The Unanswered Questions

[Lemony Snicket]

oH, ABOUT THE TATTRED-ORPHAN-BOOK i TALKED ABOUT- i have just googled it and found a webpage where it says that thety are bringing out a new library edition! it think it was http://www.bigfryingpan\asoue\specials. or so me cousin sayS...

[the13end]

I'm just wondering one question: Who burned down the Baudelaire mansion? We always thought it was Olaf but he said no. So who? That's the only thing that bothers me! (Of course, then there's the Quagmires and the Unknown.)

[Dante]

Strictly speaking, Olaf didn't deny it; he wasn't even asked whether he did it. The Baudelaires told him they knew he did it, but he denied the idea that they really knew anything, based on how naive he thought they were. It reads more like a denial than an acceptance, true, but the only thing he was denying the Baudelaires was the ability to judge.

[Persnickety Raven]

ffwf said:

Strictly speaking, Olaf didn't deny it; he wasn't even asked whether he did it. The Baudelaires told him they knew he did it, but he denied the idea that they really knew anything, based on how naive he thought they were. It reads more like a denial than an acceptance, true, but the only thing he was denying the Baudelaires was the ability to judge.

Actually, in that Canadian TV interview with DH given this past summer (it's in the Wistful Web sub-board), he confirmed that
Olaf did indeed burn the mansion.

Or at least that he killed both parents, my memory is getting fuzzy.

[Dante]

I interpreted that as quite an offhand remark, quite possibly only from the Baudelaires' point of view, that needn't be taken as canonical if people don't want to. Handler made a point of leaving it ambiguous in the book, and I follow his intention there, not in minor comments in an obscure interview; I wouldn't take that as a confirmation of any kind.

[Persnickety Raven]

ffwf said:

I interpreted that as quite an offhand remark, quite possibly only from the Baudelaires' point of view, that needn't be taken as canonical if people don't want to. Handler made a point of leaving it ambiguous in the book, and I follow his intention there, not in minor comments in an obscure interview; I wouldn't take that as a confirmation of any kind.

Point taken, though he shouldn't need to be ambiguous anymore, it is a dead series after all.

[Dante]

I rather think he should remain ambiguous, for the same reason. That said, because of the out-of-universe perspective, anything that doesn't appear in the books is of dubious canonicity (even if the author says it's true), so it needn't be a problem; it amounts to optional bonus "what if?" material, the same sort of thing as scrapped plotlines - which, incidentally, I would like to hear a lot more about.

[melon head.]

A friend of mine reckons that DH sould release an entire book called, "The Answers". People send in questions and he'll have to answer them- and no tricks, no riddles, it has to be very straight forward.

[violet]

thegreatunknown said:

A friend of mine reckons that DH sould release an entire book called, "The Answers". People send in questions and he'll have to answer them- and no tricks, no riddles, it has to be very straight forward.

That would ruin the fun of it.Of course most of the questions would be like "What's The Great Unknown?" and 'Who's Lemony Snicket?" and 'What did Mr. and Mrs.Baudelaire do?".Maybe he should give some answers,or put some answers in code so people can figure them out,but you need to some ananswered questions.

[Sora]

I think that perhaps we CAN answer some or or most of these questions ourselves, because it's always been my belief that Handler has placed the answers in the books for us, but its up to us to discern them from the dialogue and other elements, because he doesn't want to just come out all hub-hub like and say, "The Sugar Bowl's real purpose and location IS......" or "The Real Culprit of The Baudelaire Mansion Fire IS.....".

These have always been my thoughts on the answers to some of the questions laid out by readers throughout the books.

1. What is the reason for the passageway between the Baudelaire Mansion and 667 Dark Avenue?

Simple of course, the question has answered itself by TSS eloquently. It was intended, like the one between Dr. Monty and The Quagmires, as an escape route in the case of fire, providing safety for one family or the other. From TUA we can discern that it was Jacques who previously owned 667 Dark Avenue's Penthouse, as he instructs Jerome to purchase it, and their arrival in the house co-incides fairly well with the murder of Dr. Montgomery and Jacques's departure [TEE] But we only moved in here a few weeks ago darling, affirming that Jacques was the Baudelaire's safehouse keeper.

