Understanding ASOUE Enigmas: The Duchess and the Hiatus
Jun 7, 2023 11:50:40 GMT -5
Jacques Snicket and tricky like this
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Jun 7, 2023 11:50:40 GMT -5
For many years, I have pondered how to satisfactorily resolve the Miss K Enigma, the Prufrock Prep Enigma, the Masked Ball Enigma, the R's Letter Enigma, and (the greatest of them all) the Secret Letter Enigma in TSS.
Let me clarify each of these enigmas and how far I have solved them.
Let's start with what is canonically proven: Despite Lemony Snicket starting to write TBB (and possibly TRR) around the time of the main events described in ASOUE, he only managed to publish these books (and TWW) several years later. After the publication of TWW, there was a hiatus of many years until TMM was published. This period is commonly referred to as the "Great Hiatus". You can find a detailed discussion and proof of the Great Hiatus in the canonically-accepted source here: asoue.proboards.com/thread/36354/change-lemonys-life-submitted-jean
Understanding the Great Hiatus is key to resolving the Masked Ball Enigma, the R's Letter Enigma, the Miss K Enigma, and the Prufrock Prep Enigma. However, they cannot be fully solved through this alone. Let's consider each case separately.
The Prufrock Prep Enigma: In TAA, Lemony claims that Prufrock Prep has been closed for many years at the time of the book's publication. And it was closed after Mrs. Bass was arrested for theft. However, in LSTUA, we part with an event that indicates that an ASOUE book had already been published when Prufrock Prep was still operating, and Mrs. Bass was not yet arrested. Carmelita Spats was still studying there. The enigma is: how could Prufrock Prep be operating if ASOUE had already been published, and Lemony stated in TAA that the school had been closed for many years? More than that: According to LSTUA, in Chapter 9, an enemy of Lemony sought information about the reptiles from Uncle Monty's collection in the book TRR. This book was in the library of Prufrock Prep, at that time Prufrock Prep was open and running. However, in writing the TAA book, Lemony says Prufrock Prep was closed many years ago.
The answer is: considering the great hiatus that occurred between the publication of TWW and TMM, it's quite possible that Prufrock Prep continued to operate for some time after the publication of TBB, TRR, and TWW. After the publication of one or more of these books, the teacher known as Miss K was at Prufrock Prep, bringing with her one of the already published ASOUE books. After this event, Prufrock Prep was closed. A few years passed, and then Lemony published TMM and TAA and could then claim that the school had been closed for many years. This explains why one of Lemony's enemies found the TRR book at Prufrock Prep. The book had already been published in Lemony's universe, and the school was still in operation when this enemy was there. However, years later, when Lemony wrote TAA, the school had already been closed for many years.
Miss K Enigma: In Nero's letter to Carmelita Spats' parents, which is printed in Chapter 8 of the UA, Nero states that he hired Miss K to become a teacher. At that time Mr. Remora had retired. Mrs. Bass was still at her job, but she had to take time off in order to settle matters with the bank (probably rob the bank). Miss K took Prufrock several books of interest to VFD, including one of the ASOUE books. The enigma is: Who is Miss K? The first time I read it, I evidently thought it was Kit Snicket. But, Miss K is not Kit Snicket, as TBB could only be published after Kit Snicket's death. In LSTUA, there is a picture of a woman with children at Prufrock Prep. Whether this woman is Miss K or not is debatable. But the fact is that there is an observation from Lemony about her ("will I see her again?"), indicating that the person in the picture is an associate of Lemony who is alive but with whom he has not had contact for a long time. She is someone with whom he wishes to keep contact. We know it's not Kit or Beatrice, as both were already dead at this time.
The answer is: That is R. Sometimes, the most obvious answers are right in front of us, and we simply don't see them. We have access to Lemony's life story, albeit fragmented in TBL and in LSTUA. Canonically, in Lemony's life, there were only three women who were his friends and remained in his life throughout his life: Kit, Beatrice, and R. If Kit and Beatrice were already dead, the only person who could bring feelings of nostalgia to Lemony is R, the Duchess of Winnipeg. Why had R been away from Lemony for such a long time? According to TBL, R had become a duchess after her mother's death, and evidently, the service of a duchess was laborious and carried out far from the City where Lemony usually operated. Even when Lemony went to R's house, there's nothing to suggest that he and she had time to interact. He was desperately trying to find a supposed Beatrice, and was captured shortly thereafter.
