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Post by Dante on Sept 28, 2009 5:13:12 GMT -5
? Ô Mort, vieux capitaine, il est temps! levons l'ancre!
Ce pays nous ennuie, ô Mort! Appareillons!
Si le ciel et la mer sont noirs comme de l'encre,
Nos coeurs que tu connais sont remplis de rayons! |
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Post by Dante on Sept 28, 2009 5:14:31 GMT -5
Notably, Chapter Fourteen has its own title pages, all of which indicate that it is to be read not just as a separate chapter but as a separate book. That is to say – it is formatted as a book entitled “Chapter Fourteen,” but its sole chapter is also numbered “Chapter Fourteen.” So Chapter Fourteen is the fourteenth chapter not just of The End, but also of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The title pages also describe it as “Book the Last” (as opposed to The End being numbered Book the Thirteenth). I think this relates to the fact that “Book the First” is both a number and a chronological point, but “Thirteenth” and “Last” have to be enumerated separately.
The copyright page is just a mock-up, lacking most of the information from a real copyright page. What’s important, however, is the excerpt of a French poem. If you do not already know, it may not surprise you to hear that it is by Charles Baudelaire, and is entitled Le Voyage – The Voyage. It is somewhat lengthy, so I shall only address the sole stanza excerpted here, which is the penultimate quatrain of the last stanza:
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Ô Mort, vieux capitaine, il est temps! levons l'ancre!
Ce pays nous ennuie, ô Mort! Appareillons!
Si le ciel et la mer sont noirs comme de l'encre,
Nos coeurs que tu connais sont remplis de rayons!
---
FleursDuMal.org lists a number of translations, but from those I’ve cobbled together my own (basically a slight variation on one or two), which I believe is probably easiest to understand in relation to aSoUE:
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O Death, ancient captain, it is time! Weigh anchor!
This land wearies us, O Death! Let us go!
Though the sea and the sky are as black as ink,
Our hearts that you know are filled with rays of light!
---
In the most prosaic sense, I think “black as ink” is naturally supposed to remind us of the coal-black colour of Ink, the Incredibly Deadly Viper. But more significantly, this excerpt is… well, to put it into words wouldn’t help. I’ll leave it to an old quotation from Swinburne to shed light:
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From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
---
“For Beatrice—We are like boats passing in the night—particularly you.” I think I’ve gone into this before. This plays on the identities of the three Beatrices – woman, baby, and boat. The latter is literally a boat, but the dedication is probably to the younger Beatrice. The frontispiece illustration of Chapter Fourteen shows the Baudelaires (and Beatrice) sailing away from the island aboard the Beatrice, while the endpiece illustration of The End showed Lemony rowing in the opposite direction, i.e. towards the island. Depending on when the series was written, these events may have taken place at around the same time.
Beatrice’s diary entry alludes to the irony of a safe place being a dangerous place for some. This has been an issue throughout The End, but it raises the question of whether the island was ever really safe, or if “Nothing’s safe forever, thank goodness.” Was the Baudelaire home ever really safe, if it could have been burnt down at any time?
I think Hermes is right to suggest that we should read “I have been heartbroken before” in relation to Olaf’s “I’ve been hurt before”; as I mentioned, Olaf may have been thinking of heartbreak anyway, and I suppose he is undergoing literal heartbreak as he dies.
“We cannot truly shelter our children, here or anywhere else, and so it might be best for us and for the baby to immerse ourselves in the world.” Like the sea surrounding a desolate isle, the world is dangerous to be immersed in, but rather more exciting, and even on the island then there will always be the chance of storms and tidal waves. The central message of the book is expressed here – if you can’t be safe forever, it’s better to take an active role rather than fooling yourself.
Note that the Baudelaire children seem never to have heard the name “Lemony” before, which defeats one old idea of mine – namely, that the reason Lemony always hid his face, and that his name was never mentioned, was because if either appeared then the Baudelaire children would recognise it. Indeed, TVV seems to support this – if you recall, the Baudelaires found the name “Snicket” familiar, and were told by the Quagmires that “I’m not surprised. … Jacques Snicket is the brother of a man who—” Of course, as it turns out, they’ve never heard of this brother, even though the Quagmires thought they should have. So I fancy that may be a retcon.
