Revolting Reading: TGG

[Glittery666]

Chapter 8
Precipitation isn’t just rain.It can also be known as snow or hail.
I bet if Phil exploded he’d say, “Look on the bright side, now I can be everywhere all at once.”
The Baudelaires and Fiona were green dots on a screen, so yeah Widdershins and Phil could see them but not their surroundings.
I’m going to have to agree with Fiona on this one, the effects of the Medusoid mycelium would to fascinating to watch
if they weren’t so horrible.
This is the fourth book in which one of the siblings is incapacitated and the others have to save them. The other
instances were Sunny in TBB, Klaus in TMM, and Violet in THH.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 5
You're not alone, Glittery, I am a tapioca fan too.

Captain Widdershins' exuberance and exclamations remind me of a mixture of Captain Haddock and Jolyon Wagg from the Tintin comics.

Kit Snicket is name dropped. It's interesting that she helped construct the Queequeg. That means all three Snicket siblings have a connection to the submarine: Kit helped build it and Jacques and Lemony served as crew members.

Jacques proving the Royal Gardens fire was arson is referenced in The Bad Beginning:Rare Edition notes, where Jacques wrote an article on the event itself.

I wonder if Lemony's marmosets were similarly trained for spotting forest fires like the salmon. They're also tiny, so I could see VFD using them to deliver messages. Interesting how this is the second time Widdershins refers to Lemony but doesn't say his name.

Sunny's "Etartsigam" is Magistrate backwards, a bit of foreshadowing for Justice Strauss and the J.S. mystery we'll be seeing in TPP.

"Morel Behavior in a Free Society" is a fun mycology pun.

It's cool how many more VFD subs there used to be. This was my intro to the delightful works of P.G. Wodehouse (thank you Daniel Handler). Archy and Mehitabel are a cockroach and cat duo from newspaper columnist Don Marquis. Their Wikipedia page is a fun rabbit hole, but what's interesting is that Archy the cockroach would sneak into the newspaper building after hours and use the typewriter to churn out stories and poems. Basically a cockroach Lemony Snicket lol.

Chapter 6
I love the description of the grotto, like the mosaic depicting noble events from early VFD history. Too bad the kids couldn't use the pumping machine to drain the water out of the tunnel. Although maybe that would allow the mycelium to spread further...

Chapter 7
I love the passage about the Baudelaires and the ruined atlas. Up to this point in the series we've only seen pleasant memories of their parents. But now the Baudelaires are stepping into uncomfortable territory, when Beatrice and Bertrand weren't at their best. It really does feel like you're stepping over an invisible line. And I think this is subtly prepping us for the poison dart plot line in TPP. There's more depth to the Baud parents than we realize...

The chapter on the poem code mentions Duchess R, the second time the Baudelaires hear of this off-screen volunteer.

We get confirmation that Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory is VFD-owned.

I wonder if mustard would be an effective way of combating the mycelium, as it is in the same family as wasabi and horseradish.

Great cliffhanger ending with the spore in the helmet.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 9
I think the peak of Olaf’s disregard is either trying to decapitate Violet or killing Uncle Monty and trying to frame a snake.
The image of the tunnel covered in eyes is creepy but also kind of intriguing.
Olaf’s really hamming it up.
First hint for potential whereabouts of Fiona’s brother.
Does Olaf share Widdershins’ philosophy or is he just making fun of him?Because if it’s the former, that doesn’t bode
well for Widdershins’ motives for abandoning the Bauds and Fiona.
I’d like to know where Esme got the giant noodle.
I’d actually like the name Carmelita if I didn’t associate it with Carmelita Spats.
Carmelita’s outfit is where the Baudelaires encounter tap-dancing.I remember before I read this book I thought
the part on the back cover about them encountering tap dancing meant that they’d be taking lessons.
Hooky’s true identity revealed.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 8
The small, ceramic bowl hidden in the laundry room of an enormous hotel is our first hint about the sugar bowl plot in TPP.

Chapter 9
If the ASOUE movies had continued, there's no doubt Jim Carrey would have leaned heavily into Olaf's evil laugh.

I'd love to know the context of Olaf trying to throw thumbtacks into Fiona's cradle.

