Anyone have any idea what the "Great Unknown" is?

[Dante]

You might find the location of the series to be a more controversial matter than that, kkunz156. I advise you to take a look in the Perilous Places sub-board (in Sardonic Series) for a bit more discussion on that subject. I think the Bermuda Triangle is unlikely to be alluded to in connection to the Great Unknown for the simple fact that the series does not have a great interest in visiting real places, just in making mostly offhand references to them; the Great Unknown would precede the Bermuda Triangle rather than vice-versa, I think.

[B.]

Hmm....well Snicket has said the new series will "approach that question mark from another angle." So maybe we'll find out more soon.

I agree with Dante, it seems to be a lot like the Bermuda Triangle.
Another thing- metaphorically it could be the great unknown of growing up and moving on.

[Dante]

I prefer the metaphorical, symbolic explanations, which is why I'm kinda happy to just let it remain unexplained.

[csc]

Jul 18, 2010 12:29:07 GMT -5 vksvksvksvks said:

i think its sort of like a black hole thing, no one knows exactly what it is and no one can tell you cause no one has come out.

So it's kinda like death.

[B.]

Not Death....I don't believe that the Quagmires are dead.

[vbaudelaire]

Well, I think that it's the people who say they are on one side of the schism but are really on the other side or not in the schism at all.

[Dante]

A vessel of traitors or defectors from V.F.D., you mean?

[moseymoo]

I think that it, like so many aspects of the novels, has the same metaphorical and literal state: The Great Unknown is exactly what its name suggests. Olaf, like many other 'baddies' within the series, prefers to remain ignorant; yet the Quagmires, like so many other 'goodies', feel the compulsion to face down The Great Unknown and discover its reality. In essence, I don't believe that it is a great evil, or a force of good, just an unknown quantity, which is why so many people fear it. I'm not sure even Handler has a concrete idea of what it really is, although I like to think he does.

[The Duchess]

The bombinating beast!

[Dante]

I think the Bombinating Beast is the Great Unknown, but I don't think that the Great Unknown is the Bombinating Beast.

[Dante]

I don't know that it's a MacGuffin, exactly. It's not the object of anyone's search - not the unknown in itself. Rather the reverse, if anything. But many MacGuffins can be said to have been consumed by it.

[Dante]

I think you were half right. One of the characteristics of the MacGuffin is that it doesn't necessarily matter what it is, because its main purpose is not to be significant in itself but for the characters to seek it. The sugar bowl is a MacGuffin. The Great Unknown isn't because nobody's seeking it - like I said, rather the reverse - but I would agree that its unknown and uncertain nature is the most important quality it possesses. You could almost call it an anti-MacGuffin; like a MacGuffin, knowing what it really is isn't important, but instead it's something the characters are for the most part actively trying to avoid.

[Hermes]

I've always found the concept of a McGuffin rather confusing. For any object that figures in a story, you can say that its purpose for us, the readers, is to advance the plot - but for the characters it must have some other significance: how could it advance the plot if it didn't?

[Dante]

I think the irrelevance of the MacGuffin's purpose is supposed to be that it is in some way interchangeable. There are many explanations as to what's in the sugar bowl (or to what the Great Unknown is), for instance; the stolen submarine plans might as well be for planes or tanks or bombs and we won't ever need to understand exactly what's so special about them; that suitcase could contain money or a radioactive element or incriminating photographs of a public figure. The story is more about what people will do for the MacGuffin rather than what they will do with it. I admit it's rather vague, but that's how I rationalise it.

[Tryina Denouement]

I always thought that the Great Unknown was a metaphor or the Merlion as interpreted by V.F.D