And I repeat: “She did not know all of the Baudelaires’ secrets, and indeed there were some she would never know.” I know it’s redundant for me to repeat it, but this is a Chapter Fourteen analysis, so I suggest that this is why young Beatrice, in TBL, writes that Lemony’s accounts in some cases differ wildly from what the Baudelaires told her. “…they had not told the infant the whole story.”
“We can’t shelter her forever.” Which isn’t to say that eventually they’ll tell Beatrice everything, just as the Baudelaire parents never told their children everything. Those parents vanished, and so will young Beatrice’s.
“Plenty of things have been shipwrecked here, but we haven’t seen a single castaway.” Is it probable that no castaways have appeared after a whole year? Since Ishmael has been on the island longest, the other castaways must all have arrived within the space of fifteen years. I count twenty-three other islanders. Even if you knock out Friday, who was born on the island, and one of the Bellamys, since they’ll have arrived simultaneously, that still makes more islanders than there are years, so for the faraway island, it looks like a castaway or two per year is indeed the norm.
“Judging from the articles, there were still villains loose in the world, although a few volunteers also appeared to have survived all of the troubles that had brought the children to the island.” Notice that it’s ambiguous as to whether either of these are characters known to the children. The reference to the volunteers who had survived the same troubles as the Baudelaires would suggest known named characters, but not necessarily. And anyway, as the text points out, these articles are from The Daily Punctilio, which might be fiddling merrily away as the entire world burns.
“The Baudelaires also thought of all the people they hoped to see again, although, sadly, this also seemed unlikely, though not impossible.” I read this as suggesting that the Quagmires and Fiona (et al) are not necessarily gone forever; they could come back. “There are others who say that they perished at sea, although rumours of one’s death crop up so often, and are so often revealed to be untrue.”
“Even the baby clutching the boat, whose story had just begun, would soon vanish from this chronicle, after uttering just a few words.” Well, I guess the supplementary books, in this case TBL, never strictly speaking did count.
And the last illustration in A Series of Unfortunate Events shows a shadowy question mark waiting beneath the waters of the sea. TBL does suggest this is a possible fate of the Baudelaires – but not necessarily. Even the illustration doesn’t necessarily mean this is literally what awaits the Baudelaires. They have sailed, metaphorically, into the great unknown – our great unknown, because we will never know what happened to them.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Sept 28, 2009 14:49:35 GMT -5
I think Hermes is right to suggest that we should read “I have been heartbroken before” in relation to Olaf’s “I’ve been hurt before”; as I mentioned, Olaf may have been thinking of heartbreak anyway, and I suppose he is undergoing literal heartbreak as he dies. I never understood why the Baudelaire's pondered that particular sentence. It seems pretty straight forward, "I've been heartbroken before" there's not much to think about. For some reason, I can't stop seeing that cloud as Ishmael. |
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Post by Hermes on Sept 30, 2009 11:44:45 GMT -5
Chapter 14.The epigraph; this is the only 'book' in the series to have an epigraph, rather as Harry Potter only had one in the seventh book. It cannot, I think, be taken to mean that the Baudelaires actually died, since the chapter carefully leaves that open, but I suppose it shows a readiness to face death. The dedication - definitely to young Beatrice, I think. What does it mean? Given that it refers to boats passing in the night, not ships, which as Dante pointed out a while ago is the normal phrase, it looks as if it should be linked with the pictures (which made it rather puzzling in the first British printing, which had no pictures). Does this mean that Lemony arrived on the island shortly after B and the Baudelaires left? Or perhaps just that he tried to, since it seems his first attempt to reach the island was unsuccessful? This does cause more worries about the timeline of writing, but none that can't be overcome, I guess. The last chapter of The End