I really enjoyed A Series of Unfortunate Events when I read them as a kid. If you haven't read them, I'm not entirely sure they'd be worth a revisit as an adult unless you have a child to read it with or particularly enjoy children's literature. There was a lot I liked about this series, and this meme got me thinking about how good they were so I'm going to list a few additional reasons this is a good series.
-Easy to read for about age 11+, but introduces a lot of higher reading level vocabulary in an easy to understand and learn way
-The Baudelaire orphans constantly take Ls, but always encourage and help each other using their unique skills and knowledge. There are many instances where even the infant's skills are shown to be not only useful, but necessary. It provides numerous examples of the orphans (and sometimes their comrades) pooling skills and knowledge to protect and provide for each other.
-As previously stated the orphans are fleeing from one shitty situation to another and dealing with adults that range from outright murderous to well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful or very limited in their ability to help. Unfortunate puts it very lightly to be honest. These kids work their way through it to the best of their ability but the frequency and severity of the situations they go through really are some :doomer: shit. However, they manage to not become dispirited, instead focusing their attention on forming the best plan possible with whatever is available to them. This also provides examples of how facing adversity together strengthens the bonds between the orphans and their comrades, as well as how those bonds are necessary for sustaining hope.
-Even though the story is often depressing, the writing isn't. It has a unique style and is very funny. The narrator and the orphans each show a bit of "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" in their own way.
If you read them, especially somewhat recently, what did you think about them?
arguably never wins once
Baudelaires confirmed communists
I am a SEOU stan, I even have an eye tattoo on my ankle. (god i hope the author doesn't become a terf or something).
I remember my librarian giving me the first book to read (I was a voracious reader as a kid, a word which here means I really had no friends and spent my time diving into fictional worlds). After that, i was always trying to get the books as soon as they came out.
I liked that it was dark, tonally, yet still had a weird sense of humor.
This also provides examples of how facing adversity together strengthens the bonds between the orphans and their comrades, as well as how those bonds are necessary for sustaining hope.
Was frustrating to always see the kids just get shit on, and really showed me that rich people and adults really just don't give a shit, and that relying on those in your same situation is what will help you most, more than "authority figures".
I will always love and recommend these books, even to adults. They are an easy read as an adult, but there is a decent amount of subtext that you can still enjoy them. Honestly, despite being shorter, I feel like there is so much more to analyze in these books than in the harry potter books, at least thematically. The world building isn't as much as HP but characterizations and phillosophical themes for sure.
I always found it interesting how much was left unexplained in the series. Of course you want to find out everything that's going on, and we're so used it to that it's frustrating when something proves to be out of your reach, but it only makes sense given not only the limited PoV of the kids, but also the themes of doing the best with what you have and persevering even when you have no clue what's going on.
I've always liked how even though it's impossible to get all the answers, an obsessive reading of the books and all the supplemental material will allow you to infer the likely answers to most of them. And I also like that the author is "fuck you, want to find out? Do your own research. I ain't confirming shit."
It was actually kind of disappointing how much the TV Series makes explicit, even if it does depart from book canon in places.
It was such a fun bundle of mysteries to sink your teeth into. I thought I was so clever figuring out that J.S. was
spoiler
Jerome Squalor
only to be half correct when that reveal came
it always bothered me so much as a kid that there was never any closure or explanation of the "Great Unknown," the giant question mark shaped thing in the sea in The Grim Grotto
Definitely had the question mark in mind. Looking back it's such an obvious allusion to making your own peace with the unknown but it went over my head as a kid ¯_༼ᴼل͜ᴼ༽_/¯
It's pretty clear if you read the prequel series that it's
spoiler
The Bombinating Beast
THIS, this is what this site was made for, fuck yeah :sicko-zoomer:
If every post was like this we'd surpass the entirety of :reddit-logo:
Genuinely great books. Read them when i was very young yet still some vivid imagery from a lot of the books is left burnt into my memory permanently, only other book to do that was the Hobbit.
Although it did give me anarchist brain as a kid by making me question the authority of adults.
And the kids to kinda win at the very very end, if you can consider it a win.
Somehow this was the one popular book series I never read as a kid which is a big L for me. I know the rough plot outline and enjoyed the Netflix adaptation.
I'd have loved them as a kid, the narration style directly appeals to my autism
honestly, I think you could read them as an adult and still enjoy them, especially if you're into literary references. The author is constantly referencing other books and stuff and it's fun to pick them apart (as a kid you don't have the background knowledge necessarily to do that)
Oh yeah I haven't ruled it out, I've just been so overwhelmed and burnt out for years that I have no idea when I'm going to get a chance to read for pleasure again lol
that's fair! I think if you ever feel like getting back into reading for fun, something short and easy like SOUE is a great place to start. I was burnt out on reading for a while because Academia fucked my brain.
