Great 667 Re-Read 2019 - The Bad Beginning

[veryferociousdrama]

Hi all, and welcome to the Great 667 Re-Read of 2019! As soon as it reaches Monday 25th wherever you are in the world, get posting your notes and theories on The Bad Beginning at whatever pace you like!

[Dante]

To those who wish to include it (though they weren't published until around the time of TSS, and you may wish to leave them until then), the Author's Notes from The Bad Beginning Rare Edition were very helpfully transcribed some years ago by PJ, and and can be read here.

[veryferociousdrama]

Feb 24, 2019 13:12:42 GMT -5 Dante said:

To those who wish to include it (though they weren't published until around the time of TSS, and you may wish to leave them until then), the Author's Notes from The Bad Beginning Rare Edition were very helpfully transcribed some years ago by PJ, and and can be read here.

The plan was to leave them until TSS, as long as nobody objected. But it's good to have them for when the time comes, thank you.

[Foxy]

At the top here I am going to post my personal notes, and underneath the line is where I will post my commonplace book I started last week.  The lists are probably not perfect.

Personal Notes:

If Klaus would have kept quiet, he would not have gotten struck across the face.
  This doesn't excuse Count Olaf striking him, but he could have avoided getting hit.

Mr. Poe defines things like Snicket defines things.

Count Olaf getting wine out to pour himself some breakfast!

“She’s not the type to run off.” (Violet about Sunny) – Of course not, she can’t even walk!

I love the bats in the middle picture.

I love how he says he hopes you’re not a bank robber and then gives you a bunch of bank-robbing advice.

Mrs. Poe buying the children ugly clothing is included when Violet reflects on the awful things which have happened to the children.

Why would you wax your eyebrow to make it shiny?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BAD BEGINNING



CHARACTERS:

Violet Baudelaire

Klaus Baudelaire

Sunny Baudelaire

the Baudelaire parents (mentioned)

Mr. Poe

Mrs. Poe (Pollly)

Edgar Poe

Albert Poe

Count Olaf

Justice Strauss

the Baudelaires’ friends (mentioned): people who had fallen by the wayside

a street vendor

woman running a pasta store

bald man with a very long nose

two women who had bright white powder all over their faces

a man with two hooks instead of hands

a person who was extremely fat

an assortment of people (if there were thirteen people minus the three children, Olaf, and the other five henchmen, that leaves four more people in this “assortment.”)

a receptionist at Subservient Financial services

uniformed guard at Mulctuary Money Management

Al Funcoot (mentioned, acronym)

weasel lady and three sons

Macbeth naked actors

three very short men

important-looking man with warts (are these the last four members of the troupe?)

woman with very short hair



VIOLET’S INVENTION:

Grappling hook



KLAUS’S RESEARCH:

reading Nuptial Law



SUNNY’S BITING:

attempted unsuccessfully to bite the hook-handed man’s hooks



SNICKET SECRETS:

In his room, he has gathered a dusty accordion, a large bundle of notes on the Baudelaire orphans, and a blurry photograph of Beatrice



REFERENCES (real and made up):

Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Inheritance Law and Its Implications

Nuptial Law



SNICKETISMS:

the one about losing someone important to you

the one about first impressions being entirely wrong

the one about avoiding people when they need their friends most

the one about having a good session of weeping to feel better

the one about literally and figuratively

the one about there being many types of books in the world

the one about reading the same sentence over and over again

the one about casing the joint

the one about bakers having to sell bread at the same price, island forbidding anyone to remove fruit, and a town barring him from coming with five miles of its borders



BAUDELAIRE FAMILY HISTORY:

The children were allowed to attend family dinner parties, and Mr. Poe was also present.



Klaus didn’t like Sunny when she was first brought home from the hospital, but by the time she was six week old the two of them were thick as thieves.



The children got up early to make breakfast for their parents, and Violet burned the toast. Their parents laughed and made pancakes.



Klaus used to read under his covers until he couldn’t keep his eyes open. His father would find him.



