#snicketmultiverse

[snicketstrange]

Where does PFB fit into the ASOUE chronology?

That's a really tough question with a really easy answer. 

PFB is outside the fictional universe of ASOUE. PFB finds itself after the publication of all ASOUE books, simply because in the Poison For Breakfast universe Lemony Snicket created the fictional story that is in the ASOUE fiction books.

Let me be clearer. Daniel Handler (the writer in our universe) created a fictional character called Lemony Snicket. This fictional Lemony Snicket created a fictional universe in which there is Violet, Klaus, Sunny, Beatrice and even a Lemony Snciket. In ASOUE, LSTUA, TBL and ATWQ we find the life story (even if fragmented) of a fictional Lemony Snicket that was created by another fictional Lemony Snicket whose life story is narrated (even if partially and in a fragmented way ) in PFB.

In other words, the PFB narrator was never part of a secret organization that fights fires. This narrator invented this organization, as well as the entire ASOUE story.

I don't think it would be right to cite excerpts from the book directly here, as the book has just been published and I don't want to harm Daniel Handler. But if you've read PFB, (and if you haven't, I recommend you do) you'll easily see evidence from the first chapter that what I'm claiming here is true.

Lemony Snicket has a very different childhood story than what we see on LSTUA. VFD is not directly quoted even once. There are no tattoos, and there aren't even references to Lemony Snicket's brother and sister when he talks about his childhood. Apparently Kit and Jaques Snicket are just fictional characters, without an equivalent in the PFB universe. Lemony from PFB seems to have lived in a wealthy family, even having people who called him "Master Snicket", suggesting that he had servants at his disposal. 

At no time does Lemony appear to have been persecuted for his involvement with a secret organization. On the other hand, Lemony claims that in PFB he will talk about how he creates his books. So we have records on how he goes to libraries and sits in the philosophy section. And then we have a description of how he lost himself in imaginative thoughts during his childhood. Clearly this Lemony Snicket is a fiction writer and not a researcher overly concerned with recording truthful details for the general public about the history of the Baudelaires, (which are not mentioned at any time).

I want to be clear: I'm not complaining about the book. I liked the book. That's a way of understanding how Daniel Handler's mind works, although drawing on his interviews is more effective, I think.

Finally, in chapter 12 we have the solution to the mystery of the book. I won't write here, as it's a really big spoiler. But I can say that you will easily notice that there is a description of the creative process of a fiction book being one of the ATWQ books cited by name as an example of one of the books that came from the ideas of this Lemony Snicket, and not from his life experience.

I can also cite the non-existence of absurdisms found in ASOUE and ATWQ's books. PFB could happen in our universe perfectly, without any kind of weirdness. There are no babies with exceptional abilities, no animals trained for feats that would be impossible in our universe.

Is it then possible that this Lemony Snicket was actually Daniel Handler himself just using a different name? This is possible, but I still think it's important to point out that PFB is a fictional story, and contains a fictional protagonist. This protagonist reflects Daniel Handler's way of thinking and worldview. However, this fictional character has a life story of his own and a way of expressing himself. One of the most notorious members of the Dark Avenue 667: Answering Questions Wrong forum asked me something important about this point:

"I would like to know what specifically you find to be the difference between DH's "real" personality and the one in this book. I don't see a difference beyond some very superficial snickety stylings like "a word which here means..."

I think my answer was appropriate: "I think the biggest difference between Lemony and Daniel Handler is not what can be found in PFB, but what is not in PFB. If Daniel Handler hadn't put on his Lemony hat, it wouldn't be nearly suitable for children to read. Lemony is more sensitive to certain factors and to people. And if Daniel Handler had written it (having himself as the protagonist), I'm sure there wouldn't be several descriptions of how to prepare eggs but rather how to prepare alcoholic cocktails."

I would really like to read more about this Lemony Snicket and the series of unfortunate events an author can experience. As I've said before, I think Daniel Handler wants to leave the ASOUE universe intact, protected against himself. I think he found a way to do that by creating this universe in which Lemony is just an author of fiction books, and so Daniel Handler has the freedom to write whatever he wants without hurting ASOUE's canon or giving us room to discover some of the secrets of ASOUE that make it so special.

I think with PFB we can officially welcome Snicketmultiverse. 

