ASOUE predictions

So, with any luck, and I very much do mean luck here, I will have finished penultimate peril and The End by the end of today. This is, of course, only if I end up seeing Lemony Snicket today, and there's enough seats left and whatnot. But just in case I do go, which I really hope ends up happening, I need to make predictions. So, here they are, really quick (longer commentaries coming later):

-lemony snicket said, in Newsweek, that 2 characters will die. Hmm. I don't know if these are good or evil characters; hard to remember if he said that or not. So (yay, it's a live or die segment!) my guess is that all the baudelaires will survive. I remember him in an interview describing the ending as "bittersweet" and it can't be that if our main character die. However, I wouldn't be too surprised if it were one of duncan, quigley, or isadora. That would suck yeah, but it is the last book. If snicket wanted to be really evil, I suppose he could kill off quigley just as he and violet finally meet again (if so, I will be disappointed if violet does not kill herself in a romeo-and-juliet type way - I'm kidding, don't worry). Or you know what? It could be kit snicket. Maybe. That would suck as well for the writer, since this is lemony snicket's sister. No, maybe not, specifically because it is his sister, and because he already wrote a letter to his sister embedded in a previous book. I might guess it otherwise. Or, hmm, what about Fiona, her dad, and the cook? Those are minor characters we don't care too much about. Eh, screw it, I don't know.

You know what, I bet Olaf should die. Maybe. Cause how else can this really end, unless Olaf dies or goes to jail (but he won't, as we've seen) ? Otherwise Olaf would keep pursuing the Baudelaires. It might be poetic, or something, if Olaf died but then so did Quigley. So one good thing and one bad thing, which is kind of how all the books are. The events aren't purely unfortunate. They're just not ideal.

Oh, and I bet Hotel Denouement's going to go up in flames before the end the series. Maybe even in PP, haven't finished that yet.

Okay, really should go take my 2 hour nap now, as these lame predictions aren't getting any more creative, and see if I can mostly finish my computer program enough to be able to go to LA tomorrow (since that's really the clincher.)

Library Excursion

So on friday I had the pleasure of visiting a library in the san diego area I haven't gone to before, for the sole reason of getting grim grotto since my normal library didn't have it. Also was a bit of chance to explore the surrounding area. Turns out its right next to Hillcrest, which is like San Diego's Castro Street, the gay district. Omg, rainbow flags everywhere, it was so excellent. But, my point of this post, because this is a book blog, was to comment on the library.

You know how books have the sticker on the side that says "sci fi" or "young adult" or "fantasy" or whatnot? This library had a rainbow sticker, for the apparently gay genre. It wouldn't have been so hilarious, except that this was bright, carebearstare kind of rainbow, and that, I swear every 10th had said sticker. So like, this whole library was covered in rainbows. And I had fun going through the young adult/teen section and looking at the rainbow stickered books gong "read that one, read that one." That was, of course, before I realized that most of these types of books are actually rather the same, and sometimes lack a particularly interestng plot. But they can be so addicting, anyway.

Of note, I was also able to pick up the 2nd and 3rd Pendragon books. I've been trying oh, all summer to find those books not checked out at a library, but had no luck. Now I do! Yay for me, and tiny libraries.

I hope to have more excursions like this in the future. I swear, if somebody would pay me to map, chart out, and made giant comparison graphs and take pictures of all the libraries in a certain area, I would do it. I have like a library fetish, of something. Maybe I'm a bit obsessed.

The Carnivorous Carnival and The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket

I'm like a kid in a candy store with these books, I swear. Ever since the 7th one, I've been eating them up like no other. And, maybe it's appropriate that I post today, because even though I haven't finished the series yet, many people have. The End came out yesterday, to the excitement and disappointment (re that it's over) of many. And hence my renewed interest in these books. Gotta catch up so I can read commentary, y'know?

Anyway, these books are just as cool and the others, and we finally get to know: what VFD stands for, and the importance of fire in these books. Actually fires are being all over the place starting with Carnivorous Carnival. It's crazy odd to read this, in the sense that it must be a metaphor for something. Basically, what Count Olaf and his followers don't like or find incriminating, they burn. So in a way it's like people who try to ignore or cover up their problems rather than confronting them. Since Olaf and crew were at the carnival, and who knows what's there that could get them in trouble, they burn it. And the hospital too, and VFD headquarters. It's crazy, and crazy sad too, in a way, because reading Snicket's description - the headquarters would have been an awesome place for the characters to go. Even in snicket's style of writing, you still have that disappointment that you didn't see what could have been. In fact, I really hope Snicket writes a prequel about the VFD as it used to be. That would be so cool, omg.

