Great 667 Re-Read 2019 - The Austere Academy.

[veryferociousdrama]

You know what to do by now...

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

General Notes

This book really takes the series in a new and interesting direction. I said in the TWW thread that I preferred the setting there, and I do find Lake Lachrymose more interesting than Prufrock Prep, but it ws definitely a good idea on Handler's part to set one of the books in a school. It gives lots of scope to satirise the education system, and there are lots of children's books set in boarding schools to be parodied. In particular, though, I think it was a great idea to have other characters the same age as the Baudelaires, since so far, it's just been them and adults. I also find the writing here to be even better than the previous instalments. The way Handler expands the story and starts to bring a 'mystery' element into the series is great.

I would say I prefer the HarperCollins cover; I like the more precise lines and I like how there's more of a focus on the Baudelaires.

The punchline of the dedication always makes me laugh, though I don't think it's as funny as Emma Montana McElroy. 

Having Carmelita as the frontispiece illustration, combined with how much the focus is on her on the Egmont cover, makes it seem like she will be a much more important part of the book than she actually is.

Chapter ONe

I like how the book doesn't start with a description of the Baudelaires. The first sentence sums up all we need to know about Carmelita.

I'm not surprised Poe found it difficult to find a school that would take Sunny, although, considering Prufrock does seem to have some connection with VFD, perhaps he really chose it because he thought it would be a place where they could continue their training, assuming he believes their previous guardians to already have given them some.

I usually see 'memento mori' used to mean something more like 'reminder of death', at least in the context of discussing art (but really that's the only context outside of this book I've ever seen the phrase used).

[Violent BUN Fortuna]

I just thought I’d make a quick post to say: sorry for disappearing from the re-read after, uh, one post. Whoops. I’m kind of insanely busy at the moment so I just haven’t had time for any of the more serious/in-depth threads for a while, but hopefully I’ll have some more free time soon and I’ll be able to join in with the re-read properly. 😊

[veryferociousdrama]

Notes on Chapters One to Three.

Once again, Poe sounds more like Show Poe to Movie Poe. I'm not sure if this is because they didn't get this far in the film universe?

Roughly how big is Prufrock Prep? What's the student admission? If there are hundreds of children, does everyone have Gym at the same time? They're obviously put into more manageable subjects for other classes.

The fact that there is a computer there helps place the series into a specific time frame. My guess is that it's probably the '50s, as the general nature reminds me of War time, but I doubt it's actually during the War. The fact that Nero's so shifty about it could be that he got it cheap, and he only bought it to appear to be making an effort.

How long's it between this and the end of TMM? I'm gonna say a month, as I'm gonna say between each book from the end of TRR and TEE.

The fact that Nero claims he's been doing research on the Baudelaires is a little odd, seeing as their lives seem to be public knowledge of The Daily Punchillio. Does reading a page of a paper count as research? I can imagine him being able to sign the permission form himself, but refuses to be cruel.

Did Ms. Tench die of an accident, or was it more? For once, I'll say it was an accident. We are allowed to have coincidences. 

Who is Uncle Elwyn? My guess is that he's from Bertrand's side, because we know more about Beatrice's (Snickets, Antwhisles, more likely Count Olaf). Is he a Volunteer? Maybe, but I think he's dead by the time of the Baudelaire fire, or else they might have asked Poe if they could live with him. 

Where are Duncan and Isadora sleeping? If they're not in the Orphan Shack, is it just a humiliation for the newest orphans? Do they have a guardian who just sent them to the school and only recently signed the permission form? The three semesters thing doesn't make sense. I think he probably means it was figuratively three semesters, as it was a long time, not literally.

Did Handler intend for Quigley to survive at this point? I believe this was the intention, because he may not have mentioned him.

