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Post by Dante on Aug 11, 2009 13:36:57 GMT -5
Either Number One is meant to be Patrick McGoohan, the man who created the show and played Number Six, and this is indicative of McGoohan being in control of the show, or Number One is really meant to be Number Six and this is indicative of us all being in control of our destinies. (There are many other explanations of it that do not involve it being an allegory, such as the episode being a psychotic drug-trip or that #6 has gone insane as a result of the mental battle in the previous episode). I think these multiple different explanations that the program never actually explores properly, leaving the viewer to make up their own mind about it, is very much like ASoUE. Another point is the ending. It appears that #6, along with a small band of rebels, has escaped the village. However, the closing moments exactly mimic the opening shots of the first episode, and a door opens and closes automatically in the same manner of doors in the Village. This is probably also meant to be an allegory, in that #6 has just traded one Village for another and that we are never truely in control of our lives, but other theories - that the entire episode was all an elaborate trap to fool #6 into believing he had escaped, for example - exist. I understand that The Prisoner's final allegory may be about power. The scene where Number Six is speaking before a bunch of masked individuals, all of them with group labels, and the moment he tries to express himself they all drown him out with gibberish has been suggested to represent the perils of power, and it's that role, the role of Number One, the leader, which Number Six was trying to resign from in the intro - because "I am not a number, I am a man!" If he lives as Number One, he can't have any individuality; he has to be one of the masks. It's only by living as a man that he can truly be himself. We can apply similar methods in looking at the way aSoUE ends. It's not as outright nuts as something like The Prisoner, or even the infamous Neon Genesis Evangelion finale, but those are both TV works. A lot more can quash their visions for a finale than can written fiction. The finales of the two series I mentioned largely abandon all pretence of a plot in favour of outright symbolism, but the only thing we get in aSoUE that's only clearly explainable as a symbol is the Great Unknown. But I think they share an idea, and that's that... well. Let me put it another way. Some say that great literature, or rather that exclusive circle of literature branded "great art," regards a satisfying plot as coming secondary to a representation of character that feels true to life, or an ultimate message that is truly meaningful. This beyond blind action. I resent the suggestion that plot is incompatible with these things - nevertheless, it's the interpretation we must apply here. ASoUE could've concluded with an "answer book" of sorts, with the Baudelaires meeting the leader of V.F.D. and him rattling off a list of answers to every question in the series. But that's less significant than the personal experience the Baudelaires go through, the pro-literature and pro- engagement and pro-knowledge message that the last few volumes tie up. The changes to the schism that I noted earlier are essential to this. What's relevant isn't some esoteric factual dispute in an organisation years ago. It is now represented as some sort of Edenic Original Sin, a break which creates distinct good and evil, a melting-pot for the chaotic and difficult society we live in. So already, what we term "plot" has been sacrificed in favour of a message which Handler feels it's important for us to learn. And some of this might be more relevant in analysis of The End, but the roots of that tree are here, firmly-planted in TPP. If the president moderator does it, it's not illegal off-topic! I think this is relevant for comparison of how other media handle similar sorts of conclusions to aSoUE's. |
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Post by cwm on Aug 11, 2009 15:11:08 GMT -5
What is Neon Genesis Evangelion?
And overall the finale is clearly meant to be open to interpretation; McGoohan had to go into hiding after it went out to escape from fans demanding explanations and the ITV switchboard was jammed with complaints. That's how obscure it is.
#6 attempting to resign from Number One seems to throw the entire series on its head, because the big premise is that he's in the Village because the powers that be want to know why he resigned - if he was resigning from being Number One, surely they already knew why he resigned? (Note that the regular title sequence, which shows #6 resigning from the job before being abducted, is absent from this episode in favour of a one-off title sequence, which may indicate it's simply of no importance to what's going on.) I understand McGoohan had had an argument with the show's co-creater, George Markstein (something to do about surrealism vs. spy thriller), and Markstein was no longer involved with the show at this point, but even so I don't think McGoohan would have thrown everything previous away for the sake of this one allegory. The series as a whole still makes sense even with Fall Out.
