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/lit/ - Literature


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22090086 No.22090086 [Reply] [Original]

I spent the last couple months reading these. It's a literary, thought provoking, and well written story.

A series is more than what it references, obviously, but I think the references say a lot. Sappho, Shakespeare, Pynchon, Salinger, Melville, Wilde, Henry James... and that's just what I remember off the top of my head. They're not only name drops, either. Some of them are subtle like the reference to the crying of lot 49. Some are critical of the referenced author. Some, like Salingers reference (a character names Esme Squalor) develop into interesting things on their own, blurring what's an homage or a criticism.

Count Olaf is a fantastic villain, and the prose is sharp and indulgent, but its not those things or the references that make the series impressive. It's the restraint. He layers mystery upon mystery into a great crescendo of tension, interweaving characters and secret organizations and conflict, all culminating in the last book which abandons 95% of it. Instead of answering all the set-up conspiracy, it takes a thematic, religious approach (please don't let this thread devolve into antisemitism) and leaves things in a state of suspension.

I picked these up because I spent most of last year struggling with Gravitys Rainbow and wanted to have something easy, but little did I know that I'd be reading Pynchon for a younger audience. I recommend anyone looking for something easy to give them a try. There's enough there to chew on.

>> No.22090131

>>22090086
>well written

Some examples to illustrate the charm and thoughtfulness

On death:
>It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.

>There is a kind of crying I hope you have not experienced, and it is not just crying about something terrible that has happened, but a crying for all of the terrible things that have happened, not just to you but to everyone you know and to everyone you don´t know, a crying that cannot be diluted by a brave deer or a kind word, but only by someone holding you as your shoulders shake and your tears run down your face. Sunny held Kit, and Violet held Klaus, and for a minute the four castaways did nothing but weep, letting their tears down their faces and into the sea, wich some have said is nothing but a library of all tears in history. Kit and the children let their sadness join the sadness of the world, and cried for all the people who were lost to them

Hell, even some of the dedications have a certain emotional weight to them:

>Summer without you is as cold as winter. Winter without you is even colder.

>> No.22090172

>>22090086
Based. I was obsessed with these 3rd - 5th grade. They're good prolegomena for children to ease them into more heavy-duty literature

>> No.22090179

>>22090086
>Count Olaf is a fantastic villain
And to expand on this a little, he's fun, sure, but I was impressed with his role in the story. He serves to illustrate how useless the world really is at preventing evil. Time and time again, Olaf's simplistic schemes manipulate the "adult" world that is supposed to know better. His existence is a tool to show how poor the world is at the protection of the innocent, a theme that gets explored further by the wild snake and apple ending.

I'd like to know what others think about his final act of what seems like generosity. It ties into the idea Snicket works with about the complexity of life. How even the noble are capable of evil (noble enough) and apparently, as it comes to close, the evil are capable of nobility.

>> No.22090214

>>22090086
As far as children's lit goes, these are pretty kino. Would absolutely recommend if you have a kid. It's a shame they were never all that popular compared to other shit.

>> No.22090226

I agree, the narrator is very fun

>> No.22090232

>>22090214
I think pomo themes are great for the prose of a kids series but lack the resolve of something more traditional, ala harry potter. Granted, I think thats most of the point.

>> No.22090292

>>22090086
I do like their unknown time setting and geographical ambiguity, I can believe these stories existing any time from 1901 to 1961 and anywhere from Russia to America.

>> No.22090399

>>22090086
I loved these as a kid. Now that I think about it, my interest in serious literature was probably started by this series. I should ask my parents if they still have them, I got lost in the later books and would like to reread them. Thanks for the reminder.

>> No.22090423

>>22090399
This leads me to my only qualm with the series. He progresses from digestible kids literature to pretty complicated and intricate existentialist novels but maintains the prosaic qualities of kids fiction. I'm on book 10, the only people hanging on still are of a decent age and analytical ability, so why he spends 3 paragraphs recalling the events of previous books is beyond me.

>> No.22090494

>>22090423
In the old days it was never guaranteed that a reader would find the books in order. I was introduced to the series by randomly picking up The Slippery Slope at a Scholastic book fair.

>> No.22090507

>>22090086
great series with a wet little shart of an ending

>> No.22090509

>>22090494
Sure, which is fine if it's a diary of a wimpy kid or something of the like, but those paragraphs of self-references and summary aren't enough to cover the entirety of what happened in the carnival or the mountains.

>> No.22090514

>>22090507
Howso?

