How Fortunate I Read “A Series of Unfortunate Events"
Caution: read at your own risk
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
It was a Saturday morning like any other. As usual, I browsed the library shelves in search of my gems for the week. The task wasn’t easy with so many great finds but I had standards and I was picky. If the spine didn’t catch my eye, I resigned that book to its shelf.
I looked for something unique and catchy. The look, the font, the color scheme: one of them had to grab my attention. With excitement, I spotted a book spine that was impossible to resist. It read: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning. How interesting, I thought.
As I pulled the book off the shelf, I discovered thick deckle-edged pages, a smallish book, and a simple yet elegant font. It captivated me before I even read the synopsis.
That book was unlike any I’d read up to that point. The series chronicles the adventures of three orphaned siblings: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. It follows their villainous encounters with Count Olaf. It is well-written, captivating, and resonated with me as a teenager. The TV series received a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was the perfect nostalgic continuation.
Grown-Ups Just Don’t Get It
“Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
An underlying theme of the series is the many disguises Count Olaf engineers to fool the Baudelaire’s guardians and other adults. Even though the children see right through the charade, they encounter resistance in disbelief in the adults they confide in. In the end, they have to take matters into their own hands.
The sinister situations aside, the underlying theme of growing up and being misunderstood by adults really connected with me as a teenager. With newfound autonomy and boundaries, I strengthened the trust between me and my parents. That way, if an “Olaf” situation did arise, they’d believe me over some “goons.”
Good Prevails Over Evil
Well-read people are less likely to be evil.
― Lemony Snicket, The Slippery Slope
Good prevailing over evil is a very common theme and yet the unfortunate situations the siblings get themselves into always seem unbeatable. But using their wit and knowledge, they somehow manage to outsmart Count Olaf and his goons.
In the process, they connect with us by showing that perseverance pays off, even if it’s in ways we don’t expect. What’s truly phenomenal is that the author stuns us with these twists and turns, but does it in such an educational way that we learn something from it.
Television Series
I remember the anticipation of going to the library and searching through the shelves, looking for the next book in the series. Has it been published yet? Does the library have it in stock? Has someone checked it out already? Little did I know back then that a decade later, a TV series would follow.
Miracles are like meatballs, because nobody can exactly agree on what they are made of, where they come from, or how often they should appear.
― Lemony Snicket, The Carnivorous Carnival
With nostalgia, I devoured the TV series as an adult and found the ingenuity and connection to be the same one I remember as a teenager. It also didn’t hurt that it starred Neil Patrick Harris and Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother.
I was better attuned to the comedic aspect of the storyline and even laughed at some quips as the screen turned dark, the music sinister, and the narrator’s voice ominous.
Conclusion
Thank you Lemony Snicket for such a dark quirky dramedy. Thank you for the ample warnings in each book to “stay away” and “stop reading” that only made me want to read more. And thank you for the marvelous lessons you taught me about the power of reading. This is a great series for all ages to enjoy!
No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don’t read is often as important as what you do read.
― Lemony Snicket
