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Post by Dante on Apr 22, 2009 11:28:37 GMT -5
True, though Olaf's modernity seems to be a rather old-fashioned kind. Does anyone say 'It's just not cool' nowadays? Perhaps he's remembering when he was a teenager. It's old-fashioned cool, but it can still be out of step with most of what we see in aSoUE. Conceivably Olaf is actually being ultra-modern, and the effect is still cringe-worthy. I don't think I've observed any evidence in the books suggesting that Olaf's an old man - I might have commented on this in TBB. But Helquist's illustrations are very powerful in the absence of any other description. I wouldn't say necessarily so. If you place the emphasis on "jail" rather than "uptown," it's more an incidental description of the location. My notes on Chapters 4-6 (could really have done with starting this on Monday; oh well): I’ll also be examining whether Duncan and Isadora’s plan makes any sense. “He doesn’t seem like one of Count Olaf’s associates, but sometimes we haven’t been able to recognize them.” Is it me, or does Klaus often seem the most suspicious? If I recall correctly, at various points he’s held suspicions against the Squalors and even Uncle Monty. At any rate, all the times they haven’t been able to recognise Olaf’s associates, they’ve had their faces covered, whereas Olaf’s face is always uncovered. “I myself fell in love with a wonderful woman who was so charming and intelligent that I trusted that she would be my bride, but there was no way of knowing for sure, and all too soon circumstances changed and she ended up marrying someone else, all because of something she read in The Daily Punctilio.” There you have it, straight out, Beatrice didn’t marry Lemony because of a Punctilio article. I’ll be keeping an eye on this, and also correcting the odd misconception. I was going to remark that Hector having read Ogden Nash might be more evidence for a schooling outside the village, but then I remembered that he has a secret library full of books and may well have been reading Ogden Nash from there. Hector found the couplet today. I think I notice a timing error here; it’s determined later on that the couplets are dropped when the crows roost in Nevermore Tree after drying off from the fountain, right? So that means that the couplet should’ve been attached to the crow in question, in order to appear that morning, the day before; however, Fowl Fountain was only installed that morning. I’m calling excusable chronological error on this one, but it could’ve been avoided by Fowl Fountain being installed the day before, and correspondingly the Baudelaires having to wait a day before Mr. Poe can pack them off to V.F.D. “We can’t wait another second. The last time we found them, we left them alone for a few minutes, and then they were gone again.” A bit of an exaggeration; “a few minutes” was more like “six hours.” Hector’s being a very good and understanding guardian here, too. Of course, unlike Uncle Monty, his fatal flaw isn’t naivety – it’s his cowardice before the Council of Elders. It’s a more specific type of cowardice than Jerome’s – that man was pretty much a doormat with legs. ~~~ It shouldn’t be all that hard to figure out how the couplets are being carried when the only factor that changes is the crows. Do people’s memories of their first reading back this up? I don’t remember my own first reading, although I think TVV or THH was one of the first books I actually bought (I, eh, read the first six during long bookstore visits – don’t look at me like that, I have at least two copies of every book now). So Isadora’s writing the couplets in a mysterious fashion so that Olaf doesn’t dispose of the couplets if he finds them – but wouldn’t he figure out that something was up anyway? Sapphires, imprisonment, beaks – he put the Quagmires there, he’s going to put the pieces together faster than the Baudelaires. But on the other hand, Olaf’s a bit of a philistine, and would possibly toss the couplets away as soon as he saw they were just poetry. The villager are so impolite to Hector that one wonders if they’re not just treating him badly because he’s a lowly handyman, but because he’s some kind of actual social outcast. He even lives practically outside the town borders. A few notes on the centrepiece: This illustration makes V.F.D. look more like a city, really. Fowl Fountain looks similar in size to the red herring statue from TEE – speaking of which, I wonder how Olaf got them into that, unless it had a similar opening mechanism to Fowl Fountain. Also: This illustration features one of Helquist’s most blatant evasions of illustrating a new character. We can see Hector’s legs on the other side of the fountain, but nothing else of him. Would it really have hurt to actually give us a glimpse of his face? Seems a little odd that scrubbing the eye of Fowl Fountain wouldn’t have depressed the secret button. Perhaps that was in its right eye, but shouldn’t that have been washed just as thoroughly? I know I’m nitpicking, but that’s part of what this reread is for – commenting on things we just wouldn’t mention at any other time. “Count Olaf has been captured.” Electrifying stuff – an unprecedented twist on the series formula. I’m sure I remember this thrilling me on my first reading. Of course, it’s too good to be true, but it nonetheless turns out to be very interesting. Even the illustration for Chapter Six does a good job of helping to maintain the brief illusion. ~~~ The prospect of Olaf having been captured is pretty much immediately torn down by Snicket. “A man arrived in town this morning, with one eyebrow and a tattoo of an eye on his ankle.” Gotta admit, it does sound pretty convincing, but since Snicket’s being pretty heavy on the “It’s totally not Olaf” angle, it becomes quite baffling. A person might have only one eyebrow, but the same tattoo as Olaf? You’d posit a connection. You’d be right, but “members of the same organisation” probably isn’t the first conclusion to spring to mind. I should mention now that, plot-wise, TVV is an excellent book as it does so much for the series. “Burning at the stake” – the evocation of witch hunts is quite useful considering the mistaken identification of Jacques. Also, as Rule #2, this makes some sense considering that Rule #1 is not