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Post by Marlowe on Jul 10, 2020 18:10:12 GMT -5
Assuming you were introduced to ASoUE at a very young age, did you believe that Lemony Snicket was a real-life figure and that the series were his actual findings, or did you know it was a work of fiction from the get-go? If it's the latter case for you, congratulations, you were a less impressionable child than I was. If it was the former, then how did you find out about the truth, and when?
Myself, I read the first 4 (I think?) books in quick succession after getting them from my elementary school's library. I was immediately very excited at the idea of this shadowy, reclusive writer who authored books while on the lam and never let himself be photographed from the front or in well-lit locations. Then I told a teacher about the series, who in turn told me it was all made up. Imagine my disappointment. It took a while for me to accept this; I even briefly entertained the idea that it did so actually happen, and that Handler was just pretending to be the real author in order to protect the names of those involved the events, that all the names have been changed, and that certain plot details were embellished to make people believe it was fiction ... again, I was young. With an overactive imagination. I accepted reality as I continued reading the series, and the knowledge actually comforted me because I now didn't have to worry as much about what was happening to those poor orphans.
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Post by Uncle Algernon on Jul 10, 2020 20:16:05 GMT -5
I was never taken in to quite this extent (comes with reading a glossy French translation, I imagine), but I definitely did not find out for a very long time that Lemony Snicket wasn't the author of the series' real name.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Jul 11, 2020 3:40:37 GMT -5
Wait.....it's not real???
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Post by B. on Jul 11, 2020 10:00:08 GMT -5
You just ruined the entire series for me
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Post by Reba on Jul 12, 2020 9:48:37 GMT -5
my older brother read them at the same time as me and he told me about Daniel handler. But I think it first came up because he thought that the old woman in the author photo for Loney M. Setnick was Daniel handler in drag ? 😂
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Gregor Anwhistle
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Post by Gregor Anwhistle on Jul 12, 2020 18:34:22 GMT -5
I believed it was real. Especially when I got to LSTUA. All those mysterious photographs, newspaper clippings, and V.F.D. transcripts? Oh man, I felt like I had all this secret knowledge at my fingertips! I remember using my local library's catalog to try and find copies of the books mentioned in LSTUA. I succeeded in finding an old copy of Green Mansions and J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories." Sadly nothing turned up for Sir's book on the history of Lucky Smells Lumbermill. It's embarrassing how many times I tried to find that one (at more than one library lol)
As for Snicket/Handler, I was convinced they were separate people. This was very early 2000s so the internet wasn't something I used then. So I had no reason to doubt Snicket's claims about himself. I remember a children's magazine at school had an interview with Handler, promoting TVV. A caption beneath his picture said something to the effect of "There are rumors that Lemony Snicket and Daniel Handler are the same person." I said "nope" and moved on.
Once the internet entered my life and I connected with other fans on The Quiet World Forums (RIP, btw), I came to terms with the fact Snicket was just a character.
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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Jul 13, 2020 23:23:37 GMT -5
No, I didn't believe Snicket the character to be real, or else I would've had to believe the events of ASoUE to be real as well. However, I believed for a long time Beatrice from the dedications to be real, thinking the author just grieved for his deceased wife. Also, I guess I thought Daniel Handler (whose name I found out on the webs, of course) was much closer in his personality to Snicket the character (morose/melancholy and fastiduous) than he later turned out to be.
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Post by Reba on Jul 14, 2020 6:40:20 GMT -5
to be clear, i never believed the story was real, i just thought that lemony snicket was his real name. i'm a bit baffled as to how some of you could have had access to books, and novels, and not know that they were made up. Gregor Anwhistle you say you used the library catalog -- wouldn't this mean you also knew that there was a FICTION and a NONFICTION section, and that lemony snicket was in FICTION?
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Gregor Anwhistle
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Post by Gregor Anwhistle on Jul 14, 2020 8:07:19 GMT -5
Eh I was a kid at the time with a wild imagination. It was a short phase that passed. *shrugs
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