Of Secrets, Schisms and Treacheries: A Series of Unfortunate Events

While awaiting the release of the final Harry Potter book on July 21, 2007, I found myself getting hooked to A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. The Series is composed of thirteen books and several other accompanying books which appear to be a prequel or a sequel to book the thirteenth.

I remember seeing the A Series of Unfortunate Events in Powerbooks around a couple of years ago. I picked it up, considered to purchase, but eventually dropped it, heeding the warning that it contained, as can be clearly inferred from the title, nothing but narrations of unfortunate events. A few weeks before my birthday last year, I noticed that bookstores were all a-hype over the release of The End, the concluding book of the Series and I got curious once more. But of course, I couldn't read The End before reading the previous books and I was quite taken aback when I realized I had to catch up reading twelve books. It was only when I was able to borrow the Series from a friend was I able to start reading but then again, she didn't have The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill and The Austere Academy, books 3-5 of the Series so for quite sometime, I stopped at The Reptile Room and tried to look for the three books before proceeding to read The Ersatz Elevator. My search being futile and my unwillingness to buy my own copies of the books, I proceeded to read The Ersatz Elevator anyway - I kinda figured that the author eventually referred to previous incidents in the books I haven't read so I was thought it was fine to skip the three books afterall. Besides, I though that there wasn't too much foreshadowing of the characters so I really wouldn't miss much if I wasn't able to read a few books. I wouldn't dare do that with J.K. Rowling, as her previous books have proven that each tiny detail could be very significant in the story. Anyway, my friend's collection is only up to Book Eleventh: The Slippery Slope, but by the time I finished it, I was so itching and aching to know what would become of the Baudelaires that I purchased The Penultimate Peril last week and The End last Tuesday.

I finished reading The End a little past midnight last night, and upon waking up, things have started to sink in. I was wrong to skim through a few pages where Lemony Snicket rambles what I thought were merely lines injected to supply dark humor into the story. I was wrong not to have tried harder to remember details from the past books. I was wrong to give up trying to read sentences which were deliberately written to challenge not too persistent and impatient readers. I was wrong to think a few years back that I wouldn't grow to like the Series cause now, I'm hooked. Creepingly, it got to me and I am eager to know more about the Baudelaires, the Snickets and the V.F.D. In fact, I just might troop to my favorite book store tomorrow and try to get a copy of the Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography, and The Bad Beginning: A Rare Edition which contains portraits of the characters and "an extra chapter filled with author's notes on the book, many of which foreshadow later events in the series".

Being on the brink of being outside the United Nation's definition of "youth", I couldn't help but be conscious whether I would want my own children or my dear godchildren to get hold and read of the Series since it is classified under children's books. The past years, I have become aware that I was actually subconsciously building up my book collection, thinking of the day when I will be able to share them with a friend, a child or a lover. Thinking about it, I was anticipating how I could "protect" young would-be readers from certain books, shielding them from it until they are at a certain age which I have not determined the cut off as of yet. Yes, I am guilty of scheming to censor this early but then, I believe it is for good reason.

*Spoilers*
There a lot a lot of lessons to learn from the Series and it is a shame that I don't have anyone to discuss it with, among my friends at least. I couldn't blame them for starting the book and not finishing them as the repetitive unfortunate incidents in the lives of the characters tend to be discouraging, and of course, there are days when we need something to cheer us up. However, towards the second half of the Series, things are starting to get gray and the path to what is moral, what is right and waht is just which was once so clear had become hazy, narrow and yes, treacherous. Many times in the story, the Baudelaires helplessly thought of their home, when it was safe and they were protected by their parents, and hoped that they still had the same refuge - much the same way whenever we have chosen to play safe, or when our own parents have chosen to shield us from the world. At some point the Baudelaires found a place quite as safe as the home they once had, and yet, having been made aware of how the world is, they made the choice to get out of their safe place and battle the truths and the treacheries that lay ahead. And indeed, as it became unclear whether there is a noble V.F.D., things get muddled and murky when one is trying to do what it right. It was actually poignant to depict that schisms - divides, parting of ways, can occur even among people who think they are doing what is moral, which at times "depends on how you look at it".

Having this personal sentiment on how to share my books (lovers and friends can read just about any of my books, by the way), I couldn't help but be able to relate to the dilemma faced by the characters in the Series. In the Series, adults kept secrets from the children or in some cases, from adults, in an attempt to shield them from the ways of the world, to preserve their rosy view of life, to spare them from the anguish of knowing the truth. (As I'm writing this, the current discussions in my block mailing list is about how to rear a child: antiseptically clean kids vis-a-vis rolling in the dirt, with sipon and uhog dripping from their noses or dried up in their faces kids.)

In any case, I've decided that the kids would be able to get hold of the Series any other way, but as far as my copies are concerned, they would only get hold of it when they are in high school or if I see them as potentially mature and wise at an early age, maybe when they are 9 or 10 at my sole discretion. The author's frequent deliberate definition of certain words and the comparison of literal and figurative meanings, as well as elaborate explanation of many idiomatic expressions would surely be a huge help for kids in school. The overall tone of the Series also puts much importance to being well-read, having stated outright that cruel people are not usually well-read.

