Post by Dante on Apr 15, 2013 2:15:39 GMT -5
I've you've been paying attention to this thread, you should have noticed that Mr. Snicket not only answered our questions, he did so by overlaying them on a selection of new, unseen pages from When Did You See Her Last?
You can decipher the text for yourself from these screenshots...
...or you can read the following transcription. Both are kindly provided by Antenora.
[Top pages]
fault it was that Ellington had slipped out of the
cell, while Dr. Flammarion and Nurse Dander
sat, handcuffed and forced to listen. The library
looked closed and locked up, although I thought
I saw a few moths fluttering near the entrance,
now that their home, a tall, broad tree, was gone.
I wondered if Dashiell Qwerty had finished all the
the work he was doing in the library. Perhaps
he was sleeping there now. "What happened?"
I asked finally.
"Kit's been arrested," my associate said. "My
sources tell me they got her just as she was try-
ing to open the hatch. It was too heavy for her to
open by herself.
I closed my eyes. It was even darker that
way. "She was not supposed to be by herself,"
I said.
"Snicket, I said before, it's not your fault."
"You can say it as many times as you want."
"Kit knew you wouldn't be there. She
[Below the text is a right-pointing arrow and a handwritten note, mostly illegible, but the end looks like "valley?" Also, "Dashiell Qwerty" is outlined and linked to another handwritten note in the margin which is only partly visible, apparently ending in "is?"]
decided to try anyway. And I can't blame her.
The Museum of Items hasn't had an exhibit
like that in years."
"Eighty-four years," I said. "If we don't get
the item now, we won't have another opportu-
nity in our lifetimes."
"She got the
There will
go to
[Bottom page]
CHAPTER
"Lemony Snicket," she said right back to me
We stood and faced each other. I hadn't known
Ellington Feint very long, and you couldn't
quite say that we were friends. We both found
ourselves in Stain'd-by-the-Sea on mysterious
errands. We had both stolen the same statue,
and we were both searching for the same vil-
lain, and now the Cleo Knight case had thrown
us together again. But the Bombinating Beast,
fashioned after Stain'd-by-the-Sea's legendary
It's worth describing in full what we learn from these pages.
First, we have confirmed the existence of a character called Dr. Flammarion. A package addressed to this person was seen in the mail room of Black Cat Coffee, and they are widely speculated to be the dour chemist mentioned in the Snicketmail stanzas, as well as the figure in the laboratory on the cover art. Also present is a yet unknown character called Nurse Dander. Or are they new characters? Is it possible that they are, in fact, Hangfire and Dame Sally Murphy in disguise?
We also learn that they, along with Ellington Feint, were at some point handcuffed and imprisoned in a cell - most likely by the Mitchums, our resident police officers, who it seems couldn't hold Ellington for long. It's clear that they're mixed up in the events of ?2, but how? This page must come quite late in the book for such events to have had time to occur.
Snicket's being visited by another associate, who is very carefully not named on the selection of pages we have, although there's a good chance they are named on the pages before or in the section underneath the tea cup. Are they another visiting ASoUE character? Quite possibly. If they were Hector, the narration probably wouldn't be so cagey about their name. They bring news about Kit, who it transpires was herself arrested in the process of trying to break into the Museum of Items to appropriate the as-yet-unknown item that she and Snicket need to obtain, for reasons unknown. This would seem to throw a spanner in the works to the process of obtaining the mysterious item, and might be another reason to compel Snicket back to the city - or to make him feel conflicted. This sequence is probably also the source for this illustration - which is probably also the frontispiece for the book, as it appears to have been cropped at the top and sides and is clearly mirrored on the far right to create the illusion of a landscape image.
We don't learn anything more about the item, but we are given a little more context as to the Snicket siblings' pursuit of it. The fact that Lemony highlights that there might not be another opportunity in his lifetime to obtain the item suggests that it would be acceptable to him to get the item at some distant point in the future - five years, ten years... That he's talking in lifetime terms suggests that it's something which should be placed in the right hands eventually, but doesn't need to be immediately. In other words, it's probably not a ransom payment for his parents, as has been speculated; no kidnapper would wait that long. So perhaps his parents are helpless because, like V.F.D., they cannot or will not assist him in this quest?
The bottom pages reveal only one new detail: The name "Cleo Knight," which from the context it appears is the kidnapped girl. This means that the kidnapped girl is a new character rather than, as has been speculated, Moxie or Ellington. This provides more opportunities for trickery based on the fact that neither Snicket nor Theodora know this girl, although it's possible Moxie might. Could someone else be disguised as her? Could she even not exist at all? It's worth considering these possibilities.