to harm crows, but unfortunately it seems the rules are never amended. In addition, of course, burning Olaf at the stake has unpleasant echoes of what happened to the Baudelaire parents. There’s also moral confusion for the Baudelaires – they want Olaf captured, but they also want to rescue him from execution. “Isn’t that smashing?” Big giveaway if you remember that Esmé would describe things as “smashing” in TEE. From here you can probably figure out Olaf’s entire plan – kill off some innocent dupe in the pretence that he’s Count Olaf, The Daily Punctilio reports everywhere that Count Olaf is dead, and the real Olaf is left free to operate. Which is exactly what happens. The only remaining question is why the stranger has an eye on his ankle, but if you’re anything like me, you aren’t stopping to think about such things at all. The stranger is wearing a suit, and so was Olaf in his first appearance. “Jacques” – we’ve wondered before if his name is derived from the poem “Frère Jacques,” a literal translation of which follows (adapted from Wikipedia): --- Brother Jacques, Brother Jacques Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Ring the morning bells! Ring the morning bells! Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong. --- When the Baudelaires go to try and rescue Jacques the next day, he is dead, and described with words to do with sleeping. All the ringing can also be seen as evocative of the Sebald Code, although I wouldn’t have thought that had been invented yet. “I have this tattoo as part of my job” … “I work for the volunteer—” The information’s coming thick and fast now. TVV’s a real treat for that. It’s probably one of the most important books of the series. “I am so relieved to see that you are alive. Your parents—” I know you’ve been discussing this. I won’t go into “I am so relieved to see that you are alive,” except to say that the Baudelaires have always been in a great amount of danger, and that Olaf has intimated that he will indeed kill them once he has possession of the fortune. As for the brief snatch of a line about their parents – it’s probably impossible to say. “Your parents were friends of mine”? “Your parents were part of the same organisation”? Even, “Your parents are still alive”?
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Post by Hermes on Apr 22, 2009 16:32:31 GMT -5
I don't think I've observed any evidence in the books suggesting that Olaf's an old man - I might have commented on this in TBB. But Helquist's illustrations are very powerful in the absence of any other description. Helquist has never actually seen Olaf, of course. Yes, that seems unequivocal. But what does it mean? The obvious interpretation is that the article accused Lemony of some kind of wrongdoing, and Beatrice believed it. But I think there are a few things which are hard to make fit with that - particularly the 'I love you' letter in TBL, which does not sound as if it is addressed to someone who regards the writer as an enemy. So I think there is still a mystery here. I'm not looking. I, er, may have done something similar. The books are unreasonably expensive, given their length. (And because of this, I fear I may have read some of them out of order, so I have no sense of what was a surprise and what wasn't.) Of course, it's questionable whether 'witches' were actually burned. My understanding is that in England they weren't - they were hanged. But some may have been burned in Scotland. Does anyone know about America? I'd guess the first. I don't think it's ever suggested both parents are alive. Chapters 10-12. Here is the bit we were discussing a little while ago with Klaus and Violet quarrelling. It seems that on this occasion it really is Klaus who starts it - what Violet said to set him off was perfectly reasonable. Fortunately Sunny puts a stop to it. (Does anyone else, by the way, find it annoying that Sunny keeps being described as 'shrieking'?) 'Maybe he [Jacques] used to work with Count Olaf.' That's almost the right answer, of course, but unfortunately Violet dismisses it. We're also told that none of Olaf's associates have tattoos on their ankles. This may be relevant to the question I think Quagmire44 raised earlier, of whether they were members of VFD. But of course they may have been members recruited (some time) after the schism - as Fernald certainly was. Another issue this raises is how Violet can be so sure - does she go around looking at people's ankles? There's a paradox here; on the one hand people are constantly noticing Olaf's tattoo, and Jacques' seems to have been easy to find as well. Yet many other characters (including the Baudelaire parents) must also have had tattoos on their ankles - and by now Handler must know this - and yet they are never spotted. Violet gave Klaus a book of Finnish poetry on his eighth birthday. Clearly the Baudelaires have quite an interest in things Finnish. I wonder if they have Finnish ancestry somewhere in their family tree. 'Nearby are your friends, and VFD'. They don't devote much attention to this line. Does it mean that the Quagmires are members of VFD? No doubt we can discuss this at length when we get to TSS. (My feeling is that the final upshot of the discussion there was that they weren't, or at least not knowingly - but others may differ.) After the auction, Olaf hid the Quagmires at his house. I take it this was not the original plan - he meant to take them out of town in the red herring, but this was prevented by his being identified before the auction was over. However, one might wonder how, if he is a fugitive from justice, he was able to get to his house - and why, if he was, he didn't hide the Quagmires there in the first place, rather than going to all the trouble with the elevator. The idea that Duncan knew the crows would fly to Nevermore Tree simply because he had 'done some research on migration patterns in large black birds' is exceptionally implausible. 'Jacques Snicket is the brother of a man who - '. Another interruption! What was he going to say? It appears the Baudelaires have heard of Lemony (though, as will turn out later, they don't actually know his first name). An obvious possibility is '-was accused of burning down your house.' But if the Baudelaires had heard of him after the fire, wouldn't we have been told about it?
