Post by Carrie E. Abelabudite on Jun 10, 2019 13:39:17 GMT -5
Where are the Quagmires? (8)
Where were the triangular picture frame and the brass lamp in the shape of the fish? (9)
Piece of rubber that looked like a fan belt – from Olivia? (9)
broken telegraph pole – another nod to TCC (9)
Ishmael was on the bathyscape Snicket had destructed? (10)
“Some time ago, two women sailed off with this very snake…” (10): the white-faced women? (10)
“The adoption papers were hidden in the hat of a banker who had been promoted to Vice President in Charge of Orphan Affairs… although at the time he was better known under his stage name.” Mr. Poe doesn’t get that promotion until after the first book, and he isn’t known under a stage name during any of the books, so this is not the same Mr. Poe? (11)
“He’s been here the longest…” (13): what about the colonists who were already there when Ishmael arrived?
“…and my brothers.” (13): Does Kit think Lemony is dead? Does everyone think Lemony is dead?
Chapter Seven
'most secret organizations have at least one rhetorical analyst who is under suspicion.' (p146) Is Lemony under suspicion? I guess just because of the fires Olaf set that were blamed on him, but you'd think the organisation should have figured out he was innocent.
'"I'm no worse than anyone else,"' (p151) Dante said in the 2009 reread that even though this wasn't true, he thought Olaf genuinely believed it. I'd agree, but also go a step further - I think this is what truly makes him a bad person; that he sees himself as a product of the experiences that have happened to him and doesn't make an effort to be better. What ultimately separates him from the Baudelaires is that, despite their unfortunate experiences, they still try to be moral.
'"That little girl hasn't been here long,"' (p158) I get what Olaf is trying to say here, but Friday has lived on the Island her whole life!
'"Do you think your pathetic history is the only story in the world? Do you think this island has just sat here in the sea, waiting for you to wash up on its shores? Do you think that I just sat in my home in the city, waiting for you miserable orphans to stumble into my path?"' (p158) I really like the glimpse of a world larger than the Baudelaires that we see here.
Who put a pair of pliers in Violet's crib?
Chapter Eight
When was Thursday on the Island? It must have been at least fifteen years earlier, presumably even before Beatrice and Bertrand were there. One wonders what the leadership was like before they showed up - it sounds like the society operated a lot more smoothly, though of course we don't know the whole story.
Did the colony really suffer a schism, as such? I guess there was turbulence there before Ishmael established his current regime, but the way Kit describes it here makes it sound like the current islanders were active participants in this, which can't be true based on what we later find out.
'And Dewey, I'm sad to remind you, was not with the Baudelaires, but lying dead at the bottom of a pond, still clutching the harpoon that the three siblings had fired into his heart.' (p169) ?! It makes sense that the Baudelaires would personally feel guilty about Dewey's death, even though it wasn't their fault, but this is really taking it too far.
'In the dim light of the flashlight [Finn] looked even younger than she was.' (p172) In another series, you might expect a line like this to lead to a subplot about the character. I love how we find out little details about various of the islanders' lives, but it never really goes anywhere.
I like this little chain of secrets we find out about the Islanders' lives here.
'Many, many years ago, when even the great-great-grandparents of the oldest person you know were not even day-old infants, and when the city where the Baudelaires were born was nothing more than a handful of dirt huts, and the Hotel Denouement nothing but an architectural sketch, and the faraway island had a name, and was not considered very faraway at all, there was a group of people known as the Cimmerians.' (p176) I love the sense of mystery evoked by this sentence. A couple of other points: how old is the Hotel Denouement? This sentence suggests it preceded the construction of most of the city. The Denouement family must have lived in the area for a very long time indeed. Then, the description of the Island here reminds me a lot of how Eva Ibbotson describes the island that is the setting of her book The Secret of Platform Thirteen. The book opens with a description of the 'gump', a magical portal that can be used to access the Island, and how nowadays, nobody knows about it, but once everyone did. After that, she goes on to say 'The people who lived on it just called it the Island, but it has had all sorts of names: Avalon, St Martin's Land, the Place of the Sudden Mists.' I get the sense that Handler was going for the same sort of 'mythical' vibe when writing about the Island here. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Handler was influenced by Ibbotson when writing this book.
'Violet and Sunny knew that Klaus would answer, although they were pretty sure themselves what the word [mutiny] meant.' (p177) Sunny sure has a good vocabulary.
'"And distraught," Kit added weakly, from the top of the raft.' (p181) This is probably meant to be funny, and it is, but it also makes Kit seem a bit whiny.