What I'm saying is that when we put R into the equation, along with the Great Hiatus, everything beautifully fits together. During the writing of TCC, TSS, and TGG, R was pretending to be Kit, and Lemony knew it. Lemony referred to her as "my sister" in secret letters, he arranged a meeting with her at Hotel D (which had been restored), and even said in TGG that this sister Kit (he mentioned her by name) could be saved through a small, herbed piece of toast. Obviously, this Kit Snicket couldn't be the real Kit Snicket, because Kit was dead. To move from "this couldn't be Kit" to "this is R" may seem like a big leap. In addition to being a friend of Lemony, in R's letter to Lemony recorded in LSTUA chapter 2, R makes an important observation: "There are many of us left, Mr Snicket, but we're ready to help you in any way we can." This means that R offered to help Lemony. This sentence is significant. Moreover, R indicates that she has great disguise skills, as she states in the letter that she has disguised herself as Lemony Snicket impersonating someone else. Then she sends photos to Lemony. She makes a single request to Lemony: Study these photos. Among the photos is the photograph of herself with Kit Snicket, both wearing the same clothes and striking an identical pose. Although they are of different heights (when they were children), the resemblance between the two is obvious. At the time when R's letter was being written, Kit had already died. But R does not put the information that Kit was dead in writing in the letter. Everything in this letter takes into consideration the possibility that Lemony's enemies could read the letter. Either way, R trusted that Lemony, by studying the photographs along with the subsequent events, would deduce that R was going to assume the identity of Kit Snicket, and he should go along with the ruse and take advantage of it.
The idea of R seems to have worked very well. We find a reply letter from Lemony to a supposed "sister" in LSTUA page 192: "My dear sister, I understand how desperate our situation has become, but it's already unpleasant enough for people to read about the Baudelaires, I can't imagine who would dare to help them." The question had been: "Is there something a concerned citizen can do if he or she wants to help the Baudelaires?" Evidently, at the time this letter with this question was sent to Lemony (and which had been sent to him under the false name of Kit), Lemony had already published at least one ASOUE book, since in the reply he talks about people reading about the Baudelaires. In other words, Kit was already dead. Another important detail is that, according to TE, when Kit died she thought Lemony was dead, and she had no way to contact him. So, the person who was passing as Kit, was most likely R. When Lemony wrote secret messages in the books for his sister, he was sending messages to R.
It's interesting how everything really fits together, taking into account this timeline. At the Masked Ball, Lemony went there believing that Beatrice was alive and hiding in R's house. The excuse for Beatrice hiding instead of searching for her children was that, if her survival became public, Olaf would have no reason to preserve the life of at least one of her children if they were captured. Thus, Lemony tried to communicate for 14 years with the supposed Beatrice (the Great Hiatus lasted more than 14 years) to pass on the information: "Count Olaf is dead." It was because he believed that Beatrice was alive that Lemony stopped writing about the children for so long. Additionally, during these 14 years Lemony was engaged in another mission: producing TBL and finding the My Silence Knot poem. And here, we enter an Extra Enigma: The TBL part 3 enigma, which is a secret Enigma of TBL.
TBL Enigma Part 3 - To be clear, this is part 3, because there are other enigmas in TBL that draw more attention than this one, and which appeared much earlier. But this enigma is as follows: In Beatrice Junior's last letter to Lemony, she claims to be 10 years old. How could the Great Hiatus last more than 14 years, if Beatrice Junior was only ten years old when she tried to meet with Lemony?
Answer: Beatrice Junior tried to meet with Lemony after the publication of TBB and TRR but before the publication of TWW, in other words, before the Great Hiatus began. Most interestingly, this is canon. According to BB To LS #5, Beatrice Jr read some of the ASOUE books and was able to compare what she had heard from the Baudelaires themselves with what Lemony had written. However, according to BB to LS #2, Beatrice Jr was not able to identify what a paperweight in the shape of one of the lake's leeches was. More than that, according to TWW, Lemony was still living in a building while he was writing TWW. He hadn't yet started to be a fugitive from the authorities (despite apparently having problems with them). That's why Beatrice Jr was able to rent an apartment above the apartment where Lemony lived in the Rhetorical Building. This was because Lemony was still living there. Lemony wrote to the editor (TBL) that he spent years trying to find the letters and items that form TBL. This also happened during the Great Hiatus.
Something important in all of this is understanding that both Kit's death and Olaf's death were not publicly disclosed until the publication of TE. For not understanding that Olaf was already dead, the owner of the Prospero Ship thought that the enemy disguised as a cow was an accomplice of Count Olaf. But in fact, he was an accomplice of Genius. Who could this Genius be? There's no way to be sure, but one possibility is Esmé. After all, it was her fan club who managed to get the chorus of the Mamba Du Mal. But why did Lemony decide to reveal the death of the real Kit only in TE? He didn't reveal it before to protect R. But when he published TE, R had probably already died. In TGG we learn that the person who was pretending to be Kit needed to be saved, probably from an assassination attempt. Even if Lemony managed to save her that time, the assassins may have tried again and again until they succeeded. Thus, when Lemony published TE, it was no longer necessary to protect R's identity.