The parents told Violet to look after her younger siblngs.



SNICKET DICTIONARY:

Aberrant: very, very wrong, and causing much grief

Adroit: skillful

Blanched: boiled

Briskly: quickly, so as to get the Baudelaire children to leave the house

Faking: feigning

Fallen by the wayside: they stopped calling, writing, and stopping by to see any of the Baudelaires, making them very lonely

Incentive: an offered reward to persuade you to do something you don’t want to do

Incurring: bringing about

Insipied: dull and foolish

Lamentably deplorable: it was not at all enjoyable

Of two minds: they felt two different ways at the same time

Relinquished: gave to Count Olaf even though he didn’t want to

Rickety: unsteady or likely to collapse

Simmered: cooked over low heat

Taken in confidence: kept a secret between Mr. Poe and themselves and not blabbed to Count Olaf

Testily: in an extremely annoyed tone



SUNNY SPEECH:

Angry Bird Noise – (Pick me up.
)
Book! – Please don’t forget to pick out a picture book for me.

Book! – Would somebody please wipe my face?

Cake! -

Gack! – Look at that mysterious figure emerging from the fog!

Gibbo! – And I could have lots of things to bite.

Hux! -

Jook! –

Neepo! -

No! No! No! -

Odo yow! – How do you do?

Oh! – What a terrible place! I don’t want to lie there at all!

Poko!

Wipi! – I’d much prefer gardening to sitting around watching my siblings struggle through law books.

Yeeka! – How interesting!



GEOGRAPHY:

Doldrum Drive

Fickle Fountain

enormous pile of dirt where the Royal Gardens once stood

meat district

flower district

sculpture district

banking district

Fountain of Victorious Finance

Trustworthy Bank

Faithful Savings and Loan

Subservient Financial Services

Mulctuary Money Management

The theatre

[Dante]

Feb 25, 2019 7:48:56 GMT -5 Foxy said:

bald man with a very long nose

two women who had bright white powder all over their faces

a man with two hooks instead of hands

a person who was extremely fat

an assortment of people (if there were thirteen people minus the three children, Olaf, and the other five henchmen, that leaves four more people in this “assortment.”)

[...]

three very short men

important-looking man with warts (are these the last four members of the troupe?)

woman with very short hair

Somewhere or other, I have written on this subject at length; but I may as well revisit it now: TBB equivocates on whether Count Olaf counts as a member of his own theatre troupe. On page 30, Olaf's own note asks the Baudelaires to "Have dinner ready for all ten of them" - of them, not us, implying that Olaf is outside this figure. The Baudelaires are even a little shaky on whether to include themselves; on page 33 they say "Today we have to cook for ten people", but by page 42 they're thinking of "thirteen people--the ten people Count Olaf mentioned, and the three of them." This presumably includes Olaf in the figure; but the wording of "the ten people Count Olaf mentioned" can also be read as excluding him, oddly. Perhaps the Baudelaires are sharing two adult portions between the three of themselves, or serving Sunny something different entirely.

The idea of the troupe members numbering ten is actually substantiated, as you noticed, by the additional individuals enumerated on page 134, on which "Members of Count Olaf's theater troupe hurried this way and that, too busy to even glance at the children"; the three short men, the short-haired woman, and the important-looking man with warts on his face. That makes five people; as, of course, do the classic troupe members, comprising those introduced on pages 47-48, the bald man, the two white-faced women, the hook-handed man, and the henchperson of indeterminate gender. And so we have our ten, if we assume that Olaf ate no dinner on the night he entertained... There is also the intriguing matter of the wart-faced man being responsible for Count Olaf's escape on page 156, and indeed the character is explicitly listed among the six escaping henchfolk on page 158, indeed first among them! And yet he is never seen or even mentioned again. The U.A. will subsequently put an exaggerated figure of "7?" on the "assortment of people the children could not see" (U.A. p. 175, TBB p. 48), so presumably two or three of them didn't eat anything at the dinner either. (Or did the Baudelaires end up serving themselves a separate meal entirely?)