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Post by Very Funky Disco on Apr 23, 2009 0:14:29 GMT -5
Yeah, the one most confusing part of the VFD and the eye tattoo issue - if that the Baudelaire parents must've had one, too. You can't honestly tell me that the Baudelaire children have never seen their parents barefoot, can you? Yet, it's obvious that they were members of the VFD - and about the same age as Lemony Snicket, who has a tattoo on his ankle.
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Post by Dante on Apr 23, 2009 3:34:01 GMT -5
Possibly they were careful to constantly keep their ankles covered with theatrical make-up. Water-resistant theatrical make-up. I think part of the reason the Baudelaires never sit up and think "So why didn't our parents have those tattoos?" is because Handler doesn't have a good answer.
Edit: That sounds harsher than I meant it to be. What I mean is that it's a paradox introduced through the complication of the story and not something he could have foreseen when he started TBB. If we like the twist in the series, we have to be prepared for a few problems to arise as well.
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Post by Hermes on Apr 23, 2009 10:48:16 GMT -5
Have you seen tk's triptych, showing ASOUE summarised in three panels - the burning house, VFD, and the Great Unknown? This, I think, is the moment when we definitely pass into the second panel, though it's been foreshadowed for a couple of books; and at each shift some adjustments will have to be made.
The final phase:
I am worried that Lemony was not attending in his science classes. (I take it VFD has science classes, as they encourage invention.) I've complained before about his saying toads are reptiles. Now he is saying potatoes are root vegetables. They aren't; they are tubers.
'All those buttons and gears can't fool me'. Clearly Mr Lesko has a rather indistinct idea of what a mechanical device is.
Dupin is not breaking rule 67 in using a mechanical device, as he isn't a citizen. This implies that Hector, who is breaking the rule, is a citizen. So, indeed, is Luciana - just in virtue of her appointment as police chief, I suppose.
Does anyone know who the famous inventor with braided hair whom Violet wanted to imitate was?
Violet says 'We'll find a way' to meet the Quagmires again; Isadora is less certain; 'maybe someday we'll meet again.' I know some people felt the author had made a commitment here, which he afterwards broke, but it does not sound like a very definite commitment to me.
'She now works with Coubt Olaf'. 'I've heard the two of them are dating'. How did the villagers get this - completely accurate - information, when the Punctilio said that he had kidnapped her?
Of course, by the end of the book the villagers know that Count Olaf has not been murdered. However, this is never explained to the wider world; presumably the Punctilio - which is indirectly under Olaf's influence - was not interested in following it up.
Can someone with more knowledge of children than me say at what age they normally start to walk?
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Post by katekor on Apr 23, 2009 11:56:27 GMT -5
Can someone with more knowledge of children than me say at what age they normally start to walk? I'm pretty sure my oldest niece started walking at around 10 months, maybe earlier, but my second oldest niece didn't start walking till about a year and a half... it really depends.