Sunny's growing up! This is just cute and great and everything. So many series fall into the old trap of never having their characters change, but Sunny can now walk, speaks with more recognizable words, and has developed a talent/interest in the culinary arts, which I find hilarious and great and every type of thing. See, she has graduated from Biting, to Cooking, and her thing. Go Sunny.

Speaking of which, Violet (who's 15) gets her first kiss in slippery slope. Yeah, so she only knew said guy for about a day, but you could so see this coming. Like from a mile away. Well, sort of. I half thought it might be Duncan, but he keeps disappearing, so not happening there. Plus, I like how daniel handler manages to get everything across subtextually, so well. "of whom Violet was particularly fond." Oh yes.

From that: Quigley's alive. Yep, I am spoiling the none of you that read this, because, come one, who didn't see this coming ever since we meet Duncan and Isadora and continually hear about how a dead triplet doesn't change their birth identity (which is by the way great, because how many people have every given any thought to that)?

The freaks at the carnival, whom, with the exception of maybe Hugo, weren't "freaks" or abnormal in any sense. The confusing of freakish qualities with talents. This could be something, if I would dig deeper. Oh, and the hook-handed man and some other's of Olaf's crew being confused with the freaks. This was great social commentary. Oh man. And while we're at it, the usual commentary of humans liking violence and the metaphor to the gladiator pit, which you've seen before but never get old if they're done right. And let me use this moment to comment on Kevin's ambidextrous-ity (holy crap, what is the noun form?) was sooo a metaphor for bisexuality, some sort of teh gay. Or that's how I read it.

*clears throat* "And why don't you want to stay here?' Kevin asked. 'Caligari Carnival hasn't been very popular lately, but there's nowhere else for a freak to go.'
'Of course there is,' Violet said. 'Lots of people are ambidextrous, Kevin. There are ambidextrous florists, ambidextrous air traffic controllers, and all sorts of things.'
'You really think so?' Kevin asked. " (page 89)

Ignoring my terrible quotation syntax, do I have a point? Maybe it's my tendency to see teh gay, (and my little joke mostly with my roommate about the Kinsey scale of handedness and how everything is a sliding scale) in everything, but er, still.

I loved slippery slope, also, for it's natury theme. I love stories that take place in forests, first of all because of my love of nature, but second of all because they bring out creativity, because they sort of have to. On the very surface, a forest is just trees. But underneath, it's so much more. And Lemony Snicket, made it utterly compelling, what with the wreckage and clues of the VFD headquarters, Violet's shoe invention for climbing up an iceberg, the toboggan for sliding down, the rolling carriage, the caves, and secret entrances in caves. Woot. (Oh, and Quigley and the Baudelaires speaking to each other in code by telling stories with the initials VFD was just about the best thing ever).

Esme Squalor smokes! Or would, if she could get her hands on cigarrettes. Because cigarrettes are "in." Social commentary on smoking plus the thing where only the villains smoke, thus sending a nice little message to the kids that read this? Best thing ever.

Ships: none in CC, but lots in SS. We have Violet/Quigley, as I mentioned, Madame Lulu/Olaf (oh wait, what woman doesn't Olaf try to charm) and then of course Esme/Olaf, which I haven't commented on but should because it's hilarious. It's all subtextual of course, but you can so tell they're using each other, either for sex, for status in Olaf's case, or adventure is Esme's case. And it has tinges of your stereotypical semi-abusive relationship where one partner has the upper hand. Has not stopped Olaf from charming other women and doing whatever he wants, in spite of what Esme wants. (Though occasionally he will acquiesce to her wishes in order to boss someone around.)

Kids' Books Are Dirtier Than You Think: Duuuuuude, Klaus and Violet sharing the same pair of pants and shirt in order to appear as a two-headed person. And that their fake names are opposite-gender specific. Really, honestly, need I say more.?