sounded very conclusive; 'now that I have concluded my investigation'. I wonder what made him take up his typewriter again? Meeting Beatrice is an obvious possibility, though that makes the dedication a bit puzzling - also the claim that the baby 'would shortly vanish from this chronicle' is odd if he is already producing a file of her letters. The Baudelaires have never heard the name Lemony. That does not mean they have never heard of the person Lemony; indeed they have, several times, as 'Kit Snicket's brother' and the like; and they may also have heard of him in similar cryptic ways before the fire. Also Violet as a child heard 'The Little Snicket Lad'. But his name, like his face, remains hidden until now. I wonder who Violet was? When K asks what B meant by 'I've been heartbroken before' I take it he isn't just asking what the word means, but caused her heartbreak - which makes Sunny's response 'You know what "heartbroken" means' a bit odd. 'Abelard'; a famous story of separated lovers. Interesting facts; Eloise was separated from Abelard by her guardian; and Eloise had a child by Abelard, to whom she gave the amazing name 'Astrolabe'. If I were mad, I might point out that 'Abelard' and 'Astrolabe' both include all the letters of 'brae', while 'Abelard' is in turn contained in 'Baudelaire'. But I'm not, so I won't. I like the bit about Sunny understanding the baby's unusual way of speaking. 'She did not know all of the Baudelaires secrets, and indeed there were some she would never know'. The first might include stuff ot do with Quigley and Fiona (parlalleling the story their mother didn't tell them about Lemony) and perhaps some (allegedly) evil deeds done by the Baudelaires (paralleling the poyzon darts). The second suggests that Lemony has also left some things out; and while in general he seems concerned to tell the full truth, relying on his warnings not to read the books to protect people, we should remember that he agrees with the captain's statement that there are secrets too terrible for young people to know, and hence has kept silent about the Great Unknown and, implicitly, about the sugar bowl. The scraps of newspaper washing up on the island do indeed prove that the world has not been destroyed, even if they are from the Daily Punctilio, since if the world had been destroyed they could not be printed. 'All the people they hoped to see again'. I wonder who - most of the people whom they might want to see are either definitely dead, or swllowed by the Great Unknown. Jerome, I suppose, Charles, Phil - Justice Strauss, though her death seems pretty certain. Anyone else? 'There are some who say that the Baudelaires rejoined VFD' - one might think that Lemony would know whether this is true; but I guess he is somewhat isolated from VFD, or perhaps the organisation is now very fragmented, so that the various parts don't communicate with one another. 'rumors of ones death crop up so often, and are so often revealed to be untrue' - this confirms that Lemony's death has reported several times, probably more than the twice we are sure of. 'some things are better left in the great unknown' - not, here, death, as it was in the last chapter, but just the fact that so much is unknown. The final picture, I believe, has been taken by some (including the Wikipedia editors) to mean that the Baudelaires were swallowed by the Great Unknown. But clearly that can't be meant; L clearly says he doesn't know what happened to them. It's not the Great Unknown; it's the great unknown; it means that we cannot tell. “Plenty of things have been shipwrecked here, but we haven’t seen a single castaway.” Is it probable that no castaways have appeared after a whole year? Since Ishmael has been on the island longest, the other castaways must all have arrived within the space of fifteen years. I count twenty-three other islanders. Even if you knock out Friday, who was born on the island, and one of the Bellamys, since they’ll have arrived simultaneously, that still makes more islanders than there are years, so for the faraway island, it looks like a castaway or two per year is indeed the norm. Well, since it seems more than one person was born on the island, I would knock out Omeros and Finn as well. Also, bear in mind that this year began with a glut of castaways - the three Baudelaires, Olaf and Kit - so the law of averages would suggest that there should be no more for the rest of the year. (Yes, I know it doesn't really work like that.)
