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Post by Glittery666 on Feb 6, 2023 23:56:44 GMT -5
Chapter 10
I first read this book when I was 7 and I never wanted to go sailing in a hurricane, so I think the publishers were just worrying too much.
I like the definition for phantasmagorical.
I gotta admit, throwing a stool out the window is kind of clever.
Chapter 11
I strangely like the phrase “a pinpoint of pale purple light.”
The leeches scene ranks up there with the library of records chase as one of the most intense scenes in the series.
Aunt Josephine won’t need her hairnet for too much longer.
I’m calling it, the ant-burning cousin is Esme.
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Post by MisterM on Feb 7, 2023 2:22:54 GMT -5
what aspects were the most tainted for u? i didnt think the episodes were that bad but am curious Mostly the destruction of the house and everything to do with Larry and/or the Anxious Clown |
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Post by Glittery666 on Feb 7, 2023 9:03:03 GMT -5
I don't think the episodes were too bad but prefer how this book was handled in the movie.
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Post by Glittery666 on Feb 7, 2023 22:30:05 GMT -5
Chapter 12
Aunt Josephine is called an old lady three times in two pages, and yet some people still think she’s the same age
as the Snickets.
Even if the Baudelaires didn’t necessarily enjoy living with Aunt Josephine, they can sympathize with her because she
tried her best and went through horrible things just like them.
What the heck does Brobdingnagian mean?
Chapter 13
If this story has a moral, I think it would be “don’t let fear rule your life.”
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 14, 2023 14:50:08 GMT -5
Chapter 1 and 2 - Auntie Josephine has definitely had a rough time with PTSD, mate. Given that she's one of those from VFD who's cut ties with the secret organisation and doesn’t fancy reconnecting, everything starts to make a lot more sense. Let's have a butcher's at what might've caused each of her fears:
1 - Fear of leaving the house - A common dread after a bit of a trauma.
2 - Fear of heaters and stoves - The mere thought of a heater or stove exploding, sparking a fire, and dragging VFD back into her life scared her senseless. She'd rather freeze and munch on cold grub than face that.
3 - Fear of "accidents" - She's probably heard tales about mysterious deaths caused by planted traps happening to VFD members. Uncle Monty's case, where he was offed and Olaf made it look like an accident, is a case in point.
4 - Fear of being deceived by false written information - She's likely seen how the Daily Punctilio, and possibly other sources of info, have been pulling the wool over people's eyes with their porkies.
5 - Fear of invaders: she's worried that enemies of the organisation will find her, break in, and top her. She's not bothered about her stuff being nicked, her real fear is ending up pushing up daisies.
6 - Fear of estate agents - As Kit Snicket suggested in TPP, some estate agents played a blinder in schisms. This is quite interesting, considering VFD's stash includes properties. In fact, arsonists are rather good at destroying this specific type of wealth. We know VFD is a secret organisation and its wealth is registered under individuals' names. At some point, complex situations led the organisation to flog off some of their properties, like what happened with the penthouse at Dark Avenue 667. That's why Jacques counted on Jerome to never sell the gaff. Either way, the presence of an estate agent could spell trouble for Josephine.
Chapter 2: Lemony, as a VFD member, has been to Egypt. In the letter to the editor printed in TBB regarding the TRR manuscript, it shows that Lemony visited London while he was publishing the first two books. Lemony turned out to be quite the busy bee in VFD, carrying out international missions, a stark contrast to what Auntie Josephine became.
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Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Jun 14, 2023 20:12:47 GMT -5
That all sounds reasonable. My one question is why she doesn't have "fear of people in disguise", since that's one of VFD's go-to techniques, yet she falls for " Captain Julio Sham" easily.
This is a plot hole with the book even when it came out, that such a paranoid woman would so quickly trust Olaf.
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Post by Glittery666 on Jun 14, 2023 20:36:29 GMT -5
Yeah, that is a bit strange.
