The Snicket Sleuth (Theories & Analyses)

[lorelai]

Oh how fun to mull over! And if you choose Ellington, there's the added fun (or misery) connection of family issues, what with so many people wrongly trusting and being hurt by family members.

[thedoctororwell]

A new theory regarding Justice Strauss has joined the fight! I swear it's more grounded in canon this time.

[lorelai]

I believe I will be headcanoning this.

[Charlie]

your theories are so legit... like wow

Thankyou for creating such a fascinating blog!!

[Eponine]

I agree- that's actual talent, UNDERSTANDING Snicket, haha. Your blog is amazing! :D

[thedoctororwell]

New article... This is a BIG one, which a fellow from the "La Pente Glissante" message board helped me to compile: the chronology of Lemony Snicket's life !

[Hermes]

Oh I say, this is really interesting. Congrats to you and your colleague. Much of it agrees with my reading, but...

a. Thanks for drawing attention to the discrepancies in L's statements about his age. My own, out-of-story, reading of them is this: DH wants Lemony to be thirteen, both because of that age's significance in Judaism and because of the general importance of thirteen as an unlucky number; but nowadays, if the hero of a work is explicitly thirteen, it's likely to be classified as Young Adult, while Handler clearly sees it as a children's book, and separate from his YA work. Hence the constant 'almost thirteen', rather than simply 'twelve'. But when he slips up and says simply 'thirteen', there's certainly something that needs an in-story explanation.

b. Very interesting theory about Beatrice's death. (Would this mean that Beatrice is, after all, the survivor mentioned in the Snicket File?) The way I read it, the letter to the Duchess in TUA either refers to another ball - no reason she might not have held more than one - or is a forgery, as some of the documents in TUA surely are. (Out of story, again, I suspect it was a distractor, intended to confuse people by implying B was not the Baudelaires' mother.)

c. It seems to me that you put L and B's breakup much too close to Violet's birth, giving support (as I'm sure you intend) to the long-lived and infamous Violet Theory. I don't think we need to adopt this; the 'fifteen years' mentioned at the ball are the time since L last tried to contact Beatrice, and the last time he contacted her was the telegram in TBL. This may itself be some years after he last actually saw her (as the wording of the telegram rather suggests). Without the telegram, it would be natural to put the ball fifteen years after the breakup, which would immediately arouse suspicion - but I think the telegram lays this to rest, perhaps deliberately. So I'm happy to put B's marriage and Violet's birth when L is twenty-three, but the engagement and breakup would come earlier, say at 18-19.

(There's a puzzle how to fit the middle bits of TBL with ATWQ. I had supposed that L got the newspaper job on leaving school, at eighteen or so; but 'my schooldays are over' in ATWQ suggests he left much earlier than that. Since in Snicketland you can get married at fourteen, perhaps the engagement came even earlier, at 14-15, and then, after the breakup and an a interval, B married Bertrand at 18? Or perhaps not.)

[lorelai]

It's always interesting to see other people's opinions of this timeline--I have one worked out myself for a novel-length fic series that is probably madness. I won't get into the differences between my guesses and yours, though funnily enough a few things are just altered by a year or two--the Mount Fraught hike with Jerome is probably the best example, I postulate it happened once Lemony was in the city, since Jerome isn't part ofVFD.
Please tell me you're going to have an article about Beatrice's death as explained in this timeline? I've only come across that interpretation in the years before fans knew who she was.

[Hermes]

It's very natural to think that the climbing expedition is the same as the one mentioned in LS to BB #2. How Jerome came to be on it, if that's so, is indeed a puzzle; it must have combined VFD and non-VFD participants, which is odd, though VFD does seem sometimes to hide behind other organisations, combining openness with secrecy in a confusing way.

[thedoctororwell]

Thank you for this detailed feedback! I love discussing these things! And yes, a theory about Beatrice's survival/death is forthcoming.

Very interesting theory about Beatrice's death. (Would this mean that Beatrice is, after all, the survivor mentioned in the Snicket File?) The way I read it, the letter to the Duchess in TUA either refers to another ball - no reason she might not have held more than one - or is a forgery, as some of the documents in TUA surely are. (Out of story, again, I suspect it was a distractor, intended to confuse people by implying B was not the Baudelaires' mother.)

Thank you! Yes, I do believe Beatrice was the survivor mentioned in the Sebald files. There are a lot more people besides the Baudelaire orphans who seem to believe someone survived the fire, for some reason... Where there's smoke, there's fire. But I don't see any reason to believe there were several Masked Balls... And there's nothing that suggests Lemony forged his own letter (there's even a Sebald Code in it).

It seems to me that you put L and B's breakup much too close to Violet's birth, giving support (as I'm sure you intend) to the long-lived and infamous Violet Theory. I don't think we need to adopt this; the 'fifteen years' mentioned at the ball are the time since L last tried to contact Beatrice, and the last time he contacted her was the telegram in TBL.

