Going from print to screen, I wonder how the movie will turn out....
For those of you who havent read them yet, these books are amazing. As a big fan of quality children's writing, I was completely engrossed in these books. Each narrative is strong, compelling, and unique. The author retains his structure while not allowing the plots to get too formulatic and boring. While you can see by the end of book 2 that a pattern is emerging (that is all I'll say here) -- and the fact that the series continues -- it seems to me that this helps the reader know that somehow the children will survive whatever ordeal they find themselves in, which is a great device. It alleviates our anxiety, and more importantly, a child's anxiety, that real harm might come to the kids, while letting us relax enough to enjoy the story as it unfolds.
I once read an essay by Maurice Sendac in which he described how hard it was to get published. The common thinking was that you can't wirte about things that scare children, like death. These dark fears are tabboo. He argued that children do think about such things, and that writing about them in a careful way respects children and their real concerns and provides them with a place to air their deepest fears. The success of his books, I believe, is in large part due to his respect for children.
These books, I believe, provide the same sort of thing, though they are much funnier than Sendac. The children are so bright and clever that they are wonderful heros. The grownups never seem to listen to them or realize that these are really insightful and intelligent people. I suppose this might be interpreted by some parents as undermining adult authority, but the writing is so good and the characters so ridiculous that bright kids would not see them as actual representations of real adults. This is very much along the lines of Roald Dahl, who is known for his horrible grownups who treat children as foolish little no-nothings. Children are much more insightful than many adults give them credit for, and bright kids love reading stories in which they can be the smart heros, solving the mysteries and beating the villain. This has been such a standard plot device for so long that I needn't list how many classic books have used it successfully. Just a few are the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series, Matilda (and many of Dahl's books), Treasure Island, The wonderful Tintin series, of course harry Potter, etc., etc.). Kids love being the heros, and, like Harry Potter and many of these others, the key is in making the children heros, while allowing them to be terribly afraid while scary things are happening to them. Without this fear they feel, the stories would, of ocurse, be flat and stale and not ring true.
If Snicket didn't apply the assorted techniques to prepare his readers, I might feel otherwise, but I would have LOVED these books as a kid.. Finally, one must read things as they are intended. Many of Grimm's Fairy Tales are very scary and violent, but alas, they are fairy tales. These books are contempory fairy tales. Being made into a movie, they should have been made by Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Batman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.) who is one of the few people who could give them that air of unreality which would make them so thrilling and fun, without terrifying children and scaring them for life.
These are fantastic books which I highly recommend buying for the children in your life -- those who are old and bright enough to appreciate them as they are intended. Before you give them away as a gift, though, do sit down for a couple hours one stormy evening, make some tea, turn off the blasted television, and enjoy (at least the first of) these highly entertaining books.
The first 3 of the Lemony Snicket books have been adapted to screen...and the trailers look good enough!!! very close to what my imagination came up with when I read the books.
Starring Jude Law as Lemony Snicket, Kim Carrey as Count Olaf and Merryl Streep as Aunt Josephine and showing soon at a cinema near you!
There are a total of 11 books in the series....the first three were adapted for the movie...
1) The Bad Beginning
2) The Reptile Room
3) The Wide Window
For more info on Lemony Snicket, visit his official site :
www.lemonysnicket.comHighly recommended.....go buy the books!!!
