Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Apr 28, 2021 7:38:08 GMT -5
THH ... How intriguing this book is for theorists like me. We have a library with a lot of information. We have the revelation about the SB theft. And we have the information that a person loved by Lemony died in a terrible fire on afternoon. Or at least that's what Lemony believed at the time he wrote THH.
Let me reignite the flames of one of asoue's main controversies a little, and I would say one of the most important: Is Lemony Snicket a reliable narrator?
Well, surprisingly we have Daniel Handler's confirmation that Lemony is not a reliable narrator. This is very important information from the author himself.
However, this leaves theorists with more problems than solutions. If Lemony is unreliable, does that mean he lies on purpose? And before I think the answer to that is yes or no, I can say that the most sensible answer (without making an assessment of the text itself, but of the statement) is that it is not necessarily so.
Let me cite an example of Brazilian literature in a book called Dom Casmurro. The narrator is the main character. He categorically states that his wife betrayed him. It provides evidence that for it sufficient, but an attentive reader will soon realize that the evidence presented are not conclusive, and all can be explained as misunderstandings. But the question is: did she betray him or not? The answer is that it can not be sure, and that was what the author wanted. To this day people argue about it, and no one has achieved a definitive answer, despite the statister's statements. The narrator is unreliable, not because he wants to fool the reader, but because he makes statements that they simply are not necessarily true even though he believing them.
Now let's think about Lemony Snicket. The main argument that serves as evidence that Lemony is an unreliable narrator is that he sometimes contradicts himself. After all, either Beatrice died one morning, or she died one afternoon, or she didn't even die. Either Kit Snicket died on the island during the time when the Buadelaires children were there, or she was alive at the time of the publication of the books. But if we take into account the evidence that Lemony spent years writing his books, there is a possibility that these contradictions are caused by Lemony's access to new information, which led him to complete other things as he published his books. The fact that he contradicts himself only underscores the value he gave to the truth: when he himself realized that he had been wrong in some detail, he was not ashamed to clarify some details. We can say that, based on this logic, when Lemony wrote THH, he believed that Beatrice had died on a different occasion from the fire in her house. Although this statement itself cannot be substantiated, due to the unreliable nature of the narrator (who may be mistaken again regarding Beatrice's death) it does mean that Lemony had access to information that made him believe that Beatrice survived the fire from her house.
(Of course the credibility of these possible information can also be contested). Still, it's good to ask ourselves, "Why did Lemony change his mind?"
We can say that there are two canonical moments that can indicate the reasons why Lemony changed her opinion. One of these reasons I have always defended, and I will not dwell here: The masquerade ball at which Lemony was captured took place after the publication of TRR. And TRR was published years after the main events described in asoue. Whether Beatrice was actually there or not is a good question, after all it may have been a scheme to attract and capture Lemony.(better than a costume party to disguise yourself as someone else).
But still we have proof that Lemony believed that Beatrice could have survived for many years after the fire at her house.
But, while he was writing THH, he believed that Beatrice had died at some point after that, at some time when a suspicious typewriter was involved (as indicated in the three-part art that describes what happened to Beatrice).
The other and canonical evidence is the list of patients in the form of anagrams contained in THH. I always believed that the names on this list were fourth wall breaks. As Dante said, it would be unlikely that a great disaster in Vfd make several people involved with VFD go to the same hospital at the same time. This convinced me at the time. But then, R. , in a game, created a more interesting theory. The list of patients containing Lemony Snicket Anagrams, Beatrice Baudelaire, Daniel Handler, Lisa Brown and others should not in fact be a list of true patients. According to Roxy, VFD must have marked some secret meeting at the hospital that day, and the list of patients would actually be a list of people present for that meeting.
It makes a lot of sense. Hospital H had a library linked to VFD. Information related to VFD arrived in physical media, which indicates that someone personally took it there. Due to the confidential nature of these messages (not even Hal could read them in detail) it is to be expected that the messengers were people connected to VFD or animals connected to VFD. It is not difficult to imagine the hospital as a meeting place.
Second, there would be no reason for Count Olaf to simply write all those anagrams there. It is quite possible that when he went to write Violet Baudelaire's anagram he simply came across a list of anagrams with names of his enemies. He easily deduced that his enemies were around. Although he did not deduce the names of each one, it was easy to see that those were anagrams of someone from VFD, and so he deduced that it could be some of his enemies. This certainly served as an additional motivation for Olaf to start a fire in that hospital.
Third, there is my theory about how Lemony knew about events in detail, including secret Baudelaire meetings. Klaus and Sunny decoded their sister's anagram in a room where only the two of them were. Klaus disregarded anagrams that could not have been Violet's. However, Lemony knows the names of these anagrams. Although Klaus has an incredible memory, I think it is unlikely that he would write these names in the island book, on which Lemony based a good part of his writings according to my theory. That list must have been destroyed in the fire. So the information about the contents of the other names on the list must be something that Lemony Snicket himself already knew. This is evidence that he was indeed there, that day, and that is why his name was there, in the form of an anagram, on that list.
