(sorry for all the asks! My mind's been churning with theories since discovering this blog) I've been thinking about your tattoo ask & have some Jewish insight for a possible theory: it's interesting that Handler made having a tattoo a (past) requirement of VFD, when he's Jewish & said his characters are Jewish. Jews aren't supposed to get tattoos, & many Jewish cemeteries won't bury you if you have one. Do you think VFD let volunteers opt out of this if it was against a religious belief?
(cont’d) If so, this could be a reason why some characters chose not to receive one, as there are various levels of observances and for example, the Baudelaire parents could have been more observant for this particular commandment than Count Olaf and the Snickets. But as you’ve pointed out, VFD wanted to be its biggest priority in volunteers’ lives, so I’m not sure how they would feel about a religious commandment coming before them. Sorry for all the questions, volunteer!
This is super interesting! Maybe VFD did allow people to opt out of tattoos for religious beliefs, though that would seem a little contrary to what we know about the organization. While it doesn’t seem from ASOUE that the Baudelaires are very religious–they seem to be pretty non-practicing, though of course we don’t get too many details about Bertrand and Beatrice’s lives–maybe the Baudelaire parents were much more religious when they were younger and decided not to get the tattoos.
However, like I said and as you said in your ask, allowing volunteers to opt of of the tattoo doesn’t seem like VFD. And while I have no idea how firm the rule about tattoos is today, I do know that in my religion there are lots of old rules that are technically still in religious texts but aren’t followed at all because they’re simply not applicable to modern times. But if some Jewish cemeteries still won’t bury people who have tattoos, it sounds like it’s a rule that’s still upheld by at least a section of modern Jewish culture, so I think it should certainly be added to the list of possibilities for why Beatrice and Bertrand don’t seem to have tattoos! Thank you so much for sharing this, this is a really neat possibility to explain this problem with the books!
Yes, tattooing is traditionally forbidden in Judaism. There’s debate as to why exactly. Some say it’s because tattooing was associated with pagan religions. Some say it’s because permanently marking your flesh is a sign of idolatry towards the body, which is transient, mortal, imperfect.
“You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord” [God (alledgedly) - Leviticus 19:28]
Although we have to remind ourselves that Daniel Handler is agnostic/atheist and describes himself as a secular humanist. His characters are coded as “Jewish” but the subject of judaism is not tackled on directly (well, unless you count Snicket’s contribution to Jonathan Foer’s “New American Haggadah”).
“I’m not a believer in predetermined fates, being rewarded for one’s efforts. I’m not a believer in karma. The reason why I try to be a good person is because I think it’s the right thing to do. If I commit fewer bad acts there will be fewer bad acts, maybe other people will join in committing fewer bad acts, and in time there will be fewer and fewer of them.” [Daniel Handler - WORLD Magazine interview with Marvin Olasky, October 7, 2006]
“The books have drawn the ire and praise of fundamentalist Christians, some of whom believe the books to be Christian allegories and some of whom believe them to be long insults against Christianity,” said Mr. Handler, who describes himself as a “secular humanist.” “The thing is, the books are really neither.” [Daniel Handler - Lemony Snicket reaches ‘The End’, CNN interview with Todd Leopold, October 5, 2006]
Therefore I really doubt that Daniel Handler is against tattooos himself… But maybe the fact that volunteers get tattoos is supposed to be a clue that the VFD organization is morally ambiguous, sinister and should be regarded with the utmost suspicion.
Another possibility is that the VFD tattoos are supposed to recall the numbers Nazis carved on Jewish prisoners’ skins when they entered concentration camps. Daniel’s father flew Germany to escape the holocaust, after all and there’s quite a few coded references to the Holocaust in the series (ex: Nevermore, Prufrock’s archway…). Hell, Ishmael commits a genocide in ”The End”. The way VFD marks children with tattoos as such a young age gives you the impression that they are treated by the organization as cattle rather than persons.
“I knew about the Holocaust at an earlier age than most people learn about it, I think, and so the idea that the world could suddenly go very wrong, and that it had no bearing on what sort of person you were, sunk in pretty early. And it’s affected my politics and my writing and my life.” [Daniel Handler - A series of fortunate events for author Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, including forthcoming film, fatherhood, SFGate Interview with Heidi Benson, October 13, 2003]
More quotes related to Daniel Handler’s relationship with his Jewish heritage:
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