[snicketstrange]

Also, all the picture books are stories Snicket told to Sunny.

It's interesting that you say that. Lemony Snicket's books for toddlers have always been a mystery to me as far as how they fit into the asoue universe. I had the opportunity to send some questions to Daniel Handler in 2021, and he kindly responded.

I asked:

"Something that has always fascinated me. Lemony Snicket's fictional target audience he writes ASOUE He seems to have people of his universe in. But I've always mind. books are written by Lemony for the children of his universe? Are these fictional stories from the Lemony universe?"

Note the author's answer:

">What a fascinating question. I must think on it further. In the meantime, as a placeholder, please accept the notion proposed by Nabokov: that "reality" is one of the few words that means nothing without quotation marks around it."

I think this answer shows that Daniel Handler simply never thought about where books for young children fit into the universe of asoue. In other words, those books don't fit anywhere. Now that PFB has been released, I like to think that it was PFB's Lemony Snicket who wrote those books, separate from asoue's universe, since one of the books named in PFB as being authored by PFB's Lemony Snicket is 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy, which is one of Lemony Snicket's books for young children.

[snicketstrange]

Rereading BB to LS #1

This really is Beatrice Jr's most mysterious letter ever. This letter has already taken me in the most different directions. I am currently convinced that the key to understanding it is to consider the possibility that the letter is in the wrong order. As Hermes said, you have to keep in mind that there was a mystery about who Beatrice was when the book was published. Even taking that into account, as much as I understand when the book was published, I don't agree that the mystery of who Beatrice was was being treated as a great mystery by Daniel Handler when he wrote this book. TBL reveals a few things by itself: There are two beatrices, one of them died and the other was still alive. This is made clear in the letter to the editor. Beatrice who was dead is Lemony's old love. The Beatrice who was alive was looking for Klaus, Sunny and Violet and Lemony Snicket. This basic plot doesn't hide any sensational secrets. I believe the editors, reading what Daniel Handler wrote, realized that it would be interesting to publish before TE rather than after TE, just to heighten public curiosity about "the Beatrice mystery" that would be definitively solved in the last word of TE. But TBL is not about "Who is Beatrice?" As many times as I read, I can only perceive TBL as "since you've read asoue, have a little more fun with this epistolary novel that tells a fragmented story about what happened before and what happened after the main story of asoue but which evidently contains mechanisms to avoid important spoilers for those who happen to decide to read this book before reading asoue." I think that despite being a very mysterious letter, BB to LS#1 shows the intention of the author when he makes it very clear that the Beatrice who was writing this letter could not, under any circumstances, be the Beatrice the author was in love with. Beatrice Jr wrote: "Now I must... write to a man I have never seen." This sentence would be dismissed if the author's intention was to try to confuse the reader about the identity of Beatrice Jr. This seems to have been written thinking of the people who already knew about the existence of Beatrice Jr. On the other hand, there is a clear intention of the author to leave a mystery for the reader to try to solve. And that mystery is not "who is Beatrice". This mystery was stated clearly in the letter to the editor, and I repeated it here: "The Beatrice letters could explain the Beatrice letters and even the Beatrice letters, no matter which letters they are, and no matter what ORDER the letters are in." The mystery has always been "What's the order?" This is said not only by Lemony, but by Beatrice Jr herself, as if tipping the reader on "what's the mystery" in BB to LS #2: "I cannot determine what the letters would spell if I put them in you proper ORDER." "What is the order of the letters?" That's the mystery of TBL.

If you've understood Beatrice Jr's story backwards, as I've discussed so far, finding the right position for BB to LS#1 isn't all that difficult. When BB to LS #5 was written, Beatrice Jr was already a VFD member with some experience, as her tutor had already left. She was already known as Baticeer, as she referred to bat training. When she wrote BB to LS#4, she was in theoretical VFD training. She wrote #4 less than 24 hours after she read the poem My Silence Knot. It was when she read this poem that she discovered the meaning of the word "baticeer". It doesn't take much effort to deduce that she only became a baticeer after reading this poem, as before that she didn't even know the meaning of it. Furthermore, she must have only become a baticeer during her practical training, as the activity of training bats is something much more practical than theoretical.