This is evidence that Lemony did believe that Beatrice had survived her house fire when he published TRR. (Although he started writing TBB before the fire at Hospital H, although he probably published it years later, as indicated in TBBRE).
Let me reignite the flames of one of asoue's main controversies a little, and I would say one of the most important: Is Lemony Snicket a reliable narrator?
Well, surprisingly we have Daniel Handler's confirmation that Lemony is not a reliable narrator. This is very important information from the author himself.
However, this leaves theorists with more problems than solutions. If Lemony is unreliable, does that mean he lies on purpose? And before I think the answer to that is yes or no, I can say that the most sensible answer (without making an assessment of the text itself, but of the statement) is that it is not necessarily so.
Let me cite an example of Brazilian literature in a book called Dom Casmurro. The narrator is the main character. He categorically states that his wife betrayed him. It provides evidence that for it sufficient, but an attentive reader will soon realize that the evidence presented are not conclusive, and all can be explained as misunderstandings. But the question is: did she betray him or not? The answer is that it can not be sure, and that was what the author wanted. To this day people argue about it, and no one has achieved a definitive answer, despite the statister's statements. The narrator is unreliable, not because he wants to fool the reader, but because he makes statements that they simply are not necessarily true even though he believing them.
Now let's think about Lemony Snicket. The main argument that serves as evidence that Lemony is an unreliable narrator is that he sometimes contradicts himself. After all, either Beatrice died one morning, or she died one afternoon, or she didn't even die. Either Kit Snicket died on the island during the time when the Buadelaires children were there, or she was alive at the time of the publication of the books. But if we take into account the evidence that Lemony spent years writing his books, there is a possibility that these contradictions are caused by Lemony's access to new information, which led him to complete other things as he published his books. The fact that he contradicts himself only underscores the value he gave to the truth: when he himself realized that he had been wrong in some detail, he was not ashamed to clarify some details. We can say that, based on this logic, when Lemony wrote THH, he believed that Beatrice had died on a different occasion from the fire in her house. Although this statement itself cannot be substantiated, due to the unreliable nature of the narrator (who may be mistaken again regarding Beatrice's death) it does mean that Lemony had access to information that made him believe that Beatrice survived the fire from her house.
(Of course the credibility of these possible information can also be contested). Still, it's good to ask ourselves, "Why did Lemony change his mind?"
We can say that there are two canonical moments that can indicate the reasons why Lemony changed her opinion. One of these reasons I have always defended, and I will not dwell here: The masquerade ball at which Lemony was captured took place after the publication of TRR. And TRR was published years after the main events described in asoue. Whether Beatrice was actually there or not is a good question, after all it may have been a scheme to attract and capture Lemony.(better than a costume party to disguise yourself as someone else).
But still we have proof that Lemony believed that Beatrice could have survived for many years after the fire at her house.
But, while he was writing THH, he believed that Beatrice had died at some point after that, at some time when a suspicious typewriter was involved (as indicated in the three-part art that describes what happened to Beatrice).
The other and canonical evidence is the list of patients in the form of anagrams contained in THH. I always believed that the names on this list were fourth wall breaks. As Dante said, it would be unlikely that a great disaster in Vfd make several people involved with VFD go to the same hospital at the same time. This convinced me at the time. But then, R. , in a game, created a more interesting theory. The list of patients containing Lemony Snicket Anagrams, Beatrice Baudelaire, Daniel Handler, Lisa Brown and others should not in fact be a list of true patients. According to Roxy, VFD must have marked some secret meeting at the hospital that day, and the list of patients would actually be a list of people present for that meeting.
It makes a lot of sense. Hospital H had a library linked to VFD. Information related to VFD arrived in physical media, which indicates that someone personally took it there. Due to the confidential nature of these messages (not even Hal could read them in detail) it is to be expected that the messengers were people connected to VFD or animals connected to VFD. It is not difficult to imagine the hospital as a meeting place.
Second, there would be no reason for Count Olaf to simply write all those anagrams there. It is quite possible that when he went to write Violet Baudelaire's anagram he simply came across a list of anagrams with names of his enemies. He easily deduced that his enemies were around. Although he did not deduce the names of each one, it was easy to see that those were anagrams of someone from VFD, and so he deduced that it could be some of his enemies. This certainly served as an additional motivation for Olaf to start a fire in that hospital.
Third, there is my theory about how Lemony knew about events in detail, including secret Baudelaire meetings. Klaus and Sunny decoded their sister's anagram in a room where only the two of them were. Klaus disregarded anagrams that could not have been Violet's. However, Lemony knows the names of these anagrams. Although Klaus has an incredible memory, I think it is unlikely that he would write these names in the island book, on which Lemony based a good part of his writings according to my theory. That list must have been destroyed in the fire. So the information about the contents of the other names on the list must be something that Lemony Snicket himself already knew. This is evidence that he was indeed there, that day, and that is why his name was there, in the form of an anagram, on that list.
This is evidence that Lemony did believe that Beatrice had survived her house fire when he published TRR. (Although he started writing TBB before the fire at Hospital H, although he probably published it years later, as indicated in TBBRE).