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Post by Dante on Oct 16, 2013 10:37:56 GMT -5
Went to the same bookstore as yesterday, and despite saying they'd have ?2 today, they don't, and aren't sure when they will. And here was me thinking going to a real bookstore would be faster than Amazon. I'm going into a town tomorrow and will look for the book then, but if I don't have it after that then I will just order it online.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 16, 2013 12:21:01 GMT -5
Nuffin here yet. I'm afraid that release dates are often not adhered too rigidly, and there is sometimes uncertainty about what they are, except for high profile works: and I fear that, since the alleged betrayal of The End, Snicket no longer counts as high profile.
I believe strongly in buying books in physical bookshops wherever possible, but I may have to order it online if this continues.
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Post by bandit on Oct 16, 2013 18:52:55 GMT -5
I've just finished the book. Here are all of my thoughts (I didn't look at any of the other posts while taking notes, so there might be some repeat observation.) I'm not sure about other countries, but the American edition has an engraving sort of thing on the cover under the dustjacket that I really enjoy. The first book had an orange Lemony falling, and this one has a green Lemony looking startled. I believe DH mentioned how much he enjoyed this in the NPR interview.
While all the other cover illustrations fit nicely into the story, I was disappointed that the Hangfire-shadow one never actually happened. I wonder what spiraling staircase that's even supposed to be.
I understand the Cleo illustration on the back now: that's Ellington in disguise, with her question mark eyebrows! Very clever to have a subtle bit of spoilers there.
Now that the beasts have nearly taken over the inside cover, I went back and checked the first book... until now I hadn't even noticed the one beast hiding in the back inside cover.
Interesting, Lemony never calls attention to the fact that Jake Hix shares the name of Jake Snicket.
I love how Lemony hopes that the haircut scene is never illustrated, right before there's a picture of it. I'm sure DH explicitly asked for that one to be drawn.
The filing cabinet gag is hilarious.
"Gomme" in French means eraser. I can't imagine why this would be written on a chalkboard, or why it would be written in French.
Tadpoles couldn't live in murky water, nor do they have teeth. Maybe these really are baby leeches, and Lemony is simply mistaking them for tadpoles? After all, it only says "what looked like" tiny black tadpoles.
The conversation where Ellington and Nurse Dander are talking about chemistry felt like something that would be in an early episode of Breaking Bad, between Walt and Jesse.
The Inhumane Society. Hardy har har.
I looked through my copy of the first book and I don't see any mention of the raspberry hat, and I feel like someone else would have pointed it out ages ago if there was any mention of it. What's up with that?
Stew's threats regarding Nurse Dander's knifery were certainly unexpected. Is he also in cahoots with Hangfire? Perhaps he gives out information about police happenings.
The scene where all the kids are hanging out alone and being pals was a lot of fun to read.
It's really cute they everyone uses the word "sweetheart" instead of boyfriend or girlfriends.
The face-off between Hangfire and Lemony is very exciting. The murder of Colonel Colophon echoes back to Aunt Josephine's planned demise, and it shows that Hangfire is definitely just as villainous as Count Olaf (although much smarter).
I very much like the illustration of Dr. Flammarion. He looks a lot like Colonel Sanders.
The sudden switch from Dr. Flammarion being wimpy and screaming to him acting like "I-know-something-that-you-don't" was very abrupt. I felt like it wasn't well transitioned at all.
Although I was disappointed that Kit never directly appeared, it was fun to see a Widdershins cameo. I'm guessing the next two books will have a familiar VFD member appear in the last chapter as well.
If Gustav Sebald is a child when he's making Zombies in the Snow, and he's a friend of Widdershins' in ATWQ, wouldn't he be like -40 years old?