I'll quote the entire passage :

The moment I entered the Grand Ballroom, I felt as if Lemony Snicket had disappeared. I was wearing clothes I had never worn before-a scarlet cape made of silk and a vest embroidered with gold thread and a skinny black mask-and it made me feel as if I were a different person. And because I felt like a different person, I dared to approach a woman I had been forbidden to approach for the rest of my life. She was alone on the veranda-the word "veranda" is a fancy term for a porch made of polished gray marble-and costumed as a dragonfly, with a glittering green mask and enormous silvery wings. As my pursuers scurried around the party, trying to guess which guest was me, I slipped out to the veranda and gave her the message I'd been trying to give her for fifteen long and lonely years. "Beatrice," I cried, just as the scorpions spotted me, "Count Olaf is--"

He specifically associates the fact he's been "forbidden" to contact Beatrice (by Jacques in his farewell letter from LSUA) with the "message" he's been trying to give to her for "fifteen years". If the Ball happens some time during the year of "The Reptile Room" (since it happens around the same VFD searches for the survivors of Montgomery's collection), then we can assume that Violet is fourteen years and a few months old at the time of the Duchess' Ball. Add to that nine months of pregnancy, and voila: Lemony being forbidden to approach Beatrice and Violet's date of conception roughly coincide. The timeline works in our favor. Lemony did try to send a telegram during Beatrice's first pregnancy but it never delivere properly, so it doesn't really count.

This may itself be some years after he last actually saw her (as the wording of the telegram rather suggests). Without the telegram, it would be natural to put the ball fifteen years after the breakup, which would immediately arouse suspicion - but I think the telegram lays this to rest, perhaps deliberately.

Yeah, but isn't the telegram kind of the reason Lemony has to contact her at the Duchess' ball? We see that the telegram is cut short just before Lemony actually meant to convey the important information Beatrice absolutely had to know. Which means she never learned it.

It's true that the telegram says Lemony contacts Beatrice "after all these years", but given Lemony's difficult situation he may have only heard of Beatrice's pregnancy years after the fact, or assumed the message would take years to reach her. Also if Lemony and Beatrice got separated in winter and Lemony contacts her the next summer, it would technically be sent "a year after" fro ma technical point of view.

Another possibility is that the telegram was actually sent when Beatrice was pregnant with Sunny (there's nothing in the telegram that outright contradicts it)... That would put it a few months before the Baudelaire fire and indeed explained the urgency of the message.

(There's a puzzle how to fit the middle bits of TBL with ATWQ. I had supposed that L got the newspaper job on leaving school, at eighteen or so; but 'my schooldays are over' in ATWQ suggests he left much earlier than that. Since in Snicketland you can get married at fourteen, perhaps the engagement came even earlier, at 14-15, and then, after the breakup and an a interval, B married Bertrand at 18? Or perhaps not.)

Isaac gave Lemony a paperweight as a graduation gift, so we know Lemony gradutated high school. And he was pretty obviously in VFD school while planning the Mount Fraught excursion and dating Beatrice... We also have to remember that Lemony was still around 13 years of age when he wrote ATWQ so he may have changed his mind about secondary education once his friends put some sense back into him. "My apprenticeship is over"... Ahahah, not according to Jacques it isn't!

the Mount Fraught hike with Jerome is probably the best example, I postulate it happened once Lemony was in the city, since Jerome isn't part ofVFD.

Didn't the Mount Fraught excursion happen while Lemony and Beatrice were still at VFD school (cf TBL)? There were supposedly still teenagers at that time... I didn't want to place the excursion too early or too late.

[lorelai]

There is an implication that the Duchess of Winnipeg tends to throw multiple balls: "We can attend masked balls at her castle, and you can get scared then." (WITNDFAON, 209). Now there's nothing to say that R held to her mother's ways, but Lemony seems to expect more than one ball when she does take up the title.
Personally, I think there were at least two hikes, the one mentioned in The Beatrice Letters, and the one with Jerome, Lemony, Beatrice and at least one more person up Mount Fraught. While Fraught's the main and largest mountain, there's more than one according to TCC and TSS, and Lemony never names where the "upcoming excursion" will take place.

[B.]

Some of these theories are so great they need to go in Conflicting Conjectures.

[Dante]

If submitted, I'd be happy to accept them.

[Hermes]

Mar 5, 2016 17:04:53 GMT -5 thedoctororwell said:

Thank you! Yes, I do believe Beatrice was the survivor mentioned in the Sebald files. There are a lot more people besides the Baudelaire orphans who seem to believe someone survived the fire, for some reason...

Undoubtedly someone survived a fire - but I don't see why that can't indeed have been Quigley. Making it Beatrice, it seems to me, works less well thematically. The 'survivor of the fire' theme is introduced in THH, which begins with the claim that 'picturing something doesn't make it so'. The Baudelaires want their parents to have survived, and Lemony wants Beatrice to have survived, but they will be disappointed.

And there's nothing that suggests Lemony forged his own letter (there's even a Sebald Code in it).

