Lemony Snicket

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I have recently developed an addiction for the works of Lemony Snicket. Bearing in mind I have studiously avoided Rowling and her wizard because I is a growed up, does this make me a bleeding hypocrite or a person of exquisite taste?

― Madchen, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the latter (new answers blah blah)

― Madchen, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You know, sometimes he plays with Magnetic Fields.

― Nitsuh, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've been put off LS because

i) it's a current children's book - tho on a comfort-lit trip to Waterstone's on Sunday I almost bought Pullman and then drew back apalled.

ii) the MF connection makes me think it'll be laced with the same snickery decadence that makes the Gothic Archies Merritt's least palatable project.

― Tom, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom, I've never heard the Gothic Archies so I couldn't comment on that. It is a bit gothic, sort of a cross between Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey, but funnier.

― Madchen, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, I'm really happy to see this current resurgence of semi- literate children's fiction, in the old British Lewis-through-Dahl mode (only without the iffy anachronistic/moralistic subtexts). The thought of kids reading Pullman, Snicket, and even Rowling pleases me greatly -- less than a decade ago, they'd have just gotten Goosebumps books to drool over.

My fave in this area, by the way, is Hugh Lofton and the Dr. Dolittle books.

― Nitsuh, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hugh Lofting. Dr D books are now out-of-favour a bit here at least cos of the portrayal of Prince Bumpo but there is some amazing stuff in them and great atmospherics too - the landing of the moon moth for instance.

― Tom, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have heard 'It's Useless To Struggle' and it's certainly one of the worst Merritt things I know.

On reflection I reckon these books are probably quite bad, though I wouldn't say so to the geezer himself.

Basically, I agree with the geezer Ewing.

― the pinefox, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

out-of-favour a bit here at least cos of the portrayal of Prince Bumpo

Yeah, Tom, but I tend to pick up the same awful vibes in just about everything from the period, so I'm getting better at ignoring it. E.g., I love Evelyn Waugh, but some of his satires of Africa (and Ethiopia in particular, I recently discovered) are just ... I don't even know. (This is the one thing that puts Graham Greene over the top in my eternal mental Waugh vs. Greene conflict.)

― Nitsuh, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Waugh vs. Greene? But what about Forster?

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Waugh? Humph. What was he good for?

― Pete, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I saw an interview with Waugh on BBC Knowledge once. The programme was one of an old series called 'Face to Face', the flagship series of Lord Reith's attempt to 'educate' the British Isles. Evelyn Waugh was smug, arrogant and unpleasant. I quite liked 'A Handful of Dust', but saw nothing in it that justified Waugh's monstrous ego. I don't know why he's rated as amongst the best of the moderns. Forster, too. People who fancied themselves as liberals but who were terrible snobs. Very sad.

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

> I don't know why he's rated as amongst the best of the moderns. Forster, too. > People who fancied themselves as liberals but who were terrible snobs. Very > sad.

But that applies to most writers from the period, as John Carey never tires of banging on about. And of course the wider point is being a wanker doesn't stop you being a great artist and may even help.

― Nick, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

>But that applies to most writers from the period, as John Carey never tires of banging on about.

Hmmm. John Carey probably only uses that argument to legitimise his own burgeoning career as a wanker, hoping that he will automatically become a great artist. He's wrong of course, as anyone who reads him in the Sunday Times will attest. Have you read him on Donne? He's a twat.

>And of course the wider point is being a wanker doesn't stop you being a great artist and may even help.

Hmmm again. I'm unconvinced that there is an automatic corollary between being a wanker and being a great artist. Between being angry and dissatisfied with the status quo is more likely to make great art, as opposed to being a smug and contented member of a clique that made most of its money and prestige out of the flawed system it pretended to vilify.

― Will McKenzie, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six months pass...

My sister (=r0x0r) lent me an omnibus ov 3 lemony sn!cket boox. They were ok-ish I thought, but very repetitive. I did not ph33l thee need to read any more anyway. I liked the pictures a lot. I remember reading this book called "The Little Wooden Horse" (poss prefaced w/"The Adventures of" which was a far far better Xample of the endurance ov endless torment-type little-ones book I thought

― Norman Phay, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Really, Edward Gorey did it all with the Gashlycrumb Tinies...

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

four years pass...

Daniel Handler's new adult novel (Adverbs) looks ridiculously twee, but I bought it anyway.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 15 May 2006 03:29 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

Yeah, brilliant. Read through to the end

http://flavorwire.com/381553/thirteen-terrifying-movies-i-saw-before-i-was-old-enough-and-so-am-now-permanently-scarred-by-lemony-snicket

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 April 2013 17:45 (twelve years ago)

I guessed the payoff before the end but still lolled anyway.fwiw I really liked that movie, JC less so.

― fun loving and xtremely tolrant (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 3 April 2013 20:57 (twelve years ago)

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