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Post by Dante on Sept 30, 2009 13:43:31 GMT -5
Thanks for posting. The epigraph; this is the only 'book' in the series to have an epigraph, rather as Harry Potter only had one in the seventh book. Interesting link. It's intriguing to find connections between these two series - for example, both had a puzzle-heavy online marketing presence for their penultimate book, but were more subdued in their promotion for the finale... That the last books only have an epigraph is perhaps because it's that a final book must necessarily call upon history a great deal more - the canonical history, certainly, but nods to literary history may be a sign of that. I shouldn't worry about the timeline too much; that these two boats passed, that they went through the same place in opposite directions, is enough. If there was a vast gulf in time between those two incidences, is that not all the more a way in which they passed blind to one another? Regarding to your final point, about how Lemony is already compiling TBL, I think the supplements aren't really meant to count in the main series - they're never directly referred to, for example. I see them as a different animal, or rather, my view is that we might find it helpful to view them as a different animal. As to what prompted Lemony to write Chapter Fourteen, I think it's the same as answering the question of why it exists, and I think that's to reinforce the idea that an ending can contain a new beginning, a measure of hope against that measure of despair. Handler sees it so, and Lemony sees it so. Which I find a little disappointing - but there were many charged, crucial encounters in the series which never actually happened... the Baudelaires being reunited with the Quagmires, for example. I don't mean that they should have happened - what we got was great. I mean to say that there is a sort of parallel line of greatness and great scenes which, alas, did not actually occur. At least, not in canon. I'm not worried about it. One has to ask then who Klaus and Sunny and Bertrand were, too, and ultimately it doesn't really lead us anywhere, except for parallel-heavy fanfiction (which I admittedly am a fan of). Answering on multiple levels, I suppose. Sunny's not answering what the heartbreak Beatrice suffered was, but she's referring to the literal definition of heartbreak and, I think, to the fact that it must be heartbreaking for Violet to face the prospect of never seeing Quigley again. Thank you for explaining that fact. Since you noticed those mad details, it's not impossible that Handler did, too. The pattern may not exist in "reality," per se, but if it can exist in one mind, why not more? Of course, there are multiple ways of saying that - the difference between him keeping secrets that we know about, and actually deleting events so as to hide them from us. If you like, it's Donald Rumsfeld's "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns"... Rather a pity, as it'd be an interesting setting... not, though, for aSoUE. I think a world ravaged by the Medusoid Mycelium would not really support the sort of themes that the series tends to go for. I suppose Milt and Lou aren't really viable candidates... a number of people at the Hotel Denouement might be, though, as you suggest, and since that very quotation seems to leave open this possibility, I wouldn't rule out those who went into the Great Unknown, either. The only great unknown they really vanished into was that of orphaned plot threads, and if they should become useful again, well... He did suggest they might be using false names - or rather, that's what these unnamed rumour-mongers say, anyway. Lemony seems rather divorced from V.F.D. here, it seems to me - perhaps he's paying his attentions to another sphere now, and no longer believes that V.F.D., at least, should be secret? Since he's kinda blowing their cover in his series of novels. I wouldn't think too harshly of the Wikipedia editors - or rather, I wouldn't think of them as a coherent group. I agree with how you've phrased it; the last picture is only to show what we don't know, and never will. (Well, depending on the nature of the setting of Lemony's new series - personally, I suspect that V.F.D. will not appear, but we honestly can't claim to have any idea at this point.) |
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Post by Christmas Chief on Sept 30, 2009 15:22:41 GMT -5
I just have one small thing that hasn't been discussed already:
-Chapter 14-
"Our parents left... maybe we should honor their wishes." Violet said. So just because their parents left (and, as Ishmael says, they left reluctuntly) that means they want their children to? If, as Beatrice says, "We cannot truly shelter our children, here or anywhere else... so in my opinion they might as well stay. (Though that might have made a less dramatic ending.) Which makes me wonder if the Baudelaire parents ever thought their children would end up on the island.
"But there's more to life than safety." Well... I suppose it depends on how you look at it. If you're not safe in a fatal instant, than life is over anyway.
Also, to quote the phrase again ...cannot truly shelter our children... We're they expecting twins? Or, to fit the "everything must come in threes" theory, triplets?