[tonyvfd]

Carmelita appearing in the first line makes, her look like if she would play a central role in the story which is not the case. If I'm not mistaken this is the first time that, Klauss does not know the meaning of a word, though to be fair it was a made up word by Carmelita, so maybe doesn't count. I guess at this point violet realized the futility of trying to convince adults that Olaf is in disguise.The scene when they tried to remove coach Genghis turban is hilarious I'd have loved to see it on screen. Violet blushing to the mention of being Duncan being his boyfriend is the was cute. I would not be comfortable sharing silverware maybe Violet could invent some. Duncan and Isadora have never met Olaf treachery so is normal to think their plan would be enough. I wonder why orphans would have great bones structure special for running or how a teacher reuniting with student is not rising eyebrows.

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

Mar 25, 2019 15:07:27 GMT -5 veryferociousdrama said:

Once again, Poe sounds more like Show Poe to Movie Poe. I'm not sure if this is because they didn't get this far in the film universe?

Before the Netflix show came out, I never would have imagined Poe like K. Todd Freeman's interpretation of the character, but now I really can't see him as anything else.

Roughly how big is Prufrock Prep? What's the student admission? If there are hundreds of children, does everyone have Gym at the same time? They're obviously put into more manageable subjects for other classes.

It's confusing, because there seem to only be two classes, so if there are hundreds of children - which would imply at least two hundred - that would mean that there are at least one hundred children in each class. Maybe the school is underfunded or something, but this is odd considering how many rich parents like the Spatses send their children there.

Who is Uncle Elwyn? My guess is that he's from Bertrand's side, because we know more about Beatrice's (Snickets, Antwhisles, more likely Count Olaf). Is he a Volunteer? Maybe, but I think he's dead by the time of the Baudelaire fire, or else they might have asked Poe if they could live with him.

I've always imagined him as a family friend rather than an actual relative, but if he is one, he must have died before the Baudelaire parents did. 

Did Handler intend for Quigley to survive at this point? I believe this was the intention, because he may not have mentioned him.

I think he might have. There are a lot of inconsistencies regarding the 'survivor of the fire' plot line, but the way he talks about Quigley does seem like he was intending for him to appear as a character later. 

Chapter Two

'Sunny ripped up some old newspapers,' (p16) There are times when Sunny acts more like a dog than a baby, and this is one of them.

The passage about tradition is one of the Snicket quotes I find myself saying the most in my everyday life. I always forget, though, that the thought ends with the Baudelaires deciding that this actually is a good time to honour tradition.

Netflix's interpretation of the advanced computer makes more sense than what we're presented with here.

Also, speaking of Netflix canon, it might be interesting to consider the idea that Nero's surname is Feint in the show. Could he be related to Ellington? I don't think they can be siblings, but possibly they could be cousins.

Earlier in the chapter, Nero was described as 'tall', but on page 23, it says he 'drew himself up to his full height, which in his case was five feet, ten inches.' While I definitely wouldn't describe a man of this height as short, I wouldn't think of him as being particularly tall either. I mean, how much taller could he be than Violet? I wouldn't imagine that she could be shorter than five two or five three.

Miss Tench has already been killed, implying that Olaf already knew the Baudelaires would be at Prufrock. Like in TMM, despite Olaf knowing where the Baudelaires are from the beginning, he doesn't actually show up for quite a while. Presumably he has other VFD-related things to do during this time.

Why even tell the Baudelaires about the dorm if they can't live there?

'So as I hide out here in this mountain cabin' (p30) - Sounds like Lemony is on the run now.

Chapter Three

'So when someone is making a mountain out of a molehill, they are pretending that something is as horrible as a war or a ruined picnic when it is really only as horrible as a stubbed toe.' (p32) Picnics seem very important within VFD, but it's hard to figure out exactly what their function is.

I think the shack must be the worst place the Baudelaires have slept so far. At least Olaf gave them one bed.

Surely crabs could only live in or near a body of water.

'"I've missed being in a real classroom."' ([36) So, Violet and Klaus must have gone to school before the fire. However, education does not seem to be a legal requirement for children in the Snicketverse, since they haven't been to school since then and nobody has remarked upon this as if it were unusual. They have very relaxed child labour laws too, it seems.

