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Post by Anka on Aug 28, 2012 13:59:12 GMT -5
I always thought Count Olaf is older than the others (Beatrice, Lemony, Kit,...). But in TBL Olaf goes to school with Lemony (he is only called O, but it's obviously Olaf), so he can't be much older, and Lemony is one of the youngest. (Kit and Jaques are older than him, the Denouements are about Kit's age, we know their age during the schism).
Does anyone else think Olaf is older than the others? If you do, do you still think O is Olaf? How would you explain that?
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Post by Dante on Aug 28, 2012 14:15:02 GMT -5
The sort of story TBB's telling clearly implies that Olaf is an old man, fifties-sixties. The gothic plot of him attempting to marry a much younger girl, the title of Count, the name of Olaf - these all more or less read "creepy old man." And Helquist illustrates him accordingly - perfectly. But later on in the series, the need to integrate him into the backstory and the desire to tell a different story about him requires a reassessment. He has to be around the same age as Lemony and Beatrice, really. Nothing in the text ever straight-up says that he's old - if Helquist had never illustrated him, we'd still have thought it, but there aren't really any markers for it.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 28, 2012 14:29:26 GMT -5
Olaf's demeanor would imply he is older than Lemony or Beatrice by several years; however, it is clear by TPP he must have been the same age as the others. One way we can reconcile this is by saying Olaf has been aged by villainy - that his evil tirades and endless greed have warped him into a despicable creature quite different than those souls who turned from the world of wickedness and embraced one of nobility.
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Post by Hermes on Aug 28, 2012 14:46:18 GMT -5
One possibility that has recently been raised is that schooling in VFD does not go strictly with age, but simply starts when you are recruited; so if Lemony was recruited at two, and Olaf, say, at twelve, they might be in the same class despite a considerable age-difference.
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Post by B. on Aug 28, 2012 15:07:54 GMT -5
One possibility that has recently been raised is that schooling in VFD does not go strictly with age, but simply starts when you are recruited; so if Lemony was recruited at two, and Olaf, say, at twelve, they might be in the same class despite a considerable age-difference. That was always the one I preferred to think of. It doesn't specifically say anywhere that there is a fixed age at all- in TUA Lemony is taken when he is a toddler, but in TPP Dewey says he and his brothers were taken at five years of age. |
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Post by Anka on Aug 28, 2012 17:15:19 GMT -5
One possibility that has recently been raised is that schooling in VFD does not go strictly with age, but simply starts when you are recruited; so if Lemony was recruited at two, and Olaf, say, at twelve, they might be in the same class despite a considerable age-difference. I also thought of that before, but only with a difference of 4-5 years. Maybe a combination of this and the aged-by-villainy-thing. |
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Post by Hermes on Aug 28, 2012 17:18:06 GMT -5
Ramona Quimby seems to have been recruited when she was eight. I think, though, that what puts this in a new light is the discovery in ATWQ that Lemony graduated from VFD school at thirteen - which makes most sense if the date one starts schooling depends on the date of one's recruitment. (Though when we have the whole work, of course, this may turn out to be quite wrong.)
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Post by Invisible on Aug 28, 2012 17:30:43 GMT -5
In my ficverse, he is forty six years old at the beginning of the series and is forty seven by The End. (His birthday is in December. My ficverse, the series begins in September of 1938 and ends in July of 1939.) He is about eleven years older than Kit; twelve years older than Lemony. I guessed I fluffed it up  |
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Aug 29, 2012 8:46:10 GMT -5
I think he is about fifty to seventy? I normally don't care much about the age; I just read it and have fun. Anyway, my school librarian and my friend (who is a fan of ASOUE) (Note that the librarian and my friend were two different people.) says that I like Count Olaf. So basically I'm just going to say, I guess Lemony is younger than him, and all the Snickets are. Probably Olaf didn't get good marks so he stayed in one class with Lemony?(I'm 45% joking.)
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