rebecca
Reptile Researcher
No, thank you; I only take tea with my friends.
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Post by rebecca on Sept 26, 2009 21:30:07 GMT -5
I've tried to figure out about when the books take place, but Lemony Snicket makes it exceedingly difficult. On the one hand, in the book they mention phonographs and other old-fashioned devices (and just the way that they act and speak) that I'm too lazy to research right now, but then there was also the appearance of Mr. Snicket as a grown man in PP, as well as his being in love with the Baudelaires' mother... but it doesn't seem to add up. Was using classic mannerisms just a tradition of V.F.D.? I've even heard a theory that the Lemony Snicket who was in love with Beatrice was the current Snicket's father. Unlikely, but possible. Thoughts?
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Oryna
Reptile Researcher
Capricious Courier
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Post by Oryna on Sept 26, 2009 23:31:07 GMT -5
I don't really think the series took place on a 'regular time', it's more of a mixture of different eras (...or maybe that's what I want to think). But if we are to take Count Olaf reciting 'This Be The Verse' into account, it could be during the 70's or after that?
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Post by Jessica Snicket on Sept 27, 2009 0:34:31 GMT -5
There are lots of old-fashioned devices in asoue, but there's also new technologies like the computer in AA. Hmm. Snicket does make it very confusing. And I've never heard that theory about Snicket's father being the one that was in love with Beatrice, but it does seem very unlikely. Wouldn't that put our Lemony around the age of the Baudelaire kids?
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rebecca
Reptile Researcher
No, thank you; I only take tea with my friends.
Posts: 41
Likes: 1
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Post by rebecca on Sept 27, 2009 1:12:44 GMT -5
And I've never heard that theory about Snicket's father being the one that was in love with Beatrice, but it does seem very unlikely. Wouldn't that put our Lemony around the age of the Baudelaire kids? We don't know that, though, because we don't know when the Baudelaires grew up. XP
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Post by Invisible on Sept 27, 2009 4:30:22 GMT -5
When? It can whenever you want! I like to think that it happens in a different universe, somewhere in the future (1984 anyone?) and different stages of technology are mixed together. Plus, the alternate universe fits in with my Five Universe Theory
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Post by Dante on Sept 27, 2009 4:59:59 GMT -5
Hi. I've moved this to Perilous Places, because the issue of when the series takes place is often closely-linked to the issue of where it takes place. We've had a few discussions of this nature before, if you'd care to consult, for example, the following threads: Which decade? Your thoughts.Time PeriodMy own opinion is that it doesn't take place in a specific time period any more than it takes place in a specific place. I think, however, that it's generally crafted to feel as though it takes place quite a long time ago - Victorian era at the earliest, 1950s at the latest - but with flashes of the modern day occasionally appearing for humour (fibre-optic cables at the Last Chance General Store spring to mind).
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Post by Hermes on Sept 27, 2009 10:49:30 GMT -5
(fibre-optic cables at the Last Chance General Store spring to mind). Oh gosh, I hadn't spotted that. Up to now I had thought that the most up-to-date piece of technology mentioned was the fax (in TWW, I think), but I guess fibre-optic cables beat that. On the general issue - it's clearly a world not quite like our own. So it may be either a long time ago, where some things have developed more quickly, or recently, where some things have developed more slowly.
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Post by Sophie-Senpi on Sept 27, 2009 15:49:05 GMT -5
yes, i totaly agree i found out that daniel handler was almost 39. and sice beatrice is 1 ar younger than him, she would have had violet when she was 15!!!!!!!!!!! but.............. maybe leony is *older* than daniel. so a comfortable age fo him would be 43, so beatrice had violet at age 18
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Post by Dante on Sept 27, 2009 15:56:49 GMT -5
...I'm not sure where you got the idea that Beatrice is a year younger than Lemony, or the idea that thirty-nine minus Violet's age makes fifteen. Violet is fifteen. 39-15 = 24. (Remember, the Beatrice writing in TBL is the daughter of Kit, not the Baudelaire mother.)
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Post by Sophie-Senpi on Sept 27, 2009 16:22:43 GMT -5
violet isnt 15 any more! lemony wrote the first book the same year it happened ( because in the unauthorised auto-biograhy of L.S. brett helequist was saying he couldnt draw the baudelaire's mansion because the smoke was geting in his eyes, that ment he (lemony) was writing the book shortly after it burned), so that means violet is 24 now. and daniel was 29 when he first wrote the book, so that would make beatrice 28. 28- 14? 14. ( i made a mistake when i said she was 15) as for beatrice being a year younger than lemony, he said it somewhere on his website
HA!
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Post by Hermes on Sept 27, 2009 16:34:50 GMT -5
I think that if you want to line up events in the books with the publication schedule in the real world, you have to make Lemony older than Daniel. Lemony had left school, so was over eighteen, when he was engaged to Beatrice. That was at least fifteen years before ASOUE, probably more (to give time for the breakup and Beatrice's becoming engaged to Bertrand). So he's at least in his mid-thirties when ASOUE takes place, while Daniel was only twenty-nine when the first book was published.
Also, you might argue that it's true in-story that Lemony is older than Daniel, since from TUA it looks as if Jacques, who is probably just a couple of years older than Lemony, was involved in recruiting Daniel as a boy.
As for Lemony being a year older than Beatrice, I think I know where this comes from. In the publicity for TBL, we were told that one of the shocking revelations in that book was 'Beatrice was only ten'. People read that as meaning that Beatrice was ten when Lemony met her, and we know that he was eleven then, so he's a year older. But actually, the revelation turns out to refer to young Beatrice, and her age when she met Lemony, many years later.
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Post by Sophie-Senpi on Sept 27, 2009 19:14:31 GMT -5
i agree with you! ( but i still think beatrice #1 was 10) btw i think we can "mmmmhh" our way to figuring out what the big VFD story is, just like violet "mmmmhh ed " her way through that huge book w/ complacated words in 'the misarable mill'
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rebecca
Reptile Researcher
No, thank you; I only take tea with my friends.
Posts: 41
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Post by rebecca on Sept 27, 2009 19:39:19 GMT -5
btw i think we can "mmmmhh" our way to figuring out what the big VFD story is, just like violet "mmmmhh ed " her way through that huge book w/ complacated words in 'the misarable mill' What do you mean? By the way, that theory was excellent, I'd never be able to figure all that stuff out ^^
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Post by Dante on Sept 28, 2009 5:16:00 GMT -5
The reference is to TMM, in which Violet managed to read Dr. Orwell's extremely sophisticated book by saying "mmmm" whenever she came across a word she didn't understand.
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Post by Invisible on Sept 28, 2009 9:10:44 GMT -5
Making it more confusing for the reader. Well, for me anyway lol
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