"When Did You See Her Last?" Discussion

[tk]

I have just finished reading the first two books and I can't wait to go through this discussion thread as well as the one for WCTBATH.

I was (and am) really excited to read ATWQ when I heard about it, and I had purposely stayed away from this site for fear of spoilers. I told myself I'd come visit once I've bought and read the books, so here I am now.

Anyway, as for the story itself:

I kept thinking what it'd be like for new readers who aren't familiar with ASOUE, because I know I'd be confused if I'd read WCTBATH without reading Snicket's previous series.

Of course, I enjoyed whatever ASOUE-related references I could find, so much so that I'd actually started to circle and underline these words/phrases/illustrations. (I was so excited when L mentioned the fountain that I sat up from my lying position!)

I guess what I can say for now (since I have a pounding headache and am unlikely to contribute more to the discussion tonight) are only about the characters...

>>> I really, really do not like Ellington Feint.
- She was suspicious from the very start, but I became really cautious of her when she stole the BB in WCTBATH.
- I guess the real reason why I don't like her is because L's got such a huge crush on her, even though she's stolen and lied to him more than once. (What keeps coming to mind is this thought: "Why do guys always go after the bad ones and ignore the good ones?")
- It doesn't help that L keeps mooning over her throughout the book, and that I am forced to read these monologues about hergreen eyes, her black fingernails, her stupid eyebrows, her "smile that could mean anything," etc., as I proceed with the book.
- We don't even know her very well, anyway. All we have is her word that Hangfire's got her father and everything. For all we know, she could be working FOR Hangfire to retrieve the BB, and all along, she's playin' on L's generosity/stupidity/eagerness to help/helpless crush on her.
-(I'm pretty sure I'll find interesting discussions regarding Ms. Feint in this thread and her role in the series. I'll be sure to read them all tomorrow!)

>>> So it goes without saying that Moxie Mallahan is slowly growing on me.
- She appeared as somewhat boring and kind of a busy body to me at first (in ?1), but I started to like her more and more as I read on.(Maybe because we both disapprove of Ms. Feint?)
- The theories that she could be the future Mrs. Quagmire, or the founder of Daily Punctulio, or both, really warms my heart because I liked the Quagmires and I like the thought of her as the founder of something that played an important role in ASOUE, albeit being the corrupted version of what it was once (The Daily Punctulio was reliable once, right? My memory regarding all things ASOUE is a bit icky at the moment. Really tempted to do a re-read soon!).
- She is a sensible enough girl, she is helpful/resourceful, and is willing to help L (unlike Ellignton who simply ups and leaves once she has the BB, that ungrateful little...)
- Although I admit that, just like Lemony when it comes to helping out Ellington, Moxie's eagerness to help him might have come not only from her interest in journalism, but also from her probable crush on L. Sooo...I can't really condemn L for wanting to help Ms. Feint because he's got a little crush on her if I think Moxie helping L out because of the same reason as something sweet, because then I'd be a hypocrite. -.-
- (And again, I kept thinking, "Here's a nice girl, Lemony! But nooo, you HAD to go for the one who lied and stole from you and got away with it by pulling her (forgive me) teary-eyed, "Promise you'll help me, Snicket?" bullsalsa.)

>>> I really like Pip and Squeak as well, although, as someone else had pointed out here (or in the WCTBATH thread), it doesn't seem logical for them to drive people around town for just literary "tips." But then again, someone has also mentioned that perhaps the town's had to accept a different kind of payment because the town's doing so badly or something along the lines of that. This immediately reminded me of a certain lumbermill that paid its workers with coupons. Ha.

>>> Theodora is just. Ugh. She's rather irritating. And it kind of reminds me of a central theme in ASOUE, one where adults are rather useless and wouldn't listen to the children and are almost always wrong. The same applies to the the Mitchums. It's so frustrating sometimes.

Okay I think my headache is trying to say, "Enough is enough, woman!" So I'll end my rant here and come back tomorrow to read through the threads. Fun times ahead!

[Dante]

Heh. I think it's about time we had a reader who actively disliked Ellington Feint, as that's a totally valid interpretation of the text. I like her, but as a character, as someone who strolls in and makes a mess of the nice neat narrative, and also because I suspect things are going to get difficult for her later, and I like that too. Don't know if I'd like her as a person, though. I'm fortunate in not having to make that decision.

I think ?2 more or less disproves the theory that she's actively working with Hangfire, though, because otherwise her actions in the text would make no sense, not without her and Nurse Dander being omniscient and putting on faked conversations for Lemony to eavesdrop on and things like that. But just because the theory's false now, doesn't mean it might not be true later.

[Hermes]

Hey tk! And yes, the DP was reliable once, though I think making Moxie the founder of it might be tricky - it's only a few years after this that L was working there, and Eleonora was the editor by then.