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Post by Dante on Aug 11, 2009 16:07:09 GMT -5
What is Neon Genesis Evangelion? That's a can of worms. It's something I found out about while researching weird endings to pieces of fiction. Long story short, due to budget and/or time and/or censorship difficulties, they had to throw out the script for the last two episodes and use almost entirely stock footage presenting the characters introspecting rather than resolving the many mysterious elements of the plot or providing a dramatic finale. I understand that Japan likes its weird endings, though... I've seen similar finales in other shows. I think the opinion as presented in some places is that westerners prefer happy endings, but Japanese people prefer ones that are interesting. Well, it's not like those are mutually-exclusive, but they also don't need to overlap. I enjoy strange or unusual endings, so I actively seek them out. Therefore, both aSoUE and The Prisoner are known to me. I wrote an exam essay about this sort of thing once. It's not the only time such things have happened. Fans clamour for explanations about aSoUE, although at least we're not requiring explanation of the actual events which took place. Those are plain to our understanding. Just a theory I read somewhere. Watching the episode, I can see the echoes of accuracy in it. It loops back, true, but these things often don't make literal sense. But anyway! I haven't seen the full series, and it's a borrowed theory, so I'm not especially interested in arguing the point. However, a literal explanation and an accurate explanation may not be possible to reconcile. I should say the same is true of aSoUE. Nonetheless, both can exist. |
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Post by Dante on Aug 12, 2009 5:05:46 GMT -5
And I post Chapter Three.
“There are places where the world is quiet, but the enormous lobby of the Hotel Denouement was not one of them.” Immediately, those of us who’ve read the series carefully know that this is not, in any way, a good sign.
The many Dewey Decimal references in the Hotel Denouement have been analysed before, and I don’t think I’ll do it again.
“Bellboys and bellgirls…” One suggestion made years ago was that the remainder of the Olaf and the sinister duo’s “new recruits” – Olaf only borrowed “a handful,” remember – were disguised as bellboys and bellgirls in the Hotel D. and sent on exactly the same errand as the Baudelaires, but for the villains. Otherwise, where did they all go?
“green wooden floors etched with the number 123” – “determinism and indeterminism,” but more importantly, identify the hotel as a V.F.D. construction.
“Welcome to the Hotel Denouement. I’m one of the managers.” Dah, which indicates that there were always multiple managers, and Ernest isn’t himself trying to impersonate Frank. Pity. I thought that theory was really rather good at explaining just how the Hell this place manages to keep its secrets.
“If anyone and everyone staying here asks for assistance, you’ll immediately volunteer to help.” Usage of “volunteer” indicates that this is Frank?
Also, the Baudelaires are shooting themselves in the foot by repeatedly asking each manager if they are either Frank or Ernest. Just ask for one name!
“It doesn’t sound very safe, and yet some people think this is a very safe place indeed.” The second manager’s attitude strikes me at this point as being more likely to be Ernest…
Presumably the fortune cookie which told Geraldine Julienne that the Baudelaires had returned to the city was doctored by J.S., one of whom has already attempted to sabotage their arrival.
“I just said I would do that.” The third manager to appear is the same as the second manager, but different to the first, unless Ernest has been playing mind-games with the Baudelaires. Which strikes me as improbable. The fact that this manager explains the Dewey Decimal System to the Baudelaires perhaps suggests that he’s Frank, and therefore the first manager would be Ernest? But I’m not sure that it’s really possible to say. On the other hand, “You shouldn’t need a catalog” might be an Ernestine declaration.
As I noted before, while the Sebald Code here reads “I can’t tell if you are in or enemies please respond,” “in” is one word away from “associates,” but “enemies” is one word away from “out.” Either rereading could potentially be correct depending on whether Frank or Ernest is speaking, and both sides of the schism use the same codes. However, it doesn’t matter who it is here, because it says something important otherwise – that the manager speaking expects the Baudelaires to know the Sebald Code. Notice that he “frowned, as if the middle Baudelaire had given him the wrong answer.”
“There’s a banker on the phone who wants to speak to one of the managers right away.” Mr. Poe, one presumes, but perhaps in relation to his pursuit of Mrs. Bass and her stolen money?
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 12, 2009 8:35:04 GMT -5
How do/ does the number(s) "123" identify it as a V.F.D construction?