I started with some easy lesbian sci fi, and then started digging in a little more. Still need to keep it short (novellas are the best way to go). also a good audiobook helped me as well.
easy lesbian sci fi
Gideon the Ninth has been on my list for awhile too lol, unfortunately due to adhd I am immune to audiobook. Appreciate it, comrade :stalin-heart:
:rosa-salute:
What was the easy lesbian sci-fi you were referring to?
Ahhh I heard great things about that one around when it came out too! Thanks for remind me about it so it can go back on my list :)
The Boxcar Children >>>>
- Live in a sick ass train-boxcar
- Have a rich grandpa but still want to live in the boxcar
- Force wealthy grandpa to put the boxcar in his backyard
If it helps he has owned up to his shitty behaviour. Which is more than we can say about JK Rowling, who didn't just double down on being a dick but bought out the dick factory and is attempting to monopolise the entire dick market.
counterpoint, I thought he was very nice. I went to a book signing for a non-SOUE book and he was really pleasant. we chatted about mental illness/dimentia, and it was nice in my experience.
i think it's fair to say, daniel handler is a land of contrasts
He, if I recall, said some inappropriate things at a book signing to another author that got him kicked from the TV series in the last season.
Nothing horrific or overtly harassing, just mild creepy boomer shit men say to women thinking they're edgy. He was checked on his bullshit, he suffered the consequences, and he seems to be very very sincere in recognising his behaviour was shitty.
and he seems to be very very sincere in recognising his behaviour was shitty.
That is good.
You actually do get some clues on what they grow up to do here and there (especially in The Beatrice Letters, which acts as close to a happy ending as you're going to get.)
I'd also point out that the sequence of (unfortunate) events is different in the books than the TV show, especially that (massive meta-plot spoilers follow)
spoiler
VFD is much older, at least 2 generations older than Lemony Snickett. Also, Beatrice survives the fire, if you follow the clues closely, only to die later in another incident with Lemony present about halfway through the books (either the fire at the Duchess of Winnepeg's masked ball or, later after surviving that, in the hospital, depending who you ask.)
Never fights unfair systems, only mean people
'mean people' aka fash and bigots who deserve to be buried .Easier to bash 1 fash than the entire system.
the problem rowling has with death eaters isn't that they're wizard nazis, it's that they're uncivil and sometimes wrong about m*dbloods being inferior at wizarding. if mudbl**ds like Hermionie prove that they are one of the good ones, it's ok if they become wizard prime ministers. that's the only halfway substantial critique of Voldemort she's making in the entire series, everything else (being pro-slavery, being bullies who constantly punch down, murdering people, tormenting muggles with wizardry) applies to the noble blairite gryffindors just as much as it applies to the evil nietzschean slytherins. her only real objection to fantasy fascism is that it causes HR to miss out on talented people from marginalized groups who have meritocritically earned not to be treated as subhuman.
A lot of times on this site, people will key in on the minorities getting jobs to make fun of the farce of liberal meritocracy.
‘moar gay black ceos’ congrats, you made sure to remind people of their identity, this will surely stop capitalism.
The more minority CEOs is that in the creation of a minority CEO, no inherent improvements to the rest of the minority group are provided while liberals will sing about how this proves that things are getting better. Caitlyn Jenner being a rich trans person doesn't mean that suddenly trans people are no longer oppressed.
One can make fun of people that sing about the trans military ban being upended while not caring about other trans issues because they just want a more diverse cast of people bombing foreign people. It plays into the fact that to succeed one must assimilate into the dominant culture and let go of their personal and cultural background.
The trans military ban was obviously bad since it designated trans people as second class citizens. Minorities getting positions of power is not inherently a bad thing, but in the systems of power that exist as they are means that any gains are mostly performative and that the systems of power will not allow proper emancipatory rights to marginalized groups as long as these systems exist.
stop calling fash ‘mean’ people. Stop referring to public bigotry as ‘incivility’.
You're being disingenuous and assuming bad intentions out of nowhere. Knock it off.
I was offended and this site has a nasty streak of making fun of 'sjws' or whatever the fuck that tries to advocate for racial and minority rights.
More making fun about “more female drone pilots” crowd than sjw, at least I thought so. :meow-hug: making fun of sjw in conservatives circles is usually pronouns/body positivity/inclusive language/critical theory stuff, not gay raytheon ceo
Esme Squalor is a guilty favorite character of mine from the Netflix series
The way she effortlessly upstages Olaf in every scene they're paired in is like a joke three levels deep.
I remember reading them, but I don’t remember the ending, aside from it being very confusing.
Never read the books, the Netflix series was decent (but super depressing and frustrating, which probably follows along with the books from your description.)