The end illustration is of Kit being caught, but I don't understand why the police people have "VFD" on their uniforms. Also, I don't understand why she would be trying to break into a door in the first place if it's her own organization's door. Is the illustrator confused about whether VFD is the good guys or the bad guys? |
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Post by Dante on Oct 17, 2013 2:21:13 GMT -5
Note: It's easier if I just put all of my replies to bandit's point in a single spoiler tag rather than messing about with the coding all over the place, so that's what to expect in here. I'm not sure about other countries, but the American edition has an engraving sort of thing on the cover under the dustjacket that I really enjoy. The first book had an orange Lemony falling, and this one has a green Lemony looking startled. I believe DH mentioned how much he enjoyed this in the NPR interview. The Egmont editions are paper-over-board and don't have dustjackets, so we don't get that. I figured that it would be that figure, though, as it's on the spine and interior pages of the ARC. The odd thing is that it appears to have been drawn particularly for this role, whereas the falling Lemony from ?1 was taken from the cover. The Snicket on the stairs must not have been detailed enough. That's the Colophon Clinic's tower with Colonel Colophon waiting at the top! There are some details that have never been very important. Maybe we've seen something other than a leech that also looks like a vicious black tadpole. Page 133: "I spotted a long, fancy evening gown, some heavy hiking boots, an apron that a chef might wear, a red wig, a long, zippered green tube that might have been a purse, and two small hats I'd seen on the heads of Frenchmen in old photographs, both dirty, both worn, and both the color of a raspberry." A forgettable detail, and a good thing too, for if we'd all remembered it then we'd have solved the mystery of ?2 in the second chapter. Although with that said I had anticipated before I read the book that Ellington might be the second Cleo. Stew seems to be the Carmelita Spats of ATWQ: An awful brat who manages to become even more awful by being taken in (however you want to read that) by the villains. I don't think we should take the photographs in the U.A. very seriously. The stock photographs they used are essentially a huge joke, especially in the Sally Sebald part. What made you think that what Lemony and Kit were doing was something V.F.D. agreed with? The vault door having V.F.D.'s initials on it is also implied in Chapter Twelve (and if it directly contradicted a later plot point, Handler would have requested the illustration be changed, I think). |
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Post by filmroller on Oct 17, 2013 6:31:40 GMT -5
I just received my copy of WDYSHL from Amazon (UK) and it's about an inch taller than the last book and all the ASOUE books so looks weird on the shelf with them... anyone else had this?
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Post by Dante on Oct 17, 2013 7:30:40 GMT -5
Egmont have acknowledged on their Twitter account that they increased the size - they claim that the smaller size of ?1 led to it getting "a bit lost," I think was their phrase, owing to a large number of large-format books last year - something I've also noticed. They wanted to make sure that ?2 possessed greater prominence. So yes, there's an inconsistency and I'm sure it's quite annoying, but their ultimate aim is to sell more books, and since it's Snicket then I think we can be sympathetic. In an ideal world ?1 would have been larger as well, but it could be worse - plenty of long-running series completely change their design midway through.
This probably has some ramifications for competition with ebooks and a general desire to make a physical book more attractive as a possession by giving it more tactile value, more substance as a physical object, almost like a work of art.
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Post by Tryina Denouement on Oct 17, 2013 8:46:25 GMT -5
Well, I'm a person who loves opening spoilers, even if I shouldn't. I guess I'll keep spoiler-ing until I have the time to go to Jakarta or Singapore (that's the only place I can get new English books.)
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Post by Dante on Oct 17, 2013 9:02:10 GMT -5
I don't suppose you could buy an ebook to hold you over? I don't know if that's possible or of interest to you, but I thought I should suggest it.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 17, 2013 10:41:40 GMT -5
Bandit: Do you pronounce 'Jacques' as 'Jake'? I had always supposed it was 'Jack' or 'Jacks'.
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Post by bandit on Oct 17, 2013 11:31:46 GMT -5
I pronounce 'Jacques' as 'jock' with a soft J, as it should be pronounced in French. But I was referring to TUA's Little Snicket Lad song, in which they say that Lemony's dad is called Jake.