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Post by Dante on Apr 23, 2009 13:14:15 GMT -5
Dupin is not breaking rule 67 in using a mechanical device, as he isn't a citizen. This implies that Hector, who is breaking the rule, is a citizen. So, indeed, is Luciana - just in virtue of her appointment as police chief, I suppose. Dupin is a visitor to V.F.D., not a permanent resident; as Chief of Police, Luciana should be a permanent resident, though. The same applies to Hector, although there's nothing to suggest that he's not a citizen of V.F.D. - just that he might not have spent his entire life there. Indeed, an apparent V.F.D. Elder is at the Hotel Denouement in TPP, so apparently there's no rule against leaving the village. That's because in any other series this would be a blatant plot hook. ASoUE defies literary convention in its ending by ignoring probably dozens of plot points and mysteries, but you can debate whether that was always going to be the case or whether it was a scramble to work with a situation that became increasingly unresolvable. The Daily Punctilio can't be the sole source of information in this world, even if it's clearly the most popular newspaper; however, V.F.D. is still extremely isolated. I'd suggest that in this instance humour is being placed before logic. That Esmé now works with Count Olaf is fairly evident, and hearing that the two are dating is consistent with Mrs. Morrow's gossipy character. Once the Punctilio had their story, they probably weren't very interested in going back to V.F.D. In fact, it's unclear if Geraldine Julienne ever visited the town in the first place; she might just have written down the details as reported in a message sent from V.F.D. Although how they communicate with the city with any speed in the absence of mechanical devices is beyond me. The final edition of the Punctilio to appear in TVV seems to have been published with astonishing rapidity. Given that Sunny's implied to walk in the last chapter of TBB, who cares? Seven to Nine: Oh yeah, a quick note about the cover: Usually the U.K. and U.S. covers are different (right through to TGG), but for TVV Helquist took the same scene and re-painted it. I wonder how much flexibility he got in cover designs, since I think the usual process is that artists do several drafts and then the publisher picks one out for the final cover, but if this were the case it strikes me as unlikely that some of the other U.K. covers would differ in quite the ways they do. Wouldn’t it be great to see his drafts, though? I’ve said the same about Handler’s drafts and plot notes. “As Violet took her first bite of beans” – “As Klaus dipped his tortilla into the spicy tomato sauce” – “as Sunny smeared egg yolks all over her face” – spot the odd one out! Title drop on page 130 – “vile village.” I wonder if Handler was already set on the title when he wrote that line, as sometimes title drops come across as kind of awkward. (Don’t know if I mentioned this, but apparently TBB was originally going to be “The Miserable Marriage” and TRR “The Good Guardian.” I wonder about possible draft titles for the other books.) ~~~ Barring the fact that Hector’s self-sustaining hot air mobile home is a perpetual motion machine, the mechanical problems it suffers that Violet describes make a lot of sense. Mob psychology ends up being rather important in the series, but the Baudelaires never quite get the better of it. “But what does ‘An initial way to speak to you’ mean? ... Initials, like V.F.D.?” There’s also an instance in TPP where the Baudelaires’ first guess is correct, but then they get waylaid by a second one. I’ll keep an eye out now for others. So does Hector’s barn have a mechanism that hinges open the roof when he takes off? That’d be pretty cool. “The fountain was swarming with crows who were fluttering their wings in the water in order to give themselves a morning bath” ~~~ “Wait until The Daily Punctilio hears about this!” evolves into the catchphrase of Geraldine Julienne: “Wait until the readers of The Daily Punctilio see that!” Everything about Detective Dupin makes me laugh. I wonder what made Handler come up with the “cool” aspect. Perhaps it’s a parody of the famous arrogance of fictional detectives like Holmes and Poirot? Compare the colours of the description of Detective Dupin to the full-colour illustration of the character by Helquist from The Complete Wreck (scans by Gigi, and they’re all worth a look): asoue.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=hoop&action=display&thread=5853Strangely, the colours are… well, they vary from “similar” to “way off,” and the shoes don’t have the ludicrous plastic lightning bolts either, which I admit I was kinda looking forward to. Perhaps Helquist based that illustration on his own previous illustration and didn’t refer to the text? It’s still awesome, and absolutely tasteless, but I wonder why. It’s interesting how Lemony always uses Olaf’s disguised name throughout the time he’s in disguise (well, except sometimes for the first few lines the character gets, as in this book). Perhaps the moment he switches from “Olaf” to “Detective Dupin” is the moment when the crowd has become convinced by him – or perhaps Olaf’s threat that “You are making a mistake when you call me Count Olaf… and if you continue to call me that, you will see exactly how big a mistake you are making” is carried through even to Lemony. It’s an appropriate point to switch, anyway. “I’m talking about the four toothmarks on Count Olaf’s body.” Presumably Olaf didn’t just plain make this up, as the Elders saw Jacques’s body – they were covering it up with a sheet themselves at the end of the previous chapter. So perhaps Jacques was stabbed four times? I don’t think a genuine cause of death is ever established, besides “murder.” I wonder if Olaf and Esmé had already observed Hector and his skittishness to determine that he wouldn’t be able to help the Baudelaires at all if they were accused of murder. Oh, and on that note, I wonder what the penny dreadful paperback version of this book would’ve been called? #1-#3 were published, and we know what titles were going to be used for #4-#5. I’d say “Crows!”, but they’re not always obvious, e.g. “Kidnapping!” Since it’s most often the most shocking/mysterious/criminal event in the book (barring “Orphans!”), perhaps “Jailbreak!”? Or, on the flip side, something more along the lines of “Jailed!” which could refer to a greater number of characters in the story. “Hector sometimes gets skittish in front of crowds… but it’s true. I spent the night working in his studio, and Klaus was reading in the secret library” – thanks for incriminating everyone else, Violet! You’d still be burnt at the stake, and you’d take Hector with you! Notice also that Sunny doesn’t have an alibi as the other siblings weren’t with her. In fact, any of them could’ve snuck off without the others noticing. Hector also fell asleep at one point, and Violet’s capable of inventing lockpicks (although I think they later say that the lock on the Deluxe Cell would be too complicated even if she could put one together). “I will send a message to Mr. Poe right away… and the banker can come and remove them in a few days.” They decide to burn the Baudelaires at the stake instead, but I wonder if that message got sent to Mr. Poe anyway. Of course, he’d have learnt the same version of events from the newspaper, so I guess it doesn’t matter. I like the fact that the Deluxe Cell is the dirtiest one, and if that’s its only special feature, Olaf is being unnecessarily cruel on top of all his other villainy. I wonder if the Baudelaire who would make a miraculous escape would be stuffed into the fountain with the Quagmires? But then again, carting off Fowl Fountain would be about as difficult as carting off a murderer, so perhaps not. Olaf slips out of character when he takes off his Dupin sunglasses. “I’ll let you three decide who gets the honor of spending the rest of their puny life with me” – one presumes that here “puny” indicates that their lifespan would be not long extended, and that as promised in TBB, Olaf will do away with them once he has the fortune.
