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Post by Tryina Denouement on Oct 28, 2012 7:09:42 GMT -5
I doubt Handler is personally particularly involved. Yeah, But we all like to think he is. I seriously believe HE IS.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Oct 28, 2012 9:02:23 GMT -5
Yeah, But we all like to think he is. I seriously believe HE IS. And we all seriously hope he'll one day join us here on 667.
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Post by thedoctororwell on Oct 28, 2012 9:32:19 GMT -5
Some allusions that may have been missed :
* "Caravan" & "Parfait (A little Max)" are both songs by Duke Ellington.
* Lemony references "Goldilocks & the three bears," probably the Grimm version.
* The Black Cat Café is an allusion to Poe's The Black Cat, which features a cat hidden buried in a hollow wall, just like the café hides a secret attic.
* The awesome automatic system in the Black Cat Café is a reference to Boris Vian's Froth on the Daydream. This novel features a cocktail piano, where every ingredient is linked to a note. Depending on the song you play, the piano makes different cocktail recipes. Handler is a cocktail fanatic and he referenced Vian in WWBU, so there.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Oct 28, 2012 9:44:30 GMT -5
* "Caravan" & "Parfait (A little Max)" are both songs by Duke Ellington. One of the reviews posted here caught this one. Duke Ellington allusions certainly extend past Ms. Feint's forename. Ah yes, “And somebody’s been eating your porridge” (164). I'd forgotten about this. The short story did come to mind when I first read the name, incidentally, but LSL.com rather threw this theory against the wall by posting a trailer for the movie. I suppose it could be both? Nice! If only Lemony were old enough for cocktails. Is it significant that the piano plays itself, then?
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Post by thedoctororwell on Oct 28, 2012 10:11:26 GMT -5
I suppose so, I think the piano had an "automatic" setting in the novel - so you could make a bloody mary without knowing the song that goes with it. I haven't read it since many years, however.
...Technically, would a root beer float be considered a cocktail ?
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Oct 28, 2012 10:17:36 GMT -5
...Technically, would a root beer float be considered a cocktail ? A root beer is not a cocktail, although they are delicious. Nice to see you back, thedoctororwell.
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Post by Dante on Oct 28, 2012 11:17:09 GMT -5
The short story did come to mind when I first read the name, incidentally, but LSL.com rather threw this theory against the wall by posting a trailer for the movie. I suppose it could be both? I think it's entirely possible that LSL was making the more accessible reference. We know that Handler's familiar with Poe, and regardless of what's on the website, the short story is the more logical pick. Although, as you say, it could be both, and perhaps in future we should mention both in this context.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 28, 2012 13:22:13 GMT -5
A root beer is not a cocktail, although they are delicious. Not a root beer by itself, no, but a root beer float, which is s a specific mixed drink, the recipe for which is given in TBL. Still, I doubt it counts as a cocktail - for one thing, it's not alcoholic, and for another, I think it contains ice cream, which turns it into a rather different kind of drink. Regarding Black Cat Coffee - as one of the reviews pointed out, there is also a reference to a piece by Duke Ellington, Black Cat Blues (which might well be the tune playing there, I would guess). If there are two allusions there might well be three. Charles Snicket: There is a 'someplace else' reference right at the beginning of chapter 3: '... but my thoughts had drifted someplace else'.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Oct 28, 2012 15:22:18 GMT -5
Just Thought id say ; In an advert for an offer on childrens books at WHSmith, WCTBATH Was included
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Post by Dante on Oct 28, 2012 15:40:19 GMT -5
Good to hear that it's getting plenty of attention. Thanks, misterm. It's also worth noting that the most recent Egmont paperbacks of ASoUE have an advert for WCTBATH in the back.
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Post by jman on Oct 28, 2012 19:33:28 GMT -5
Concerning that Wikipedia definition of Hangfire, Dante, do you think that might have an impact on the story of the next few books? It makes me think of an event having later deadly/tragic consequences...
Also, did anyone else notice the similarity in sound between the Mallahans and the VFD-connected Calahans (in TE and TCC)? Connection?
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Post by Dante on Oct 29, 2012 2:52:13 GMT -5
Concerning that Wikipedia definition of Hangfire, Dante, do you think that might have an impact on the story of the next few books? It makes me think of an event having later deadly/tragic consequences... Handler won't have picked it at random, that's for sure. Even Hangfire himself may not have picked it out at random (as it seems unlikely to be his real name). But I think we'd be hard-pressed to identify at this stage what is meant by it. A delay between action and consequence... his plans take a while to become known once set into action? His successes in one book won't be taken advantage of until the next? "Caliban," I'm afraid, is the name you're looking for.
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Oct 29, 2012 4:05:35 GMT -5
I always wonder why every time I heard the name Stew Mitchum I am reminded of the steampunk writer Kushima Michie? DH probably had never known about him/her, though, and that's just a coincedence.
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Post by Kit's tits kick ticks on Oct 29, 2012 5:26:29 GMT -5
Wow. I already finished the book on friday, but I didn't have the time to read this thread until now, I liked to read about all your thoughts.
The hangfire thing is really interesting.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 29, 2012 13:42:28 GMT -5
Pure coincidence, I think. It looks as if the false parents were merely meant to be chaperoning him to his meeting with his proper chaperone, as we know that they're chaperones themselves. For a relatively young person this sort of arrangement is to be expected, rather than packing him off from the academy to catch the train across town on his own. Alternatively they intercepted him, but given Hector's rather inspecific reference in Chapter Thirteen to "two other chaperones," I think either way we can presume that these two had not had a very long relationship with Lemony. I find the false parents very puzzling. Theodora seems to think that they actually were his parents, so there is a real imposture going on, though clearly it doesn't deceive Lemony himself, and it doesn't seem to have deceived the wider VFD community either. Perhaps after graduation one rejoins one's family for a few weeks before leaving for one's apprenticeship - but these people had kidnapped L to stop him going with Theodora. But then, why did they bring him to the rendezvous point and then try to drug him, instead of just stopping him getting there in the first place?
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