Friday, November 9, 2001

Lemony Snicket's scary stories catching up to Harry Potter

By STEPHANIE McGRATH -- AllPop No one knows much about the mysterious and depressed Lemony Snicket except that he's the author of the "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" novels that are devoured by children and teens all over the globe and dominate the best-seller book charts beside J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series.

Lemony's gruesome stories are so popular that a major movie deal is currently in the works to bring the "Unfortunate" series to the big screen.

The interview with Daniel Handler, the "official representative of Lemony Snicket", who lives in San Francisco and works with Lemony on the "Unfortunate Events" books, was supposed to shed some light on the ongoing "Unfortunate" series and Lemony himself. It was going well until that morose and sad character (Lemony Snicket himself) started butting in, trying to warn children away from his stories (and probably doing a very good job).

The eighth book in the series, "The Hostile Hospital", is the continuation of the Baudelaire orphans tale. The three children are still on their quest to solve the mystery of the fire that claimed the lives of their parents, while at the same time trying to avoid the dreaded Count Olaf.

"I don't think I could really whole-heartedly recommend this book at all, given its subject matter," says Lemony. "The three children find themselves in the Heimlich Hospital, and there are two reasons that you might go into the hospital and one is for necessary surgery and one is unnecessary surgery, and it is unfortunately unnecessary surgery that plagues the children here. But they do learn some startling news about the fire that the Baudelaires believe killed their parents."

Daniel, though wary of the world, is much more practical than Lemony. Instead of warning would-be-readers away from the "Unfortunate" series and leaving it at that, he suggests other books to read.

"The most useful books that young people can find to read are books that give them specific instructions to escape from whatever treachery they find themselves in," he says. "If you've fallen down a well, then probably the most useful book is 'How To Get Out Of The Well'."

But it seems as though many readers would much rather read about the orphans than about wells. The proof can be found on the New York Times Bestsellers list, where Lemony's books pepper the chart and nip closely at J.K. Rowling's heels.

Because so many readers are fascinated with the scary story of the Baudelaires, Lemony and Daniel both get huge amounts of e-mail (via the official Lemony Snicket website: lemonysnicket.com). Daniel says there is so much e-mail, he can't respond to every person's query. But you may get a response like this one:

Dear Reader,

It is good to know that in a world containing so much turmoil, trouble, and treachery that there are people such as yourself, who take the time to correspond with a lonely -- and, at the moment, thirsty -- author. Your e-mail to Lemony Snicket was gratefully received, at a time when so much of the reading material on hand contains such dreadful news.

For complicated reasons involving a railway car, a candelabra, and three cryptic initials, it is impossible for Mr. Snicket to answer you personally, although he has asked me to pass on his sincere thanks, his good wishes, and the warning that he may have to stay at your home for a few nights. If it is convenient, he will arrive at midnight on the second cold day of next week.

With all due respect,

Daniel Handler official representative of Lemony Snicket

Daniel and Lemony also get plenty of normal old snail mail and, according to Daniel, the most common question these days happens to be: "Is Count Olaf a terrorist?".

Count Olaf, the bane of the orphans' existence, the evil man after their inheritance, who may have played a part in the deadly fire, is often presumed dead but always reappears to make the orphans' lives miserable.

"What I tell them is he's not a terrorist, he's a villain," says Daniel. "I'm not sure what the difference is. I think that, even when one is very frightened of terrorists, one should not leap to the conclusion that anyone one is frightened of is a terrorist, and that whether you're a young child or the president of the United States, you should not leap to conclusions about who is a terrorist and who isn't."

Daniel says another common question he and Lemony hear from readers is: "What can I do to help [the orphans]?".

Daniel says that "anybody worth their salt would help the orphans in any way that they can," but he can't really say whether or not life will improve for the poor Baudelaires. But Lemony, who knows the ins-and-outs of their story and is mysteriously connected to it in some way, has a more definite opinion.

"I certainly hope [that life will improve for the orphans], but I would have to remind people who are interested in the Baudelaire story that happy is a comparative term, so that however the ending is, I'm sure it could be better but I'm also sure it could be worse," he warns.

Better or worse, the story will most likely play itself out on the big screen someday. Negotiations are underway with Nickelodeon for a film version of the "Unfortunate" series.

Daniel has a few specific ideas for the movie, or movies. One is that he'd like his friend Stephin Merritt of the group The Magnetic Fields to write some music for the picture. He'd also like the movie to be "a good one" and to be filmed in a creepy city.

"I've travelled all over the place, and it seems that every nation has a creepy city of its own," says Daniel. "If I were to film it in Canada, for instance, I'd probably choose Winnipeg. That seems to be the creepiest city."

Daniel also thinks that it would probably be a good idea to cast some good actors in the roles of the Baudelaire orphans: Violet, Klaus and the talking baby Sunny.

"I've met a number of babies who can talk," says Daniel. "Definitely a mute baby couldn't be considered [for the role of Sunny]."

All the talk of movies and music and talking babies momentarily lightens the usually dark mood that surrounds Daniel because of his involvement with Lemony's stories. But the mood isn't light for long. When asked when readers can expect to hear more about the orphans, Lemony butts in once again.

"I don't like to tell when the next book is coming out because it encourages people to buy it, so I'll just say that people should stay out of bookstores during the month of February," Lemony sighs.

But if you accidentally find yourself in a bookstore in February and you come across the latest Lemony work by mistake, don't be surprised that it's not the ninth book in the "Unfortunate" series.

"The next book that Harper Collins is releasing is not the ninth volume in the series but is rather an additional volume, which is the unauthorized autobiography of Lemony Snicket," explains Daniel. "It will take a part in the ongoing story that touches as all."

So who is this mysterious and snivelling Snicket? What do we know about him?

"The name and the person came from the same place, which is Lemony Snicket's parents," says Daniel who doesn't want to comment much more than that on the subject of Lemony. "Lemony Snicket has been accused of various dire things, and I wish not to comment on them in the press lest it be his accusers get any more publicity than they've already received."

Finally, as far as the Baudelaire story is concerned, Lemony admits (after some hesitation) that the next volume in the "Unfortunate" series will find its way into bookstores this spring.