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Post by Hermes on Apr 24, 2009 8:23:52 GMT -5
Dupin is a visitor to V.F.D., not a permanent resident; as Chief of Police, Luciana should be a permanent resident, though. The same applies to Hector, although there's nothing to suggest that he's not a citizen of V.F.D. - just that he might not have spent his entire life there. I was thinking of your observation that Hector is treated as an outcast and lives outside the village. That might lead to him being regarded as not a citizen, though clearly in this case it doesn’t. It’s definitely a plot hook, but what for? I don’t see there has to be an actual meeting to resolve it; it ‘s enough that the characters should hope for one (as they do, quite significantly, in TPP). But their hopes are frustrated – it is, after all, a tragic series (at least to a large extent). What I think these lines do is establish that the Quagmires are still relevant to the continuing story; if it weren’t for this passage, we might suppose their floating off in the SSHAMH was the end of their storyline. I have many thoughts on the wider issues you raise, but (as an associate of mine once said) they are too large to fit into this margin. I guess it could be a version of the ‘gossip travels faster than light’ theme. That seems to have been a slip by the author, which charitable readers may ignore. Her walking here is clearly treated as a significant moment in her life. I realise that Sunny’s development is completely surreal, but, just to get my bearings, I think I will be inspired by Kate’s second niece, and think of her as eighteen months old. This not only fits better with her other abilities, but also with the large number of events she seems to have been involved in before the fire. ‘The Miserable Marriage’ sounds good; ‘The Good Guardian’ less so. Monty is good and a guardian, but not a good guardian. I’d never thought of it that way, but it is rather hard to see how it could get energy from outside. Solar panels? Ooh, they are nice, aren’t they? But what is The Complete Wreck? The linked thread doesn’t really explain it. If there were a single word for ‘burning at the stake’ I would use that, but I don’t know of one. I had difficulty thinking of a title for TEE as well – any ideas for that one? Though it would be least four years (actually nearer three years, since Violet is now almost fifteen) – longer if one of the others is chosen.
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Post by Dante on Apr 24, 2009 9:48:59 GMT -5
That seems to have been a slip by the author, which charitable readers may ignore. Her walking here is clearly treated as a significant moment in her life. I realise that Sunny’s development is completely surreal, but, just to get my bearings, I think I will be inspired by Kate’s second niece, and think of her as eighteen months old. This not only fits better with her other abilities, but also with the large number of events she seems to have been involved in before the fire. Quite so. I'm afraid I was being a little frivolous when I made that remark. The only information we have on Sunny's age is that she is less than four years old (from TRR, which states that she had not been born four years ago). It's self-sustaining, rather like another device I will shortly come to. I take that to mean that it also runs entirely on its own power. It has balloons; it's also not designed to go down, only up. Perhaps air is channelled into the balloons in such a fashion as to also generate the power needed to channel that air? Complete box set of all thirteen books, released I think the same day as The End. Gorgeous, but not many were sold, for what are probably fairly obvious reasons. Who's going to splash out on a thirteen-book series before they know they like it? And which aSoUE fan will buy a load of books they've already got? The answer to the latter, incidentally, is people like me. $120 was a pretty good deal at the exchange rate at the time. ...Although I had to order it twice, as the first time they sent me a package with the receipt, but not the item itself... "Incineration" is a bit verbose for TVV, but I can't think of much else. For TEE, what's the most dramatic and criminal thing in the book? Child auctions or falling down an elevator shaft, I should think. "Falling!"? Or I suppose something like "Treachery!" regarding Esmé? Oh, I know - gotta be "Darkness!" Eh, although I suppose this really isn't the place for this. Any other TVV ideas? "Mobs!"? Ah, good point - although I think Olaf mentions a plan in one of the later books to use the remaining Baudelaire child to force Mr. Poe to give him the fortune somehow. Since it might have been TSS, when he thought Sunny was the only Baudelaire left, he might have thought he'd get impatient. He was going to leave the Quagmires on an island until they were of age; perhaps he'd also do that to the Baudelaires? Ten to Twelve: I only just realised that those are probably crow silhouettes on the water jug. “Try to contact Mr. Poe?” “He’ll think we’re ruining the reputation of his bank.” Firstly, I’m not sure how they’d hope to contact Mr. Poe in time from there, since the Elders thought he’d take several days to be free enough to arrive in the village. Secondly, surely he’d still save the children from burning at the stake? Mr. Poe is well-established as an idiot, but I think it’s also well-established that his heart is in the right place. More or less. Klaus and Sunny’s invention ideas are good call-backs, and contextually sensible ideas, but how would they be achieved? I guess this shows why Violet’s the inventor. On the topic of this Baudelaire argument, it’s Violet who gets frustrated first, but Klaus exacerbates it with a personal insult. It’s also fairly contrived. Silly hair ribbons? Ridiculous glasses? “None of Olaf’s associates have that same tattoo.” I think it’s more Handler speaking than Violet here; when have the Baudelaires ever seen the bare ankles of Olaf’s other assistants? Fernald would seem old enough, but by the time we find out that he was in