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Post by B. on Apr 9, 2012 3:33:46 GMT -5
So if Lemony is indeed thirteen years old at the time of the first book, can we assume that the title "who could that be at this hour?" does not refer to his V.F.D taking? Unless the taking is written as a flashback, I think so.
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Post by Dante on Apr 9, 2012 3:43:52 GMT -5
I don't think this causes any real continuity problems. Let's take a look at this excerpt from Chapter Three of the U.A.: We are entering people's homes, taking young children who show exceptional observational and/or notetaking skills, and isolating them, for long periods at least, from people they know. We assign them to strangers and scatter them across the globe, performing errands that are perplexing to them, until their ankles have healed, until we know they can be trusted, and until we know that no one is looking for them any longer. Then, finally, we bring them to headquarters so they can learn the skills they need before they are introduced back into society, in order to make sure the world remains, as we say, quiet. That doesn't even include the V.F.D. training school from TBL, so there's already been a retcon there. I think we can simply say that V.F.D. neophytes are trained in schools until adolescence as part of their period of isolation, then scattered about the world to various distant guardians (which is what I think ATWQ represents), and it's after that that they're brought to the headquarters to finish their training. No real difficulty. I expect the series, or at least WCTBATH, to therefore take place between LS to BB #1 and #2.
As to the narrative style, I suspect it will be told by the adult Snicket in retrospect, so it won't be quite a concentrated stream of thirteen-year-old Lemony's precocious angst, but since it's about him we'll definitely get plenty of insight into his mindset.
Edit: I don't think that the title was ever likely to refer to Lemony's taking, or at least, not to that exclusively. That only happened when he was a young infant, and possibly before he could walk.
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Post by Hermes on Apr 9, 2012 10:46:37 GMT -5
I'd supposed that the scattering across the globe happened when they were very young, given that Ramona is already at headquarters and is nine. Exactly how young would depend on when you are recruited - so the two elder Baudelaires didn't have a comparable experience until they were in their teens - but we know Lemony was recruited as an infant. So when we discovered the VFD school in TBL, I imagined that was attached to headquarters, and came after the wandering. Certainly L seems to stay at school until he takes up his position at the Daily Punctilio, since he refers to the headmaster arranging his assignment there.
This certainly leads to a number of problems. One is how the Mortmain Mountains HQ, which was clearly in operation over a long period of time, relates to the constantly shifting HQ of the Building Committee meeting. Another is how the mountain HQ fits in to the timeline of Lemony's education, given that Lemony and Beatrice certainly spent time together there - one might at first have thought that the school was part of it, but it later become clear that the school is in the City - and Olaf, despite having been in the school at the same time as Lemony, was never at the mountain HQ. Perhaps selected volunteers start going there in vacations when they are sixteen? Or something? (Dewey went there as a child, but that may have been a special case.) In any case I find it hard, right now, to work out how the bits fit together.
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Post by Dante on Apr 9, 2012 11:08:27 GMT -5
I imagine that the reason the pieces don't fit together terribly well is because they weren't thought-out that well. And we can come up with reasons and justifications for that, involving the chaos of the schism, but I think it's easier just to take the bits we're given and sort out an order that makes sense to us rather than according to the somewhat contradictory evidence in the canon, which ATWQ is likely to overwrite once again in its turn.
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Post by Hermes on Apr 9, 2012 12:51:43 GMT -5
Yes indeed. (If in doubt, I think other bits of evidence should override TUA, which is, after all, unauthorised.)
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Post by KlausBaudelaire833 on Apr 11, 2012 0:17:29 GMT -5
Why do I notice this new series just now?
Anyway, based on the posts in this thread I would like to make the following plausible conclusion on the new series:
The series takes place in a fading town (from the looks of the cover probably in a town somewhere not near the shore of Lake Lachrymose but in the area near Lake Lachrymose) where Lemony Snicket spent his teenage years under the care of a guardian whom he has no family relations with (but knows about VFD's intentions with Lemony) . The series would be in a first-person omniscient view (in the usual Snicket-style).
All of the thing mention above^ are all just speculation in my part. I also agree thhat we may find answers to questions that are unanswered in ASoUE, but will we also delve into Lemony Snicket's connection with the Baudelaires besides being their chronicler (correct me if this was already mentioned in previous material)?
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Post by Dante on Apr 11, 2012 2:11:47 GMT -5
Well, Lemony's beloved Beatrice became the Baudelaires' mother, so in documenting their misfortunes Lemony surely feels like he's doing her a service, although he's also suggested that he doesn't want what happened to him (i.e. widespread falsehoods about his supposed criminal activities) to happen to the Baudelaire children, so he sympathises, too.
But what I came here to post is that there may be a new LSATWQ e-mail in about seven hours, based on previous weeks.
Edit: Alternatively, they may be saving it for Friday the 13th, an opportunity not to be missed. Although ironically I probably will miss it if that's the case, as I'll be on holiday.
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Post by B. on Apr 11, 2012 9:44:10 GMT -5
Well, an email today is beginning to look unlikely. Friday the 13th, as mentioned above, seems a good bet, but things could also be going back to the eight day cycle. In that case look out for emails in the next few days.
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Post by KlausBaudelaire833 on Apr 11, 2012 21:03:15 GMT -5
But what I came here to post is that there may be a new LSATWQ e-mail in about seven hours, based on previous weeks. Edit: Alternatively, they may be saving it for Friday the 13th, an opportunity not to be missed. Although ironically I probably will miss it if that's the case, as I'll be on holiday. I signed up for the newsletter thing, and yeah, I haven't received any e-mails about ATWQ. Maybe they will send it tomorrow.
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Post by B. on Apr 12, 2012 11:33:09 GMT -5
Well there doesn't seem to be an email coming today either. Friday the thirteenth must've been right after all.
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Post by Dante on Apr 12, 2012 11:36:45 GMT -5
I'd be very surprised if they passed up a Friday the 13th for an e-mail. Unfortunately, I'll miss it - I'll be leaving to go on holiday for a week about an hour before. I'll probably miss next week's as well. With any luck (for me) it won't be something earth-shattering, just as cryptic as usual.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Apr 12, 2012 14:09:49 GMT -5
"... And to further drench your day in woe, we at Hachette Books bring you the first chapter of Lemony Snicket's dreadful new novel Who Could That Be At This Hour?"
No, nothing earth-shattering, I'm confident.
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Post by B. on Apr 12, 2012 15:17:11 GMT -5
That would, of course, be amazing and since it is the thirteenth they may have something slightly more planned. If so, then can we assume ATWQ will follow the thirteen theme ASoUE had? But, yes, something as big as the first chapter is too much probably at this stage.
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Post by Dante on Apr 12, 2012 15:26:34 GMT -5
That would, of course, be amazing and since it is the thirteenth they may have something slightly more planned. If so, then can we assume ATWQ will follow the thirteen theme ASoUE had? Well, we already know that Lemony will be thirteen in the new series. Because there are only four books, I don't expect them to go as all-out on the thirteen motif as ASoUE did (I'm not expecting each book to have thirteen chapters, for example). But I don't think they'd pass up a thirteen where they could get it. We all remember ASoUE, after all, and it's still an unfortunate story.
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Post by jman on Apr 13, 2012 21:51:23 GMT -5
Yep, Friday the 13th brought us the new email. I'm disappointed that it wasn't the first chapter of the book, however. lol
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