>> No.22090524

>>22090509
You don't need the entirety, only whatever information is immediately relevant to following the plot and enough of a tease to entice the reader into seeking out the other books.

>> No.22090561

>>22090524
I think we've had a misunderstanding. I just finished them, and it's not like he recaps at the beginning (he does, but that's not what I'm talking about), I'm talking about every 2 or 3 chapters he found it necessary to reference every book, sequentially, from 1 to 12, in a long, substanceless passage. It added nothing other than summary, which again, for someone who's made it to book 13, isn't necessary, especially when they're already 200 pages in.

>> No.22090605

>>22090086
You could skip half of them.

>> No.22090618

In case you didn't hear about it OP, Lemony Snicket (the fictional author, not whatever he's really called) is doing some new thing with Pinocchio.

>> No.22090629
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22090629

>>22090618
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beehivebooks/pinocchio-an-illuminated-edition-by-mike-mignola

>> No.22090634
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22090634

>>22090629

>> No.22090666

>>22090086
They got me to try Salinger, which alone is enough to make me love them.

>> No.22090688

>>22090618
>>22090629
>>22090634
I see. I'm not a fan of authors rewriting classic or folk tales with a small inversion or two, but it seems like there's more than that going on. I wonder how it'll tie into Asoue considering Lemony Snicket is a character in the world

>> No.22090750

>>22090688
Yeah, he's not rewriting it or anything. He's reprinting the novel, with Mike Mignola doing original art for it. He's wrote 100 pages of autistic shit like this >>22090634 that is included as a separate thing.

>> No.22090903
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22090903

I didn't finish the unfortunate events though I did like them. I'm unsure about the allusion as I read them when I was around 10 and I remember trying to pick the series up when I was ~13 but (though not the reason I didn't finish them) the plot felt child-like/predictable. Perhaps I should try again?

I read the first two books in this series from him as well. The plot is more convoluted but I enjoyed them more. What do others think?

>> No.22090912

>>22090903
I never bothered. I'd outgrown the books by then, and they weren't ASOUE

>> No.22091469

>>22090086
I haven't read them since I was a really little kid but they'll always hold a place in my heart, not just out of nostalgia but for getting me into seriously reading. I know I'm not alone in this; nearly everyone I know who read a lot as a kid and still reads as an adult started with Series of Unfortunate Events. I do want to reread them, but I'm holding off till I have kids and I can hopefully read through them in parallel so we can talk about them.
Regardless of if they hold up entirely to an adult though, they made countless children passionate about reading and for that they deserve praise. So many kids books are facile drivel and kids know it; the world is a big scary place and art that reflects that and offers humor and understanding and beauty in spite of that is as comforting and necessary to children as it is to adults.
Honestly this thread is making me want to write Mr. Snicket a bit of fan mail just to thank him, and I never do that.

>> No.22091788

>>22090086
So what was The Great Unknown? A submarine?

>> No.22091878

>>22091469
I'm glad you had that and have the reflective ability to appreciate it

>>22091788
I think that thinking too much about it diminishes the point

>> No.22092718
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22092718

>>22090086
I only read The Reptile Room. I liked it. It was good. I also remember the movie with Jim Carrey. Should I read the whole series?

>> No.22092757

>>22091788
Isn't it better not knowing? I kinda dig the mystery.

>> No.22092760

>>22092757
I'll dig into your asshole, faggot.

>> No.22092767

I probably am indebted to this series more than I realize for fostering a love of literature and especially meta fiction. How lucky I was to resonate with these more than potter

>> No.22092838

I remember reading them when I was like 10 and they were coming out but at some point towards the end with the last few books I sort of lost the plot. I remember these books going from flavor of the month "now you're here, this is your life now and it might be good or bad but here comes Olaf with some retarded scheme that everyone believes and it blows the entire thing up in your face" in the beginning but in the last few books it got more abstract and was a bit too incoherent for me at the time to grasp. Still don't remember how they end.

>> No.22092873 [DELETED] 
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22092873

https://youtu.be/kUv6jfzRcts

>> No.22093362

I always forget I read these but I reckon they had more of an impact on my psycho-social development than I realize. After all, I would go to the bookstore and read these in the corner in a real moody way, obsessed with dark tales.

>> No.22093550

>>22090086
Never was interested in these, couldn't get into them when I was a kid. Tried and failed, what can you do.

>> No.22093692

>>22093550
Good contribution to the thread. We were all holding our breath for your opiniom