2. Who murdered the Baudelaires' parents?
Well this is a very ambigous mystery, but I've always felt it was Esme. Esme had all the motive in the world to do it, and I've often felt that an underlying romance between Lemony and Esme was what drove Esme to say [TEE] I'll steal from you, like how Beatrice stole from me!. Beatrice also stole the sugar bowl from Esme, which would have led to even greater animosity. The aformentioned relationship I felt was alluded to simply in Snicket's familiarity with Esme's nature, his warnings to Beatrice not to have tea with her that Thursday afternoon, and later cryptic remarks made on his behalf about her, outside of the fashionable wicked woman context. I think that with assistance from Olaf, who would have been driven by greed, she would have came across the tunnel and used it for her advantage, for there would be no safe-house for the Baudelaire parents to run to if their exit was the epicentre of the fire.

More to come......

[Lemony Snicket]

OOp, I mean i agree

[thatevanguy]

I'm sorry, but I beg of you and all others to stop asking these questions. Though, of course you have all right to be curious, but Lemony was trying his best to express the fact that all the secrets shouldn't be known, and were placed there for such that reason.

[alek]

you be quite, you are a fun ruiner

[t]

Nov 4, 2007 8:45:07 GMT -5 violet said:

philipjucker said:

lancemannion.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/snicket_the_end.jpg

Like that.

that's the American Edition (the one I have).

Oh,and back to the topic:

Answered Questions:
It answerd some things abut the Baudelaire parent's past
It answerded who Beatrice was
It answered where tHe Quagmires went (they went to The GU,though unfortunately it didn't say what the GU was or if the Quagmires lived or died)
It proved that VFD is 'Volunteer Fire Department'
It said something about Kit& Olaf
It said what gender Kit's baby is,what there name was,the father of it,etc.
It said where the boat went (well,it had to say where the boat went or it would be confusing)
It said some stuff about Violet,Klaus,and Sunny's past
More inventions,more cooking,and more researching
It proved that no Baudelaire parent survived the fire

Unanswered Quetions:
What exactly happened to the quagmires?
What is the GU?
Did the Baudelaire parents really commit the poision dart crime?
Does Olaf know that Kit gave The Baudelaire parents the poision darts (they kissed,and Olaf would most likely be mad at her if he knew that)



Reason for Editing: mistakes,the problem with typing on the computer

1. In my opinion, sad to think that the Quagmires died. (Most excellent writers do kill one of their precious characters. Well, perhaps, not all, however some endangered their character's life to be exciting. )
2. no comment
3. I think so. The Baudelaire parents, of course, are noble, however, according to the book, the Baudelaires (their children) had to do some crime (ex. Sunny suggesting Olaf to burn down the hotel) in return for a noble cause. Blame heredity.
4. Perhaps. That time, there was a scheme going on and almost all of them are just as talented as the other. Thus, the possibility of same strategy and logic thinking are about the same (if they really grew up together as a toddler/ neophyte, then some of the attitudes of others are copied, or perhaps, passed down from one generation to another since their families have histories so large and long that it would make hundred pages just to explain it in details. )

I hope that helps.

[filexsnicket]

I was very uhh confused with that kiss.... I mean Olaf the bad guy!!! With Kit, Lemony Snickets sister jus't seems too weird!!! Also, Lemony Snicket is soo mysterious even in his un-authorized biography still so many questios about him......hmmm anyone care to elabarate on him a bit? =)

P.S I agree with both sides I do love a good mystery of questions though I do love answers or I go crazy thinking about them and would more likely spoil some secrets thendrive meself crazy! =)

Reason for Editing: Moderator Edit: Merging double-post.