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Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 27, 2009 8:37:36 GMT -5
I had a thought that perhaps the song the Volunteers Fighting Disease sing to their patients may also be the tune whistled in The Unauthorized Autobiography, and the tune the Baudelaire's mother whistled with crackers in her mouth. Maybe if these tunes were connected, then we can connect the Volunteers Fighting Disease to the Volunteer Fire Department, and I think "Volunteers Fighting Disease" is too much of a coinencidence to randomly be initialed 'V.F.D.' anyway.
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Post by Hermes on Nov 27, 2009 9:52:53 GMT -5
We're told somewhere, I think, what tune Beatrice whistled - something by Mozart? I don't know if the VFD song would go to that tune. And what bit of TUA are you thinking of?
I agree, though, that there must be some connection between the various VFDs - some way back, since the present Volunteers Fighting Disease don't seem to know about it. (Same applies to the Vilage of Fowl Devotees.)
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Post by Dante on Nov 27, 2009 10:08:43 GMT -5
Mozart's Fourteenth Symphony was her favourite. I think the part sherryann's alluding to are the two parts in the U.A. in which characters whistle a coded tune in a library to draw the attention of the volunteer librarian; evidently it's a common tune, as a certain henchman is able to whistle it without being aware of its significance, but either way I'd guess that the idea is linked to Beatrice and Ike's cracker-whistling.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 27, 2009 11:24:11 GMT -5
That's the one; perhaps the "official" V.F.D. (Volunteer Fire Department) set them up sometime after the original? Such as various branches of the same organization? Widdershins says that V.F.D. was much more than a fire department, so maybe this was what he was referring to?
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Post by Dante on Nov 27, 2009 15:17:42 GMT -5
I think that's an idea we've entertained in the past - that V.F.D set up things like the Volunteers Fighting Disease as other branches in the past, and they split off and gradually their link to the original was lost.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 27, 2009 18:54:02 GMT -5
Oh- sorry for repeating.
I do remember reading about Mozart's 14th somewhere before- was that mentioned directly in the text?
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Post by Dante on Nov 28, 2009 4:51:44 GMT -5
Yep, TWW page 27, and it's also mentioned in Lemony's play review in the U.A. However, TWW says that both Beatrice and Ike were capable of whistling other tunes with crackers in their mouth.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 29, 2009 11:44:07 GMT -5
Did you memorize that? Or look it up?
If indeed it was Mozart's Fourteenth, you'd think the Baudelaires would at the very least make some note of it, or at least hint at some slight reconization. The only other tune I can think of mentioned in ASOUE is "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat", but then Violet would have shown some type of irritation.
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Post by Dante on Nov 30, 2009 7:16:56 GMT -5
Did you memorize that? Or look it up? Both. I remember it, and then I look it up based on what I recall. Of course, the tune could've been corrupted over the years.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 30, 2009 16:49:46 GMT -5
Both. I remember it, and then I look it up based on what I recall. Can you do that for every page in the series? Still, I think the Baudelaires should have at least made some sort of dim connection.
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Post by Dante on Dec 1, 2009 11:41:16 GMT -5
Can you do that for every page in the series? I honestly don't know. But if an event or circumstance is alluded to, I'll probably have a general memory of where it occurred. Perhaps, then, it's not so profitable a line of reasoning to go down, to link the Volunteers Fighting Disease song to any other tunes which appear in the series.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Dec 1, 2009 16:48:57 GMT -5
Perhaps, then, it's not so profitable a line of reasoning to go down, to link the Volunteers Fighting Disease song to any other tunes which appear in the series. Though it seems anomalous that there would be a random tune with rhyming words thrown together- but maybe it can be linked to Woody Guthrie, who inscribed "This machine kills fascists" on his instrument, as in allusion to the volunteer who writes "This Volunteer Fights Disease" on his guitar. There has to be some- however distant-connection.
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