Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is a pen-name for the American
author Daniel Handler, who will always be one of my favorite writers. He wrote
many children books under the name Snicket including "A Series of
Unfortunate Events", where he also serves as the narrator. The name may
refer to Handler or the fictional character in the books, which causes
confusion among readers. In his works, in the section "about the author"
he writes: "Lemony Snicket was born before you were and is likely to die
before you as well. He was born in a small town where the inhabitants were
suspicious and prone to riot. He grew up near the sea and currently lives
beneath it. Until recently, he was living somewhere else."
Snicket has a humorous and witty style. He has
a habit of interrupting the narration to share his thoughts with the readers. For instance, he starts each book by warning
the reader that these series are miserable and never have a happy ending and.
He disrupts the narration to make up a happy ending right before the last
chapters and advises his readers to just go with that ending and burn the book!
He always provides a shockingly hilarious example to make his point clear. For
instance: "Taking one's chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes
you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something
terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do
nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck." Another thing is he
always explains the difficult vocabulary he uses so that you wouldn't need to
look something up when you read his works.
As the case of the word "composer", he says: "Composer"
is a word which here means "a person who sits in a room, muttering and
humming and figuring out what notes the orchestra is going to play." This
is called composing. But last night, the Composer was not muttering. He was not
humming. He was not moving, or even breathing. This is called
decomposing." He also likes to make his readers experience some of the
things the characters go through. He expresses
that in this passage: "The book was long, and difficult to read, and Klaus
became more and more tired as the night wore on. Occasionally his eyes would
close. He found himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found
himself reading the same sentence over and over. He found himself reading the
same sentence over and over."
He has a very dark and gloomy view of life
and he sees the world as a cynical place. He repeatedly expresses it and says
things like: "perhaps if we saw what was ahead of us and glimpsed the
crimes, follies, and misfortunes that would befall us later on, we would all
stay in our mother's wombs, and then there would be nobody in the world but a
great number of very fat, very irritated women." Snicket's paranoia and no
trust to his surrounding also add to the feel of hopelessness he gives in his
books. He often says thing like: “Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the
best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely
arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.” He dedicates all his
books to Beatrice; his dead lover. He once wrote: “It is a curious thing, the
death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and
that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up.
And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. 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.” He never takes a picture that shows his full face. He does that because
he is afraid he might be tracked down by his pursuers!
Lemony Snicket's writing is so close to heart,
that readers (such as me) are never bored of his books. He makes readers feel like they know him on a
personal level. He does that by adding the letters to his editor at the end of
each book, which are hilarious! His constant concern for his readers is also
very touching. He keeps warning them about the misery his books tell and sometimes
he gives sound advice like, “If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to
put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.” His charming
timid character also plays a key factor. He often says very unexpected things
like, “I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies.” Readers
get so attached to him, that they forget he is a fictional character! Well you
can't blame them, it is very confusing.
Lemony Snicket will always
have a special place in my heart. Everything from his writing style to his
quirky character to his captivating language interests me as a reader. He
writes in the last book of the series entitled "The End": "The
end of The End is the best place to begin The End, because if you read The End
from the beginning of the beginning of The End to read the end of the end of
The End, you will arrive at the end."