Let me clarify each of these enigmas and how far I have solved them.
Let's start with what is canonically proven: Despite Lemony Snicket starting to write TBB (and possibly TRR) around the time of the main events described in ASOUE, he only managed to publish these books (and TWW) several years later. After the publication of TWW, there was a hiatus of many years until TMM was published. This period is commonly referred to as the "Great Hiatus". You can find a detailed discussion and proof of the Great Hiatus in the canonically-accepted source here: asoue.proboards.com/thread/36354/change-lemonys-life-submitted-jean
Understanding the Great Hiatus is key to resolving the Masked Ball Enigma, the R's Letter Enigma, the Miss K Enigma, and the Prufrock Prep Enigma. However, they cannot be fully solved through this alone. Let's consider each case separately.
The Prufrock Prep Enigma: In TAA, Lemony claims that Prufrock Prep has been closed for many years at the time of the book's publication. And it was closed after Mrs. Bass was arrested for theft. However, in LSTUA, we part with an event that indicates that an ASOUE book had already been published when Prufrock Prep was still operating, and Mrs. Bass was not yet arrested. Carmelita Spats was still studying there. The enigma is: how could Prufrock Prep be operating if ASOUE had already been published, and Lemony stated in TAA that the school had been closed for many years? More than that: According to LSTUA, in Chapter 9, an enemy of Lemony sought information about the reptiles from Uncle Monty's collection in the book TRR. This book was in the library of Prufrock Prep, at that time Prufrock Prep was open and running. However, in writing the TAA book, Lemony says Prufrock Prep was closed many years ago.
The answer is: considering the great hiatus that occurred between the publication of TWW and TMM, it's quite possible that Prufrock Prep continued to operate for some time after the publication of TBB, TRR, and TWW. After the publication of one or more of these books, the teacher known as Miss K was at Prufrock Prep, bringing with her one of the already published ASOUE books. After this event, Prufrock Prep was closed. A few years passed, and then Lemony published TMM and TAA and could then claim that the school had been closed for many years. This explains why one of Lemony's enemies found the TRR book at Prufrock Prep. The book had already been published in Lemony's universe, and the school was still in operation when this enemy was there. However, years later, when Lemony wrote TAA, the school had already been closed for many years.
Miss K Enigma: In Nero's letter to Carmelita Spats' parents, which is printed in Chapter 8 of the UA, Nero states that he hired Miss K to become a teacher. At that time Mr. Remora had retired. Mrs. Bass was still at her job, but she had to take time off in order to settle matters with the bank (probably rob the bank). Miss K took Prufrock several books of interest to VFD, including one of the ASOUE books. The enigma is: Who is Miss K? The first time I read it, I evidently thought it was Kit Snicket. But, Miss K is not Kit Snicket, as TBB could only be published after Kit Snicket's death. In LSTUA, there is a picture of a woman with children at Prufrock Prep. Whether this woman is Miss K or not is debatable. But the fact is that there is an observation from Lemony about her ("will I see her again?"), indicating that the person in the picture is an associate of Lemony who is alive but with whom he has not had contact for a long time. She is someone with whom he wishes to keep contact. We know it's not Kit or Beatrice, as both were already dead at this time.
The answer is: That is R. Sometimes, the most obvious answers are right in front of us, and we simply don't see them. We have access to Lemony's life story, albeit fragmented in TBL and in LSTUA. Canonically, in Lemony's life, there were only three women who were his friends and remained in his life throughout his life: Kit, Beatrice, and R. If Kit and Beatrice were already dead, the only person who could bring feelings of nostalgia to Lemony is R, the Duchess of Winnipeg. Why had R been away from Lemony for such a long time? According to TBL, R had become a duchess after her mother's death, and evidently, the service of a duchess was laborious and carried out far from the City where Lemony usually operated. Even when Lemony went to R's house, there's nothing to suggest that he and she had time to interact. He was desperately trying to find a supposed Beatrice, and was captured shortly thereafter.
