"passageway"?

[Wasabi]

If you can remember from the last remainding chapters of TPP, there is a page which mentions that the last thing that the Baudelaires saw in the book that Justice Strauss had which got burnt along with the rags that lined the room that they were about to burn. The word 'passageway' is the only word that they see, before the whole book turns to ashes. With this, I immediately thought 667 Dark Avenue, for that was the place that had the 'passageway' that lead to the Baudelaire's old burnt down mansion. And I thought, what if the sugar bowl is there?

What do you guys think? The sugar bowl.....what if it's at the Baudelaire's mansion?

[twistedbrain]

Nope. If anything, it's in the taxi that drove away from the pond. Nice idea, though.

[Dante]

Jerome Squalor's book opened as it landed, and the children saw what looked like a carefully drawn diagram, with arrows and dotted lines and a paragraph of notation underneath. The Baudelaires leaned forward to see if they could read what the injustice expert had writte, and caught only the word "passageway" before Olaf lit a match and tossed it expertly onto the page.

TPP - p323-324

Actually, aside from the paragraph of notation, that first part makes it sound rather like the Suspicious Characters chart. That's an interesting thing to consider. When I first read this part, I assumed it was a map of the penthouse apartment - don't know why, but I was sure that the word "map" or "apartment" or something like that showed up, but apparently not. I was probably just extending the passageway in the opposite direction... Anyway, I shouldn't have thought it alluded to the sugar bowl if it referred to the 667-Baudelaire passageway; if anything, it'd refer to the escape route of the Baudelaire survivor or of the arsonist.

[lauren]

When I first read it I was thinking something along the lines of a map of all the VFD secret passageways...Anyways your idea is very interesting. Maybe it could be a map of the approximate route of the sugarbowl to date. If that is so then it could be possible that the survivor of the fire first had the sugarbowl and took it with her(?) as she escaped. But then that wouldn't fit in with the theory of Poe hiding the sugarbowl beneath his hat.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Maybe that bit of bbre was a red herring, I doubt poe is important or smart enough to be carrying anything of worth in his hat "but there is no way of knowing for sure."
I thought immediately of the passageway between 667 and the Baudelaire Mansion.
How exactly would one draw the path of the sugarbowl? You'd have to get it from VFD HQ (assuming it started there which it may not have) to the stricken stream, to the Gorgonian Grotto, thence to the air and down into the pond and into that taxi. It'd be rather difficult.
How would the sugarbowl be at the Baudelaire mansion or ever in the hands of Mr. Poe? Lemony stole it from Esme and it ended up at HQ... the trick here is figuring out where Lemony took it at first.. If Beatrice was the baudelaire mother(please no debate this is purely hypothetical and I am taking no sides) it could definitely have been taken to her at the Baudelaire Mansion, and thus have been there for awhile. But then how would it have gotten to HQ?
If Beatrice wasn't the mother then I should think Lemony would've brought it straight to HQ, there's no way he'd have given it to Mr. Poe...
And how would the sugarbowl ever have been in the passageway? Maybe a survivor of the fire carried it there, then escape after the fire died down and carried it to HQ or something.
This is rather complicated and I have really no solid idea about the whole business, and realizing I haven't contributed to discussion I'll just stop talking...

[1fanbaudelaire]

Okay, it is known that there was a passageway from the Quagmire mansion too. I doubt that Lemony Snicket would introduce main characters on the last book so it likely that the diagram was of one of the other houses that the Baudelaires stayed at. I think that a possibility might be that the village of fowl devotees was built on a large part of the schism (sp?). Count Olaf may not have known anything about this, but the passageway would - as suspected - lead to the exact position of the sugar bowl.

[Dante]

Sorry, what? The Village of Fowl Devotees built on a large part of the scihsm? Maybe I misunderstand you, but the schism wasn't a place, it was an event.

As for the diagram itself, I didn't mention this earlier, but I really doubt it'll come up again.

[1fanbaudelaire]

Dictionary.com calls a "schism" as a "division of a group into opposing factions." You realise that you posted on the thread something to do with the whole theory and are now saying that it isn't likely they'll use it again. All the small thing make the difference.

[Dante]

1fanbaudelaire said:

Dictionary.com calls a "schism" as a "division of a group into opposing factions."

Exactly. The schism was when V.F.D. split between those volunteers who wanted to put out fires, and others who had different methods and motives. It was an event, not a place, although it probably occurred at a place (although some say that it's more likely the schism was a gradual process taking place over a number of years).

You realise that you posted on the thread something to do with the whole theory and are now saying that it isn't likely they'll use it again. All the small thing make the difference.

Do you not think I see the value of speculation? There's a story behind everything, even if I don't believe Handler has any intention of including it. If I only posted in threads about things I thought would happen, I wouldn't post in half the threads I do now.

You're right about small things making the difference, though. When the sugar bowl was first mentioned, it must have seemed like another of Snicket's random, inconsequential anecdotes. I just think it's a little late in the series to be doing that again, particularly since the book is destroyed and the person who researched that particular factor of injustice doesn't seem likely to show up again.

Returning, though, to my earlier idea of it being the Suspicious Characters chart - which might seem a crazy idea, and indeed it is, but I'd like to explore the implications - that would imply the chart was based on injustice, so the various kinds of lines might not just indicate relationships, but similar cases of injustice done to a person or people. It also opens up the possibility that some of the things on it are just wrong, as Jerome's research may not have been perfect - he is a fallible character, and therefore may make mistakes. More of the notation would have been helpful.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Wait, you thought it might've been the same diagram of characters we saw? That's crazy, I think the most likely thing is that it's simply the passageway from the Baudelaire Mansion to 667 which Jerome would know about since he had to buy 667 and never ever sell it, after Esme left he obviously became more observant and such.
Or it could be any one of VFD's passageways such as the "let's dig here" thing at the telephone pole in LSUA or perhaps the passage from the Quagmire Mansion to the Reptile Room.

[Dear Dairy]

Oh, I SO like the idea of the diagram being the chart of Suspicious Characters! It helps explain the big arrow pointing away from Hector - toward the paragraph at the bottom of the page, perhaps?