It's pretty easy to overlook the white-faced women here, considering their faces are obscured most of the time and they don't do much up until the end of the book.

I wonder how much Handler had decided about VFD and the Quagmires here. At this point, did he intend for there to be a connection between the fires? I assume he did, but maybe not in the way that eventually becomes the case.

'"Duncan and I had to live [in the Orphans Shack] for three semesters because we needed a parent or guardian to sign our permission slip, and we didn't have one."' (p48) This implies that the Quagmires have been at Prufrock for over a year, an idea that is contradicted in later books. The way they talk does make it seem like they've been there for a while, which is why assuming TMM takes place over a longer period of time is helpful, because if they've been there since the end of TRR, that's almost three months by my timeline. That's still definitely not long enough to be three semesters, but I guess we could say that, due to a lack of weekends or holidays at Prufrock, Duncan and Isadora have become confused about how long they have been there. Also, it seems like they're not living in the Orphans Shack now. Does that mean they have a guardian? Or else we could go with the Netflix explanation and assume that only the most recent set of orphans have to live in the shack, after which they get moved up to the broom closet. Maybe they'd eventually work their way up to the dorms.

[tonyvfd]

I'm dissapointed that Carmelita does not sing in the books. Her messages could have been replaced with written notes, or ghengis could have shown himself. Duncan and Isadora seem slightly more useful than in the Netflix version having the idea of replaceing the Baudelaire themselves. Perhaps Olaf admit defeat to early, he could keep denying it, and the adults would not have believed in them. They would probably guessed that the quagmire runaway. Also it would have been easier to snatch them in the cover of the dark, instead of the complicated scheme, of making them flunk school.

[Dante]

Mar 26, 2019 17:26:38 GMT -5 tonyvfd said:

Also it would have been easier to snatch them in the cover of the dark, instead of the complicated scheme, of making them flunk school.

Simply kidnapping the Baudelaires doesn't further Olaf's schemes, though. His aim is to acquire their fortune using legal methods, which is why the goal of his plans in TWW through TAA is to secure legal guardianship of the Baudelaires under his current false identity. Even with the Quagmires, whom he does kidnap, we later learn that his intent is for them to legally inherit their fortune and obtain it from them at that future point.

It's curious to think about, but ultimately the greatest obstacle to Olaf in his pursuit of the series' various fortunes is the banking system; you might also say the law. All of his schemes are really just ways of deceiving or circumventing those obstacles. The use of force is rarely an element of his plans.

[Foxy]

Personal Notes:

What atrocious cooking is Snicket referring to on page 3? (1)

What sort of advanced degrees could Mr. Remora and Mrs. Bass possibly have? (1)

What are on the other eight floors of the administrative building? (2)

You actually get more potassium from watermelon than bananas. (4)

Snicket’s explanation of Mrs. Bass being a poor teacher, but not in a monetary sense, is profusely ironic. (4)

Where on earth did Mrs. Bass get the skeleton of a cat??? (4)

Violet went fishing even though in the last book Snicket talks about how boring fishing is. (6)

I still don’t get why Sunny went to gym class. (7)

Olaf maybe strangled a bishop in Bangkok but escaped from prison in just ten minutes. He also probably threw a rich widow off a cliff in Verona, and did something else in the Baudelaires’ home town. (10)

Why did Count Olaf take the Quagmires on an airplane? Is there an airport in the Hinterlands? How far away was this boarding school? (13)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE AUSTERE ACADEMY



CHARACTERS:

Carmelita Spats (1)

Violet Baudelaire (1)

Klaus Baudelaire (1)

Sunny Baudelaire (1): a little bit larger than a loaf of bread

Count Olaf/ Coach Genghis

the other students at Prufrock Prep (1)

Mr. Poe (1): compared to a jar of mustard

Vice Principal Nero (1)

Miss Tench (2): former gym teacher, fell out of a third-story window a few days before this story takes place

Uncle Elwyn (3): a pig farmer?

eleven nuns (3): baked an enormous lasagna

Metal-masked people/white-faced women (3)