All that being said, I want to inform you that I believe the correct position of this letter should be between the letters BB to LS#4 and BB to LS#5. It's true that some things may seem a little out of place and out of order at first reading. However, I believe they were purposely written this way to make it difficult for the letter to be correctly positioned, and even to allow it to be moved, allowing for a game of anagrams with letters. The way this letter is written is what allows this game to be a reality. Also, it is one thing when the letter was written and another thing is when the letter was received by Lemony. In any case, my opinion should not be taken as definitive, because as Lemony said, the variation in the order of the letters allows for a different understanding of our understanding of the set of letters as a whole. But at the moment I believe the way I suggest is the simplest explanation of when this letter was written. First, in the first paragraph Beatrice Jr claims to have the ability to use a communication network to get the letter to reach Lemony's office. Second, Beatrice demonstrates awareness that Lemony's office is "smal and dusty". She also knew the exact location of Lemony's apartment. More interesting than all this is the fact that it makes a direct reference to bat training. It says, "All I can two hope for the best, but hoping for the best, like hoping for a bat to obey your orders, almost always leads to disappointment." All of that first paragraph makes me imagine a Beatrice Jr who was already in her hands-on VFD training. If the way I'm thinking is really right, the phrase: "For years a I kept quiet, feeling all my words twisting and tangling inside me like skeins of yarn," in addition to being a reference to a letter Lemony had written to Beatrice Sr, (letter Beatrice Jr had access to years earlier in Lemony's own office), also indicates that years have passed since Beatrice Jr's last contact with Lemony through letter (BB to LS#4). Now, let us move on to the consideration of the paragraph which seems to contradict everything I have said, namely paragraph 4 of this letter. Beatrice claims she was told a few things about Lemony, like the fact that the word detective was printed on his office door. If she had already been there, why would it be necessary for someone to tell her about what they had printed on Lemony's door? I think the answer evidently lies in the time that elapsed between Beatrice Jr.'s going to Lemony's office for the first time (BB to LS #2) and the time BB to LS#1 was written. Many years had passed, so in the meantime Lemony had already been cleared of his crimes, and he could have set up a small private detective agency in his own office. When she was first there, Lemony was a fugitive from justice... Few people would hire a fugitive as a private detective. Lemony's career as a detective must have officially started after he was exonerated. Before that, he was best known as a biographer, an obituary writer, a theater critic... All very much related to being a writer. He had worked as a detective in his practical training in VFD, as we now know from the ATWQ, and was only able to practice this profession after publishing TPP. So when Beatrice Jr first came to Lemony's office, there wasn't even the name "detective" printed on his door. But, while she was in her practical training, that name had already been printed, after all, many years had passed between one event and another.

The same paragraph shows something that favors my ideas. The sentence: "I am hoping you will discuss your past with me. I am hoping you will tell me a story that began many years ago." Beatrice shows interest not only in her adoptive parents, but she also shows interest in Lemony's own past. This same interest is seen in the lyrics BB to LS#5. Also, paragraph 4 talks a lot about things Beatrice Jr was told. Who could share details about Lemony's past involving something that was a kind of classroom if not someone who belongs to the VFD? It also strengthens the idea that this letter was written when she was already involved with VFD. An important detail is that in #5 Beatrice Jr hints that she met her adoptive parents recently, and that she will be seeing them again later. Already here in #4, she claims that at that moment she is looking for her family, namely Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. With this in mind, we can conclude that this search for her parents gave results. She found them (or found people she believes to be them) and then (before writing #5) she lost them again. Despite this, it is quite likely that Beatrice Jr realized that Lemony had not received any of her previous letters when she wrote this letter. She thought it was important to introduce herself again, as if Lemony had never heard of her, as can be seen in paragraph 5. It is precisely her attitude that may have been the cause of so much confusion about where this letter should be placed. While the letter has a tone of "I'm introducing myself" it has information that shows Beatrice Jr was already involved with VFD. But I think the simplest way to reconcile these two realities is to understand the matter from the point of view I just demonstrated. A final detail that highlights that Beatrice was in her practical training is the note: "PS - Day woud be better because my bedtime is fairly early". If Beatrice Jr were just the lone orphan in the world, it would be unlikely that she would be so strict with herself about bedtime. On the other hand, if she was with a VFD tutor, it is more likely that this tutor would set a bedtime.