But that would be simple and give solid information. Not Handler's style. (And then there would always be the doubts of Ernest lying and Frank using a code, and vice versa)
And he expects them to be experts with it, because how else are they supposed to keep track of what he was saying? Unless, of course, details were left out like "he was speaking slowly", or "the Baudelaires were writing it all down" or maybe Frank/ Ernest was expecting the answer "Can you repeat that?"
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Post by Dante on Aug 12, 2009 13:04:37 GMT -5
In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how "determinism and indeterminism" is relevant to the green wooden floors of V.F.D., or V.F.D. itself. I suppose that it links to the idea of making choices in life about what it is that we do - or whether we have those choices at all. That is the question that the entrance of V.F.D. into the Baudelaires' lives raises.
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Post by JTB on Aug 12, 2009 20:56:59 GMT -5
In all honesty, I'm not entirely sure how "determinism and indeterminism" is relevant to the green wooden floors of V.F.D., or V.F.D. itself. I suppose that it links to the idea of making choices in life about what it is that we do - or whether we have those choices at all. That is the question that the entrance of V.F.D. into the Baudelaires' lives raises. Agreed - it kind of strikes me as the whole opposites deal - Frank/Ernest, noble/villainous, fire-starting/fire-fighting, etc. V.F.D. is just chock full of those. |
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Post by Dante on Aug 13, 2009 6:19:31 GMT -5
I felt it was only appropriate to do these particular chapters simultaneously.
~Not A Chapter~
I’m at a loss as to why Helquist used this as his chapter illustration. It’s based on an offhand part-sentence from a chapter not even contained in the non-sequential chapters. It’s not presented in chronological order here, although that supports the non-sequential order of the chapters and is thus appropriate… nevertheless, the non-chronological version was used as a Mystery on TheNamelessNovel.com, and that was frankly unfair because it wasn’t important and it wasn’t even accurate. This thing is part of the reason why we thought elevators would be far more important than they were. Anyway…
“the sequence four-five-six” – brr, that gives me the chills, remembering the 4-5-6 from Torchwood: Children of Earth.
~Chapter Four~
The sunbathers’ attendant wearing a “long, baggy robe” is a callback, but it’s so subtle we can be forgiven for not being suspicious of this person. Also, using a giant spatula to flip over the sunbathers? One is reminded of how fantastic this series is.
“Violet was so relieved not to be recognised that she hadn’t noticed who was standing next to Count Olaf’s treacherous girlfriend. Geraldine Julienne was the irresponsible journalist who had printed so many lies about the Baudelaires, and she wasn’t happy to see that the reporter had become one of Esmé’s sycophants…” “…Geraldine replied, who as usual was speaking into a microphone.” Although Geraldine lacks the grey suit and gum-chewing habits of the reporter from THH and TCC, the microphone and the fact that Violet recognises her indicates that the characters are definitely the same, although that makes it a little odd that an excuse wasn’t found to name her in TCC (which was published after the U.A.). It was unclear before TPP whether we were meant to be identifying the two as the same. Even in TPP, it’s confusing that she’s suddenly identified as Geraldine Julienne having never been named in the main books before now. Anyway, of course Geraldine was one of Esmé’s sycophants even before she became a reporter.
“…but she had managed to drag a large, wooden boat to the rooftop sunbathing salon so she could prowl a high swimming pool. On the bow of the boat was an ornately-carved figurehead, a word which here means “wooden statue of an octopus attacking a man in a diving suit,” and there was a tall mast, stretching up toward the sky, which held a billowing sail that had the insignia of an eye matching the one on Count Olaf’s ankle.” Okay, the insignia sail suggests that the boat may have the origin it does in The End, but on the other hand I think Olaf later says that he bought this boat, which questions that same origin. The diving suit figurehead should be, looking back, the obvious location for the Medusoid Mycelium diving helmet, and I’m sure some people spotted this; the fact that it’s being attacked by an octopus is also an intentional reminder of TGG’s plot. Carmelita’s present outfit also reminds us of pirates, as did TGG.
Esmé’s “sunoculars” are the same as Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor’s Vision Furthering Devices – another example of both sides of the schism using the same things. Oh, and also, take note: Esmé knows, or at least suspects, that the sugar bowl is being delivered from the sky that night, by birds. If Esmé knows, surely Kit must’ve known?
“special hors d’oeuvres” – these are mentioned a couple of times. Originally, by default, assumed to refer to the Medusoid Mycelium, until a convincing alternative theory was mooted. Look forward to that later.
