The discussion on the "D.O.C." Lost blog post at Powell's Books ramped up in no time. This "D.O.C." was more of an extension of "Catch-22," and carries over many of the book's themes, as well as some by the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin's "God and the State."
There's plenty going on with the narrative's own mirror-twinning; this episode thickened some of the thematic webbing.
And if you go there, check out the easter egg grab on Charlie's "Highway 61" t-shirt; the first verse of Dylan's song is about the Abraham/Isaac sacrifice Des and Campbell discussed.
There's a great discussion developing on my Powell's Books Lost blog about the latest episode, "Catch-22." I dig Heller's book; it's creepy and funny, and the writers did a fine job of incorporating elements of its narrative into this episode -- nothing overt, it's all worked into the story. Which is something Lost is proving all the time -- showing is always better than telling. What's interesting is the ways they developed their various catch-22's in the episode; the basic one is that the only way to not have to sacrifice a person is to accept that you have to sacrifice a person. I'm starting to think every time Des saves Charlie, he's changing the past, present and future.
Two other references that were there, but seemed to take a bit to hit the internets, was Lord of the Flies (Naomi the parachutist at the end, but instead of a dead man, it's a live woman hung up in the trees -- goddess from the machine), and the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher George Campbell, who had a real beef with David Hume and his take on miracles.
Two recent interviews about Lost:
- Living Lost Author Interview at TVSciFi (she's still a kid, 13, and asked some fantastic questions)
- On the Shelf with J. Wood at living read girl's blog.
These were both pretty fun. There's another one coming up with Daniel Robert Epstein on Suicide Girls. The one thing I'm finding in a lot of these interviews is that the interviewer is only somewhat familiar with Lost, but even at that, they have a good idea of the mythology of the show and that it's something "important." Which just goes to show what an impact this show is having -- it's not just television, it's cultural moment. A friend of mine who also has yet to watch it but knows a lot about it, said he's going to have to get into it this summer because Lost is creating the text of the future.
Damn right.
The blog post for the latest Lost episode, "One of Us," is now up at Powell's Books. The symbol that appears on the tree actually means a lot in this episode. Yeah, it looks like a Russian letter, but it also looks very much like the symbol from a mystic religious sect from 19th C. Italy. What's more, the sect (the Giuirsdavidicans) emerged after the found, Davide Lazzaretti, went penitent in a grotto for 47 days; it seems Saint Peter visited him and seared the mark into his forehead. And the grotto has the same name as the mother who died on the operating table in the flashback.
Ya gotta love these little games...
And doesn't it seem like there's echoes of Children of Men going on in the show?
Entertainment Weekly's Doc Jensen just gave my Lost blog a nice plug:
In my humble opinion, the best Lost blogger is a bookish fellow by the name of J. Wood, author of ''Living Lost.'' Wood specializes in deconstructing the literary references in the show and advocates a more thoughtful reading of episodes that transcends the madcap monkey business Doc Jensen revels in. That said, Wood's scholarship can function as theory: I think his videogame analogy of The Dharma Initiative is a totally viable explanation that actually might get voiced on the show itself one day. You can read about it here, and you can check out his episode analysis at powells.com, the website for one of the best bookstores on the planet.
Thanks Doc; glad to see you're reading it. I'll try to keep the quality up.
My Powell's Books
blog column for the latest Lost
episode, “Left Behind,” is now
live. This was a subtle episode, despite the girl fight and
Smokey; there were a number of little subtle narrative links across
the episode itself and back to previous episodes, which serve to
thicken this entire storyline. Watership Down gets a nice revival, with some interesting depth.
And there may be something happening with the previews and foilers (false spoilers); I saw one of Claire reading a book on astrology that I couldn't find anywhere in the episode. It's like the Hanso Foundation commercials, but it's not an ARG, it's a game with the audience.