Discuss.
You can decipher the text for yourself from these screenshots...
...or you can read the following transcription. Both are kindly provided by Antenora.
[Top pages]
fault it was that Ellington had slipped out of the
cell, while Dr. Flammarion and Nurse Dander
sat, handcuffed and forced to listen. The library
looked closed and locked up, although I thought
I saw a few moths fluttering near the entrance,
now that their home, a tall, broad tree, was gone.
I wondered if Dashiell Qwerty had finished all the
the work he was doing in the library. Perhaps
he was sleeping there now. "What happened?"
I asked finally.
"Kit's been arrested," my associate said. "My
sources tell me they got her just as she was try-
ing to open the hatch. It was too heavy for her to
open by herself.
I closed my eyes. It was even darker that
way. "She was not supposed to be by herself,"
I said.
"Snicket, I said before, it's not your fault."
"You can say it as many times as you want."
"Kit knew you wouldn't be there. She
[Below the text is a right-pointing arrow and a handwritten note, mostly illegible, but the end looks like "valley?" Also, "Dashiell Qwerty" is outlined and linked to another handwritten note in the margin which is only partly visible, apparently ending in "is?"]
decided to try anyway. And I can't blame her.
The Museum of Items hasn't had an exhibit
like that in years."
"Eighty-four years," I said. "If we don't get
the item now, we won't have another opportu-
nity in our lifetimes."
"She got the
There will
go to
[Bottom page]
CHAPTER
"Lemony Snicket," she said right back to me
We stood and faced each other. I hadn't known
Ellington Feint very long, and you couldn't
quite say that we were friends. We both found
ourselves in Stain'd-by-the-Sea on mysterious
errands. We had both stolen the same statue,
and we were both searching for the same vil-
lain, and now the Cleo Knight case had thrown
us together again. But the Bombinating Beast,
fashioned after Stain'd-by-the-Sea's legendary
It's worth describing in full what we learn from these pages.
First, we have confirmed the existence of a character called Dr. Flammarion. A package addressed to this person was seen in the mail room of Black Cat Coffee, and they are widely speculated to be the dour chemist mentioned in the Snicketmail stanzas, as well as the figure in the laboratory on the cover art. Also present is a yet unknown character called Nurse Dander. Or are they new characters? Is it possible that they are, in fact, Hangfire and Dame Sally Murphy in disguise?
We also learn that they, along with Ellington Feint, were at some point handcuffed and imprisoned in a cell - most likely by the Mitchums, our resident police officers, who it seems couldn't hold Ellington for long. It's clear that they're mixed up in the events of ?2, but how? This page must come quite late in the book for such events to have had time to occur.
Snicket's being visited by another associate, who is very carefully not named on the selection of pages we have, although there's a good chance they are named on the pages before or in the section underneath the tea cup. Are they another visiting ASoUE character? Quite possibly. If they were Hector, the narration probably wouldn't be so cagey about their name. They bring news about Kit, who it transpires was herself arrested in the process of trying to break into the Museum of Items to appropriate the as-yet-unknown item that she and Snicket need to obtain, for reasons unknown. This would seem to throw a spanner in the works to the process of obtaining the mysterious item, and might be another reason to compel Snicket back to the city - or to make him feel conflicted. This sequence is probably also the source for this illustration - which is probably also the frontispiece for the book, as it appears to have been cropped at the top and sides and is clearly mirrored on the far right to create the illusion of a landscape image.
We don't learn anything more about the item, but we are given a little more context as to the Snicket siblings' pursuit of it. The fact that Lemony highlights that there might not be another opportunity in his lifetime to obtain the item suggests that it would be acceptable to him to get the item at some distant point in the future - five years, ten years... That he's talking in lifetime terms suggests that it's something which should be placed in the right hands eventually, but doesn't need to be immediately. In other words, it's probably not a ransom payment for his parents, as has been speculated; no kidnapper would wait that long. So perhaps his parents are helpless because, like V.F.D., they cannot or will not assist him in this quest?
The bottom pages reveal only one new detail: The name "Cleo Knight," which from the context it appears is the kidnapped girl. This means that the kidnapped girl is a new character rather than, as has been speculated, Moxie or Ellington. This provides more opportunities for trickery based on the fact that neither Snicket nor Theodora know this girl, although it's possible Moxie might. Could someone else be disguised as her? Could she even not exist at all? It's worth considering these possibilities.
Discuss.