“I want you to tell me something about a certain guest at this hotel. He’s been lurking around the basement, plotting to spoil our party. His initials are J.S.” Now this is extremely mysterious because we never again hear of a J.S. hanging around in the basement. Furthermore, how does Esmé know only his gender and initials?
“Lurking around the basement? …But J.S. is—” The way this is phrased makes it sound like J.S. is someone unlikely to ever be seen in the vicinity of a basement. However, I think the most satisfying conclusion, and one which works within the book itself, is that Geraldine’s sentence was going to end, “—your husband.”
In TSS, Olaf still had a harpoon gun in his car’s trunk, but that car hasn’t been seen since then.
“You shouldn’t need a catalog… Not if you’re who I think you are.” Once again, is this meant to be an assumption that the Baudelaires should know the Dewey Decimal system by heart? Or does this manager think that they’re in Dewey’s direct employ – perhaps through Kit – and thus has direct access to the greatest catalog of all at any time?
“I thought it would be a good hiding place.” Does this perhaps suggest that this manager obtained this harpoon gun in… not entirely legitimate circumstances? It’s later suggested that this was Frank; perhaps he stole Olaf’s own harpoon gun?
~Chapter Five~
Note that odd-numbered rooms are on one side of the hotel, and even-numbered rooms on the other. Sir indicates that his room does not overlook the pond; his room is even-numbered. The sauna is odd-numbered, stated to be on the opposite side of the hall, and overlooks the pond. However, in the next chapter, the teachers are staying in an odd-numbered room. It overlooks the sea. So apparently this arrangement swaps between floors.
“It is a large world, and there are Italian restaurants sprinkled all over it, employing waiters who have crucial messages for you and waiters who are trying to make sure you never receive them, and these pairs of waiters are engaged in an argument that began many years ago, when you were so young that it was not safe to feed you even the softest of gnocchi.” I think that this is a reference to the schism, and therefore the “you” is not a personal address to the reader of the book but the more general address, as per “one.”
Sir and Charles are apparently sharing a room. Since Charles is “sitting on the bed,” that suggests the room only has one bed.
“According to J.S., we must be very cautious if we want to find the Baudelaires.” This reads like an introduction by a volunteer to one who doesn’t understand the strife now associated with the Baudelaire case. Uh, that is to say, J.S. is the volunteer gently easing Charles into a world he doesn’t understand… which fits with my general assumption that Charles is not a member of V.F.D. This chapter seems to me to be quite clearly explaining how Sir and Charles could have provided V.F.D. its lumber without being members or knowing anything about it.
“For all we know, that bookworm with the eyeglasses could sneak up on us right here in the hotel and kill us to death!” Ironic, since of course Klaus has done exactly that, snuck up on them, and is indeed hiding in the room at that very moment.
“In fact, if I manage to find them, the first thing I’ll do is give them my sincere apologies.” Since this is a decision Charles comes to at this very moment, it suggests his general purpose in looking for the Baudelaires is different. Like Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor, I presume that he has become concerned for the Baudelaires and wants to help them out, or provide a new home. Sir is not helping.
“J.S. said they might be arriving by submarine” – this must be the J.S. who Quigley copied his Volunteer Factual Dispatch to. I wonder if this particular J.S. would be covered by Jerome or Strauss? Quite possibly, although the message must have also gone to a villainous J.S. who put Mr. Poe and Geraldine Julienne on alert.
“The Finite Forest is running low on trees” – I think cwm noted that it didn’t seem to be when we last visited, and one may well assume that Lucky Smells Lumbermill has been going a long time… ah, as many years as it had last been since someone had knocked on the dormitory door. I think we must assume that the forest was indeed low on trees, just less visibly, during TMM, since Sir explains right here that “The last big order we had was for building that horseradish factory, and that was a very long time ago.” So they’ve had no big orders since then.
“After all, if it weren’t for my lumber, this hotel wouldn’t even exist.” “I remember… We had to deliver the lumber in the middle of the night.” Confirmation that the Hotel Denouement was built during the operating lifetime of Lucky Smells.