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Post by Dante on Sept 30, 2009 15:45:56 GMT -5
Good catch on "our children," plural, when they were only expecting one. I think that that was probably meant by the Baudelaire parents in a broader sense - that it was more of a truth for anyone to live by than a literal statement of reality just for themselves. As for what they wanted their children to do - I think the Baudelaire orphans follow their parents' example, having become parents, of a kind, themselves. They can't be truly safe anywhere, so I think the emphasis changes to continuing to do what's right where one can, rather than ignoring the world's conflicts.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 1, 2009 9:25:29 GMT -5
I'm not worried about it. One has to ask then who Klaus and Sunny and Bertrand were, too, and ultimately it doesn't really lead us anywhere, except for parallel-heavy fanfiction (which I admittedly am a fan of). Well, Bertrand was the father of the orphans who adopted our Bertrand, of course  . But as for the others - yes, it would be fanfic, but that's fun. Ah, that makes a lot of sense (except that Sunny is actually talking to Klaus, so it may refer rather to Fiona - who has been referred to as breaking K's heart a few times. Though I keep thinking it's Violet as well - somehow 'What does she mean by....' sounds a more Violet-like question.). Yes - the Great Unknown is evidence that L isn't committed to telling us everything, but what's happening here must be a bit different. On the other hand, this seems to refer to secrets which the Baudelaires do know, unlike the Great Unknown, which they don't. (And Rumsfeld's remark made perfect sense - it annoys me that he got so much stick for it.) Yes, though VFD seems a bit ambivalent about whether it should be secret much of the time - e.g. it publishes a recruitment leaflet, and some of the time it puts accounts of its activities in the paper. This has been an amazing experience; I have learned an enormous amount. Thank you, everyone who has taken part, especially Dante and cwm who have been here all the way along. Also Sora for starting it off, and MasterViolet, if I remember rightly, for coming up with the idea. With two great events, the reread and 667 Dark Apocalypse, coming to an end, what will we do now? |
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Post by Dante on Oct 1, 2009 11:08:27 GMT -5
This has been an amazing experience; I have learned an enormous amount. Thank you, everyone who has taken part, especially Dante and cwm who have been here all the way along. Also Sora for starting it off, and MasterViolet, if I remember rightly, for coming up with the idea. Credit to you, too, Hermes; you provide a rare level of insight that's been enormously helpful during this project. I'm sure something new will turn up eventually. |
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Post by Hermes on Oct 2, 2009 12:51:12 GMT -5
Thanks, Dante!
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Post by cwm on Oct 10, 2009 14:30:36 GMT -5
It's an extremely touching ending, I think.
I know a few friends who sort of casually read ASoUE - not... what's the right phrase?... major fans like us... and they always seem disappointed at this ending, sort of like 'what just happened? what happens next?'
The concept of a series ending on a cliffhanger or ambigous note has always appealed to me. The Prisoner is probably pretty famous for doing this, ending it on such a 'WTF?' note that Patrick McGoohan had to escape his fans by going into hiding for a while.
Ending the series inconclusively is such a great note and the logical culmination of the series; reading these final pages knowing it's the last time we'll see the Baudelaires is very touching (god, I sound pathetic here). In fact, it's a bit of a shame that TBL had to reveal an element of what happened next. Sailing off into the complete unknown, not 'oh they crashed' being revealed afterwards, could have been better.
They could just have been planning to have more than one, or expecting that she'd fall pregnant again anyway.
So, it's goodnight from me...
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 12, 2009 14:45:50 GMT -5
They could just have been planning to have more than one, or expecting that she'd fall pregnant again anyway. But she's always talking as if something horrible will happen tomorrow, so I can't see her being that optimistic. |
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Post by cwm on Oct 13, 2009 2:38:00 GMT -5
I think 'a little optimism' is always a big part of the series. Even after being marooned on the coastal shelf, the Baudelaires are making plans for the future.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 13, 2009 17:06:27 GMT -5
Some optimism is definently a part of it all, but I still can't see how Beatrice would know she would have multiple children.
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Post by cwm on Oct 14, 2009 12:52:03 GMT -5
Birth control doesn't exist in ASoUE. She would have had to prepare for the possibilty of multiple pregnancies.
What do you mean, 'flimsy pretext'?!
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. But as for the others - yes, it would be fanfic, but that's fun. 
