The End: AuthorTrackers & Shocking Secrets

[Amy Lee ALOE Aunt Jo]

ffwf said:

Well, yeah. That's why it's called a teaser cover. Point is, it's on LemonySnicket.com, so it's official material.

Uh, Dante, TGG and TPP had those same exact teaser covers on Lemonysnicket.com and was that what was printed? No. Brett Helquist has just not finished drawing the cover pictures yet, in my humble opinion.

[Antenora]

The teaser covers for TGG and TPP were a little different, I recall. But at any rate, the teaser cover for Book 13 is not going to be the real cover, but they're official because they're released online by the publishers. And I think their release has more to do with not spoiling us, than Helquist not having finished the covers--though the latter may well be true, I'm not sure how far in advance everything is written and done for the books.

[Dante]

I think you mistook me, snicketfan4ever. I don't believe for a second that the teaser cover on LemonySnicket.com is what's going to be published, but it's official by definition, as Antenora stated, because it is on LemonySnicket.com. I merely believe that it is an official sample and an indicator of what is to come. Hence, a teaser cover, to tease the fans by giving them some information - perhaps not any, as the colours of this cover are questionable - but not all, and to make them feel like they're actually getting something. The AuthorTrackers so far have given us no new information, I think, but I for one would be very bored if we didn't get them. They're more teasers. They draw us in and make us want more.

As far as teaser cover design goes, I think the teaser cover for TGG was a recolour of TSS's cover, and the teaser cover for TPP was a recolour of TGG's cover, and this teaser cover for B13 is a recolour of TGG's as well. Only, obviously, they've all had the centre picture removed, and in the case of TPP and most likely this one as well, the title.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Yeah, the teaser covers are just random colors of the proper cover format only they stick a huge black label in the center. *shrug* Really nothing to get excited/worried about in my opinion.
Hey, a siren. A fire truck/ambulance I think. How appropriate.
Anyway, yeah. We're still not getting much new it seems... Though what did I expect considering the complete LOCKDOWN with tpp last year.

[Phoebonica]

This doesn't seem to have been discussed yet, and it's been bothering me ever since I first saw these.

SHOCKING SECRET NUMBER #7
When he was a baby, Lemony Snicket was kidnapped by a secret organization.

This seems to refer to his being "taken" for VFD, but in the Unauthorised Autobiography he's very adamant that he wasn't a baby when that happened. Which implies that either his memory of being taken isn't very accurate (and it would be quite easy to persuade a small child that something happened differently to the way it really did), or he chose to stretch the truth a bit because he was communicating with an outsider, who wouldn't understand that recruiting someone when they're too young to stand upright isn't morally dubious at all, really.

Or it's just sloppy wording on the part of whoever wrote it, but that's no fun.

[Dante]

The photograph at the end of that first chapter of the U.A., provided by the mysterious U.A. scribbler, indicates that Lemony was either wrong or lying when he said he wasn't a baby when he was taken. If he was wrong, then it could just be that his memories are dim - it was a long time ago. If he's lying, though, it could be to make V.F.D. look better, as you suggest, or possibly some kind of vanity (he certainly gives that impression when contradicting the allegation that he was of crawling age when he was taken). One wonders, I suppose, who the mysterious scribbler is - Olaf? And why would Snicket lie about that? Hopefully, all will be revealed in The End.

Edit: Probably won't be, though. If Snicket addressed every such mystery in B13, it'd be all exposition and no plot, or the book would have to be much longer (which would rather stretch the thirteen-chapter system). I expect major issues, such as that of Snicket's reliability or unreliability, to be clarified, though. And a possibility I've been thinking about is that Snicket could twist everything in B13 - V.F.D., Beatrice, himself - and come up with an incredibly surprising conclusion which probably wouldn't make sense. However, that'd be one for the B13 Speculation Thread.