Duncan Quagmire (3)

Isadora Quagmire (3)

Quagmire parents (mentioned) (3)

Quigley Quagmire (mentioned) (3)

Professor Reed (4): friend of Snicket’s, a painter

Mr. Remora (4): taught at the school for more than forty-seven years

Mrs. Bass (4): later arrested for bank robbery (6); also taught at the school for more than forty-seven years

Edward (4): character in one of Mr. Remora’s stories; owns a green truck; visited a farm with geese and cows

celery farmers (8)

bishop (10)

rich widow (10)

Nikola Tesla (10)

Dorothy Parker (10)

Hammurabi (10)

Lord Byron (10)

shark (10)

duchess of Winnipeg (11)



VIOLET’S INVENTION:

noisy shoes (3), staple-making invention (10)



KLAUS’S RESEARCH:

fungus extermination (5), studying for comprehensive exams (11)



SUNNY’S BITING:

biting Coach Genghis’s shoes off (13)



THE LIBRARY:

The school library



SNICKET SECRETS:

His friend, Professor Reed, painted him a triptych called What Happened to Beatrice. It has a fire, a typewriter, and Beatrice. (4)

He was woken up in the middle of the night and chased sixteen miles by an angry mob armed with torches, swords, and vicious dogs. (9)

He once attended a masked ball hosted by the duchess of Winnipeg disguised as a bullfighter. The palace guards were scorpions. He hadn’t seen Beatrice in fifteen years. She was wearing a dragonfly costume, and he was trying to warn her about Count Olaf. (11)



REFERENCES (real and made up):

Moss Mysteries

Bangkok Gazette

Verona Daily News



SNICKETISMS:

the one about giving out gold medals (1)

the one about shyness (1)

the one about how everyone will die, especially if you don’t look both ways before crossing the street (1)

the one about tradition being no reason to do something (2)

the one about making a mountain out of a molehill (3)

the one about following suit (5)

the one about listening to a piece of classical music and attempting to guess what inspired the composer (5)

the one about there being two types of “what?” in the world (7)

the one about “if we’re stalks of celery” (8)

the one about the prism of experience (9)

the one about falling off the wayside (9)

the one about assumptions (12)



BAUDELAIRE FAMILY HISTORY:

A few months before he died, the Baudelaire’s father told the children there is no worse sound in the world than somebody who cannot play the violin who insists on doing so anyway. Violet and Klaus enjoyed playing checkers, and Sunny enjoyed ripping up old newspapers. (2)

When Violet was ten and Klaus was eight, their family went to a county fair to see their Uncle Elwyn’s pig. They also saw an enormous lasagna baked by eleven nuns. (3)

Klaus measured the width of all the doorways in the Baudelaire mansion (4)

The family went to Rutabaga River, but their father forgot to pack silverware, and they had to eat sweet-and-sour shrimp with their hands. Violet invented a fishing rod she used, and Klaus picked blackberries while Sunny bit rocks. (6)

They waved to their parents before they left for the beach. (11)



SNICKET DICTIONARY:

Advanced: having attained advancement (1)

Adversity: trouble (1)

Austere: stern and severe (6) or Mr. Remora’s stories were particularly boring, Mrs. Bass’s obsession with the metric system was particularly irritating, and Nero’s administrative demands were particularly difficult (7)

Autopilot: measuring pencils without really thinking about them (7)

Bit his tongue: he simply kept quiet (6)

Come hell or high water: using a fork, a few teaspoons of creamed spinach, a small potato, a live crab, and noisy shoes (11)

Fifth wheel: not in a position to do anything particularly helpful (7)

Foisted: gave (13)

Gingerly: avoiding territorial crabs (3)

Glaze over: ache slightly out of boredom (4)

Incredulously: not being able to believe it (2)

Inevitable: a lifetime of horror and woe (5)

Let your schoolwork fall by the wayside: flunk (9)

Plan! (9)

Poor teacher: a teacher who is obsessed with the metric system (4)

Ruefully: while pointing at a rude, violent, and filthy little girl (9)

