And Another Thing

It would probably be amusing to go through A Series of Unfortunate Events and collect all the little utterings of Sunny Baudelaire. Since Waiting for Godot has been laying around on my kitchen table, my daughter pointed out to me in the 10th volume, entitled The Slippery Slope, where Sunny says "Godot" on page 331. It was helpfully interpreted as meaning "We don't know where to go, and we don't know how to get there." So we have Daniel Handler's opinion on what the play is about.

You Find the Darndest Things.

Not every teenager is going to have a laughing fit over page 3 in Chapter 14 of the Series of Unfortunate Events, tucked away in the back of Chapter 13 The End. I am rather pleased with myself that she did have a laugh since it is due to my chatter about my various interests that have made her able to chuckle over this. It highlights how important it is to know the 'literary canon' since most authors are also readers and students of history. To understand some of the little jokes hidden in the text and hidden meanings, you need to read the really important stuff too.

" 'You know what 'heartbroken' means,' Sunny said, and then nodded as the baby murmured 'Abelard'. The youngest Baudelaire was best at deciphering the infant's somewhat unusual way of speaking."

I find it interesting that Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snickett) chose Abelard to mean heartbroken. Most commentators over the years have pretty much unanimously (although I do not personally know of any dissenters) agreed that Heloise was the heartbroken one. I agree with Lemony. I think Abelard was a feeling and sensitive person and was just as heartbroken as she was.