Something I'm now wondering about - who wrote the Shocking Secrets document? (I mean, in the universe of the series, that is; in reality it will have been HC's web team, with Handler's co-operation.) I'm guessing HarperCollins, with the assistance of the editor, but how did they select their evidence? Are certain things, like the taxi driver under TRR and the fortune-teller's crystal ball under TCC, just inferences, or has Snicket given them this information? Is it a mere guess that the secret island, brought up under TEE, would be important? I'm looking too deeply into this, I know, but I was just wondering about this document in relation to an idea of an unreliable narrator - if we can't rely on Snicket, how can we rely on HarperCollins? Even if we can rely on Snicket, who's to say HarperCollins didn't make mistakes when putting together this document? (Some of the oddities on the Suspicious Characters chart would back that up.) Of course, there's probably a generic answer: HarperCollins did their own research into Snicket's background. Or - of course. They've already read Snicket's research in TBL and B13. They know all there is to know. So basically, this rambly passage was pointless - but the surprisingly obvious conclusion does give me something to think about. Is everything in the document completely true, therefore, or can there still be mistakes and red herrings? (Well, I certainly think there could still be red herrings.) Are the secrets they've revealed absolutely vital, or merely incidental? Will we look back on the document when reading TBL or B13, and think, "Oh, now I understand"? I guess we only have, um, several months left to wait...

[SSebald]

I don't think any document can be entirly trusted. It could have been tampered with. (shifts eyes back and forth). I think the cover is interesting. A dead body, and perhaps prison outfits? Or maybe just really ugly orange suits?

[Antenora]

Those are actually the Hotel Denouement concierge uniforms, and the "body" may or may not be dead. We've gotten a larger picture of the cover, too; it's toward the end of the "Cover on New York Times Book Review" thread in this section(as well as a more comprehensive discussion of it; that's our current official B13 cover thread.)

[Alchemist]

The Character Chart is probably just nonsense. The characters seem to be randomly connected to each other. Granted, some make sense, like the Baudelaire siblings. But some just don't make any sense, like Quigley and Mrs. Bass. And denouement is spelled wrong. If the chart was of importance, they would have edited it much more carefully.

[Hanae]

sugarhigh said:

The Character Chart is probably just nonsense. The characters seem to be randomly connected to each other. Granted, some make sense, like the Baudelaire siblings. But some just don't make any sense, like Quigley and Mrs. Bass. And denouement is spelled wrong. If the chart was of importance, they would have edited it much more carefully.

Good point, but it can't ALL be pointless.

[ineedyourhelp]

I dont know if this has been discussed before, but underneath the character chart it says "Lemony is one of three siblings." Could that mean that he is inderectly on the character chart?

[Antenora]

Since neither of the other siblings are on the chart, that most likely means Lemony wasn't meant to be. This could be taken to mean that one of the Snicket siblings made the chart, or simply that whoever did was on their side and didn't consider them suspicious, even if just about everyone else is. I like the idea that in Snicket's world, the editor and various HC staff put it together.

[ineedyourhelp]

Maybe him and his siblings are on the chart, but their real names arent.

[Dante]

Surely not the resurgence of the Quigley = Lemony, Violet = Beatrice theory??

I don't think it's particularly important. I mean, it's suspicious that it isn't particularly secret, but then again on some boards I've visited then the fans seem inexplicably clueless about Lemony's family. And some of the other secrets aren't particularly secret either (numbers 4, 7, 8, 12, to name but a few), and the first one isn't so much a secret as an ambiguous statement, so I'd guess that's only there to lead you in and to absolutely clarify it to people who aren't sure. Then again, the entire booklet is full of information that may or may not be important or true or a red herring.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

There was a theory that quigley was lemony and Violet was Beatrice?
I'm of the impression that the chart cannot be entirely useless.
Hmm. Maybe Lemony WAS lying about being taken, it doesn't seem as if he remembers it very well.
And it goes hand in hand with Lemony isn't who you think he is, so he may not be reliable.