V.F.D. he’s apparently been aged down a bit. All the ageless adults make this business pretty problematic. Also, the Baudelaires should probably have put together the fact that Jacques actually said he worked for the “volunteer” something with the mysterious letters they’re discussing at around the same time. But no matter, it comes up by the end of the story. Highlighting the use of deus ex machina here makes it easily acceptable, although it’s not really a deus ex machina at all; deus ex machina would be something more like the prison wall falling down on its own. The Baudelaires receiving the tools they need at the exact time they need them is perhaps a little contrived, but it’s really entirely justified. It’s better than Sunny climbing up an elevator shaft. Yeah, see, it even says the jug is painted with crows. Why didn’t I pick up on this? I just thought they were arbitrary patterns. And on top of everything else, it’s Klaus’s birthday. Aww. Now that came ex machina. The book already has one perpetual motion machine, so I’m not going to complain about the horrendously inefficient and impossible mortar-dissolver mechanism Violet invents. Except that her inventions have gotten a lot shoddier over time. Where are the complicated contraptions from the first couple of books with their incomprehensible descriptions? For reference, a loaf of bread is only a little bit shorter than Sunny. We should really have been keeping a chart of her sizes. The invention is inconsistent on the same page. Violet tells Sunny to bring the bread back to her when it’s soaked up all the water, but she brings it back to Klaus. They discuss Isadora’s couplets all night, and make no progress. Some child prodigies you three are. I don’t suppose Hector could’ve passed a file through the bars, with which they could escape through the window? He has an inventing studio and is a handyman, the Deluxe Cell seems like it shouldn’t pose too much trouble from the outside. ~~~ One is tempted to retrospectively interpret “ Inside these letters, the eye will see / Nearby are your friends, and V.F.D.” as also being a clue about the V.F.D. initials being contained in the eye insignia, but it’s a fair bet that the insignia wasn’t invented for a couple of books. Although conceivably Handler just didn’t have a good opportunity to point it out befo – no, wait, it could’ve been in the Quagmire notebooks. I’m a little surprised that nobody was around to see the Baudelaires break out of jail. It seems odd that the town should be so deserted. Maybe there’s a rule determining that everyone has to eat lunch at the same time – ah, perhaps in accordance with the crows’ schedule? “We would have noticed a secret mechanism while we were scrubbing all those carved feathers.” Well, I guess Hector did the head, but I still think there’s a risk he’d press the eye button in cleaning it. Maybe he cleaned it very carefully. The text of page 207 on my copy appears to have been printed a little too far inclined to the right; the last millimetre or two of the letters are cut off. Perfectly readable, but noticeably misprinted. ~~~ I find it a little improbable that the water of the fountain is so noisy that the Baudelaires can’t hear what sounds the Quagmires make inside… and that it’s not so noisy that the Quagmires can’t hear what’s happening outside. “I’ll go call The Daily Punctilio.” Oh, would that be with the telephone that isn’t allowed in the city because it’s a mechanical device? “This vile village is in the middle of nowhere.” Yeah, now it feels a little gratuitous. “And he hid us for a while in the tower room of his terrible house.” Thus negating the whole point of the already unnecessary plan in TEE. None of this is to be looked at too hard. Just go with it. “Olaf learned that you three would be living with Hector at the outskirts of this town… and he had his associates build that hideous fountain.” “Then he placed us inside, and had us installed in the uptown courtyard” GET OUT. I guess Madame Lulu really does have magical powers, then, as Fowl Fountain was already installed in town when the Baudelaires arrived. Best to quietly ignore this and go with one of my previous suggestions on the subject, I think. Or pretend that an extra couple of days existed before the Baudelaires were packed onto a bus after all? If you hammer the text until it breaks, that can probably only just work. Also, Olaf’s associates building the fountain presumably explains why the status is so ugly, although in Helquist’s centrepiece it is breathtakingly beautiful, and clearly also mechanically sophisticated. I picture Olaf’s associates slaving for hours over metal and forge, delicately crafting each feather with infinite care. As they finish, exhausted, they stand back and gaze at the fruits of their labours, and a tear comes to their eyes. Olaf: “Finally, now stuff the orphans in and throw it in the truck, you slackers.” “There was always a crow roosting on the very top of fountain… so we could wrap the scrap of paper around its leg.” And what, can the Quagmires’ fingers reach out of the beak, then? They should’ve tried sticking their fingers out when the Baudelaires and Hector were cleaning the fountain, they might’ve been noticed and we could avoid most of the plot. Jacques is described as an “old enemy” of Olaf, but we don’t know anything that Jacques did specifically against Olaf, not that I can think of. Wait, I can think of one, but it’s a theory not directly stated in the text and it’d be controversial – and it’ll have to wait ‘til the U.A. “That sounds familiar.” “I’m not surprised. … Jacques Snicket is the brother of a man who—” I suggest something along the lines of “burnt down a lot of buildings a few years ago,” or “was accused of” same. We can build up from various sources that Lemony is probably on the run from the authorities after having been blamed for a great deal of arsons which seem to be collectively known as the “Snicket fires.” Much of this is still unclear, though. …It seems like the afternoon passes extremely quickly. You could always try looking inside the barn, kids.
