You
have a right to experiment with your life. You will make mistakes. And
they are right too. No, I think there was too rigid a pattern. You came
out of an education and are supposed to know your vocation. Your
vocation is fixed, and maybe ten years later you find you are not a
teacher anymore or you're not a painter anymore. It may happen. It has
happened. I mean Gauguin decided at a certain point he wasn't a banker
anymore; he was a painter. And so he walked away from banking. I think
we have a right to change course. But society is the one that keeps
demanding that we fit in and not disturb things. They would like you to
fit in right away so that things work now.
— Anais Nin
There is something to be said about the personal right to change course. The only person who can live your life is yourself.
The main characters of LOST were an unhappy group. They were troubled by their personal problems, career ruts, and family issues.
Was Jack happy being a surgeon? Yes, he was good at it - - - a miracle worker - - - but he did it to get his father's approval, which did not happen.
Was Kate happy as being a runaway criminal? Yes, she was good at it - - - a real Houdini - - - but she she did it to get her mother's approval, which did not happen.
Was Locke happy with his clerk job at a box company? Yes, generally since he had no motivation to do anything more since he was wheelchair bound. But his plight was the direct result of Locke trying to win his father's approval, which did not happen.
Was Sawyer happy being a con man? Yes, he was good at it - - - a smooth operator - - - but he did not get what his original objective was, that being to seek revenge on his parents' con man, Anthony Cooper. Sawyer would come to terms with Cooper only after Locke summoned him to the island.
Was Sun happy in her marriage? No, she had planned to flee Jin at the airport, but at the last minute, perhaps because of guilt or family honor, she stayed with her husband, dreading the future with him.
When everyone boarded Flight 815, their lives were pretty much set in stone. They had forgone change in their lives. They would continue to be stuck in a rut. There was no motivation to change the direction of their lives.
Until the plane crash. The island turned into a summer camp experience for the unhappy souls. As Jack stated early on, a person's past was no longer relevant on the island. Everyone had a chance to be someone different. Second chances don't come along very often. Jack was aware of it. He wanted to make the most of it. And he did, by doing something his father criticized him the most: not being a great leader because he could not make the difficult life and death choices. In the end, Jack did make that ultimate choice, sacrificing himself so a few of his friends could escape the island.
Whether that was true change or a mere diversion is debatable. Even if it was a sidetrack like the sideways world, then at least a part of Jack changed as a result. And maybe that is the simple lesson of the show: any change is possible if you want to change.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
FRIENDS
Life
is difficult for everyone. We all have stress and we all need someone
in our lives that we can lean on. Never think that you cannot talk to
someone because they have problems too or that your friend or loved one
would be better off without you or your problems. You'll soon find out
that they need you just as much as you need them.
— Joshua Hartzell
The consensus is that the cast members who wound up in the sideways church at the End needed each other in order to get into the after life.
That may be true, but were they really friends?
Friendship is the emotional bond and personal conduct of individuals towards others in their group; a state of mutual trust and support.
It is fairly clear that most of the main cast had no true friends prior to landing on the island. We never saw them hanging out shooting the breeze with a friend or close colleague. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Locke, Desmond - - - they really were loners. Hurley and Charlie used to have best friends, but events changed and broke those relationships. Even Ben had one childhood friend, but we don't know what ever happened to her. Due to Ben's power lust, he had no adult friends but followers.
But even throughout the island events, the main characters really did not form strong bonds or undivided loyalty or trust amongst each other.
Jack never trusted Locke. Locke never trusted Jack.
Kate was flippant on whom she aligned herself with, either Sawyer or Jack.
Hurley was friendly to everyone on the island, but he was probably closest to Charlie until Charlie decided to make his move with Claire.
Sawyer only trusted Sawyer.
Ben sought the trust of the candidates, but it was all a manipulation.
How Ben became Hurley's island buddy post-Jack guardianship is one of those mysteries that we will never know. Congenial colleagues, maybe.
So in the church, we have a mixture of people who really did not get along with each other. Rose and Bernard left the group over the group's petty bickering and insane confrontations with danger. Desmond was always the lone outsider in the group after the Hatch imploded. Penny was never part of the island circle. And Jack and Kate's relationship was one of love-hate; why they sat together was that was the best leftover among the group. Even Locke had no friend sitting next to him in the church finale. In the sideways world, he had a perfect life with Helen. But she was not with him. How sad was that?
