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Post by lorelai on Jun 11, 2016 20:41:12 GMT -5
I am one of the very few--possibly only--people who think the first J is Julie Blatberg, who may or may not have taken the photos in TUA. If she and Lemony met at the Punctilio before she joined VFD and met the others, that would explain the comment, and Jacques says in his letter to Lemony that "O is more dastardly than we could have imagined". which seems like a very strange comment if he were in the wooden building Olaf threatened to burn down. Forcing someone to flee their current location feels like it goes hand in hand with saying you'll keep a match/lighter at the ready if they don't follow your demands, and at that point Lemony certainly doesn't need help imagining O's dastardliness. However if Jacques were part of the Queequeg, as he is when he's writing the letter (he says he's feet under water), that statement's a bit easier to believe from a personal perspective.
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Post by Hermes on Jun 12, 2016 13:21:58 GMT -5
Oh, interesting theory. (Julie Blattberg is a real person, by the way. But that doesn't stop her being at a VFD meeting, I guess, just as Kornbluth and Sirin might have been. And DH, come to that.)
I'm not sure, though, that the meeting must come before Lemony's exile. (Indeed, if Geraldine got her job after Lemony left the DP, it must come later, though Geraldine's timeline is a bit confusing.) You may wonder how Lemony can be there if it came after his flight, but he doesn't seem to have stayed out of the country permanently - he was back for the Poyzon Darts incident, for instance.
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Post by lorelai on Jun 12, 2016 16:50:41 GMT -5
The other thing that's confusing about Geraldine is did her column ever get published, and how much of it if so. It's highly unlikely that's where the Quagmires learned about Olaf's involvement with VFD--why would he want that published.
If the column was briefly stalled after this meeting, you could have had a chain reaction of events. We know the meeting is in April, and if you believe Lemony wrote that letter to Beatrice about the death of R's mother on April 27th (I remember there being some debate about the anniversary), then the meeting could have happened on the evening of the 27th or any of the remaining days of that month. Then everything with Lemony followed on the heels of it all. Not that any of this is set in stone.
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Post by thedoctororwell on Jun 19, 2016 16:33:04 GMT -5
This one, my dear colleagues, was a dog of the female variety to write. And it's only the first part. (*sigh*) ...this article is not very weel-organized to my liking, but I think it would have turned out confusing however I worded it. Oh well. |
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Post by gliquey on Jun 21, 2016 1:43:09 GMT -5
An interesting idea. Two thoughts:
(1) The idea that Lemony would call himself a "brave volunteer" doesn't seem right to me. He's a humble and self-deprecating narrator, and says (I think on multiple occasions) that he doesn't have the bravery of the Baudelaires. It doesn't seem to me like something he would say if the volunteer with the sugar bowl was himself... but then again if he was still trying to hide the fact that he was J.S. then it would be an excellently subtle way to mislead V.F.D. members who read his books.
(2) The pickle... your suggestion about it serving as some sort of receipt makes some sense, but I just don't feel that it's based strongly enough in evidence (I suppose it's good enough for a fan theory). It does support the idea that Lemony was the one who left the message, but he didn't write it to himself, even if that's what he pretended with the jam - he wrote it to the Baudelaires. Firstly, even the Baudelaires note the coincidence of the one poem surviving in the library being the one needed for the message - Lemony must have left it for them. Secondly, who better than Lemony - someone who was at the time documenting the Baudelaire's lives in excruciating detail - to know that the children would visit the headquarters and leave a message. He knows the children won't touch the pickle but it doesn't have to have any relevance to that particular Verbal Fridge Dialogue code. He describes the coded sandwich as "important" - him impersonating J.S. does seem important, but I can't think of any serious repercussions that would occur if the message wasn't sent. To me, it would seem like an important message would be one that told another volunteer something true that they didn't know, rather than simply reinforce his impersonation of J.S.
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Post by thedoctororwell on Jun 26, 2016 11:56:48 GMT -5
Let's go back to "All The Wrong Questions" for a moment... Thank you for your comments, Quigley. Here are my thoughts on the matter: - That's the point, in my opinion. Lemony doesn't publicize this one act of bravery precisely because he's trying to stay humble. It's true he thinks that the Baudelaire orphans were braver than he is, but in my mind it was more about a form of "moral" courage.
- I see your point. But wouldn't that leave us with J.S. being nobody in particular?