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Post by Hermes on Oct 17, 2013 11:47:28 GMT -5
Ah, OK. But according to the commentary, that wasn't really his name: it was Jacob. (In my view Jacob was his middle name, and his first name was Endeavour, but anyway...)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2013 19:49:08 GMT -5
I also found myself in the situation that many of you seemed to find yourself in, because my local Barnes and Noble didn't have it. I chose to purchase it on Kindle instead because I didn't feel like waiting, and so I will blame my relatively minor analysis on the fact that going back and forth and rereading is harder for me on a Kindle, and pretend that its not because I am just less intellectual than you on this topic. I enjoyed the book a lot. I like the small gang that Lemony has acquired along the course of two books, and look forward to them getting in other fun adventures.
I did not see Ellington as Cleo coming, so that was an fun twist, although I was forced to stop reading right at that cliffhanger which was frustrating when I just wanted to keep going.
On a similar note, I did see Hangfire as the Colonel coming, but I did like the usage of teetotaler.
I would like a Dilemma
I fear for poor Kit. I wish we knew more about her situation, but I guess keeping us in mystery there is sort of the point. Nice to see Widdershins too.
I'm hoping one of you is up to the task of writing The case of Cleo Knight's Disappearance solved in a Book So Lemony Snicket Doens't Have To Do It Himself
I was also hoping for at least slightly more information about the Bombinating Beast, but alas. I'll wait for all of you to analyze deeper and tell me what I've missed.
I will read through all your posts when I'm less bothered by clicking every spoiler tag. |
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Post by Dante on Oct 18, 2013 1:57:13 GMT -5
On the subject of whether we learn something more about the Bombinating Beast (the statue, I presume) in this book: Well, we see something else apparently made out of the same substance. And it's been pointed out to me that there's now a fairly likely candidate for where that substance came from. |
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Post by Hermes on Oct 18, 2013 8:47:07 GMT -5
This probably has some ramifications for competition with ebooks and a general desire to make a physical book more attractive as a possession by giving it more tactile value, more substance as a physical object, almost like a work of art. I would have said, though, that the older books were works of art, and their smallness, which is not typical, is part of this. I can see that if there were just one Lemony Snicket book on the shelf, it might be overshadowed, but if there is a row of them, which is common in my experience, the small size will make them stand out more. I notice that the paperback of WCTBATH is in the larger size too, though. |
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter 
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
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Post by Antenora on Oct 18, 2013 11:39:23 GMT -5
Miscellaneous comments, somewhat peripheral to the book itself: How many different creatures produce ink, exactly? Mollusks, mostly. One called the California Sea Hare even spews purple ink. (Whole book) The Iliad. The apple and pretty woman refers to the Judgement of Paris, in which Paris had to award a golden apple to the most beautiful goddess. The hollow statue is the wooden horse that the Greeks used to trick the Trojans into letting them into the city, and the ghost who likes to bury things is the ghost of Patroclus, who asked Achilles to bury his body. (Although technically Handler's reference is to the entire Trojan myth cycle rather than just the Iliad itself, since the wooden horse and the fall of Troy are actually described in the Aeneid.) Possibly the reference is to one of the many children's books retelling the Trojan War saga from beginning to end, such as this one. Tadpoles couldn't live in murky water I'm pretty sure they can. This summer I saw a bunch of big bullfrog tadpoles in a creek near my home, and they seemed to be doing fine. Until a cormorant came and devoured them all. I very much like the illustration of Dr. Flammarion. He looks a lot like Colonel Sanders. Personally I think he looks more like Karl Rove. Maybe we've seen something other than a leech that also looks like a vicious black tadpole. I highly doubt this is canon but I like to think that the "inklings" (as I nicknamed them) are conodonts-- prehistoric critters that look like eels with lots of little sharp teeth. Some also have big eyes not unlike the critter as portrayed on the cover:  Also, Laudanum and Invisible Ink would be a great alternate title for this book. |
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