot about Beatrice in this one. I wonder if Handler had just decided who she was.
When Mr Poe says 'don't worry your little heads about Count Olaf' he is acting as a caricature of the archetypal adult from children's adventure stories. If adults could actually be relied on, and knew what was going on, there'd be no opportunity for children to show the resourcefulness which is the point of the story. While Snicket obviously takes this to absurd extremes, I think it does arise from a real childhood experience; children often do feel that adults aren't getting the point.
Lemony's situation has clearly changed for the worse since he wrote the first three books; he is now hiding out in a mountain cabin.
I wonder how the hearts on the wall of the Orphans Shack got there. Are they the work of a previous group of orphans?
Klaus says 'I've missed being in a real classroom', showing that the Baudelaires had been to school before. Nevertheless there seems to be no compulsory education in their world; none of their guardians thought of sending them to school, not even Monty or Josephine.
The Quagmires are described as absolutely identical. This is silly, of course; if Isadora looked absolutely identical to her brother, how would they know that she was a girl (or that he was a boy)? Later Violet supposes they are twins because they look just alike. Certainly from reading this passage one would get the impression there can be identical siblings of opposite sexes. (Quigley, when he appears, is not said to be identical, just very similar.)
Sunny makes another of her (at this point) rare meaningful utterances when she greets Isadora with 'Sappho!' Sappho was a famous female poet. (The other thing she was noted for is presumably irrelevant here.)
Those who have been here longer can enlighten me here; when Quigley was first mentioned, did anyone think he might return? It seems rather odd to introduce him if he's not going to be significant in some way.
How did the Quagmires get out of the Orphans Shack? Have they had a guardian appointed? If so we hear nothing further of it. It's interesting, though, that Olaf never makes any attempt to become their legal guardian, which he is still aiming at at this point with the Baudelaires.
Clearly the Baudelaires are not banned from entering the dormitory, since they visit the library there. The library does not seem altogether to fit in with other aspects of the school - it will, of course, later turn out to be run by a VFD librarian. Clearly the books there are not going to help students with their classes, given the restricted diet of subjects they get in class; but, considering the old newspapers, they don't seem to be just for recreation either. Perhaps the library is where the real learning experience happens, for those who seek it out?
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Post by cwm on Mar 30, 2009 9:54:40 GMT -5
Monty and Josephine both gave the children an education of sorts - Monty on snakes, among other things, Josephine on grammar. Monty may have decided that since he was taking the children to Peru there was no point in sending them to school when there were so many preparations to do.
Josephine was probably afraid of schools.
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