My Silence Knot
Oct. 20th, 2006 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatI finished reading The End, the final book in A Series of Unfortunate Events, just a little while ago. I have a few comments I want to make on it, but since I know there are people reading this who haven't finished the book yet, I'm going to put them under a cut. If you haven't finished the book, DON'T READ UNDER THE CUT! Don't say I didn't warn you!
When I know that a book has some mysteries to wrap up and answers to give, reading through the actual story to get to them can make me rather impatient. Still, the story was a good one, and I have to wonder whether the various references to safety versus personal liberty, especially Sunny's comment on page 223 are intended to resonate with the current American political climate. I mean, they're pretty general, but combined with Sunny's "busheney" from The Slippery Slope, I have my suspicions. It also seems like the names of the islanders are references to famous stories about shipwrecks and the like. Alonso, Ariel, Ferdinand, and Gonzalo (the last of whom isn't an islander, but is mentioned by Alonso at one point) are all characters in The Tempest. Erewhon (basically "nowhere" spelled backwards, albeit with two letters transposed to make the resulting word easier to pronounce) is a book by Samuel Butler, but I haven't read it, and hence don't know how it relates to shipwrecks. Marlow and Kurtz were apparently characters in Heart of Darkness. Ishmael, Friday, Robinson, Jonah, and Calypso all seem pretty obvious, but I'm not sure about the others. Any ideas? For reference, the other islanders' names are Sherman, Weyden, Larsen, Finn, Brewster, Byam, Willa, Mr. Pitcairn, Professor Fletcher, Madame Nordoff, Rabbi Bligh, Sadie Bellamy, and Olivia Caliban. Oddly enough, I don't believe there are any references to Lord of the Flies.
As for the mysteries, the mysterious Beatrice is pretty clearly identified, but many other things aren't answered at all. I didn't expect a total wrap-up everything, especially when you consider how purposely weird and enigmatic a lot of the asides in the series are; but the fact that a few mysteries that have been brought up several times and could easily be explained in a few words (I don't want to be too specific even under the cut) are left unexplained strikes me as essentially a "screw you" to the readers. Then again, maybe that's what I should have expected from Lemony Snicket. I'll also say that some newly revealed information on the relationship between two characters casts doubt on some of my assumptions about the infamous Snicket family tree in The Unauthorized Autobiography.
I've also listened to The Tragic Treasury a few times through now, and it's a good record. My favorite song is probably "Shipwrecked," which includes some clever black comedy ("What shall we use for bait? Lend me a hand/I'll sew it back on when we get to land/But if the shark takes it, that would be grand,/(because we won't starve to death; you understand)." I also quite like "Freakshow," with its carnival-style music. These two are songs that seem to be merely INSPIRED by the Snicket series, rather than actually ABOUT it, as "Scream And Run Away" (which, by the way, has its own video (it's the third one on the page, but the other two are also worth watching) in the style of "Subterranean Homesick Blues") is. The album is definitely cool, and something I'd recommend to either Snicket or Stephin Merritt fans, but it sometimes drag a bit. As much as I love Merritt's voice and the dour music, it's possible (at least for me) to grow a little tired of them after a while. Still, that's a minor criticism, and can probably be cured simply by listening to something more cheerful after playing playing this album.
