The ASOUE effect and the "why"
Feb 6, 2021 21:42:41 GMT -5
the panopticountolaf, Optimism is my Phil-osophy, and 6 more like this
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 6, 2021 21:42:41 GMT -5
One of the coolest scenes I saw in 2020 was the question that Roxy222 asked Daniel Handler. She asked "why?" Roxy222 wanted to know why Daniel Handler couldn't count on disclosing whether Esmé had survived or not. As usual, he didn't respond. But before "not responding" Daniel Handler made several facial expressions. I am not a master of facial expressions, and my skills as a detective have been extremely flawed even though I love to show them off. But recently I found myself mentally reviewing that scene and the scene in which he ignored my question about Betrice.
You did not see exactly what exactly happened to me, and I did not have the courage to divulge in detail my impressions of what I saw. The photo I released is not exactly from the moment the question was asked. It is true that he smiled. But that smile had a touch of a word that I tried to escape for a long time, and that haunts me today, but that I finally have the courage to pronounce it: "disappointment". He wasn't angry with me for being an adult asking that. He was disappointed in me for asking about it.
The facial expressions he showed with Roxy222 seemed totally different. As I described it once, he went through a moment of anguish, having to deny the answer to Roxy222. But he knew he needed to deny the answer. Other fans went through similar situations, and his reaction was always to deny answers.
I first believed that this was like a marketing strategy. I thought that as long as he didn't provide definitive answers to ASOUE's mysteries, he would always keep his work relevant among theorists. But Daniel Handler's attitude towards snicketiologists is one of indifference, which borders on contempt. So he doesn't seem to support asoue's search for answers ... At least not from the heart. Maybe at first he felt something like that ... But that just doesn't answer the question that Roxy222 asked: "why?"
I later started thinking, "Daniel Handler got tired of ASOUE. He no longer wants to be recognized as the writer of ASOUE, but he wants to be recognized for having written under his own name." But that also doesn't make sense. He wrote other books using the name Lemony Snicket.
Now, thinking again about those facial expressions, about PFB's arrival, about how excited he was about this new book ... I think I understand DH's current feelings about asoue. And I understand even more about the work.
I believe that Daniel Handler considers ASOUE to be something really good. I believe Daniel Handler is one of the biggest fans of ASOUE, and the only one who can connect with ASOUE in a way that no other can connect. Me, Dante, Roxy222, Sherryann and many others here connect with ASOUE in a similar but less intense way. We feel what I just called "ASOUE effect." And to understand that, I have to say that the ASOUE effect is something that was created by itself, but it is very real.
Let me use an example from nature: proteins. Proteins are formed by a strip of amino acids. The instructions in our genetic material tell you how to make the amino acid strip. But it is not exactly the strip of amino acids that gives the final function of the protein. The strand of amino acids, while being synthesized in our ribosomes, starts to surprisingly wrap around itself and form a three-dimensional piece. And this three-dimensional shape, which was not written anywhere, gives the main function of the protein. Each of those amino acids, being in the ideal place, is what guarantees the final shape of the protein.
Daniel Handler was the author of the words and phrases that are in ASOUE. But what ASOUE ended up becoming was something that exceeded the author's own expectations. I am not referring to sales success. I'm talking about the work itself. ASOUE was not the result of a great advance planning of all the details. In fact, even the initiative to create content like this, aimed at 10 year olds, didn't even come from Daniel Handler. The final number of books had not been planned from the beginning, and I am sure to imagine that Lemony Snicket became fascinated with the number 13 by simple coincidence ... I think it had to do with the number of chapters of the first book. It turned out to be very stylish. The photographs in LSTUA already existed before ASOUE existed ... And they helped to form a universe in the readers' imagination. A universe capable of being imagined. If we add Mr. Helquist's drawings to the equation ... And then the jokes that Daniel Handler made for ASOUE that ended up becoming background events. And the underdeveloped characters and events that ended up becoming very cool mysteries. The black comedy for children that ended up becoming a question about human morals.
These things don't seem to have been intentional. But the effect of it all together, the way it happened, gives a unique effect. The ASOUE effect has become something that no one can replicate perfectly because the imperfections, coincidences, inconsistencies, lack of discernment, drawings, photographs, poetry, and Daniel Handler's somewhat aimless creativity have come together in an incredible way to form a set of actually much more impressive work than Daniel Handler himself could have done by his own willpower.
Thus, I believe that Daniel Handler cannot say some details about ASOUE simply because he realized this: if he, as an author, touches on one of ASOUE's sensitive components, the entire ASOUE Effect can fall apart in his own hands. It is as if asoue were that quarterly protein structure, and it was the ribosome that produced the amino acid strand. If he exchanged one amino acid for another, that whole protein could fall apart and form a mutant monstrosity. Daniel Handler put ASOUE on the pedestal he deserves to be surrounded by a strong security system. The ASOUE effect is as valuable as it is sensitive to his observations. And he will never reveal any additional details, for fear that it will ruin one of the coolest lierary works of the past 20 years.
And when I think of the face of disappointment he threw at me, I understand the reason for that disappointment. He was saying to me something like, "Can't you appreciate the beauty of it? And can't you feel how fragile it is? Are you, a fan, trying to destroy a magnificent piece like this by asking me a question like that? If you you can't even see it, you are not a real fan. You are just an idiot. "
Well, Daniel Handler ... I'm here to tell you that I can see now. Congratulations on having had the opportunity to write this. And congratulations on the courage to make asoue have a life of its own.