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Post by thedoctororwell on Aug 9, 2016 16:27:38 GMT -5
I cam here to theorize and eat Puttanesca. And I'm all out of Puttanesca. |
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Post by gliquey on Aug 9, 2016 18:58:10 GMT -5
A wonderful theory linking together lots of different passages I have never thought to connect before. There is one small part I disagree with though:
We don't know that Jerome is never considered by Poe - in fact, he says in TEE (p.27) "I wanted to adopt you from the moment I heard about the fire" (and Esme explains they didn't because "Orphans were out"). Now admittedly, that doesn't mean Mr. Poe went to Jerome before Olaf, but it does give a reason for the children being sent to Olaf before Jerome. Secondly, the Baudelaire parents' will is still something of a mystery to me: it didn't name either Olaf or Jerome, merely something about a "closest living relative". Perhaps the Baudelaire parents were under the impression the children would go to Jerome, but didn't account for Esme; perhaps they didn't spend much time or thought when making their will, thinking they might redraft it later or that it would be unlikely for it to ever be needed. Whatever the case, I doubt the Baudelaire parents' will has much implication on their opinion of Jerome.
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Post by lorelai on Aug 9, 2016 21:25:10 GMT -5
To add to this, Jerome states that he and Beatrice "were very good friends a ways back" and in the same passage says the Mount Fraught hike "must have been twenty years ago". No matter the Baudelaire parents' opinion of him, which I believe was favorable, you have to take that large amount of time into account--which is very logical reason for why he wouldn't be the first person they thought of to raise their kids, passageway leading to a penthouse he owns (but doesn't live in till marriage) or not--along with the possibility that Bertran either never met him or wasn't as close.
Now maybe they did meet Jerome after that, and were considering him as a guardian, but if so, something or someone got in the way.
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Post by thedoctororwell on Aug 20, 2016 15:47:14 GMT -5
Thank you for your input, volunteers! You make thoughtful points. As always, nobody can be 100% sure of what actually happened. Doesn't stop us from trying, though. Speaking of which... |
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Post by lorelai on Aug 21, 2016 11:36:15 GMT -5
Trying's the fun part!!! Off to read this latest now!!!
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Post by thedoctororwell on Sept 14, 2016 15:42:17 GMT -5
Ahoy, matey! A new theory has emerged! In which I talk mostly about "The Penultimate Peril"'s sub-plots and try to sully Kit Snicket's memory. Same old, same old. |
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Post by gliquey on Sept 15, 2016 12:12:46 GMT -5
Mr. Remora is an odd case: if he retired and was replaced by Kit, why would Esme/Olaf think he had ever met her, let alone found out any V.F.D. secrets from her? But if they don't think this, why would they invite him?
I can't believe I've never thought to connect Mrs. Bass' bank robbery with the Baudelaire fortune. Obviously, I've associated it with Mr. Poe's presence at the Hotel Denouement, as he is searching for a bank robber, but it seems so obvious now. However, I disagree with:
There are two reasons it makes sense to send Poe: (1) the obvious real life consideration by Handler of how best to bring back a plethora of characters from previous books and (2) because why not? He is stupid and incompetent but if the people at MMM know this, why does he keep getting promoted? The vast majority of adults in the series are clueless, so it's perfectly plausible that the people at MMM consider Mr. Poe to be one of their most reliable staff.
The Kit conspiracy is not one I agree with, although I don't think it doesn't make sense, because I don't believe V.F.D. are as dangerous and malicious as some theories purport them to be. Some of their actions (kidnapping children) are worrisome, but I don't believe they would try to lure an unsuspecting woman into robbing a bank, in order to unknowingly deprive the Baudelaires of their fortune.
One small note: "Especially if you believe the theory that the Baudelaire orphans actually killed Olaf’s parents to steal his inheritance" - I think you mean "the Baudelaire parents".
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Post by thedoctororwell on Sept 18, 2016 15:32:17 GMT -5
Yeah, I wondered about Mr Remora as well. I suppose that just because he's retired doesn't prevent him from attending the cocktail party. But the fact he keeps close to Nero and Bass does seem to hint that they're all planning something.
Thank you for your insight, Quigley! I corrected the typo. :-)
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Post by thedoctororwell on Oct 23, 2016 6:56:36 GMT -5
Guess who's back! This is actually the first part of a longer analysis of Mr. Poe's behavior regarding the Baudelaire parents' will. Stay tuned! |
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