Stapled like mad: Quickly and accurately (12)

Symbolic: the glowing circle felt like it stood for more than merely a track (9)

Taken a page out of Nero’s book: learned how to repeat things in a mocking way, in order to make fun of children (7)

Veranda: a porch made of polished gray marble (11)

Waning: dim, and making everything look extra-creepy (7)



SUNNY SPEECH:

Abax!: (agreement) (11)

Aeginu!: And the assistant that looks like neither a man nor a woman. (5)

Aregg: What? I can’t believe it. (2)

Bloni: (agreement) (3)

Ceju: We have to find out. (13)

Denada. (10)

Drat!: (6)

Eroos: And I bit rocks. (6)

Galuka!: So yell at Coach Genghis, not at us! (9)

Gargaba!: Maybe the luminous paint is serving as some sort of glowing signal. (7)

Gefidio!: (How do you do, Coach Genghis?) (5)

Gyba!: You’re a genius! But what can I do to help? (11)

Ivoser: I bet I can use my four sharp teeth to scrape this paint away and make the walls a bit less ugly. (3)

Hifijoo!: (agreement) (9)

Kalc!: Don’t worry about it. I’m a baby, so I hardly ever use silverware. It doesn’t matter that it’ll be taken away from me. (3)

Keeb!: I like fruit. (2)

Kosbal!: Here comes Carmelita Spats. (6)

Lirt!: We can see if any of his assistants are around. (5)

Marimo: I hope there are plenty of things to bite at school, because biting things is one of my favorite things to do. (1)

Merd!: That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. (13)

Mumdum! (9)

Nidop: Then let’s get moving. (10)

Nilikoh: And we haven’t seen either of the Quagmire triplets, so I think we can safely assume that their part of the plan went well. (12)

Olo: Even if it’s ugly, damp, and filled with crabs. (3)

Ooladu!: I wish you’d tell us what you’re really up to, Genghis. (7)

Oot: Trust me, it’s not that difficult. (6)

Pilso!: My stapling hand is sore. (12)

Racho: (agreement) (1)

Rantaw!: I never wanted to work as a secretary, anyway! (13)

Roger. (11)

Sappho!: I’d be very pleased to hear a poem of yours! (3)

Seltepia!: Good morning, this is Vice Principal Nero’s office, how may I help you? (4)

Shablo: How are we going to do that? (11)

Soap? (11)

Soup! (6)

Stewak: He follows us everywhere. (5)

Sticky! (6)

Tarcour: You’re right, of course. S.O.R.E. always lasts until darn, and the tests are first thing in the morning. (10)

Terfunt: Thank you. (1)

Toricia!: (agreement) (7)

Ushilo!: That doesn’t prove anything! (9)

Volasocks!: If you were really Olaf in disguise, then your running shoes would be covering your tattoo! (6)

Wonic: And learning secretarial skills is an exciting opportunity for me, although I should really be in nursery school instead. (3)

Zatwal!: (We’d love to see the library.) (3)

Zubu: Or attend a different school, under different names. (11)



GEOGRAPHY:

Prufrock Preparatory School (1): possibly the fifth option Mr. Poe tried for schools

Mulctuary Money Management (mentioned) (1)

Administrative building (2)

Room 1 (2)

Room 2 (2)

Cafeteria (2)

Auditorium (2)

Orphans Shack (3)

Rutabaga River (6)

Bangkok (10)

Verona (10)



FOODOLOGY:

Fresh fruit (2)

Lasagna (3)

Green salad (3)

Garlic bread (3)

Oatmeal (6)

Sweet-and-sour shrimp (6)

Scrambled eggs (6)

Spaghetti (7)

Meatloaf (7)

bag of flour (10)

creamed spinach (11)

potato (11)

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

Mar 27, 2019 9:28:01 GMT -5 Foxy said:

Where on earth did Mrs. Bass get the skeleton of a cat??? (4)

I was also wondering this.