'"We won't force you, Baudelaires," Erewhon said, sounding like the facilitator she wanted to defeat,' (p182) I really like Lemony's analysis of Erewhon's speech here. It's a subtle call-back to the Nietzsche quote Klaus remembers in TSS.
Yet another Hobson's choice. I like how these references to previous books are obvious once you think about it, but aren't overstated.
We see Kit resorting to various villainous behaviour over the course of the series, but here we get a sense of her true morals.
Chapter Nine
I love the illustration of the ballerinas.
The 'in the dark' sequence is also great.
'Kit Snicket [...] was a source of learning for the Baudelaires as she told them about V.F.D. and its noble errands.' (p195) Uh... was she really a source of knowledge for the Baudelaires? She didn't actually tell them much at all about either of these things.
How would a waterproof fondue set work?
Where would the Baudelaires have seen a wooden rocking horse?
Odd that Beatrice doesn't seem to know who Kit is - unless she's just explaining it to whoever might be reading the book. What would the rest of the sentence Klaus is reading say? "Kit, of course, is the sister of the man to whom I was engaged'? I don't think it can say that, or the Baudelaires would discuss it more, although I guess it's possible they just didn't read that part. Still, they don't seem to know anything about Beatrice and Lemony's relationship even in Chapter Fourteen when they have presumably read the whole book.
Chapter Ten
'the only important things to get the garbage out of the kitchen before the smell spread to the entire mansion' (p212) - Surely this wouldn't be so much of an issue in a mansion. I'd think the more pressing concern would be not having enough room to throw anything away.
'"Did you know I used to be a schoolteacher?" [Ishmael] asked. "This was many years ago, in the city."' (p214) It's interesting to try and factor Ishmael's backstory here with Netflix canon. Nothing he says in this chapter precludes the idea that he might, at one time, have been the principal of Prufrock Prep, but he can't have started off teaching there.
Presumably the girl with one eyebrow and one ear must have been Ike's mother. This might be difficult to factor in, timeline-wise, but I think you can just about get it to work if you assume that Ishmael became a teacher at a very young age, which might well be possible within VFD. He need only be, say, ten years older than she was. In this case, she must be 'D' from the Snicket family tree, so her siblings that also lived with the terrible woman would have been be one of Lemony's parents (E) and F.
I don't know what to make of Lucky Smells Melon Farm. I can't remember where it's stated that the name of the horseradish factory is Opportune Odours, but there's an obvious similarity in the names, though it actually took me a while to notice it. After all, if you have recently been poisoned by the Medusoid Mycelium, the strong smell of horseradish would indeed be opportune.
'"I had an idea that an antidote might be hidden-"' (p217) - in a sugar bowl. This is the only real evidence, as I see it, for the 'horseradish' theory, though actually I don't think Ishmael's student can have been poisoned with the MM. After all, she is able to get very close to the teacup without apparently suffering any negative effects - you'd think she'd have inhaled some of the spores. This seems more like a poison that would need to be swallowed in order to work - I wonder if we'll get any more hints as to what it could have been in Poison For Breakfast. In any case, if there's a link between Lucky Smells and Opportune Odours, my personal theory is that melon grown on the farm would serve as an antidote to whichever poison the treacherous guardian is using here, and that is what is hidden in this particular sugar bowl.
'"If I don't tell you how I came to prefer tea that's as bitter as wormwood,"' (p217) This makes it sound like the whole no-sugar thing is Ishmael's idea, and one to be taken literally rather than part of a code as seems to be implied by earlier books. Or maybe this expression became a code later, even if at first, Ishmael was intending for younger volunteers to take his advice literally. It sounds like the mythology of the sugar bowl started with Ishmael, but it seems like sugar bowls were later used for very different purposes by younger volunteers.
Ishmael's suggestion that a fire could spread all the way along the passage from Anwhistle Aquatics and reach the Island is pretty silly, but I suppose given Snicket physics it's not impossible.
'"Sooner or later, everyone's story has an unfortunate event or two - a schism or a death, a fire or a mutiny, the loss of a home or the destruction of a tea set."' (p22) this makes it sound like the original sugar bowl was destroyed.
'"No one should lead the life I lead," Ishmael said,' (p227) I think Ish is a more interesting character if we assume he really believes this, and is not just saying it to save face.
'"Eventually, the last Duchess of Winnipeg joined V.F.D.,"' (p228) Other books make it sound like the Winnipeg family has ties with VFD that go back a long way. I guess this doesn't exactly contradict that, but it's definitely not the most obvious interpretation of what Ishmael says here.
And now we have the title drop for Ishmael's journal. I don't think it could possibly be surprising to anyone, but I for one didn't guess it beforehand.