When I know that a book has some mysteries to wrap up and answers to give, reading through the actual story to get to them can make me rather impatient. Still, the story was a good one, and I have to wonder whether the various references to safety versus personal liberty, especially Sunny's comment on page 223 are intended to resonate with the current American political climate. I mean, they're pretty general, but combined with Sunny's "busheney" from The Slippery Slope, I have my suspicions. It also seems like the names of the islanders are references to famous stories about shipwrecks and the like. Alonso, Ariel, Ferdinand, and Gonzalo (the last of whom isn't an islander, but is mentioned by Alonso at one point) are all characters in The Tempest. Erewhon (basically "nowhere" spelled backwards, albeit with two letters transposed to make the resulting word easier to pronounce) is a book by Samuel Butler, but I haven't read it, and hence don't know how it relates to shipwrecks. Marlow and Kurtz were apparently characters in Heart of Darkness. Ishmael, Friday, Robinson, Jonah, and Calypso all seem pretty obvious, but I'm not sure about the others. Any ideas? For reference, the other islanders' names are Sherman, Weyden, Larsen, Finn, Brewster, Byam, Willa, Mr. Pitcairn, Professor Fletcher, Madame Nordoff, Rabbi Bligh, Sadie Bellamy, and Olivia Caliban. Oddly enough, I don't believe there are any references to Lord of the Flies.
As for the mysteries, the mysterious Beatrice is pretty clearly identified, but many other things aren't answered at all. I didn't expect a total wrap-up everything, especially when you consider how purposely weird and enigmatic a lot of the asides in the series are; but the fact that a few mysteries that have been brought up several times and could easily be explained in a few words (I don't want to be too specific even under the cut) are left unexplained strikes me as essentially a "screw you" to the readers. Then again, maybe that's what I should have expected from Lemony Snicket. I'll also say that some newly revealed information on the relationship between two characters casts doubt on some of my assumptions about the infamous Snicket family tree in The Unauthorized Autobiography.
I've also listened to The Tragic Treasury a few times through now, and it's a good record. My favorite song is probably "Shipwrecked," which includes some clever black comedy ("What shall we use for bait? Lend me a hand/I'll sew it back on when we get to land/But if the shark takes it, that would be grand,/(because we won't starve to death; you understand)." I also quite like "Freakshow," with its carnival-style music. These two are songs that seem to be merely INSPIRED by the Snicket series, rather than actually ABOUT it, as "Scream And Run Away" (which, by the way, has its own video (it's the third one on the page, but the other two are also worth watching) in the style of "Subterranean Homesick Blues") is. The album is definitely cool, and something I'd recommend to either Snicket or Stephin Merritt fans, but it sometimes drag a bit. As much as I love Merritt's voice and the dour music, it's possible (at least for me) to grow a little tired of them after a while. Still, that's a minor criticism, and can probably be cured simply by listening to something more cheerful after playing playing this album.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-20 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-22 06:03 pm (UTC)Okay, that definitely fits the theme. Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 12:27 am (UTC)I noticed that about the islanders too, although I can't help pinpoint where any of the other names come from-- but I did notice (while I was reading even!), wasn't Prospero, the name of the ship that keeps coming up in the series, from The Tempest too?
I don't know about political underpinnings, especially "current"... I think the current comments ("buscheney" WAS rather funny) are stuck in as references but are not what the story is about. Actually the main comparison that stuck out with me in the "safety vs. personal liberty" theme is that of overprotective parents, an issue that has existed since long before any current political clime-- particularly the ones who censor children's books, which ties into what I realized in the course of reading this last book is the main theme of the entire series, which is Freedom of Information! Which is why libraries are so important to the series story! It's not just a clever scheme of Daniel Handler to get librarians to purchase his books for their collections! It's parodied in the whole "Do not read this, go read something happy and wholesome" reoccurring thing, too; and there's the whole research theme and the Commonplace books and the truth in the media thing.... Dude, it's really deep. (LOL--okay, actually more of a giggle) This is so why I love children's books. They have so many more layers than adult books, that's just that.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 08:12 pm (UTC)I believe so, although (as I said to
I think the current comments ("buscheney" WAS rather funny) are stuck in as references but are not what the story is about.
You're probably right. Putting in too many current references wouldn't make that much sense for a book that its author wants people in the future to appreciate, anyway. The theme of safety vs. personal liberty is one that I'm sure has been around as long as humans have been self-aware. Even if Handler (or any other author) DID have the current political climate in mind, that doesn't mean the ideas are limited to that.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 01:49 am (UTC)