A
SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS: THE BAD BEGINNING: Good and bad at the same time
The Bad Beginning is the first book of Lemony Snicket’s A
Series of Unfortunate Events. It tells the story of the Baudelaire children
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, as they are orphaned by a fire. They are forced to be
under the care of their distant relative Count Olaf, who has plans of stealing
their financial inheritance.
The first thing that captures my attention is the writing
style. It has a distinct tone that doesn’t take itself too seriously, giving
the narration an additional comical value. This style has been juxtaposed with
the seemingly unfortunate events that happen to the Baudelaire children, and
what results is a parodic voice of a tragedy.
But the writing style is not perfect. It does have the
tendency to be monotonous. Lemony Snicket utilizes the same formula for witty narration.
Sometimes it works. But sometimes it clearly represents that the author has
some serious lack in inspiration. The voice is also not consistent. There are
instances where it loses its parodic touch, rendering the words flat.
The plot is also something that I wouldn’t give much
praise. The story does not live up to its claims of tragedies and unhappy
endings. The plot points are not that tragic and unhappy in a literary point of
view. This gives the impression that the claims are just a hyperbole, or are
just loosely said to employ the parodic voice of the series – or both.
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| Not a spoiler. It's in the synopsis |
As for the characters, I think they have fairly interesting
frameworks. Violet’s enthusiasm towards gears and machines, Klaus’s curiosity
in books and knowledge, Judge Strauss’s sweetness and naivety – all of these
are effective in distinguishing characters.
But the characterization also has its problems. Even
though it has the necessary archetypes, Lemony Snicket has not utilized them to
create solid characters. The author fails to give these characters distinct
voices. To make things worse, the universal voice is also too formal to
distinguish adults from children. That’s a bad sign for a book that has
characters of varying ages.
Overall, I think A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad
Beginning is a little disappointing. The writing style has so much potential to
keep children and adult readers entertained. I would even equate the style with
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz – only
that it doesn’t live up to its potential. The story is also not intricate
enough to span for thirteen books, or at least, I don’t see how this series
stretches to so many volumes. I do hope for the plot to thicken more to prove
me wrong.
I would still subscribe to the series, and I hope that
the problems with the writing style, story, and characterization will be fixed,
so I would be able to see why the series has gained international approval.
Related posts:
I remember watching the feature film based on the Lemony Snicket franchise when I was a kid, and I remember not liking it, so I never decided to read the books, which sounds like a good thing. I wonder why this series is so popular.
ReplyDelete-James
I'm guessing it's because of the way it is written. The style is humorous, but on a personal note, doesn't really do it that much for me.
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