I think friendship is a major theme in the series. But even throughout the dangers of the island, the bonds of friendship between the major characters was weak. Many veterans come back from the battlefield stating that the men in the foxholes became their best friends. It was the situation and need to survive that brought units of individuals together as a single mind. But once they return home, and disperse across the country, it is rare that those veterans keep in contact. They move forward in their lives.
The concept of moving forward is another theme in the series. But even as the island events ended, it seems the LOST souls never truly wanted to move on. That is evidenced by the fact that they wound up together in the church, not knowing what would come next.
The consensus is that the cast members who wound up in the sideways church at the End needed each other in order to get into the after life.
That may be true, but were they really friends?
Friendship is the emotional bond and personal conduct of individuals towards others in their group; a state of mutual trust and support.
It is fairly clear that most of the main cast had no true friends prior to landing on the island. We never saw them hanging out shooting the breeze with a friend or close colleague. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Locke, Desmond - - - they really were loners. Hurley and Charlie used to have best friends, but events changed and broke those relationships. Even Ben had one childhood friend, but we don't know what ever happened to her. Due to Ben's power lust, he had no adult friends but followers.
But even throughout the island events, the main characters really did not form strong bonds or undivided loyalty or trust amongst each other.
Jack never trusted Locke. Locke never trusted Jack.
Kate was flippant on whom she aligned herself with, either Sawyer or Jack.
Hurley was friendly to everyone on the island, but he was probably closest to Charlie until Charlie decided to make his move with Claire.
Sawyer only trusted Sawyer.
Ben sought the trust of the candidates, but it was all a manipulation.
How Ben became Hurley's island buddy post-Jack guardianship is one of those mysteries that we will never know. Congenial colleagues, maybe.
So in the church, we have a mixture of people who really did not get along with each other. Rose and Bernard left the group over the group's petty bickering and insane confrontations with danger. Desmond was always the lone outsider in the group after the Hatch imploded. Penny was never part of the island circle. And Jack and Kate's relationship was one of love-hate; why they sat together was that was the best leftover among the group. Even Locke had no friend sitting next to him in the church finale. In the sideways world, he had a perfect life with Helen. But she was not with him. How sad was that?
I think friendship is a major theme in the series. But even throughout the dangers of the island, the bonds of friendship between the major characters was weak. Many veterans come back from the battlefield stating that the men in the foxholes became their best friends. It was the situation and need to survive that brought units of individuals together as a single mind. But once they return home, and disperse across the country, it is rare that those veterans keep in contact. They move forward in their lives.
The concept of moving forward is another theme in the series. But even as the island events ended, it seems the LOST souls never truly wanted to move on. That is evidenced by the fact that they wound up together in the church, not knowing what would come next.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
THE DARK
Fear of the dark is common and an almost universal fear for at least a part of our lives (usually some part of our childhood). Though it's not so much the dark that we fear, but the unknown. There is an inner sense of danger that brings it to the conscious mind. Things one cannot see can hurt you. This trait or human characteristic is from early man's development, when mankind was not the top predator in his environment.
As humans mature, we internalize the real odds of something dangerous hiding in the dark, and that calms us in appropriate situations, but that fear can come back when we are in unfamiliar places. The reason we are all afraid of the dark at times is because that fear gave us an advantage during our evolutionary history. Since man relies upon his senses for survival, taking away one of them (sight) because of darkness would naturally lead to anxiety about what could be out there in the dark.
Ancient man quickly learned that many predators prefer the cover of darkness to hunt and over time that association strengthened into a subconscious absolute: stay out of the dark because that's where the danger is.
While fear of the dark can manifest itself as an acute reaction—like panicked screaming when someone suddenly turns out the lights, or as insomnia, as a recent study conducted at the University of Toronto suggests—it more commonly manifests as foreboding anxiety. The emotion of anxiety plays a specific role in our behavioral responses to stimuli just as the emotions of love, anger, and sadness do, acting to increase our ability to cope with stress and more fully exploit beneficial opportunities.
Each emotion can be thought of as a computer program designed to accomplish some specific fitness task particularly well. If the current task is courtship, romantic love is helpful. If one is being betrayed, anger is useful. If a tiger is attacking, then fearful flight and avoidance are best. If people are disapproving, then social anxiety may be appropriate. Different emotions, however, must be orchestrated, just as endocrine function must be coordinated in an endocrine orchestra. Emotional responses must fit changing adaptive challenges, with each emotion fitting a particular kind of situation.
Specifically, anxiety increases your awareness of situations that may damage your reproductive resources. Not just your vital signs, but your relationships, income, social standing, physical features; anything that makes you more attractive to the opposite sex and more likely to reproduce.
