Post by Dante on Mar 8, 2006 4:19:48 GMT -5
The letter in TSS was one of my main arguments for Snicket being just behind the Baudelaires, rather than the series being written years later. But there's so much contradictory evidence, and after TPP messed up the schism I don't trust Handler to make things make sense anymore, so I don't know whether to think that Beatrice is alive or dead (although I would prefer the latter, I actually don't think it'd really work for the Baudelaires to meet her alive as she's a much more effective character dead (although I can see why it'd make sense for the climax of the series to precipitate the very first page of TBB), and given Lemony's talent for research, it'd be surprising for him to be wrong about her death).
Whether Beatrice is alive or not is something of a side-issue to the big question here, that question being, what could question 10 have been? (Although don't mistake that for an excuse to dedicate whole posts here to whether Beatrice is alive or dead, there are other threads for her identity, which her mortality is arguably closely tied to.) If she's dead, it could have referred to something historical, some offhand reference, could even just be a red herring to throw us off while still sounding mysterious (my preferred theory). I know others believe that Beatrice was the woman in the boot of the taxi, and thus the question being, "Was Beatrice the woman in the boot of the taxi?" but I don't think so, myself, partly because I think she's dead, and partly because she's not really presented as being an action person, and partly because I have other suspicions for that individual which I prefer.
Whether Beatrice is alive or not is something of a side-issue to the big question here, that question being, what could question 10 have been? (Although don't mistake that for an excuse to dedicate whole posts here to whether Beatrice is alive or dead, there are other threads for her identity, which her mortality is arguably closely tied to.) If she's dead, it could have referred to something historical, some offhand reference, could even just be a red herring to throw us off while still sounding mysterious (my preferred theory). I know others believe that Beatrice was the woman in the boot of the taxi, and thus the question being, "Was Beatrice the woman in the boot of the taxi?" but I don't think so, myself, partly because I think she's dead, and partly because she's not really presented as being an action person, and partly because I have other suspicions for that individual which I prefer.
