bob23
Bewildered Beginner
Posts: 2
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Post by bob23 on Mar 13, 2005 16:55:26 GMT -5
could it all be a dream?
page147 the grim grotto:
when fiona asked violet what her least fav song is she says:
Row Row Row your boat I hate the part about life being but a dream.
makes you wonder
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter 
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
Posts: 15,891 
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Post by Antenora on Mar 13, 2005 17:18:51 GMT -5
I really, really doubt that Lemony will end the series with the revelation that what we saw was all a dream, if that's what you were hinting at. Not every little thing in the books is significant to the plot, or necessarily a clue.
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Post by Amber on Mar 13, 2005 17:24:45 GMT -5
Wasn't the music given with "The Little Snicket Lad" Row row row your boat?
Coincedence?
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Post by RockSunner on Mar 13, 2005 18:52:40 GMT -5
While it would be a heinous betrayal of the readers to have it all turn out to be a dream, it's possible that Lemony will turn out to be an unreliable narrator, leaving us to sort out what is real and what is his imagination/insanity.
A couple of hints along those lines:
Caligari Carnival -- in the movie The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, we find out that the hero is mad and that his adventures were a distortion of reality.
In TGG p. 87, Captain Widdershins refers to Plato's Cave, the idea that all of life is just a shadow of a true reality we cannot see.
At the end of TGG, just before they meet Mr. Poe, they have a surreal feeling that a cycle is about to begin again.
The "life is but a dream" reference. I believe there is also a reference somewhere to the White King's dream. In Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass, Alice is told that she is only a part of the White Chess King's dream and that when he wakes up she will vanish. Of course, in that story it all turns out to be Alice's dream...
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Post by darkangel667 on Mar 13, 2005 19:00:27 GMT -5
I, for one, believe it would be really lame if he did that. I mean yes it's a twist but it's an overused one.
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
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Post by Antenora on Mar 13, 2005 19:17:38 GMT -5
It's not the sort of twist that Lemony would be likely to use, and it would indeed be disappointing to those who have faithfully followed the story. Wasn't the music given with "The Little Snicket Lad" Row row row your boat? Coincedence? I've heard that they have the same tune, indeed, and I've often wondered about the connection, as well as the fact that Lemony seems to describe "Row, Row, Row" as a "well-known hymn of naval disaster". |
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Post by SnicketFires on Mar 13, 2005 20:21:36 GMT -5
I've heard that they have the same tune, indeed, and I've often wondered about the connection, as well as the fact that Lemony seems to describe "Row, Row, Row" as a "well-known hymn of naval disaster". I've wondered that as well, since there isn't really a disaster in the rhyme. Edit: I searched for the lyrics, and there was never more than four lines: Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream. |
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Post by Ennui on Mar 14, 2005 3:23:44 GMT -5
The parody version:
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don't forget to scream
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Post by PJ on Mar 14, 2005 3:32:43 GMT -5
The parody version: Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don't forget to screamI recall another from Blackadder: "Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream Bounce off, trowsers down Isn't life a scream?" Or something to that effect. |
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Antenora
Detriment Deleter
Fiendish Philologist
Put down that harpoon gun, in the name of these wonderful birds!
Posts: 15,891
Likes: 113
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Post by Antenora on Mar 14, 2005 7:33:32 GMT -5
I've wondered that as well, since there isn't really a disaster in the rhyme. At some point, I thought that the tune to the song was that of a lyric poem called The Wreck of the Hesperus, which is about a shipwreck. Try singing this, and see if the rhythm sounds the same(I have no ear for music): IT was the schooner Hesperus,
That sailed the wintry sea;
And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company.
www.bartleby.com/42/777.html |
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Post by Ennui on Mar 14, 2005 7:44:42 GMT -5
Ah, the good ol' schooner Hesperus...
But no, I think it's typically Lemonian to have it be "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"...
I used to sing it to "The British Grenadiers". It works well in places...
EDIT: I've thought of a genuine hymn of naval disaster, though I doubt it's the tune.
Eternal father, strong to save
Whose arm doth bind the restless wave
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
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Post by Dante on Mar 14, 2005 12:22:49 GMT -5
Not every little thing in the books is significant to the plot, or necessarily a clue. You made my post for me. The "life is but a dream" reference. I believe there is also a reference somewhere to the White King's dream. In Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass, Alice is told that she is only a part of the White Chess King's dream and that when he wakes up she will vanish. Of course, in that story it all turns out to be Alice's dream... Actually, she wasn't sure whose dream it was, once she had awoken. She asked the cat, but the cat was unforthcoming with information. The parody version: Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a crocodile
Don't forget to screamSounds like a naval disaster to me... |
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Post by darkangel667 on Mar 16, 2005 19:37:29 GMT -5
I once played British Grenadiers (I can't spell today) for a concert. Those parodies are hilarious. Does anyone have a least favorite lullaby? Mine's the one with the baby cradle in a high tree that comes crashing down. Yeah mom that's such a good way to get me to sleep. Why don't you just kill me and be over with it? Just kidding but anyways.
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Post by Vortigun on Mar 17, 2005 2:39:44 GMT -5
I recall another from Blackadder: "Row, row, row your boat, Gently down the stream Bounce off, trowsers down Isn't life a scream?" Or something to that effect. Yeah, lol, that was the version they sung in Blackadder if I recall... also it was "Belts off, trowsers down" lol |
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no-one
Reptile Researcher
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Post by no-one on Mar 17, 2005 2:47:33 GMT -5
Yeah, lol, that was the version they sung in Blackadder if I recall... also it was "Belts off, trowsers down" lol that sounds more accurate than PJs version also, i beleive the "It was all a terrible dream" twist was used to best effect in Start Wars EpIII also in Atlanta Nights, where one chapter, the main characters awakens in prison only to discover that everything that had happneed previously int he story was a dream... then the next chapter it just continues with the dream , ignoreing the twist altogether also in an episode of Monty Python, "Mr Pithers Cycling Tour" he's about to be executed when he awakens in his garden at home "Mother" he exclaims, "So, it was all a terrible dream" to which his mother replys "No son, this is the dream, you're still in that cell" LOL |
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