There are a lot of things to learn from the Series - it is a social commentary, it is a synthesis of centuries of socio-political and philosophical thought (Can't help thinking of Machiavelli when the Baudelaires had a moral crisis whether the end justifies the means - why their quest for justice against a treacherous person led them into doing treacherous deeds. And I also can't help but see traces of communism, and be reminded of Orwell's 1984, in their leader Ishmael and how he runs what Count Olaf calls Olaf-Land. I think politicians, fence-sitters and kibitzers alike should read this book in time for the coming elections. So much for reading The Art of War and Power for them. It is even possible that they see themselves in the characters of the Series - I wonder who's gonna be Count Olaf, Justice Strauss or the Baudelaires...

In the end, The End did not answer all the questions I have about the lives of the Baudelaires and everyone they have encountered after they were orphaned (although I really, really hope The Dealth Hallows will, but that's a different story, literally). But then, Lemony Snicket wrote that the beginning of the story is not really the beginning but could be the end of another story. And the end could be the beginning or just another story, or even the middle of someone else's. Depends on how you look at it.

Looking back to the day when I decided to decide not to buy The Bad Beginning a few years back, I wouldn't have thought of the day when I would say that, I think Daniel Handler a.k.a. Mr. Lemony Snicket is brilliant. Yes, I think he is.

The End of the Time Traveler's Wife's Flame

I am an incurable spendthrift, prodigal person - I couldn't resist splurging on books. Yes, I went to Fully Booked at the Promenade last night to get myself a copy of The End, Book 13 of the Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and ended up buying two other books. I guess it was actually an achievement since this is my first big hoard of books (three, not bad) for the second quarter of the year. My recent purchase was The Coma by Alex Garland, the author of The Beach. It was an interesting read, and the topic was fresh: the perspective of a person in comatose, his thoughts and his struggle to distinguish memory, consciousness and reality. It was not told from the clinical point of view but I guess it would have lost its mainstream appeal then.

Anyways, aside from Book 13, I also bought The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Below are the synopsis of the books as written on their respective back covers. After reading them, I'm sure you will agree with me that if you were in my shoes, you will also not be able to resist reading these books. I've also copied below an excerpt of Chaper One of Book 13 which I got from Lemony Snicket's Official Website. Read on.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Yambo, a sixtyish rare-book dealer who lives in Milan, has suffered a loss of memory-he can remember the plot of every book he has ever read, every line of poetry, but he no longer knows his own name, doesn't recognize his wife or his daughters, and remembers nothing about his parents or his childhood. In an effort to retrieve his past, he withdraws to the family home somewhere in the hills between Milan and Turin.There, in the sprawling attic, he searches through boxes of old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and adolescent diaries. And so Yambo relives the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, Fred Astaire. His memories run wild, and the life racing before his eyes takes the form of a graphic novel. Yambo struggles through the frames to capture one simple, innocent image: that of his first love.

A fascinating, abundant new novel-wide-ranging, nostalgic, funny, full of heart-from the incomparable Eco.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger's innovative debut, The Time Traveler's Wife, is the story of Clare, a beautiful art student, and Henry, an adventuresome librarian, who have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry thirty-one. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.

The Time Traveler's Wife depicts the effects of time travel on Henry and Clare's marriage and their passionate love for each other as the story unfolds from both points of view. Clare and Henry attempt to live normal lives, pursuing familiar goals — steady jobs, good friends, children of their own. All of this is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End

Dear Reader,

You are presumably looking at the back of this book, or the end of the end. The end of the end is the best place to begin the end, because if you read the end from the beginning of the beginning of the end to the end of the end of the end, you will arrive at the end of the end of your rope. This book is the last in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and even if you braved the previous twelve volumes, you probably can't stand such unpleasantries as a fearsome storm, a suspicious beverage, a herd of wild sheep, an enormous bird cage, and a truly haunting secret about the Baudelaire parents. It has been my solemn occupation to complete the history of the Baudelaire orphans, and at last I am finished. You likely have some other occupation, so if I were you I would drop this book at once, so the end does not finish you. With all due respect,

Excerpts from Chapter One:

If you have ever peeled an onion, then you know that the first thin, papery layer reveals another thin, papery layer, and that layer reveals another, and another, and before you know it you have hundreds of layers all over the kitchen table and thousands of tears in your eyes, sorry that you ever started peeling in the first place and wishing that you had left the onion alone to wither away on the shelf of the pantry while you went on with your life, even if that meant never again enjoying the complicated and overwhelming taste of this strange and bitter vegetable.

In this way, the story of the Baudelaire orphans is like an onion, and if you insist on reading each and every thin, papery layer in A Series of Unfortunate Events, your only reward will be 170 chapters of misery in your library and countless tears in your eyes. Even if you have read the first twelve volumes of the Baudelaires' story, it is not too late to stop peeling away the layers, and to put this book back on the shelf to wither away while you read something less complicated and overwhelming. The end of this unhappy chronicle is like its bad beginning, as each misfortune only reveals another, and another, and another, and only those with the stomach for this strange and bitter tale should venture any farther into the Baudelaire onion. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.