I will not do anything else that could end up killing the very creation I admire. I'm still going to make theories, probably. But they are harmless, as long as you don't confirm or deny them. They are just side effects of the ASOUE effect. But I think you already know that.
You did not see exactly what exactly happened to me, and I did not have the courage to divulge in detail my impressions of what I saw. The photo I released is not exactly from the moment the question was asked. It is true that he smiled. But that smile had a touch of a word that I tried to escape for a long time, and that haunts me today, but that I finally have the courage to pronounce it: "disappointment". He wasn't angry with me for being an adult asking that. He was disappointed in me for asking about it.
The facial expressions he showed with Roxy222 seemed totally different. As I described it once, he went through a moment of anguish, having to deny the answer to Roxy222. But he knew he needed to deny the answer. Other fans went through similar situations, and his reaction was always to deny answers.
I first believed that this was like a marketing strategy. I thought that as long as he didn't provide definitive answers to ASOUE's mysteries, he would always keep his work relevant among theorists. But Daniel Handler's attitude towards snicketiologists is one of indifference, which borders on contempt. So he doesn't seem to support asoue's search for answers ... At least not from the heart. Maybe at first he felt something like that ... But that just doesn't answer the question that Roxy222 asked: "why?"
I later started thinking, "Daniel Handler got tired of ASOUE. He no longer wants to be recognized as the writer of ASOUE, but he wants to be recognized for having written under his own name." But that also doesn't make sense. He wrote other books using the name Lemony Snicket.
Now, thinking again about those facial expressions, about PFB's arrival, about how excited he was about this new book ... I think I understand DH's current feelings about asoue. And I understand even more about the work.
I believe that Daniel Handler considers ASOUE to be something really good. I believe Daniel Handler is one of the biggest fans of ASOUE, and the only one who can connect with ASOUE in a way that no other can connect. Me, Dante, Roxy222, Sherryann and many others here connect with ASOUE in a similar but less intense way. We feel what I just called "ASOUE effect." And to understand that, I have to say that the ASOUE effect is something that was created by itself, but it is very real.
Let me use an example from nature: proteins. Proteins are formed by a strip of amino acids. The instructions in our genetic material tell you how to make the amino acid strip. But it is not exactly the strip of amino acids that gives the final function of the protein. The strand of amino acids, while being synthesized in our ribosomes, starts to surprisingly wrap around itself and form a three-dimensional piece. And this three-dimensional shape, which was not written anywhere, gives the main function of the protein. Each of those amino acids, being in the ideal place, is what guarantees the final shape of the protein.
Daniel Handler was the author of the words and phrases that are in ASOUE. But what ASOUE ended up becoming was something that exceeded the author's own expectations. I am not referring to sales success. I'm talking about the work itself. ASOUE was not the result of a great advance planning of all the details. In fact, even the initiative to create content like this, aimed at 10 year olds, didn't even come from Daniel Handler. The final number of books had not been planned from the beginning, and I am sure to imagine that Lemony Snicket became fascinated with the number 13 by simple coincidence ... I think it had to do with the number of chapters of the first book. It turned out to be very stylish. The photographs in LSTUA already existed before ASOUE existed ... And they helped to form a universe in the readers' imagination. A universe capable of being imagined. If we add Mr. Helquist's drawings to the equation ... And then the jokes that Daniel Handler made for ASOUE that ended up becoming background events. And the underdeveloped characters and events that ended up becoming very cool mysteries. The black comedy for children that ended up becoming a question about human morals.
These things don't seem to have been intentional. But the effect of it all together, the way it happened, gives a unique effect. The ASOUE effect has become something that no one can replicate perfectly because the imperfections, coincidences, inconsistencies, lack of discernment, drawings, photographs, poetry, and Daniel Handler's somewhat aimless creativity have come together in an incredible way to form a set of actually much more impressive work than Daniel Handler himself could have done by his own willpower.
Thus, I believe that Daniel Handler cannot say some details about ASOUE simply because he realized this: if he, as an author, touches on one of ASOUE's sensitive components, the entire ASOUE Effect can fall apart in his own hands. It is as if asoue were that quarterly protein structure, and it was the ribosome that produced the amino acid strand. If he exchanged one amino acid for another, that whole protein could fall apart and form a mutant monstrosity. Daniel Handler put ASOUE on the pedestal he deserves to be surrounded by a strong security system. The ASOUE effect is as valuable as it is sensitive to his observations. And he will never reveal any additional details, for fear that it will ruin one of the coolest lierary works of the past 20 years.
And when I think of the face of disappointment he threw at me, I understand the reason for that disappointment. He was saying to me something like, "Can't you appreciate the beauty of it? And can't you feel how fragile it is? Are you, a fan, trying to destroy a magnificent piece like this by asking me a question like that? If you you can't even see it, you are not a real fan. You are just an idiot. "
Well, Daniel Handler ... I'm here to tell you that I can see now. Congratulations on having had the opportunity to write this. And congratulations on the courage to make asoue have a life of its own.
I will not do anything else that could end up killing the very creation I admire. I'm still going to make theories, probably. But they are harmless, as long as you don't confirm or deny them. They are just side effects of the ASOUE effect. But I think you already know that.