The End

[cleolinda]

My God, he did it. I wasn't sure he'd be able to give the series as "unfortunate" an ending as he'd promised the whole time, while still delivering the not-awful ending we were all hoping for. I don't know how he managed it, but he did it.

Also, I cried.




October: Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Comments

[stepliana.livejournal.com]

i did not cry, but ah! the end.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think what made me cry were all the questions left unanswered, because rather than pull up some wordy explanation of what really happened to everyone--people who seemed like they might have died are kind of left that way. I mean, maybe they didn't. But it's left equally possible that they did (sob).

And now I have to go back and read all the books to get all Snicket's mysterious and random interjections, because I was totally taken aback by the (non-Beatrice) "my one true love" thing at the end. He *had* to have mentioned it in some way before, and I've only read the last nine (!) books or so once, so...

[leucocrystal]

Gah!  That is so good, and yet at the same time sad, to hear.  I'm snagging mine to read at work tonight.

[the-wanlorn.livejournal.com]

So tell us how it ended! :-P

[queenmabwords.livejournal.com]

You can 'spoil' it for me!

[emargaret.livejournal.com]

So can I swing by your house after work then?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, yeah.

[skulkings.livejournal.com]

So, it doesn't occur to you that -- after making a fuss on your last post about not spoiling you -- have just partially spoiled me? Thanks so very much.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I was very careful not to say anything I considered spoilery, but I can put the entire thing behind a cut if I was wrong.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Dammit! Now I really want to read them all! Right now! Damn you, Cleo!

[mokeyhokey.livejournal.com]

Now you're making me want to read them all. I read the first one nearly a year ago and thought it was a fun time until it suddenly diverged into Incestopedophilialand. I wasn't falling down onto my fainting couch over it or anything, but I *really* wasn't expecting it and was consequently put off of the series. Since I can't get a straight answer out of people I know that have read it: is it worth it to keep going? Does something happen in all of them that will make me feel ickier than I do after watching Law & Order: SVU?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

What, the marriage thing? Honestly, it's way weirder in the movie than it is in the book. The first three books are pretty good, although by the third one you're thinking it's kind of formulaic, and then in the fourth one, they... get sent to work in a mill. So it kind of diverges from the formula at that point, even though the fourth book isn't all that great--the fifth book is where it starts to cook. If you wanted to, I guess you could read summaries on Wikipedia of the other early books and start with #5, because they get completely awesome after that.

It is kind of a dark series, though. I mean, usually at least one character dies per book, child endangerment, what have you. But I don't think anyone pulls anything as shady as the marriage thing after the first book.

[angelene.livejournal.com]

Well, if that's what the ending is going to be like, I shall start reading the books. I guess. ;)

[wtfbrain.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading a while back, I think mid way through like book 6 or 7. Now it looks like I shall have to finish reading them. :)

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm adding to the hue and cry:

spoil me spoil me please?

distaff dot exile at gmail dot com, if you find the time.

[silverjewel7.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously, I want to know!! silverjewel7 dot gmail dot com, if you want to forward me any spoilers? lol.

[kohler.livejournal.com]

How did it end? gillikin@gmail.com

[mouseykins1.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the book yet, but I checked out the Wikipedia entry, and *spoilers* *spoilers*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I've already lent the book away so I couldn't tell you, but it isn't any more specific than that, if that is the word he uses. That entire subplot? That's all we ever find out about that. He leaves a ton of things open-ended like that, which is part of what makes it so sad. It kind of allows Handler to have terrible things happen with the out for younger readers that maybe they didn't really happen--maybe the Bs ran into those characters years later and they were okay. But the surviving characters have to grapple with the idea that, at that point in time, they don't know if they're okay, and they're very likely not.

We never find out what [that thing] is, either, which... well, now that I think about it, what's the shape of it, right? It really is kind of the great unknown.

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

Aaaahhh only two chapters in and your post makes me simultaneously SO FREAKING HAPPY and really mad at myself that I didn't resist clicking on the cut. I just posted about how hard it would be to hit exactly the right note in the end.

