Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Another post on LOST

Today I read an article about the fourth season of LOST on Slate. I recommend it because it generally agrees with my take that the newest mechanism of flashes forward and back add something cool to the show, though I disagree with the author's assertion that the shows haven't been planned out, at least to some degree, from the get-go. But then, maybe my inclination to believe there is a larger plan drawn up in advance speaks directly to the very reason I like the show: maybe I like figuring out a deeper, hidden story arc, even when none exists. This hints at some uncomfortable doubts regarding religious and philosophical choices I've made, but...

I think the best evidence of the tendency toward the conspiracy theory is evidenced by my reaction to the author's name. Check out who wrote this piece:

"We Don't Know Jack: The clever narrative trick that has made this season of Lost the best one yet."

Notice her name?

By Juliet Lapidos

Anybody else out there pathetic enough to see a connection to two Lost characters; Juliet of the Others, and Lupidus, the helicopter pilot? So she spells her name differently by one letter. So she's written 83 other pieces for Slate and a host of subjects unrelated to the show LOST. Still, she could be part of a conspiracy that extends beyond the fictional world of the show and even influences the pseudonyms of the show's critics! Or maybe it's not a pseudonym. Maybe the show reached through time and affected her parents' choice of names for her!

Seriously, I think I have a problem.

One last fix of LOST before some apparently warranted detox.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't wait for tonight!

I can't help but point out the college-Bill would have pointed out that that fact that "like figuring out a deeper, hidden story arc, even when none exists" would be a good argument against belief in any higher power. Even though current-Bill disagrees, part of me wants to throw that out just to start an argument...

In any event, I think the writers of Lost should have gained enough respect at this point that we should believe that some "plan" or overall arc was known from the beginning. I imagine a re-viewing of the entire series once it's all said and done would play that out quite nicely. - Bill (maybe someday I'll find my blogger account)

laurenj said...

Last night I had a dream about our friends who are/were shipwrecked on an island...I was there, and the island had a deserted resort on it where The Others used to hang out, but in my dream it had turned out that the whole thing had been John Locke's dream as he lay dying... but then IN MY DREAM i reassured myself, "no, no. the writers wouldn't do that. there is a larger purpose, a truer story here than just a gimmicky twist of dreams and death." OF COURSE there is a larger plan. I'm so convinced of it that even my dreams include a reliance on a meta-arc.

Here's a funny hint that I haven't yet figured out... The writers said that the "Adam and Eve" skeletons discovered in the first season (episode 'black and white' i think) were placed there so that, years later, when the season ends, people would look back and be able to say "See! They knew what they were doing all along!" We'll see. In the meantime, I'm just super-bummed about having to wait till January for the next chapter.