I've always been intrigued that the Widdershins family could never pick a side of the schism. Kinda similar to Olivia, who was helping both sides.

We learn that in addition to submarines, VFD has planes.

Esme confusing Fiona for a grown up Sunny is just extra levels of foolishness.

You can tell Olaf already regrets recruiting Carmelita.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 10
I love the sadness fire metaphor.
I honestly don’t blame Fernald for running away when Widdershins kept yelling at him.
I know villains having sad backstories is kind of cliche, but it’s cool that Fernald gets some depth.
It’s also interesting to note that, not counting Esme, he’s the only henchperson to have a name.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Technically there's Hugo, Collette, and Kevin.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 11
I like how the opening illustration and text are integrated, with the text forming the pillar that the characters are peering behind in the story.

We don't normally get full-face illustrations of new characters, so it's cool to see Fiona.

Imagine Carmelita and and Nero performing together.

Violet turns 15, and once again a Baudelaire birthday occurs in the midst of dire circumstances.

Sunny opening her mouth with visible stalks and caps of the mycelium inside is such a creepy image.

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

I find this book very interesting. I'm not following the reread, but I remember some important points in my theory. Firstly, Captain W. is certainly a big liar. He is looking for the SB in the ocean because he received information that the SB had been thrown out of the HQ window. Certainly this information must have been received through the telegram equipment that is hypothetically broken. But it was working all the time. Surely after Klaus calculated where the SB was, Captain W sent the information to the mysterious woman or her supporters. He must have sent this information while the children were sleeping. Thanks to that, the woman got to GG and grabbed SB. She must have arrived at the submarine with the SB in hand. And Captain W decided to abandon the submarine so urgently because the woman said something like: "I can't breathe." He must have taken the SB with him. That's why he needed to send the SB to Hotel D via the crows. The reason SB needed to go to Hotel D was because SB contained a lot of confidential information, much of that information was being cataloged in the real Hotel D.

Another key thing is the backstory of the W family that mixes with the Anwistle family and Olaf's actions. It has been explained several times that the word "schism" refers to different events in the recent history of VFD. We had the Great Schism, which the Man with a Beard and the Woman without a Beard participated in, about 40 years before the main events. As they said, it was at this event that the serpents took the willing side of the schism. Olaf, evidently still quite young, took the willing side of the schism as well, and was trained along with Lemony by VFD. Another important schism was the Anwistle Schism. It is this schism that the W family was unsure whether to participate or not. Captain W's wife evidently sided with the schism that wanted to use the deadly MM fungus against the enemies that already existed (the incendiary side) while Captain W himself was unsure whether he would support his wife or not. That's certainly what led to the end of their marriage, and the lame excuse about Fiona's mother's death. Fiona herself was still a baby. Around this time, Olaf and Fernald teamed up to put an end to the threat of the deadly MM fungus. This development of events made Fernald very confused about VFD's morals and Olaf's morals.

According to Fernald and Lemony's words about him disagreeing with some of Captain W's attitudes, and Olaf's words about the W family never deciding which side to support in the schism, and the fact that Olaf and Fiona were close when she was still a baby, leads me to believe that Captain W was actually the great hero of humanity. An unrecognized hero, but a hero nonetheless.

The deadly MM fungus needed to be destroyed. That is a fact that, at least I, recognize. But only people who supported Anwistle's schism could approach where the fungus was being cultivated. This is evident by the fact that Kit Snicket tried to convince Anwistle through a letter, instead of solving the problem herself.

Captain W had to pretend to be a supporter of Anwistle's schism and infiltrate the sect. In order to help him complete this mission, Captain W managed to marry Fiona and Fernald's mother, one of Anwistle's main persons of interest due to her research work. Additionally, Kit Snicket achieved an engineering feat: building a submarine that required a very small crew to operate, as it did not use human propulsion.

Thus, Captain W became a person of interest for Anwistle's plan since his submarine could be used in all the necessary logistics. But at some point, Captain W was responsible for bringing a person from VFD with a bad reputation and experience in causing fires to Anwistle's facilities: Olaf. Unable to explain his true intentions to Fernald, Captain W posed as a supporter of Anwistle's ideas in Fernald's eyes. And for that reason, Fernald allied with Olaf and helped in the destruction of AA and the deadly MM fungus, without knowing that this was exactly what Captain W had in mind.

