Post by joshspazjosh on Oct 17, 2006 16:44:56 GMT -5
I'm going through the official TE discussion thread and I'm seeing a lot of complaints about unanswered questions that I think are kind of irrelevant or, much more often, already answered, albeit in an indirect way. So I'm wondering if, with the collective consciousness of this forum, we could come up with a definitive list of answers [or very educated guesses] and post them here. Then, when people ask these questions, we could refer people to these answers.
I'm going to try answering one of these questions right now. If you think I'm right, post. If you think I'm talking crap, post with your own theories and I'll incorporate them into this thread. Together we'll be able to figure out what . . . exactly . . . happened in this series we've devoted so much effort to decoding.
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What did VFD do, exactly, and what did it stand for?
The official name of VFD is Volunteer Fire Department, but as Widdershins said, it can also stand for lots of other things. I like to think that it's one of those acronyms that's transcended its meaning to be a word in and of itself. I mean, SCUBA is an acronym but who knows what it stands for anymore?
Whenever any VFD member quotes his or her associates, it's always some poet, writer, philosopher or some other kind of intellectual profession . . . in other words, it's always a well-read person. So you could say that VFD is composed mostly of every notable well-read person, ever. That in itself could be what the organization: a society of well-read people that do things together. Do we need to know everything it does? Probably not. The amount of things that VFD stood for in ASoUE alone is probably a fraction of what's been created by the organization. Snicket has shown us that it's a ridiculously complex entity.
But maybe we can get some insight into its central mission. It's here, I think, that "Volunteer Fire Department" is most telling. Libraries play a central role in the beginning of the series - the existence and quality of a character's library is indicative of how well-read that person is. Libraries are also, as we have seen, extremely flammable. So VFD's main mission is to extinguish fires - preserve the knowledge that is in these libraries.
I think that's really all we need to know, and it is pretty awesome IMO. A huge underground society of intellectuals? Awesome!
Who burned down the Baudelaire mansion, if not Olaf?
Signs point to Esme. Although she probably, like Olaf, has much more to her than meets the eye, the evidence in the books makes her out as the culprit. The rant at the end of TSS shows that she's not "well-read" in the traditional sense and probably wouldn't give much thought to burning so many books down. The 667 penthouse provided a direct passageway to the Baudelaire mansion - a point of entry. Perhaps Esme wanted the penthouse for the specific purpose of burning the Baudelaire mansion down [as well as any other uses a former VFD headquarters might have]. She also has the motive - lots of interaction between Beatrice and Esme. Beatrice stole Esme's sugar bowl, the quote "I'll steal from you like Beatrice stole from me" at the end of TEE, etc.
However, we can deduce from notes in TBB:RE that Olaf was present as well. The interaction between the two is unclear. Maybe Olaf was convincing Esme not to go through with it? Maybe he changed his mind at the last minute? Who knows?
Why didn't we meet up with the Quagmires? / Will Snicket write more books dealing with their story?
The Quagmires were a tangential part of the story. However, I've heard a bunch of people who think the Violet/Quigley relationship needs some kind of closure.
I don't visit this board or the Snicket fan community in general a lot so I'm taking the stance of an observer here, but it seems that "shippers" have been desperately looking for any possible relationships between characters and overemphasizing them to ridiculous amounts - particularly "Quiglet" and any Klaus/Fiona shippers.
Look, they're all under 15 years old. It is pretty hard to have a relationship with the emotional maturity present in that age. Handler devoted maybe 2-3 pages out of the entire series to talk about any romantic stirrings in the children characters. It's just something that was mentioned; it doesn't really need closure.
I don't think more books featuring the Quagmires are required . . . did they even do much? Besides any stops they might have made, seems that all the Quagmires did was hang around in a balloon for 7 books.
I'm going to try answering one of these questions right now. If you think I'm right, post. If you think I'm talking crap, post with your own theories and I'll incorporate them into this thread. Together we'll be able to figure out what . . . exactly . . . happened in this series we've devoted so much effort to decoding.
------
What did VFD do, exactly, and what did it stand for?
The official name of VFD is Volunteer Fire Department, but as Widdershins said, it can also stand for lots of other things. I like to think that it's one of those acronyms that's transcended its meaning to be a word in and of itself. I mean, SCUBA is an acronym but who knows what it stands for anymore?
Whenever any VFD member quotes his or her associates, it's always some poet, writer, philosopher or some other kind of intellectual profession . . . in other words, it's always a well-read person. So you could say that VFD is composed mostly of every notable well-read person, ever. That in itself could be what the organization: a society of well-read people that do things together. Do we need to know everything it does? Probably not. The amount of things that VFD stood for in ASoUE alone is probably a fraction of what's been created by the organization. Snicket has shown us that it's a ridiculously complex entity.
But maybe we can get some insight into its central mission. It's here, I think, that "Volunteer Fire Department" is most telling. Libraries play a central role in the beginning of the series - the existence and quality of a character's library is indicative of how well-read that person is. Libraries are also, as we have seen, extremely flammable. So VFD's main mission is to extinguish fires - preserve the knowledge that is in these libraries.
I think that's really all we need to know, and it is pretty awesome IMO. A huge underground society of intellectuals? Awesome!
Who burned down the Baudelaire mansion, if not Olaf?
Signs point to Esme. Although she probably, like Olaf, has much more to her than meets the eye, the evidence in the books makes her out as the culprit. The rant at the end of TSS shows that she's not "well-read" in the traditional sense and probably wouldn't give much thought to burning so many books down. The 667 penthouse provided a direct passageway to the Baudelaire mansion - a point of entry. Perhaps Esme wanted the penthouse for the specific purpose of burning the Baudelaire mansion down [as well as any other uses a former VFD headquarters might have]. She also has the motive - lots of interaction between Beatrice and Esme. Beatrice stole Esme's sugar bowl, the quote "I'll steal from you like Beatrice stole from me" at the end of TEE, etc.
However, we can deduce from notes in TBB:RE that Olaf was present as well. The interaction between the two is unclear. Maybe Olaf was convincing Esme not to go through with it? Maybe he changed his mind at the last minute? Who knows?
Why didn't we meet up with the Quagmires? / Will Snicket write more books dealing with their story?
The Quagmires were a tangential part of the story. However, I've heard a bunch of people who think the Violet/Quigley relationship needs some kind of closure.
I don't visit this board or the Snicket fan community in general a lot so I'm taking the stance of an observer here, but it seems that "shippers" have been desperately looking for any possible relationships between characters and overemphasizing them to ridiculous amounts - particularly "Quiglet" and any Klaus/Fiona shippers.
Look, they're all under 15 years old. It is pretty hard to have a relationship with the emotional maturity present in that age. Handler devoted maybe 2-3 pages out of the entire series to talk about any romantic stirrings in the children characters. It's just something that was mentioned; it doesn't really need closure.
I don't think more books featuring the Quagmires are required . . . did they even do much? Besides any stops they might have made, seems that all the Quagmires did was hang around in a balloon for 7 books.