I don't think L forged it himself - I don't suppose everything in TUA is by him (it's an unauthorised autobiography, after all). Evidence that it is forged: there is the very clumsy way it is written, much more so than other Sebald code messages, and the fact that Olivia's archive includes a quite different message to the Duchess replying to her invitation, which begins, sensibly, 'My Dear Duchess', instead of the absurd 'Your Royal Duchessness'.

He specifically associates the fact he's been "forbidden" to contact Beatrice (by Jacques in his farewell letter from LSUA) with the "message" he's been trying to give to her for "fifteen years". If the Ball happens some time during the year of "The Reptile Room" (since it happens around the same VFD searches for the survivors of Montgomery's collection), then we can assume that Violet is fourteen years and a few months old at the time of the Duchess' Ball. Add to that nine months of pregnancy, and voila: Lemony being forbidden to approach Beatrice and Violet's date of conception roughly coincide. The timeline works in our favor. Lemony did try to send a telegram during Beatrice's first pregnancy but it never delivere properly, so it doesn't really count.

I still don't see that the forbidding has to be at the same time as the start of the fifteen years. The fifteen years begin when he starts trying to give her the message (trying, so the non-delivery of the telegram doesn't count against this); this may have been preceded by some years of complete silence.

Another possibility is that the telegram was actually sent when Beatrice was pregnant with Sunny (there's nothing in the telegram that outright contradicts it)... That would put it a few months before the Baudelaire fire and indeed explained the urgency of the message.

Well, the language of the telegram strongly suggests Violet, though admittedly you'd have to give Lemony prophetic powers to make this work.

Isaac gave Lemony a paperweight as a graduation gift, so we know Lemony gradutated high school. And he was pretty obviously in VFD school while planning the Mount Fraught excursion and dating Beatrice... We also have to remember that Lemony was still around 13 years of age when he wrote ATWQ so he may have changed his mind about secondary education once his friends put some sense back into him. "My apprenticeship is over"... Ahahah, not according to Jacques it isn't!

He has graduated from VFD school at the beginning of WCTBATH. I'm not sure concepts like 'high school' are relevant here; VFD schooling seems to operate in a way independent of age. L says 'my schooldays are over' before he makes any decision to give up his apprenticeship; it looks as if returning to school is simply not planned. (He may have later done some training at the Mortmain Mountains HQ - where Olaf, who was with him at school, seems never to have gone. That might fit into the space between ATWQ and his time at the Daily Punctilio.)

Now, I'd agree this is weird. It means LS to BB #2 has to come before ATWQ, which feels wrong; the characters in it seem to be older, and if L and B were already sweethearts at the time of ATWQ, how do we explain his attitude to Ellington? But I find it hard to see another way of fitting the works together.

Anyway don't stop the theories - they are fascinating.

[thedoctororwell]

Mar 6, 2016 13:09:27 GMT -5 Hermes said:

Undoubtedly someone survived a fire - but I don't see why that can't indeed have been Quigley. Making it Beatrice, it seems to me, works less well thematically. The 'survivor of the fire' theme is introduced in THH, which begins with the claim that 'picturing something doesn't make it so'. The Baudelaires want their parents to have survived, and Lemony wants Beatrice to have survived, but they will be disappointed.

Yes, Quigley certainly believes he is said survivor... Except he's wrong: the Quagmire fire happened after TRR, whereas the movie "Zombies in the Snow" was clearly filmed before that. The person hidden in the snowman could be any number of people barring Quigley.

And I actually think Beatrice dying at the Masked Ball fits well with the "desperate wish-fulfilment" theme you mention: by the time the Baudelaire orphans learn one of their parents may have survived, said survivor has already died... in another fire, namely the Duchess' castle which burned down some time after TRR. Oh, dramatic irony.

Mar 6, 2016 13:09:27 GMT -5 Hermes said:

I don't think L forged it himself - I don't suppose everything in TUA is by him (it's an unauthorised autobiography, after all). Evidence that it is forged: there is the very clumsy way it is written, much more so than other Sebald code messages, and the fact that Olivia's archive includes a quite different message to the Duchess replying to her invitation, which begins, sensibly, 'My Dear Duchess', instead of the absurd 'Your Royal Duchessness'.

Pretty much all messages written in Sebald code are ridiculous (see the script for "Zombies in the Snow") and sometimes even wrong (Daniel Handler's editor must have corrected words which weren't supposed to be, breaking the intended word count pattern). Olivia's archives does contain a positive answer to the Duchess' invitation but we have no evidence it was written by Lemony. It may be any other character who was invited. As to "You Royal Duchesness", it may be intentionally weird ; Lemony alerts the reader that the message may be coded.

Mar 6, 2016 13:09:27 GMT -5 Hermes said:

Anyway don't stop the theories - they are fascinating.

You're too kind! It's the quality of these exchanges with Snicket fans which motivates me to write these articles.

Some of these theories are so great they need to go in Conflicting Conjectures.

If submitted, I'd be happy to accept them.

Thank you! I'll try to re-work some of them before submission. I'm willing to edit them to fit 667's standards.