in the dark.

The Phrase “in the dark,” as I’m sure you know, can refer not only to one’s shadowy surroundings, but also to the shadowy secrets of which one might be unaware. Every day, the sun goes down over all these secrets, and so everyone is in the dark in one way or another. If you are sunbathing in a park, for instance, but you do not know that a locked cabinet is buried fifty feet beneath your blanket, then you are in the dark even though you are not actually in the dark, whereas if you are on a midnight hike, knowing full well that several ballerinas are following close behind you, then you are not in the dark even if you are in fact in the dark. Of course, it is quite possible to be in the dark in the dark, as well as to be not in the dark not in the dark, but there are so many secrets in the world that it is likely that you are always in the dark about something or another, whether you are in the dark in the dark or in the dark not in the dark, although the sun can go down so quickly that you may be in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, only to look around and find yourself no longer in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, but in the dark in the dark nonetheless, not only because of the dark, but because of the ballerinas in the dark, who are not in the dark about the dark, but also not in the dark about the locked cabinet, and you may be in the dark about the ballerinas digging up the locked cabinet in the dark, even though you are no longer in the dark about being in the dark, and so you are in fact in the dark about being in the dark, even though you are not in the dark about being in the dark, and so you may fall into the hole that the ballerinas have dug, which is dark, in the dark, in the park.


(Lemony Snicket - The End)

Pretty lonely

For Beatrice-
When we first met, I was lonely, and you were pretty.
Now I am pretty lonely.

(Lemony Snicket - Book the tenth - The Slippery Slope)

Memento Mori

"Maybe I don't know what 'cakesniffer' means", Klaus said, "but I think I can translate our new school's motto".

"It doesn't even look like it's in English", violet said, peering up at it.

"Racho", Sunny agreed.

"It's not", Klaus said, "It's Latin. Many mottoes are in Latin, for some reason. I don't know very much Latin, but I do remember reading this phrase in a book about the Middle Ages. If it means what I think it means, it's certainly a strange motto".

"What do you think it means?", Violet asked.

"If I'm not mistaken", said Klaus, who was rarely mistaken, "'Memento Mori' means 'Remember you will die'"

"Remember you will die", Violet repeated quietly, and the three siblings stepped closer to one another, as if they were very cold. Everybody will die, of course, sooner or later, Circus performers will die, and clarinet experts will die, and you and I will die, and there might be a person who lives on your block, right now, who is not looking both ways before he crosses the street and who will die in just a few seconds, all because of a bus. Everybody will die, but very few people want to be reminded of that fact. (*)

(Lemony Snicket - A series of Unfortunate Events - Book the Fifth - The Austere Academy)


(*)
"Puede que no sepa lo que significa 'chupatortas', dijo Klaus, pero creo que puedo traducir el motto de nuestra nueva escuela".

"No parece ni siquiera estar en inglés", dijo Violet, observándolo.

"Racho", asintió Sunny.

"No lo es", dijo Klaus, "es latín. Por alguna razón, muchos mottos están en latín. No sé mucho latín, pero sí recuerdo haber leído esta frase en un libro sobre la Edad Media. Si quiere decir lo que pienso que quiere decir, es realmente un extraño motto.".

"Qué piensas que significa?", preguntó Violet.

"Si no estoy equivocado", dijo Klaus, quien rara vez estaba equivocado, "'Memento Mori' quiere decir 'Recuerda que morirás'"

"Recuerda que morirás", repitió Violet suavemente, y los tres hermanos se arrimaron uno al otro, como si tuvieran mucho frío. Todos moriremos, por supuesto, más tarde o más temprano. Los artistas de circo morirán, y los clarinetistas expertos morirán, y tú y yo moriremos, y podría haber ahora mismo una persona que vive en tu cuadra que no está mirando para ambos lados antes de cruzar la calle y que morirá en pocos segundos, a causa de un ómnibus. Todos moriremos, pero muy pocos quieren que se los recuerden.

Lemony Snicket

When you were very small, perhaps someone read to you the insipid story -the word "insipid" here means "not worth reading to someone"- of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. A very dull boy, you may remember, cried "Wolf!" when there was no wolf, and the gullible villagers ran to rescue him only to find the whole thing was a joke. Then he cried "Wolf!" when it wasn't a joke, and the villagers didn't come running, and the boy was eaten and the story, thank godness, was over.

The story's moral, of course, ought to be "Never live somewhere where wolves are running around loose", but whoever read you the story probably told you that the moral was not to lie. This is an absurd moral, for you and I both know that sometimes not only is good to lie, it is necessary to lie. For example, it was perfectly appropriate, after Violet left the Reptile Room, for Sunny to crawl over to the cage that held the Incredibly Deadly Viper, unlatch the cage, and begin screaming as loudly as she could even though nothing was really wrong

There is another story concerning wolves that somebody has probably read to you, which is just as absurd. I am talkning about Little Red Riding Hood, an extremely unpleasant little girl who, like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, insisted on intruding on the territory of dangerous animals. You will recall that the wolf, after being treate very rudely by Little Red Riding Hood, ate the little girl's grandmother and put on her clothing as a disguise. It is this aspect of the story that is the most ridiculous, becausse one would think that even a girl as dim-witted as Little Red Riding Hood could tell in an instant the difference between her grandmother and a wolf dressed in a nightgown and fuzzy slippers. If you know somebody very well, like your grandmother or your baby sister, you will know when they are real and when they are fake. This is why, as Sunny began to scream, Violet and Klaus could tell immediately that her scream was absolutely fake.

(Lemony Snicket - A series of unfortunate Events - The Reptile Room)