Ultimately, my conclusion is - that TBB was written a little carelessly in places.

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

“She’s not the type to run off.” (Violet about Sunny) – Of course not, she can’t even walk!

Yeah, I thought that was weird too. Violet, she's a baby. 

Foxy, I love the commonplace book idea! It's a cool way to break the book down.

General Notes

This is my least favourite book out of the series. I think this is just because it feels a lot more realistic than later instalments. I mean, the reality is still exaggerated, but there isn't quite the surreal-ness here that I normally associate with ASOUE. Olaf feels like a huge looming threat throughout the book in a way that I don't find to be the case later on. Maybe it's because the Baudelaires are living with him the whole time, so they don't really get a 'break' from him the way they do in later books. Olaf is also at his creepiest and least comedic here. I'm not sure I ever really feel scared while reading these books anymore, but I get the closest when reading TBB; there's just this atmosphere of uneasiness that's constant throughout the book. With that said though, I still think it's a great opening to the series; it was probably a good idea to start slightly more grounded in reality so we can accept the premise, and then become more 'out there' once we're already used to this world and these characters.
I would say that I prefer the HarperCollins cover to the Egmont one. I find the proportion there to be slightly odd; Olaf's face looks huge compared to the Baudelaires. I like the Orphans! cover more than either of these.
I love the Beatrice dedication: so simple, so evocative. The first time I read the series, I got to the fourth or fifth book before I noticed they were all dedicated to the same person.

Chapter One

I absolutely love the first page; it sets the tone so well for the rest of the series. I think the first sentence is particularly great, but I also love the repetition of happy/happened, and 'I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes'. That sentiment is echoed so many times across these books - Lemony is sorry for the state of the world, but isn't going to sugar-coat it, or pretend things are better than they really are. In this way, ASOUE is set apart from many children's books right from the start.
It's interesting that the first definition isn't prefaced with 'which here means' - instead it's 'the word rickety, you probably know, here means'. Also, the definition is the exact/actually correct one, rather than the overly specific or absurd ones that seem more common in later books. I wondered if that was somewhat of a feature - if the definition starts 'which here means', the definition is a humorous one, while 'you probably know means' leads to a more exact definition, but that isn't consistently done, even in this book, so I don't know. Still, over this reread, I want to try to analyse why/where the definitions are used. I've heard people criticise the series saying they are condescending, and others praise it saying they are trying to be educational, but I don't think either of these are true. I think their function is to parody children' books that try too hard to be educational, to the point of being condescending, but it's difficult to pick apart exactly how this works.
How far away is Briny Beach from the Baudelaire mansion? That they can take public transport there suggests it's not that far, but the idea that the Baudelaires are 'spend[ing] the day as a sort of vacation' implies it's not actually within the city itself, maybe an hour-long ride or so on the trolley that takes them outside the city limits. I'm not sure if this is supported by the description of Briny Beach in relation to the city from TPP.
The descriptions of the Baudelaires are a good way to set up their characters without spending too much time on exposition.
I don't understand why Klaus is described as 'a little older than twelve'. We later find out that his and Violet's birthdays are very close together, so it's confusing that his age would have been written this way when Violet isn't 'a little older than fourteen'.
Sunny kind of just seems like normal baby here. That's the case throughout this book, really.
It's weird to see the Baudelaires described as 'children' rather than 'orphans'. I guess that shows how large a part of their identity this is throughout the series.
How close a friend could Mr Poe have been of the Baudelaire parents? Aside from his lack of knowledge about VFD, you'd think they'd dislike him for the same reason their children do. 
The line about the children being present at their parents' dinner parties becomes problematic when we realise that all their close friends seem to have been in VFD, or at least helping VFD on certain matters. It's not such a stretch to assume they wouldn't have been discussing secret business, especially if people like Poe were there, but you'd think the Baudelaires would recognise the names of more members if they had met them at their parents' dinner parties. Maybe they just had a lot of other VFD and VFD-affiliated friends we never meet or hear about.
'Sunny made a noise that sounded like an angry bird' - ha, I love this description.
Mr Poe is showing his true colours from moment one - I couldn't think of a worse way to break the news to someone that their parents had died and their house was destroyed.
Klaus picturing all the books he'd never read is a really sobering and grounding moment.
The first time I read this, I didn't know what 'executor' meant and I sort of thought it was the same thing as 'executioner', so I'm glad Handler includes the wordplay here.
The description of the Bauds being led off the beach by Mr Poe makes it sound like Sunny is walking, but we'll just have to assume she actually isn't. This is also a problem at the end of the book.
 