What I'm saying is that when we put R into the equation, along with the Great Hiatus, everything beautifully fits together. During the writing of TCC, TSS, and TGG, R was pretending to be Kit, and Lemony knew it. Lemony referred to her as "my sister" in secret letters, he arranged a meeting with her at Hotel D (which had been restored), and even said in TGG that this sister Kit (he mentioned her by name) could be saved through a small, herbed piece of toast. Obviously, this Kit Snicket couldn't be the real Kit Snicket, because Kit was dead. To move from "this couldn't be Kit" to "this is R" may seem like a big leap. In addition to being a friend of Lemony, in R's letter to Lemony recorded in LSTUA chapter 2, R makes an important observation: "There are many of us left, Mr Snicket, but we're ready to help you in any way we can." This means that R offered to help Lemony. This sentence is significant. Moreover, R indicates that she has great disguise skills, as she states in the letter that she has disguised herself as Lemony Snicket impersonating someone else. Then she sends photos to Lemony. She makes a single request to Lemony: Study these photos. Among the photos is the photograph of herself with Kit Snicket, both wearing the same clothes and striking an identical pose. Although they are of different heights (when they were children), the resemblance between the two is obvious. At the time when R's letter was being written, Kit had already died. But R does not put the information that Kit was dead in writing in the letter. Everything in this letter takes into consideration the possibility that Lemony's enemies could read the letter. Either way, R trusted that Lemony, by studying the photographs along with the subsequent events, would deduce that R was going to assume the identity of Kit Snicket, and he should go along with the ruse and take advantage of it.
The idea of R seems to have worked very well. We find a reply letter from Lemony to a supposed "sister" in LSTUA page 192: "My dear sister, I understand how desperate our situation has become, but it's already unpleasant enough for people to read about the Baudelaires, I can't imagine who would dare to help them." The question had been: "Is there something a concerned citizen can do if he or she wants to help the Baudelaires?" Evidently, at the time this letter with this question was sent to Lemony (and which had been sent to him under the false name of Kit), Lemony had already published at least one ASOUE book, since in the reply he talks about people reading about the Baudelaires. In other words, Kit was already dead. Another important detail is that, according to TE, when Kit died she thought Lemony was dead, and she had no way to contact him. So, the person who was passing as Kit, was most likely R. When Lemony wrote secret messages in the books for his sister, he was sending messages to R.
It's interesting how everything really fits together, taking into account this timeline. At the Masked Ball, Lemony went there believing that Beatrice was alive and hiding in R's house. The excuse for Beatrice hiding instead of searching for her children was that, if her survival became public, Olaf would have no reason to preserve the life of at least one of her children if they were captured. Thus, Lemony tried to communicate for 14 years with the supposed Beatrice (the Great Hiatus lasted more than 14 years) to pass on the information: "Count Olaf is dead." It was because he believed that Beatrice was alive that Lemony stopped writing about the children for so long. Additionally, during these 14 years Lemony was engaged in another mission: producing TBL and finding the My Silence Knot poem. And here, we enter an Extra Enigma: The TBL part 3 enigma, which is a secret Enigma of TBL.
TBL Enigma Part 3 - To be clear, this is part 3, because there are other enigmas in TBL that draw more attention than this one, and which appeared much earlier. But this enigma is as follows: In Beatrice Junior's last letter to Lemony, she claims to be 10 years old. How could the Great Hiatus last more than 14 years, if Beatrice Junior was only ten years old when she tried to meet with Lemony?
Answer: Beatrice Junior tried to meet with Lemony after the publication of TBB and TRR but before the publication of TWW, in other words, before the Great Hiatus began. Most interestingly, this is canon. According to BB To LS #5, Beatrice Jr read some of the ASOUE books and was able to compare what she had heard from the Baudelaires themselves with what Lemony had written. However, according to BB to LS #2, Beatrice Jr was not able to identify what a paperweight in the shape of one of the lake's leeches was. More than that, according to TWW, Lemony was still living in a building while he was writing TWW. He hadn't yet started to be a fugitive from the authorities (despite apparently having problems with them). That's why Beatrice Jr was able to rent an apartment above the apartment where Lemony lived in the Rhetorical Building. This was because Lemony was still living there. Lemony wrote to the editor (TBL) that he spent years trying to find the letters and items that form TBL. This also happened during the Great Hiatus.
Something important in all of this is understanding that both Kit's death and Olaf's death were not publicly disclosed until the publication of TE. For not understanding that Olaf was already dead, the owner of the Prospero Ship thought that the enemy disguised as a cow was an accomplice of Count Olaf. But in fact, he was an accomplice of Genius. Who could this Genius be? There's no way to be sure, but one possibility is Esmé. After all, it was her fan club who managed to get the chorus of the Mamba Du Mal. But why did Lemony decide to reveal the death of the real Kit only in TE? He didn't reveal it before to protect R. But when he published TE, R had probably already died. In TGG we learn that the person who was pretending to be Kit needed to be saved, probably from an assassination attempt. Even if Lemony managed to save her that time, the assassins may have tried again and again until they succeeded. Thus, when Lemony published TE, it was no longer necessary to protect R's identity.