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Post by cwm on Apr 24, 2009 10:45:16 GMT -5
Wanted to type up some brief notes, but no time. I'll try to have a more comprehensive analysis of THH.
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Post by Hermes on Apr 24, 2009 13:14:31 GMT -5
It's self-sustaining, rather like another device I will shortly come to. I take that to mean that it also runs entirely on its own power. Well, the Baudelaires say they are self-sustaining as well, so I don't think it has to be taken all that rigidly - the point is that it doesn't have to stop to refuel. The main problem is what heats the air. Normal hot air balloons have a fire that does that, and clearly can't go on for ever. I'm guessing solar panels would be the best way. (But of course I'm grossly overinterpreting here.) That was my assumption; if he could just get Mr Poe to hand over the money while the children were still underage, what was the point of the marriage plot? I think, though, that later in the series he may be getting rather irrational; he's failed to catch them so many times that just catching them becomes a goal, even if he's not sure what good it will do him. I think sometimes we're meant to get satisfaction from spotting something before the Baudelaires do. I take it one thing he is setting up (though for later rather than now) is a pun on the literal sense of 'machina'; help comes to them from a machine. Ah! That's so sad. The software for dealing with rude words doesn't work perfectly, does it?
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Post by Dante on Apr 25, 2009 4:29:15 GMT -5
Chapter Thirteen:
A couple of necessary notes on this chapter illustration: The bottom-left page is clearly a map. At the bottom-right, the first page says “F” and could conceivably read in full “Fire” (people have argued this, although I’d be less certain); the second page on the lower-right is the bottom half of a page and shows a sum of money - $1,5XX, apparently. What’s written below it could be a signature. Directly above this, furthest top-left, is a piece of paper that clearly said “V.F.D.” across the whole page. Left of that is a torn notebook of which the only page visible appears to have a capital F. The notebook that’s been harpooned directly has a torn image of an eye which bears a greater resemblance to the V.F.D. insignia than any previous eye images do. Far left, a page beginning “D” which looks a lot more convincingly like “Dept” – if that’s what you’re looking for, anyway. Above it: “Count Olaf,” with a torn picture of Count Olaf. Directly above that, lowest down, a picture of a mansion fire, and by that, a page beginning “V” – looks nothing like “Volunteer,” though. The topmost torn page is illegible. Let’s presume that Helquist’s going purely off what he knows and doesn’t have any special information from Handler here. The page that appears to read something like “Depot” is just a lucky scribble. The map could well be of Count Olaf’s house or something like that, which the Quagmires would have had reason and opportunity to take down. It’s the paper with the monetary sum that interests me.
How did they not see the self-sustaining hot air mobile home before? Should’ve burst from the roof of the barn. Ah well. It’s deus ex machina, it has to descend from the skies to rescue the heroes (or not, as in this case). Oh, and for a while I was under the impression that the self-sustaining hot air mobile home was actually named the Deus Ex Machina, until an earlier reread corrected me.
Any thoughts on why the balloons are green? V.F.D. later expresses an affinity with the colour, but that might not work retroactively. Actually, since I’m making that point, I should probably also note that the machine has ringing bells (yet is somehow silent). I’m going to go with my entirely non-canonical explanation that the self-sustaining hot air mobile home was originally the idea of Hector’s handyman father of conveniently the same initial, that he was a member of V.F.D. or more closely associated with it, that he never got it past the draft stage but added a number of V.F.D. references.
Given that Hector’s probably been outside V.F.D. before, one wonders why such emphasis on escape. All he needs to do is spend half the night walking to the bus stop and then catch the next bus. Maybe there’s a rule against handymen permanently leaving the village, and he’d have become a wanted man in the city.