[bear]

Feb 25, 2019 7:48:56 GMT -5 Foxy said:

important-looking man with warts (are these the last four members of the troupe?)

no I do not believe his individual warts counted as troupe members.

[Dante]

I definitely agree that TBB reads rather bleaker than the rest of the series; or perhaps just less funny. Dark humour becomes an important part of the series's style and tone, but the first book is chiefly just dark; I imagine Handler's vision for the series hadn't yet solidified. I feel there will be more to discuss in relation to this when we get to TRR, though I think it's not until TWW that things start to settle into something more recognisable.

The question of Briny Beach's location in relation to the city will also come up in TEE. Perhaps it's just a very long beach.

[veryferociousdrama]

Chapters One to Three.

Picture at the beginning indicates that the OFD are going straight to the Baudelaire mansion. This may mean the fire started just as the Baudelaires left, whomever started it presumably wanted them to be left alive. I notice some sort of church, the Cathedrel of the Alleged Virgin?

If the Baudelaires had been going off to Briny Beach on their own several times, then why is their trip with Beatrice after TE described as their third time?

How did Mr. Poe know where to find the children? Did a neighbour know where they were going and told him? Or did he know where they went to Briny Beach sometimes?

Speaking of Poe, his coughs at the Baudelaire mansion suggests he may have been invited to "dinner parties" AKA VFD meetings, as his coughs would muffle things Beatrice and Bertrand wouldn't want them to hear. And speaking of VFD, we know the OFD came to the fire, but did any Volunteers try to help? If so, probably Kit or Lemony, but Lemony would have told the reader, and Kit the Baudelaires, so any Volunteers in assistance may have either died, or we just didn't meet them. Maybe R?

I feel strangely intrigued by Mrs. Polly Poe. I know in the Netflix show she was combined with Eleanora and Geraldine Julienne, and possibly even a member of VFD (if you want me to discuss my theory in which I firmly believe she started the Quagmire fire and NOT Esme, I may spill one day), but here she seems very flat. Especially as she, Edgar and Albert are never seen again after this book.

The mention of Count Olaf touring with various theater troupes feels like a lie, to cover up VFD fire-starting missions, or maybe to big himself up. As an amateur actor myself, Olaf's wheeziness sounds like he may have been in a very loud production lately. I know this sounds contradictory, but Olaf is an actor, and many things are contradictory in life.

The many eyes in Olaf's house isn't doing much to cover up VFD, maybe he created the motif?

How does Justice Strauss know that Count Olaf is taking in the Baudelaires if she doesn't know him that well? Maybe the Sinister Duo, who had no doubt a part in proceedings, tell her?

I wonder how big Count Olaf's house is, as so many other houses are described as huge/mansion-like, it's easy to imagine his like that. I find it convincing that despite having bedrooms far larger, he concealed the Baudelaires to a tiny space.

Olaf describes his troupe as having ten people. Does he count? Hooky, Baldy, IGy, White-Facey make five, Olaf make six, but whether or not he counts is debatable. I'll come back to this point, and about Warty.

I wonder how much time is between Chapters 2 and 3, enough time for Justice Strauss to be busy on just one case, but it sounds like the Baudelaires have had enough time to get used to their new situation. 2-3 weeks, maybe? A month at most. I think it was in an interview, but Handler once said the books take place over two years, obviously subtracting one between TE and C14, so I will be taking notes of time gaps, and discussing them.