Unlike anger or sadness, which occur in direct response to a specific event, the study showed responses to environmental cues indicating a potential future loss with anxiety prior to the expected event, since that's when it is most evolutionarily beneficial. Our ancestors who best recognized and responded to these cues increased their chances of survival and reproduction compared to their more less-aware peers.
Since that response is correlated with natural selection, certain cues—such as snake- or cat-eye patterns, spider-like objects, and darkness (where the snakes, leopards, and spiders all live)—more easily invoke that emotion. This is the result of generation upon generation of early humans reacting to and subsequently preparing for dangers such as these. That's why many ancient threats—uncontrolled fire, spiders, snakes, predators, and darkness—are more easily instigate a negative response, even in small children, than modern threats like automobiles, nuclear war, or guns do.
While anxiety is deeply rooted in our psyche, it is not entirely instinctive. We also learn fear and anxiety responses from our parents. If a small child is frightened of an new or unknown object and its mother responds in a calming manner, the kid learns that the item is not a threat. If the parent responds with apprehension herself, however, the child's fears are confirmed and enhanced. This allows for offspring to rapidly learn of the dangers around themselves without actually having to be bitten by snakes, mauled by lions, or be electrocuted by a penny in the wall socket while simultaneously figuring out that everything from leaves and small rocks to thunder and scary scenes on TV aren't actual threats.
It is a system that is based on experience and transfer of knowledge, but triggers an instinctive response. This subtle gnawing emotion has been honed and refined over millennia by both nature and nurture into a vital survival response that remains as useful in the modern world as it did in the Neolithic Period of Humanity. As environmental cues have changed over time, anxiety over social interactions and property such as finding shelter and not starving to death, remains the same. Humans have the inner voice that tells us to keep safe so you can live to reproduce another day.
The fear of the dark, and by extension the fear of the unknown, are hard wired tools to make sure humans don't ever forget the basic purpose of all human beings. Fear itself is a survival mechanism.
BIGGEST WINNER
If one looks back at the series, who was the character that got the most he or she wanted - - - who came out most ahead in the series?
I initially thought of Eloise Hawking, who in the context of the conclusion of the sideways story arc, got what she wanted: her son, Daniel, would not "awaken" and leave her to join the others in the after life church. It would seem that all of the elaborate trials, hurdles, manipulations and events on the island were orchestrated by Eloise in order to keep the 815 survivors from taking Daniel away from her. Eloise was the one who seemed to know everything about everyone and how this universe operated.
But Eloise's motivations may have been an elaborate singularity. The character who achieve more personal goals was Ben Linus.
Ben accomplished much in his island life:
1. He killed his abusive father.
2. He purged an entire community of Dharma workers.
3. He banished his leadership rival, Widmore.
4. He took absolute control over the Others.
5. He kidnapped Alex and made her his "daughter."
6. He needed a spinal surgeon and one fell out of the sky.
7. He loved manipulating people and events to gain more power.
8. He had people fear his commands.
9. He developed a cult of followers.
10. He also "survived" a fatal chest wound when he was a boy; to be reincarnated at the temple.
11. He had the power to control time.
12. He had the power to summon a violent smoke monster.
13. He got revenge on Widmore for killing Alex.
14. He got revenge on Jacob for not believing in him.
15. He got his life spared by the mercy of one of Jacob's followers.
16. He got a new purpose from Hurley.
Despite all the evil bloodshed Ben contributed to the island events, he would wind up in the after life a humble high school teacher who had concern for his students. He would have a different relationship with his father. He would seek out a relationship with a past bitter enemy, Danielle Rousseau. He got the personal option NOT to move on with Hurley, in order to proceed to with his plan to create A Wonderful Life for himself in the sideways world. How Danielle or Alex would ever forgive Ben for his sins once they awakened their memories is unknown. Like Eloise, if Ben could keep those memories suppressed, he would achieve is ultimate goal of having a real family life with the Rousseaus.
In a bizarre twist, Ben actually came out well ahead of any of the main characters in the end. He really got everything he ever wanted without any truly bad consequences. Ben's fantasy life was lived and coming true in the after life.
I initially thought of Eloise Hawking, who in the context of the conclusion of the sideways story arc, got what she wanted: her son, Daniel, would not "awaken" and leave her to join the others in the after life church. It would seem that all of the elaborate trials, hurdles, manipulations and events on the island were orchestrated by Eloise in order to keep the 815 survivors from taking Daniel away from her. Eloise was the one who seemed to know everything about everyone and how this universe operated.