Her fear of the phone may also be linked to a fear of being spied on.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 14, 2023 22:03:58 GMT -5
That all sounds reasonable. My one question is why she doesn't have "fear of people in disguise", since that's one of VFD's go-to techniques, yet she falls for " Captain Julio Sham" easily. This is a plot hole with the book even when it came out, that such a paranoid woman would so quickly trust Olaf. hypnosis |
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Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Jun 15, 2023 5:53:27 GMT -5
Okay, but VFD members wouldn't be hypnotized, right? Even under your implausible theory, I can't see much point in making your own people not fall for your disguises. After all, Olivia Caliban saw through the Baudelaires' disguises, and you said it was because she was VFD.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 15, 2023 10:46:31 GMT -5
Let me be a little clearer and more comprehensive in my theory... You have to think about the time issue here. When Georgina O. was young, there was the great VFD schism. Around the same time that Lemony was being captured. When Lemony was about 13 years old, Georgina was already an ophthalmologist with a bad reputation. It is understood that by this time she was already using hypnosis. She learned hypnosis to be used in a VFD era before the great schism. The Great Schism was triggered by the idea that fire must be fought with fire. The ophthalmologists who belonged to VFD were almost all on the incendiary side. Georgina and most of the ophthalmologists launched a widespread hypnosis campaign. This would make it easier for former VFD members to use their disguises to deceive others, including VFD members. Olaf was tricked by items from his own Disguise Kit. Olivia Taliban was also deceived. Children needed to reveal their identities in order to be recognized by her. Only after Olivia had this revelation did Olaf learn of the Baudelaires' identities. Olivia told Olaf the truth. Meanwhile, at some point, Josephine was also hypnotized.
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Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Jun 15, 2023 15:43:34 GMT -5
No, in TCC I believe Olivia (her last name starts with a C not a T) says -once the children reveal themselves- that she thought they were VFD because they knew all three aspects of the disguise kit.
Also, what about the islanders seeing through Olaf's Kit disguise? Or the Fowl Devotees not blindly believing Jacques when he said he wasn't Olaf? I mean, of everyone was hypnotized to blindly trust that people were who they said they were, shouldn't that have worked? Or whenever the Baudelaires reveal Olaf's tattoo? Olaf still says that he's Stephano or Sham or whoever, but once given evidence otherwise Poe and the other adults believe the children instead. If it was simply based on outfit, VFD couldn't hold masked balls.
In TMM, if someone is hypnotized and not actively obeying a command they act as though they're sleepwalking. In your theory, everyone is under perpetual hypnosis and yet acts normally.
Furthermore, you've claimed that the kids see through Olaf's disguises because they weren't hypnotized, but then why do they fall for the henchpeople's disguises.
And finally, you didn't answer my question. I asked why a paranoid woman like Josephine would trust any stranger, not why she doesn't think Sham is Olaf.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 15, 2023 17:30:33 GMT -5
Evidently Kit Snicket's disguise was made without using items from the Disguise Kit, so it didn't work. The type of hypnosis is certainly different, and it affects the perception of the hypnotized people. The way hypnosis is broken is by seeing the tattoo. Hypnosis, in addition to avoiding recognition, also lessens the hypnotized persons' sense of distrust when they see the disguises. I need to re-read about Olivia C. (Thanks for correcting me). Anyway, the impression I get from my memories is that she was fooled by the disguises, and after the Baudelaires showed them who they really were, he said that she thought they were from VFD. Like, "the moment you guys started revealing who you are, I assumed you were from VFD" not "from the moment I saw you, I assumed you were from VFD."
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Post by Tiran O'Saurus on Jun 16, 2023 6:22:59 GMT -5
But in THH, Klaus and Sunny use random clothes they find in a closet to pretend to be doctors, not anything from the disguise kit.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 16, 2023 9:15:04 GMT -5
While not a kit item per se, medic coats are usually part of the kit (LSTUA page 101) . It is evident that during hypnosis one does not specify all possible specific items that each member would carry with him. Hypnosis basically induces the person to think like this: "see anyone disguised as a doctor as if you were seeing a real doctor". Of course it all got messed up when layers of deceit are put in and hypnosis isn't perfect. In the case of Olaf's henchmen, because they were hypnotized, they saw Klaus and Sunny as doctors. But they knew they were people in disguise. So despite seeing doctors they concluded they were the wrong people in disguise. Not even the difference in height was noticeable to their eyes.
With regard to the fact that Olaf's henchmen were not identified by the Baudelaires, I can say that simply their disguises were actually better than Olaf's disguises. After all, Olaf got so much attention from the Baudelaires that they usually didn't pay attention to the henchmen. And besides, the time spent living with Olaf was longer than the time living with each of the henchmen, so recognizing them right away is simply that much more difficult.
But the fact that the Baudelaires, who are of very different body structure from the henchmen, manage by means of a small set of clothes to deceive Olaf's henchmen, only evidence that these disguises have the additional help of hypnosis to work.
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Post by Glittery666 on Jun 16, 2023 9:41:23 GMT -5
During hypnosis one has unusually wide eyes and a dazed-sounding voice, as we know from when Klaus was hypnotized.Josephine doesn't appear to have either of these traits.
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