Well done everyone, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well my idea's gone down, and the dedication from everyone. Good idea Foxy for doing a commonplace book, especially one of such dedication. Keep up the good work everyone!

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

whomever started it presumably wanted them to be left alive.

IIRC, the Rare Edition states that the Baudelaire parents specifically asked their children to leave the house.

If the Baudelaires had been going off to Briny Beach on their own several times, then why is their trip with Beatrice after TE described as their third time?

Maybe Lemony just means the third time they've been there since he started researching their lives. It's definitely a weird way of phrasing it.

but did any Volunteers try to help?

I think the RE might also have an answer for this.

The mention of Count Olaf touring with various theater troupes feels like a lie, to cover up VFD fire-starting missions

Good suggestion.

The many eyes in Olaf's house isn't doing much to cover up VFD, maybe he created the motif?

Older members like Ishmael also have the tattoo, though.

I will be taking notes of time gaps, and discussing them.

I want to do that, too. I think a year for the series minus Chapter Fourteen is overly ambitious, though - based on the temporal markers we are given, I'm not sure you can stretch it out longer than eight or so months.

[veryferociousdrama]

Feb 25, 2019 18:48:55 GMT -5 Carrie E. Abelabudite said:

whomever started it presumably wanted them to be left alive.

IIRC, the Rare Edition states that the Baudelaire parents specifically asked their children to leave the house.

If the Baudelaires had been going off to Briny Beach on their own several times, then why is their trip with Beatrice after TE described as their third time?

Maybe Lemony just means the third time they've been there since he started researching their lives. It's definitely a weird way of phrasing it.

but did any Volunteers try to help?

I think the RE might also have an answer for this.

The mention of Count Olaf touring with various theater troupes feels like a lie, to cover up VFD fire-starting missions

Good suggestion.

The many eyes in Olaf's house isn't doing much to cover up VFD, maybe he created the motif?

Older members like Ishmael also have the tattoo, though.

I will be taking notes of time gaps, and discussing them.

I want to do that, too. I think a year for the series minus Chapter Fourteen is overly ambitious, though - based on the temporal markers we are given, I'm not sure you can stretch it out longer than eight or so months.


Yeah, it's a weird way of phrasing it. I think your idea RE it only being the third time since Lemony started researching them, definitely makes sense. I also thought a year minus C14 is a tad overly ambitious, particularly as there seems to be less than a month between the start of TVV to the end of TPP. I suppose as the Baudelaires went through more and more guardians, Mr. Poe was finding it harder to get people to take them, especially if he was trying to get nineteenth cousins to take them by TVV, and as a result they were spending more and more time at the Poe house.

[Dante]

The chronology of the latter half of the series is definitely worth discussing, because it can be broken down and identified with complete accuracy; I have a timeline document where I pin it down to exactly fifteen days from the start of TVV to the end of TPP (though obviously it becomes very easy when they start giving the exact days of the week halfway through TSS) - but there's some space for discussion even around that, as it results in a few curiosities in places. TRR also gives its exact timespan early on. All of the other books have settling-in periods of an indeterminate length, and as noted, we don't know how long the Baudelaires might have spent with Mr. Poe between guardians. My impression was always that the settling-in periods probably wouldn't have been longer than a few days, and we'll see that that lines up with both TRR and TWW.

[Foxy]

Feb 25, 2019 13:25:23 GMT -5 veryferociousdrama said:

The mention of Count Olaf touring with various theater troupes feels like a lie, to cover up VFD fire-starting missions, or maybe to big himself up. As an amateur actor myself, Olaf's wheeziness sounds like he may have been in a very loud production lately. I know this sounds contradictory, but Olaf is an actor, and many things are contradictory in life.

I thought the same thing when I read this.  If he tours, I would make the conjecture that he would 1) have to be a good actor and 2) be making money.  Neither of these fits his profile.

Dante, your timeline facts are very interesting.