“But Sir, you told me you never heard from that organization again.” This suggests not only that Sir handles deal-making, but also that the construction of the various volunteer mansions must also have predated the hotel. On the other hand, since the last big order was for the horseradish factory, which must’ve been a smaller order than the hotel, then evidently volunteer buildings were not always organised for by V.F.D. itself. A front business would have been set up for the horseradish factory, for example.
“I didn’t… until now. You’re not the only one who gets notes from this fellow J.S. I’m invited to a party he’s hosting on Thursday night, and he said I should bring all my valuables.” Ah, in this case, I would suggest that Olaf is indeed impersonating Jacques, as this letter cannot be from anyone other than him. Notice that Olaf would not only be interested in stealing Sir’s valuables, but in destroying anyone with any evidence against him. This includes not just the volunteers at Thursday’s meeting, but witnesses like Sir and Charles.
“If you spent less time reading…” Confirmation that Charles understands the value of literature. As such, yeah, he could be a friend of Kit’s.
“There’s nothing wrong with caring about people… I care about you, Sir.”
“And I care about the Baudelaires. If what J.S. wrote is true, then their parents—” Argh! Impossible to guess how this would have ended. Except perhaps “were mixed up in the internal war of a secret organisation with potentially dire consequences for those children,” etc. Rather than some vital secret, since it’d be odd for J.S. to tell Charles that, but it’d make sense for him to explain about V.F.D. In fact, here’s a parallel for you: This letter from J.S. to Charles would have been very, very similar to Jacques’s letter to Jerome in the U.A.
“A situation has arisen that requires the use of this room.” Suggests that Ernest (for it’s later said to be he) only just found out about the crow-delivery plan. Maybe Esmé only just got around to telling him, or it’s been spread around on the villains’ information networks (however it is they communicate) but Ernest only just had time to check the latest updates… or he only just cooked up this plan. Or he only just found out a concierge had gone to get Esmé and Carmelita a harpoon gun and figured out what they were planning on doing… yes, that would work.
“By a strange coincidence there happens to be a chemist standing in the hallway who would be happy to escort these two gentlemen.” Colette, of course, so perhaps she was the one who clued up Ernest.
“…where a figure stood in a long, white coat and a mask such as surgeons or chemists wear over their noses and mouths.” This is much more suspicious than the salon attendant, but on the other hand, a chemist is so random that we might assume it was just more Snicket-y throwaway oddness.
So… what is this plan of Ernest’s. I’m not entirely sure how… rigid this birdpaper is or at what angle it’s going or how a single strip less than a fiftieth of the hotel’s width is going to help here. And it was only ever going to catch dead birds, so it’s not even all that villainous.
~Chapter Six~
Maybe they’re made of an incredibly resilient fabric?
Oh, also, one thing I like about these chapters is that they really aren’t in sequential order – they start in reverse order. Sunny in Chapter Six leaves the elevator first, Klaus in Chapter Five leaves second, and Violet in Chapter Four third.
Note that Nero’s introduction here is a complete mirror of his introduction in TAA. Handler doubtless used TAA for reference here.
“I once threw myself down a flight of stairs rather than face even one moment with a milliner, at whose shop I quit working after discovering the sinister truth about her berets, only to find that the paramedic who repaired my fractured arm was a man who had fired me from a job playing accordion in his orchestra after only two and a half performances of a certain opera.” Link the latter part back to the earlier statement where Lemony said he had hurried from the opera hall on that fateful evening – we can judge that Lemony was perhaps in the orchestra for La Forza del Destino. Quite possibly he removed himself from the orchestra midway through the performance during which Olaf’s parents died, on secret business or some similar matter. If he ran away, though, and was then fired, wouldn’t that be more like exiting by mutual agreement? Meh.
“You said we could stop for a lunch break.” Stop what? Listening to Nero’s violin practice, I assume, since it doesn’t seem likely that they’ve been up to anything else.
Mrs. Bass’s disguise is probably to conceal her identity after robbing a bank, but she and the other teachers are woefully indiscreet about the whole matter. Mr. Remora refers to her “loot” right in front of a random concierge. It is a huge shame that we don’t have an illustration of disguised Mrs. Bass.
Page 130 here is the first piece of TPP that we were given, strip by strip, on TheNamelessNovel.com. We actually filled in most of it before the final piece or two; the only word that we were left stuck on was “Piled”.
