Two new Poison For Breakfast synopses

[Dante]

Dec 21, 2020 22:09:03 GMT -5 Marlowe said:

Could a moderator perhaps merge this with the other Poison for Breakfast thread, so as to have a single organized place for all news related to the book?

Threads for each new item of information has by and large been the convention through the forum's history - not least with how rarely information about this book comes along.

Dec 14, 2020 12:28:30 GMT -5 Dante said:

That is a reasonable possibility and a reasonable statement, though admittedly not what first comes to mind when recalling that book.

I referred to Horseradish more in the sense that PfB seems to be forgoing a more conventional narrative in favour of philosophical monologues (perhaps not unlike the various asides in AsoUE). PfB doesn't sound quite as weird as the Horseradish introduction - though Handler should really write more dark, non-Averse standalone stories like that under the Snicket name.

It sounds like what you're anticipating the book to be is a little different from what I'm anticipating. Regardless, I think we can agree that more narrative Snicket material would be welcome; discounting the fact that ASoUE and its satellites runs to a fairly whopping number of tomes on its own, the amount of actual independent Snicket material (outside of the picture books, which are really a completely different thing) is negligible. Poison for Breakfast's three-year delay doesn't help, of course; by the time it comes out, Handler could easily have another book or two lined up already (if the whole experience hasn't put him off using Snicket at all).

[cwm]

Dec 13, 2020 7:01:18 GMT -5 Hermes said:

My first reaction is 'in what universe do The Little Prince and Sophie's World belong to the same tradition?'. I meant, they are both philosophical works, but so is a lot of fiction.

Also, 'his own demise' sounds rather as if he does actually die, which would make this an unusual story (though not unknown - there are several books written by dead people, The Third Policeman perhaps being the most famous).

It could simply be the case that "solving his own demise" sounds better for the marketing copy than "solving his own attempted murder". It is certainly true that there are stories about dead people trying to solve their own murder -- indeed, there is a TV Tropes page about it -- but the "already dead" versions tend to feature the victim as a ghost, which doesn't seem particularly likely here (it could, of course, be Snicket narrating up until the moment of his death, but that might throw up its own problems). I would tend towards the "not dead yet" variant.

[Marlowe]

Dec 22, 2020 4:37:45 GMT -5 Dante said:

Dec 21, 2020 22:09:03 GMT -5 Marlowe said:

Could a moderator perhaps merge this with the other Poison for Breakfast thread, so as to have a single organized place for all news related to the book?

Threads for each new item of information has by and large been the convention through the forum's history - not least with how rarely information about this book comes along.

Not to go off on a tangent, but: wouldn't having a single thread that covers all of the book's news function as a comprehensive, easily accessible guide as opposed to scattering bits across separate threads? For example, if one were to write something that tracks the book's history from its announcement to its various delays and promotion on social media, etc, it would be simply more convenient to have all of that information gathered together in one place. 

[Dante]

My strategy in the past for major releases has generally been to have both a centralised information thread, locked to posting, and individual threads for each new item of information released. In this case, the concept for a centralised thread never even became worth getting off the ground because we were still at ground zero in the promotion cycle when the book was delayed indefinitely. Strictly speaking, we still don't have official word that the book comes out next year at all. It's also not the case that we're being so pelted with information (and forum-originated speculation) that there's the remotest difficultly in keeping track; nobody is falling behind here. So I may pull a thread together once we have a proper release date and the promotional cycle actually starts in earnest, but as it stands I have not been convinced of the need for such a thread to exist yet - because as far as the publisher seems to be concerned, the book doesn't exist yet.

[Christmas Chief]

Dec 27, 2020 12:25:27 GMT -5 cwm said:

It could simply be the case that "solving his own demise" sounds better for the marketing copy than "solving his own attempted murder". It is certainly true that there are stories about dead people trying to solve their own murder -- indeed, there is a TV Tropes page about it -- but the "already dead" versions tend to feature the victim as a ghost, which doesn't seem particularly likely here (it could, of course, be Snicket narrating up until the moment of his death, but that might throw up its own problems). I would tend towards the "not dead yet" variant.

I agree the promotional text is more likely just misleading, but I hadn't thought of your parenthetical solution. A narration up until the moment of death is an interesting way one could solve one's own demise without involving the supernatural. The supernatural reading would seem to place Snicket the character in a new genre, though I can imagine a version of the world where it works, even if it is probably a detail that would have made it onto these initial promos if it were the case. 

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

If Lemony is really going to die, I think he would literally be writing something out of his commonplace book until the moment of death.

[R.]

I have mixed feelings on the concept of Lemony’s death. On the one hand I hate him as a character and wouldn’t really mind if he died, on the other hand I love him as a writer and if he died there would be no more Snicket books.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

Not necessarily. The death of a character-nartador is not always at the end of his work. Especially in the world of Snicket. He may have sent his writings to someone, who only decides to publish after his death. I actually suspect that ATWQ uses this mechanism. The posthumous publication of works previously unknown to the general public.

Or even better, the narrated death did not actually happen. The character wrote until the moment when he thought death was certain, but that did not happen. Or (my favorite) the narrator who narrates his own death is unreliable, and he just wanted to fake his own death by publishing that book. There are several possibilities in the world of fiction.

[Dante]

An open ending leaving it unclear whether Snicket is dead or alive would be absolutely thematically consistent with much of Snicket's prior work. Now that it's been suggested, I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

This prediction is really very credible. If there's one consistent thing about Daniel Handler, it's that he likes to include secrets and never reveal them.

[Marlowe]

Can we expect to see Snicket reunite with Seth or Helquist for this? Or could this be the first LS book sans illustrations?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

I dreamed that it would be Lisa Bros to illustrate this book. But then I realized it was just a dream.

[bear]

if this is really only 112 pages, there'd better not be any illustrations to pad it out. i want 0.1 inch margins and 6 point typeface while we're at it.

[Dante]

Jan 15, 2021 1:36:39 GMT -5 Marlowe said:

Can we expect to see Snicket reunite with Seth or Helquist for this? Or could this be the first LS book sans illustrations?

Well, at the very least, there will be cover art - but I find it reasonably probable that there will be interior illustrations; they're a consistent feature of Snicket's work and probably a selling point to the target age group. It's also the case that Handler clearly enjoys working with a variety of illustrators and has been known to seek them out himself, as he did with Seth. Of course, it's also that love of artistic diversity which makes me personally doubt that either Helquist or Seth will return for this project, unless the publishers specifically demand them; but Little Brown and Handler would presumably be more interested in selecting an illustrator whose work fits the tenor of the project.

[Christmas Chief]

Jan 15, 2021 2:01:24 GMT -5 bear said:

if this is really only 112 pages, there'd better not be any illustrations to pad it out. i want 0.1 inch margins and 6 point typeface while we're at it.

I didn't notice the 112 pages detail. I am increasingly unsure of what this book is supposed to be.

Also, I was going to ask if anyone runs "The Snicket Sleuth" Tumblr, since it comes up on the first page of results when one Googles "poison for breakfast." But I realized it's thedoctororwell!