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

Chapter Two
I like how we are encouraged to project our own feelings on to the Baudelaires here. It makes their emotions feel realistic without being too graphic.
How long do the Bauds stay at the Poes? A couple of weeks?
Again, the definition of 'blanched' doesn't use 'which here means', instead it's 'the word "blanched" here means "boiled"'. And again, it's the exact/correct definition.
'"I'm tired of sharing it."' Uh, Albert, don't you already have to share your room with Edgar?
'tossing a chicken bone to the floor as if he were an animal in a zoo and not the son of a well-respected member of the banking community' - this line always makes me laugh.
Ah, the first mention of the incredibly confusing parents' will. I like the Snicket Sleuth's theory on this - that Mr Poe is aware of VFD's existence, even if he doesn't know much about the organisation, and the will just says they need to stay with members. Poe, having no idea that a schism has occurred or that certain members or institutions once affiliated with VFD are no longer actively connected to the organisation, picks guardians in decreasing level of relevance to VFD.
'The three Baudelaire children had many more questions' - a recurring theme, although one that's not built up for a few more books.
The definition of 'briskly' again starts with 'here means' instead of 'which here means', but the definition itself feels more Snicket-y.
'They passed horse-drawn carriages and motorcycles along Doldrum Drive' - our first glimpse at the weird mix of technology present in this world.
Huh. I'd forgotten Justice Strauss was meant to be 'an older woman'; I'd always imagined her more middle-aged. I guess this makes her horse-thieving past we later find out about make more sense.
'For a moment Violet thought he was going to strike Mr Poe across the face' - sets up his later treatment of Klaus. 

Chapter Three
'During the first few days' - I think there can only be five or six days at most between the Baudelaires arriving at Olaf's and the next time they see Justice Strauss.
'But the children knew, as I'm sure you know' - I like how we're sort of on the same level as Lemony here; that we're complicit with him. This is continued throughout the series.
'"Count Olaf gives us a lot of responsibility," Violet said. What she wanted to say was "Count Olaf is an evil man," but she was well mannered.' Another laugh-out-loud moment for me.

[veryferociousdrama]

Notes on Chapters Four to Six.

It is surprising how Count Olaf's theater troupe are described more as friends here, when he treats them through the series more as servants, maybe they knew each other more as VFD comrades before this point? The fact that the Baudelaires can't see some of the troupe suggests that the three short men mentioned later are a part of it, if they can't be seen.

I wonder what sort of performance the troupe are giving. They certainly seem to have little rehearsal time, especially as The Marvelous Marriage is on Friday, and an educated guess suggests to me that this is on Sunday evening, (so not too surprising Olaf wanted roast beef). Could possibly be that they were already rehearsing the play, with someone else as the Bride, who was then fired.

The idea of somebody waiting outside the bedroom window suggests that Lemony, or someone else was definitely researching the Baudelaires while the events were occurring. We should discuss this later when we do the RE notes after TSS.

Why is Olaf making the Baudelaires chop wood? For him to start fires with? The wood could be coming from the Finite Forest.

The City is certainly very focused on the financial sector, and it's surprising that out of all the nicely described banks Beatrice and Bertrand chose Mulctuary Money Management. This links in to my previous theory of Poe coughing at dinner parties muffling out conversation between Volunteers.

OK, so retracting my previous time period statement, Poe claims the Baudelaires have only been there for a few days. But he's evidently very busy at work, it only feels like a few days for him, but it's actually been a few weeks. 

I do not believe that Count Olaf really understands what being a legal guardian is, he keeps claiming that he is adopting the Baudelaires, (Justice Strauss seems confused as well), when the only chance they do have to be adopted is Aunt Josephine's suicide note claiming for Captain Sham to do it. And I know that Count Olaf wants to appear neighbourly, but surely if he needed a Justice, couldn't he have gotten one of the Sinister Duo to do it?

Why did Olaf feel the need to disguise his play under Al Funcoot? There would have been nothing suspicious about him writing a play for his own troupe, and it would have made himself seem more credible. Maybe the theater he was hiring had rules about actors not being allowed to write plays?