It was a complicated situation. Anyway, Fernald could not conceive the idea that Captain W would remain a member of VFD even knowing that VFD was responsible for cultivating the deadly MM fungus, without making the proper separation between the wheat and the chaff of VFD. That's why he joins Olaf, who from his point of view was a dissident member of VFD and one of the responsible for saving humanity.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 11
Fiona stepping in as captain shouldn’t have to mean saying aye over and over again.
That brave kid has a point.Being slapped by a noodle, even one that big, wouldn’t hurt that much.
I think out of the “force your horrible x on someone” examples, forcing your horrible cousins would be the worst.
I’m kind of surprised Carmelita knows how to spell her own name.
Your Esmeness lol.
I wonder how many of Olaf’s other associates know Fernald’s real name.
I have to agree with Gregor that the image of mushrooms growing out of Sunny’s mouth is pretty disturbing.
Most wasabi sold in North America is actually horseradish anyway, so it makes sense that the wasabi would make a
good substitute for horseradish.

Also, Jean, you should really join in on the reread.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 12
At least Sunny managed to recover.
I’m kind of inspired to try to invent a food code now.
“Pony throbbing” sounds dirty.
I actually find it easier to imagine Fiona having an interest in poetry than Widdershins.
I can understand why Widdershins kept the poetry hidden, it probably reminds him of Fernald.
Fiona wore glasses as an infant?That’s hard to picture but also kind of cute.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 12

I love the description of the Widdershins family photo, I feel like I'm holding the picture and studying it myself. Although it's a bit sad to see how much happier they used to be. I particularly like the sentence "Violet and Klaus looked from one photograph to the other, imagining a time when no one in the pictures was lost, and everyone was happy."

I like "the two Baudelaires shelved the discussion, and unshelved the poetry books." Clever Snicket wordplay.

Olaf mentions the Widdershins fortune. I like to imagine some of it helped fund the Queequeg's construction.

That's certainly one sturdy table because it's holding up the combined weight of several villains.

[Glittery666]

Chapter 13
That picture of Mr Poe is the same one used by Terry for his Poe’s Tattoo’s A Potato persona.
Turns out that sometimes water is thicker than blood.
I didn’t realize until now how messed up Esme and Carmelita going through Fiona’s mother’s things is.
Fiona kissed Klaus, Kliona confirmed.
Sunny’s certainly come a long way.
Geraldine Julienne as a JS?Mr Poe keeps getting dumber and dumber.

[MisterM]

Jan 8, 2024 1:15:25 GMT -5 Glittery666 said:

That picture of Mr Poe is the same one used by Terry for his Poe’s Tattoo’s A Potato persona.

This is a key moment on the development of our society.

[Gregor Anwhistle]

Chapter 13

Olaf, Esme, and Carmelita doing the evil laugh in succession followed by Fernald yelling "I also find this amusing!" is a funny parallel to earlier in the book when the Queequeg crew each exclaim "Aye!" with Phil shouting "Hooray!"

I like the little shared grin between Violet and Klaus as she fires up the engine.

Violet picking up the smooth stone on Briny Beach was teased in The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition, which was released the previous year.

Imagine chilling at Briny Beach and seeing a submarine pop up while three children step out.

Mr. Poe looking quite a bit older is an interesting line. I don't remember off the top of my head, but charting the number of days from TVV up to TGG isn't terribly long (I think). However, from the reader's perspective, TGG released in 2004 and we hadn't seen Mr. Poe since 2001. It's one of those fascinating details that changes when you binge these books today vs. the context of when the series originally released.

I love the ending. We've come full circle and are back where the series started (Sunny even says 'Gack' again as Mr. Poe arrives). But now the tables have turned and instead of being passive the Baudelaires take action and leave Mr. Poe. Them quoting the poems and mentioning Verse Fluctuation Declaration while Poe has no idea what they're talking about shows just how much they've changed since TBB. They're not just sad orphans anymore but volunteers with a deeper purpose. I like to imagine that as the scene closes, the sun comes out and the gray fog is no more.

[MisterM]

I agree about the ending. Of all the books, I found this to have left me the most on-the-edge-of-my-seat after reading it of the whole series.