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Post by Hermes on Sept 11, 2021 16:55:20 GMT -5
As Lemony, who considers 'a wet viper perm' an obscene anagram, should know. Chapter 4. The movie discused here is presumably the one announced in Ch. 1 as one of the themes of the work.
The discussion of comparisons is extremely Snickety. Indeed, happiness resembles an aardvark. He is right, of course, that nothing is strictly incomparable.
The idea of reading the person going through the door as part of the inscription had not occurred to me, and still strikes me as rather counterintuitive.
No one dies in this chapter, so that theory must be given up.
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Post by Mr. Sharpe on Sept 11, 2021 21:40:56 GMT -5
I just finished Poison for Breakfast and adored every minute of it. I have also just begun my student teaching for High School English and all I can now think about is teaching this book to my future students.
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Post by the panopticountolaf on Sept 14, 2021 7:19:04 GMT -5
This is most assuredly not discussion but idc I just made a fried egg a la Feldman (who never moved the notes) and it was absolutely delicious oh my god- might try to bake an egg next
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jackson
Catastrophic Captain
We will attend masked balls at her castle, and you can get scared then.
Posts: 50
Likes: 29
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Post by jackson on Sept 14, 2021 22:53:28 GMT -5
might try to bake an egg next Please don't die.
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Post by Mr. Sharpe on Sept 14, 2021 23:07:42 GMT -5
This is most assuredly not discussion but idc I just made a fried egg a la Feldman (who never moved the notes) and it was absolutely delicious oh my god- might try to bake an egg next
Be careful, you may burn your fingers
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Post by Reba on Sept 19, 2021 19:15:07 GMT -5
what this book reminds me of the most is the speeches/talks that DH sometimes gives on book tours. rambling, witty, snicketish (emphasis on ish), technically appropriate for the children in the audience, but ultimately very intimate and heavy and drawn from his real life. i especially remember a speech he gave that had something to do with Anne Frank and his memories of childhood.
each chapter is also structured much the same as those freewheeling speeches; they jump through very disparate topics which only keep the interest because they are individually interesting things and are told to you in DH's charming way. then at the end they are all brought to a pitch where, by the power of clever rhetoric, they seem to actually have something to do with each other, and something to do with the profound point that he ultimately makes. that doesn't stop it from feeling like off-the-cuff gabbing, which DH is great at, but it's honestly more interesting in person, or as an addendum to a book (like a certain introduction or reader's companion), or serialized in a magazine, or some other in-the-moment form of communication. as A BOOK, standalone, i think it struggles to justify itself.
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jackson
Catastrophic Captain
We will attend masked balls at her castle, and you can get scared then.
Posts: 50
Likes: 29
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Post by jackson on Sept 19, 2021 22:13:37 GMT -5
Once in a blue moon we get insightful commentary from ¿bear?. I agree with the sentiment. A lot of it felt like sweet nothings, but given the existential scope of the subject matter I think few could do better.
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Post by counto on Sept 20, 2021 7:31:12 GMT -5
Hey everyone, guess who's back?
Anyway I've been looking over Poison for Breakfast (PFB) and this is probably the only time actual dates are used. Spoilers ahead: so Lemony at some point in the story goes to a library where he talks to a librarian, who wishes to be nameless is called Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson was a real life poet, she was considered as one of the leading poets in the 19th Century. Snicket references this as mentions that the desk Miss Dickinson sits at was donated roughly over 100 years ago. Which was when the real Emily Dickinson died in 1886. Meaning the desk was donated in 1986.
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TheAsh
Formidable Foreman
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Likes: 99
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Post by TheAsh on Sept 20, 2021 8:05:46 GMT -5
Hey everyone, guess who's back? Anyway I've been looking over Poison for Breakfast (PFB) and this is probably the only time actual dates are used. Spoilers ahead: so Lemony at some point in the story goes to a library where he talks to a librarian, who wishes to be nameless is called Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson was a real life poet, she was considered as one of the leading poets in the 19th Century. Snicket references this as mentions that the desk Miss Dickinson sits at was donated roughly over 100 years ago. Which was when the real Emily Dickinson died in 1886. Meaning the desk was donated in 1986. We know other dates as well, such as the shoemaker who survived the Holocaust, which has to be after 1945.
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Post by R. on Sept 20, 2021 10:25:22 GMT -5
Don’t double post, and it was never confirmed to be the Holocaust.
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Post by Reba on Sept 20, 2021 13:03:29 GMT -5
there’s also a date on one of the first pages where it says copyright 2021. I deduce this to mean that the events could not have taken place any time after 2021.
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Post by counto on Sept 22, 2021 1:44:52 GMT -5
Don’t double post, and it was never confirmed to be the Holocaust. Well in the book, Emily Dickinson mentions a book about a real life person who was a prisoner of war relating to the shoemaker. The composser was Olvier Messiaen, he was a French composer that was imprisoned during the second World War. During his time in a concentration camp he was in charge of composing music with a band of other prisoners. This sometimes happened with many holocaust victims, who's previous jobs actually saved their lives by doing hard labour. Perhaps the shoemaker was spared in exchanged for making or fixing shoes for his captors before he was liberated at the end of the war.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Sept 25, 2021 2:10:52 GMT -5
And so begins the slowest live reading of a book ever. Seriously, I'm gonna give my thoughts chapter by chapter but I seriously doubt i'll finish before the end of the year, that's how little time I have.
Chapter One
The Fatal Finale - a good alternate title for The End
Lemony and his family borrowing a house - So, when did this happen? He describe himself as 'quite small', but then there is an ambiguity in TUA about just how old Lemony was when he was taken, so it could conceivably be before his kidnapping.
'and sometimes I just wrote them down in my mind' - I like this line. That's mostly how I do my writing, at least
The Kidnapping - Who is the little girl, and more importantly, why would her parent's be telling Lemony about the kidnapping. Maybe it was Lemony's mother, telling Lemony about the kidnapping that was going to happen to him? Though that would only work if Jacques and Kit were kidnapped separately from Lemony, and I don't remember TUA well enough to say if that's the case or not.
I'm afraid I have to disagree about the philosophy section of the library. Generally one of the most popular sections (behind cooking and travel)....but then maybe I just live in a town of pretentious middle class douches.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Sept 28, 2021 7:43:00 GMT -5
I at last obtained my copy and finished reading today! I am still reading through this thread, but some initial thoughts:
- Well, it's clear why the target audience age jumped around so much, and why the publishers might have had their doubts about marketability. This is a very strange children's book. - I appreciated the philosophy jokes - e.g., no one likes reading philosophy and no one listens to philosophers. - The inside panel was also funny - "In the ears since this publishing hose was founded, we have worked with an array of wondrous authors who have brought illuminating clarity to our bewildering world. Now, instead, we bring you Lemony Snicket."
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Sept 28, 2021 8:00:14 GMT -5
I at last obtained my copy and finished reading today! I am still reading through this thread, but some initial thoughts: - Well, it's clear why the target audience age jumped around so much, and why the publishers might have had their doubts about marketability. This is a very strange children's book. - I appreciated the philosophy jokes - e.g., no one likes reading philosophy and no one listens to philosophers. - The inside panel was also funny - "In the ears since this publishing hose was founded, we have worked with an array of wondrous authors who have brought illuminating clarity to our bewildering world. Now, instead, we bring you Lemony Snicket." Do you agree that in the PFB universe, Lemony is the author of the fictional story of ASOUE and ATWQ?
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