To my knowledge, the description of the harpoon gun remains consistent in all its future appearances (I think the TPP one is implied to be the same weapon, which is also in Olaf’s trunk in TSS, I believe).
“This is a harpoon gun that my boyfriend bought for me.” The disguises usually start to fall apart towards the end like this… although this is the sort of random detail that would nonetheless be common among some minor characters.
I love the scene where Olaf rides up on a motorbike. It’s so “cool” in a completely unjustified way, and Mr. Lesko’s points about Dupin’s poor judgement are quite amusing.
Regardless, the whole parting of the ways between the Baudelaires and Quagmires exudes “plot hook to be picked up later,” and I now recall that TGG had a line suggesting that the Baudelaires – well, it doesn’t matter, as that line wasn’t fulfilled during the last two books under any interpretation. I’ll get to it when we get there.
“BAUDELAIRE ORPHANS AT LARGE!” It’s barely plausible that it’s been all afternoon and into the evening that the Baudelaires have been escaping from the Village of Fowl Devotees, and I’m somewhat uncertain about The Daily Punctilio hearing about it and printing a new edition in just that time. I guess they could; Dupin could have ridden off into the sunset to phone them up. This goes along with ambiguity about how long the trip is between city and bus stop.
“Veronica, Klyde, and Susie Baudelaire” – at least two of these names have been mistakenly used for the Baudelaires in previous books. Looking up my old notes, TWW had both “Veronica” and “Count Omar,” so TVV’s actually been quite clever in calling back to those. TMM had “Veronica” and “Susan.” So Klyde is probably the only new one, and it’s probably an allusion to Bonnie and Clyde.
Here it’s specified that the surviving Baudelaire will live with Count Olaf until he gets the fortune, so presumably not dumped on an island.
Brilliant that Esmé throws down her motorcycle helmet before getting onto the motorcycle. Moments like this are where Snicket excels.
Ah, page 253 specifies that one of the pages has a map on it, so Helquist probably drew from that for the chapter illustration rather than having anywhere in mind.
Last picture has notes that also have a map with a caption, and another eye picture. And the “Last Chance” ad seems to be folded onto the right of the front page of The Daily Punctilio, strangely. It looks like there’s a toaster on it. Also, one wonders how the Punctilio managed to get accurate drawings of the Baudelaires. Copied archive photographs? (And they are drawings of the children’s faces – page 247.)
And, darn, I just remembered that something I wanted to do was examine whether the “visual foreshadowing device” in the endpiece illustrations is always something taken from the Kind Editor letter, or whether Helquist might have other information. Let me think back now. TBB, no. TRR, no. TWW… dubious, as optometrists aren’t mentioned in the Kind Editor letter, but the images don’t have to be entirely accurate so it could’ve been a lucky guess that would still have worked even if there was no optometrist… TMM, no. TAA – ah. Maybe. TEE, no. TVV, no. Okay, only TWW and TAA seem like Helquist isn’t entirely using the Kind Editor letters to put an image foreshadowing the next book in his endpieces. And thinking of future books, there have been a couple of instances where he probably got some kind of inside information from Handler on what to illustrate.
“one of the lamps mistakenly delivered to Hal” – these never appear. The first instance of thwarted foreshadowing in the series? Handler probably never even noticed, which is a pity, as he could’ve put in a joke about it in TPP. Although most readers probably didn’t notice either.
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Post by Very Funky Disco on Apr 25, 2009 8:51:28 GMT -5
Something has just occurred to me. It seems as if the members of the Village of Fowl Devotees are allowed to read The Daily Punctilio, but wouldn't that newspaper have lots of "rule-breakers" in them. I mean, considering how they aren't even allowed to have a rule book...
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Post by Dante on Apr 25, 2009 12:15:14 GMT -5
I think the books have to be in the library to obey the rules; since the Punctilio is a newspaper, that's not a problem. Most villagers outside the Elders probably don't even know half the rules. Yeah, see: "Rule #108: The V.F.D. library cannot contain any books that break any of the other rules."
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Post by Hermes on Apr 25, 2009 12:30:35 GMT -5
I’m going to go with my entirely non-canonical explanation that the self-sustaining hot air mobile home was originally the idea of Hector’s handyman father of conveniently the same initial, that he was a member of V.F.D. or more closely associated with it, that he never got it past the draft stage but added a number of V.F.D. references. That makes a lot of sense. I think I once had a similar, but less detailed, idea. Hector's father might have dropped out of VFD at the time of the schism (not joined the bad side, just said 'Stuff that for a lark' and given up). I think you might also connect this with the carrier crows. I don't think the VFD crows can themselves be carrier crows for the other VFD - it doesn't fit with what we know about their movements - but perhaps the carrier crows were recruited from among them, and Hector's father was involved in this. It certainly is in The End, even if not in TPP itself. (This is rather odd, when you think of it - if the harpoon gun already belongs to Olaf or Esme, why do they need to order it up?)
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