Olaf maybe strangled a bishop in Bangkok but escaped from prison in just ten minutes. He also probably threw a rich widow off a cliff in Verona, and did something else in the Baudelaires’ home town. (10)

He could have done any of these things, but it's also possible some of the descriptions refer to other VFD members. It seems that he's not the only one with a monobrow.

Why did Count Olaf take the Quagmires on an airplane? Is there an airport in the Hinterlands? How far away was this boarding school? (13)

This is sort of confusing; it doesn't seem like Prufrock is too far away from the city, yet that must be the destination of the plane. When Handler wrote the book, he might have imagined Olaf's plan for the Quagmires to be different than what becomes the case in TEE. I guess the airport near Prufrock must be a very small regional one.

Chapter Four

I love the triptych passage - there's a lot of important Beatrice backstory to be gleaned from here. It might be possible to guess Beatrice's identity based on this, but in this book, fires become an important theme instead of something that happened to just the Baudelaires, so reading the book for the first time could also lead to the assumption that the triptych panel refers to a different fire.

Seems like Remora is trying to teach note taking skills, while Bass focuses on the observational. In this way, they can be seen as trying to scout out children who have the potential to be recruited to VFD, although I think that even if they know the organisation exists, they are very much unknowing pawns in the process. Still, it's fun to imagine a Prufrock/VFD connection. I would think that now there isn't much of a link, but at one point, it might have been one of the main locations to get recruits.

How are the classes organised? It's not by age, since Duncan and Isadora are in different classes. Maybe you are assigned to the class that teaches the skill for which you have less natural talent.

'the Baudelaires could never remember exactly what day it was, so repetitive was their schedule.' (p62) As I said earlier, this confusion could explain the 'three semesters' discrepancy. Also, how long is it before Olaf shows up? Like in TMM, this is one of the best chances of stretching out the series. It might even be as long as six or seven weeks. This would be in keeping with Lemony's 'half-semester' comment from the TMM editor letter, although it's also possible that Prufrock has abnormally short semesters.

Would it be that difficult to steal a saltshaker? I'd think it should be relatively easy to slip one into your pocket, even without creating a distraction.

'"I don't think people have made staples by hand since the fifteenth century."' I'd really love to read just, like, a comprehensive history of the Snicketverse.

I f the saltshakers are big enough that one would have to create a distraction in order to take one, how could they be small enough for tiny crabs to carry away?

'A turban covers people's hair, which can alter their appearance quite a bit,' (p67-8) Can it? I don't think just covering your hair could make you look that different.

Chapter Five

The Baudelaires seem a bit savvier here, figuring out that it's not always to their advantage to immediately confront Olaf about his disguise. It's sort of sad, since it shows how they've learnt they cannot trust any adult since their parents died. We've come a long way since TBB.

'"If you told Vice Principal Nero that [Genghis] was really Count Olaf, then Nero could throw the cakesniffer out of here,"' (p76) This book implies that 'cakesniffer' is commonly used slang at Prufrock, while later on it seems like Carmelita's personal catchphrase only.

'"There's a hook-handed man who helped Olaf murder our Uncle Monty."' (p77) Fernald tried to help him get away with the crime, but the murder itself was all Olaf. 

[Foxy]

Mar 26, 2019 4:16:14 GMT -5 tonyvfd said:

or how a teacher reuniting with student is not rising eyebrows.

Could you further explain what you mean by this?

Mar 26, 2019 12:02:24 GMT -5 Carrie E. Abelabudite said:

Mar 25, 2019 15:07:27 GMT -5 veryferociousdrama said:

Once again, Poe sounds more like Show Poe to Movie Poe. I'm not sure if this is because they didn't get this far in the film universe?

Before the Netflix show came out, I never would have imagined Poe like K. Todd Freeman's interpretation of the character, but now I really can't see him as anything else.

Same! I always imagine Mr. Poe in the books being as bland as blanched green beans.

'Sunny ripped up some old newspapers,' (p16) There are times when Sunny acts more like a dog than a baby, and this is one of them.