*flail*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I don't know what time it is for you over there now--have you finished it yet? Because the first few chapters weren't what I expected at all, and I was actually kind of unhappy with it until I understood where he was going. And where he went was so much more profound than I had expected.

[brainchild129.livejournal.com]

Gah! Curse my lack of cash, because I finally finished reading 9-12 this week and desperately want to know how it ends, but I can't buy it and I don't want to be spoilered.

Waaaaaaaaaaant.

[lonesomepioneer.livejournal.com]

Suggestion re that: hie thee to a Barnes & Noble or Borders, order a giant drink and read it in the store. Over multiple days if necessary. :)

[sound-of-bells.livejournal.com]

Damn. Now I'm going to have to read them all. (I'm a sucker for a miserable ending. Plus I liked the movie.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

God, I would kill to see a movie of the last book. I mean, I'm more than okay with movies that incorporate multiple books, like the movie they've already made. I just want to see the end of this book done in a movie. I'd freakin' weep buckets.

[septimus.livejournal.com]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOREVER.

Now I have to go back and reread EVERY BOOK. 8D

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

OMG SO AWESOME. I just finished The End--and may I just say, "Mcguffin."

Sunny = <3.

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

I lolled through my tears when I read that. Because, seriously, what a mcguffin it turned out to be. :D

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

Oh, my God, I can't wait to read this. It just had to come out during Finals... *mutter mutter*

[squid-uxia.livejournal.com]

A certain character quoting a certain Philip Larkin poem at a certain point was one of the most strangely bittersweet things I've read in a long time. (Is that un-spoily enough? Go on and screen it if you don't think it is.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, that KILLED me. I actually did a Philip Larkin presentation for a poetry workshop I took a couple of years ago, so that poem had extra significance for me. A+, Mr. Snicket.

[kelcea.livejournal.com]

Oh, my god. I just finished reading The End. Twenty-two minutes ago.

And Handler did it. I'm so glad, and I'm so amused, and I'm saddened.

If anyone needs a good place to discuss it, besides in Cleo's comments, I recommend 667 Dark Avenue: http://asoue.proboards11.com/index.cgi?board=end&action=display&thread=1160725491
(Just be sure to read the rules first.)

[r-a-black.livejournal.com]

Aah, I only just bought it. *runs off*

[michelinamarie.livejournal.com]

Dammit, I cried too.

It was absolutely beautiful. And bittersweet. A lot of people are complaining that there are still a lot of questions unanswered, but the theme I got from the book was: um, hello? That's the point. The Baudelaires sail away from their past in Chapter Fourteen, finally accepting that every mystery solved only provokes another question, and that it was time to leave these questions behind and start over. Dammit, I can't believe that I cried.

And all of the symbology? The serpent offering VKS the apple? The "?" beast? Amazing. In TGG, I remember being completely intrigued by what ? could be, but now, I understand that it's supposed to symbolize that some of the world's greatest mysteries will never be solved - that the great unknown will always be floating beneath us. *sobs* I love it.

The final moments of Olaf's life made me cry too. The fact that he did one last noble thing before he died...afskflaksg. It gives me an entirely different outlook on Olaf's position in ASOUE. Even with him gone, the Baudelaires realized that his death didn't make up for all of the treachery in the world. And then they visit his grave. OMG. *sobs again*

There are so many seperate storylines from that of The Bauds, and I guess it's too late to learn more about Olaf, but the impression I got was that he was only a "force of destiny" in all of their unfortunate events. He kept pursuing them because he had a personal vendetta against the Baudelaire family - a vendetta that had been hinted at subtly, but we may not ever know the whole story. When he was first presented as someone who was simply after the Baudelaire fortune in TBB feels so, so long ago. The fortune doesn't play that big of a role, when you think about it. It's spoken of, but never seen, or felt. And in the end, it wasn't Olaf's entire motivation for making the Baudelaire's lives miserable after all. Hum.

I'm sad that the Baudelaire story is over, even it ended on such a profound note. But I have a feeling that there will be a sidebook released in the future, or maybe even another series of events. The last word of ASOUE is Beatrice. Maybe it's time to learn the story of Lemony's niece.

[blue-samurai.livejournal.com]

Read The Beatrice Letters . . .