Note that all three teachers have been sent relevant invitations to the cocktail party, referring either to music critics, an all-you-can-eat banana buffet, and celebration of the metric system. Mrs. Bass’s also referred to bringing along valuables, and we may presume that the other two did as well; Nero says his is from “Esmé Squalor and her boyfriend,” and the other two don’t contradict that. So let’s assume that they’re all the same form of invitation. I expect Esmé used her own identity rather than J.S.’s because Olaf’s experience at TAA would’ve shown that this bunch were susceptible to glamour – or Nero would’ve been, anyway.
“As a teacher, I don’t earn enough money to purchase any valuables, so I had to resort to a life of crime.” This is the most brilliant retcon ever, providing an actual reason for Mrs. Bass’s unexplained bank robbery and also showing us its aftermath!
And now we come to a problem I’ve addressed before. TAA says that Prufrock Prep. was closed after Mrs. Bass was arrested for bank robbery. The U.A. shows that Mrs. Bass’s bank robbery didn’t occur until after Mr. Remora retired. Mrs. Bass isn’t arrested in this book. This led some to deduce that all three teachers survived the Hotel Denouement fire and went back to work at Prufrock Prep. until the events described, or at the very least that Mrs. Bass survived. However! In the U.A., Mr. Remora had already retired at the time that Ms. K. – Kit – was working at Prufrock Prep. Since it is ridiculous to suppose that this could’ve happened between TPP and her appearance in The End, I have proposed the following: That, at this point, Mr. Remora has already retired – wouldn’t stop Olaf from having him invited to the cocktail party, as he’s still a witness who once tried to chase him down – and that, conceivably, Mrs. Bass’s arrest occurs during the last moments of TPP, since Mr. Poe is also in the building investigating the robbery she committed, and has been shown to be capable of making arrests, as in TBB. This would fulfil all the required conditions and still mean that any of them might or might not die, which is exactly the intention of the book’s ambiguous ending.
It’s interesting that this chapter has more returning characters than the others… actually, thinking about it, it changes. Esmé and Carmelita don’t really count as returning characters as they would always have been in this book, so the returning character for Chapter Four would only be Geraldine, who is very minor and not emblematic of a particular book. Sir and Charles are more significant, and both the teachers and Hal are individually significant.
Hal shows awareness of the “I didn’t realise this was a sad occasion” code, but none of the teachers recognise it – in fact, Mr. Remora is the one who gives the unsatisfactory reply, whereas I think he’s usually identified as the most likely of the teachers to have ever been a volunteer. Also, as cwm pointed out earlier, it’s later shown that Hal wasn’t a member of V.F.D. at the time of THH.
“With a sigh, [Nero] moved his water glass off his placemat and onto the wooden table, where it was sure to leave a ring” – I didn’t include the earlier reference to placemat absence, since cwm covered it, but I want to make sure we pay attention to these continuing links to the BBRE. It’s sometimes easy to forget, but the BBRE was published at the same time as TSS; while many of its notes are not entirely fulfilled, we cannot doubt that the remaining books continually refer to them.
“Just because someone is a criminal… does not mean they’re not a nice person. Besides, if you’re on the run from the law, you’re bound to get cranky from time to time.” “Speaking of running from the law—” More information, for those of us who had forgotten, about Mrs. Bass’s present activities, and an indication that the other teachers seem completely complicit in it. Or that they just don’t care and are going along with it, which might actually be funnier.
“J.S.? …She’s here?” Hal is evidently aware of Justice Strauss… or of a female J.S., anyway. Since Kit works with Dewey, and Kit is the one who recruited Hal, this isn’t so surprising. However, at this point in the book, Dewey’s reference to J.S. using a Vision Furthering Device might cause people to confuse her with Esmé – which is reinforced by the fact that cocktail party invitations are being sent out under both her and J.S.’s names.
“Crow is a tough bird to cook…”
Confirmation that the Baudelaire father’s name is Bertrand. I’m not sure how seriously any of us had thought about the names of the Baudelaire father; Bertrand must have been a top candidate, though, but we could also have thought that it was just a throwaway name Lemony introduced in the BBRE, like many of Lemony’s other earlier associates… such as Bela, although I know one person who thought that was the Baudelaire mother.
“According to our calculations, the sugar will be laundered sometime after nightfall.” Laundered? Oh Dewey, why must you lie to everyone?