My baby actually loves to crinkle up newspapers and other papers, so I don't think this is too far off the mark.

Mar 27, 2019 4:40:22 GMT -5 Dante said:

Mar 26, 2019 17:26:38 GMT -5 tonyvfd said:

Also it would have been easier to snatch them in the cover of the dark, instead of the complicated scheme, of making them flunk school.

Simply kidnapping the Baudelaires doesn't further Olaf's schemes, though. His aim is to acquire their fortune using legal methods, which is why the goal of his plans in TWW through TAA is to secure legal guardianship of the Baudelaires under his current false identity. Even with the Quagmires, whom he does kidnap, we later learn that his intent is for them to legally inherit their fortune and obtain it from them at that future point.

I just want to point out the irony of Olaf having the desire to do something through legal means. He would have been better off attempting to rob the bank.

It's curious to think about, but ultimately the greatest obstacle to Olaf in his pursuit of the series' various fortunes is the banking system; you might also say the law. All of his schemes are really just ways of deceiving or circumventing those obstacles. The use of force is rarely an element of his plans.

I never thought of this, and it boggled my mind.

[tonyvfd]

Hi foxy! when I wrote that particular part, I forgot that Olaf informed Nero,of the special orphan running exercises and tough some faculty Members may have found weird a teacher and three students reuniting alone in the dark.

[Foxy]

Oh, now I see what you mean! Yes, that is rather strange, having running exercises in the dark with only three students.

[Carrie E. Abelabudite]

Chapter Six

'[Prufrock Preparatory School] has been closed for many years, ever since Mrs Bass was arrested for bank robbery,' (p83) Another indication that Lemony is writing a long time later.

'the Baudelaires all knew that even if someday they went back to Rutabaga River - which they never did, by the way - that it would not be the same.' (p87) There are a few suggestions in the early books that Lemony is not writing immediately after the events, or ten or so years later, but far in the future, long after the Baudelaires would have died. It's confusing having this here, though, since it seems like Handler had already decided who Beatrice was by this point, meaning he can't have imagined Lemony living and writing such a long time after the events.

Carmelita and Olaf seem to get on quite well here, if she's his Special Messenger. Olaf appears to like having Carmelita around as long as she's willing to act as his assistant rather than his daughter.

Chapter Seven

'The Baudelaires orphans' schoolday was particularly austere,' (p101) I feel like the word 'austere' has been used a lot in this book, more than the title adjective normally would be.

I think having your beverage served to you in a puddle on your tray would be worse than not having any drink at all.

'When one is forced to tell atrocious lies, one often feels a guilty flutter in one's stomach, and Klaus felt such a flutter now.' (p111) Why would Klaus feel so guilty about lying to Olaf? Maybe he just doesn't like having to flatter him like this.

'"But Sunny is a baby," Klaus protested. "She can't really run, at least not professionally."' (p117) Could any of them run professionally?

S.O.R.E is really quite a labour intensive plan on Olaf's part. You'd think he could have come up with a way to get the Baudelaires to fail their classes without also forcing himself to stay up night after night. 

[Foxy]

Mar 28, 2019 11:44:07 GMT -5 Carrie E. Abelabudite said:

'the Baudelaires all knew that even if someday they went back to Rutabaga River - which they never did, by the way - that it would not be the same.' (p87) There are a few suggestions in the early books that Lemony is not writing immediately after the events, or ten or so years later, but far in the future, long after the Baudelaires would have died. It's confusing having this here, though, since it seems like Handler had already decided who Beatrice was by this point, meaning he can't have imagined Lemony living and writing such a long time after the events.

But then in another book, The End, maybe, he says maybe the Baudelaires are living to an old age. I guess sometimes I figure he means they never did before this point in his writing.

I think having your beverage served to you in a puddle on your tray would be worse than not having any drink at all.

Agreed.

S.O.R.E is really quite a labour intensive plan on Olaf's part. You'd think he could have come up with a way to get the Baudelaires to fail their classes without also forcing himself to stay up night after night. 

He probably sleeps through his classes during the day time.