That Dewey has to ask Hal “Are you who I think you are?” suggests that he’s never met Hal – that Kit alone dealt with him. Actually, since so few people know Dewey exists, and since he spends so much time in the catalog, it follows that he’s extremely reclusive. Perhaps he could’ve thought that Hal was actually a mysteriously-survived Gregor, for example.
“…whereas someone who writes twelve or thirteen books in a relatively short time is likely to find themselves hiding under the coffee table of a notorious villain, holding his breath, hoping nobody at the cocktail party will notice the trembling backgammon set…” A similar incident to this is mentioned later, but it’s unclear if this one literally occurred or would have been the same occasion, since Lemony wouldn’t have written twelve or thirteen books at the time.
It seems that both Dewey and Hal have probably guessed both who each other are and who Sunny is… well, Hal and Sunny aren’t exactly hard to recognise. But anyway, I mention this because they’re being remarkably clear about what’s supposedly going to happen to the sugar bowl, even though it was never going to happen.
The “washerwoman with long, blond hair and rumpled clothing” isn’t all that suspicious because she’s not doing terribly much and shows up at the last moment, but on the other hand, she’s quite obviously suspicious. I don’t think anyone would have guessed who she was, though.
~Also Not A Chapter~
Okay, it’s in the right order this time.
And by the way, the Baudelaires arrived on Briny Beach in the morning. They had brunch, breakfast/lunch, with Kit. Three o’ clock is the first time they ever heard the Hotel Denouement’s famous clock, so they entered after two o’ clock. Where on Earth does the time go in this series?
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 13, 2009 7:33:53 GMT -5
Agreed. That's common even in a real-life hotel. Which means someone knew its location and built a statue about it? Or that someone built a statue for it? But Esme has Geraldine on her side. Reporters (even bad ones) often have contacts that have that kind of information. But I'm sure there are also reporters on the "good" side of V.F.D., maybe just that Kit doesn't have access to. Again, she has Geraldine, but she (Geraldine) isn't exactly what most would call "reliable" Would that be the Olaf-as- Jacques impersonation? That doesn't sound right... Is that important? (<genuine curiosity) Are there multiple J.S's? As in, real J.S's, not impersonaters? In a way, it's a good thing Charles didn't inform Sir about a V.F.D. secret, because Sir could easily be working for some villian or other. How is it Colette? Interesting thought: Maybe the disguise was stolen from THH? But it's not nessisarily significant, they all happen in around the same two-hour-time-period (just guessing how long it would take) How so? It leads me to believe they were all contacted about the gathering in different ways. I've also wondered that. There have been several times when it appears they either used teleportation or got stuck in nonexistent traffic. |
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Post by Dante on Aug 13, 2009 7:50:04 GMT -5
Which means someone knew its location and built a statue about it? Or that someone built a statue for it? Since Olaf's only had the diving helmet with the Medusoid Mycelium for... *looks up* twenty-four hours or so? Either he'd have to have bought a similar figurehead and knocked the head off, or he set his troupe to carving one using the same sort of artistic talents they used to build Fowl Fountain (er, despite the fact that only the hook-handed man is still around of those who constructed Fowl Fountain). Yeah, but Dewey seems to know about the sugar bowl being delivered by birds at night. It really seems like Kit should. Also, it seems odd that Esmé should be asking Geraldine for information about J.S. now if Geraldine's the one who told her about it in the first place. It's awkward. I think you're forgetting Jerome Squalor? Some people ship Sir/Charles. This would help. Justice Strauss and Jerome Squalor, that's two already. Jacques Snicket, if you count him even though he's dead, and the false name "Julio Sham" has been used multiple times. ...Well, because it is. Colette was disguised as the chemist. We learn this in Chapter Nine. Conceivably parts of it could have been, yes, although Olaf's V.F.D. disguise kit would probably have filled in most of it. Because I think it'd be really funny. |
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Post by cwm on Aug 13, 2009 12:08:53 GMT -5
“the sequence four-five-six” – brr, that gives me the chills, remembering the 4-5-6 from Torchwood: Children of Earth. IANTO  They seemed to continue making lumber at a steady rate in TMM, which has to be well after their last big order. Do they just continue irrespective of if anyone wants the lumber or not? |
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