But Eloise's motivations may have been an elaborate singularity. The character who achieve more personal goals was Ben Linus.
Ben accomplished much in his island life:
1. He killed his abusive father.
2. He purged an entire community of Dharma workers.
3. He banished his leadership rival, Widmore.
4. He took absolute control over the Others.
5. He kidnapped Alex and made her his "daughter."
6. He needed a spinal surgeon and one fell out of the sky.
7. He loved manipulating people and events to gain more power.
8. He had people fear his commands.
9. He developed a cult of followers.
10. He also "survived" a fatal chest wound when he was a boy; to be reincarnated at the temple.
11. He had the power to control time.
12. He had the power to summon a violent smoke monster.
13. He got revenge on Widmore for killing Alex.
14. He got revenge on Jacob for not believing in him.
15. He got his life spared by the mercy of one of Jacob's followers.
16. He got a new purpose from Hurley.
Despite all the evil bloodshed Ben contributed to the island events, he would wind up in the after life a humble high school teacher who had concern for his students. He would have a different relationship with his father. He would seek out a relationship with a past bitter enemy, Danielle Rousseau. He got the personal option NOT to move on with Hurley, in order to proceed to with his plan to create A Wonderful Life for himself in the sideways world. How Danielle or Alex would ever forgive Ben for his sins once they awakened their memories is unknown. Like Eloise, if Ben could keep those memories suppressed, he would achieve is ultimate goal of having a real family life with the Rousseaus.
In a bizarre twist, Ben actually came out well ahead of any of the main characters in the end. He really got everything he ever wanted without any truly bad consequences. Ben's fantasy life was lived and coming true in the after life.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
QUANTUM EXPERIMENTAL VIEW
There is a new way to look at the LOST conundrums.
It is an analogy often used to explain difficult situations in the show, The Big Bang Theory. It is called "Schrodinger's cat." Schrodinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes explained as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Edwin Schrodinger in 1935. Though he never actually created the experiment, he wanted to illustrate a problem in one interpretation of quantum mechanics as it applied to everyday objects. The issue Schrodinger had was the this interpretation of quantum mechanics did not yield a description of an objective reality but dealt only with probabilities of observing, or measuring, various aspects of energy quanta, entities that fit neither the classical idea of particles nor the classical idea of waves. The act of measurement causes the set of probabilities to immediately and randomly assume only one of the possible values.
Schrodinger's experiment postulated that a cat would be placed in a sealed box with a vial of poison. The poison would be released at an unknown, random time. This uncertainty of what is happening inside the sealed box presents the possibility that a cat that may be both alive and dead, depending on an earlier random event. This thought experiment is also often featured in theoretical discussions of quantum physics. In the course of developing this experiment, Schrodinger coined the term Verschränkung ("entanglement").
LOST is the cat in the magic box we all call our television sets.
Based upon the information we have received, we did not know whether the characters were dead or alive at any given moment in the series. Also, the show featured themes that included paradoxes (time travel events), various aspects of unique energy properties (the heart of the island) and most certainly the entanglement of various diverse character lives with each other. Faraday thought of the island dynamic as a measurable place in time and space, until he found that the set of probabilities could be adversely affected by "variables," which in some viewers minds meant the free will decisions of the characters.
Further, Ben clearly described the concept of the Magic Box to Locke. Ben said that if Locke wanted something badly, the magic box would produce it. Locke wanted to see the box, but Ben scoffed that aside. In Locke's case, suddenly Anthony Cooper was captured and on the island (as he said right after an automobile accident; and that the island was hell). At the time, Locke's whole life revolved around the betrayal of his father and the revenge he sought for the downfalls in his life. Those strong emotional thoughts created the situation where Locke could confront his worse nightmare face to face.
The island as a magic box does not yield an objective reality, but dealt with the probabilities of observing various aspects of a person's life outside the classical ideas of religious thought (judgment, punishment, penance, accountability, and redemption). It gave the main characters various opportunities to relive difficult moments in their lives, to give them second chances or the possibility to change (their perceived outcome of key life events). The island could be viewed as one large interactive, interpersonal experiment in which the viewers got an inside peek of the events transpiring therein.
It is an analogy often used to explain difficult situations in the show, The Big Bang Theory. It is called "Schrodinger's cat." Schrodinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes explained as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Edwin Schrodinger in 1935. Though he never actually created the experiment, he wanted to illustrate a problem in one interpretation of quantum mechanics as it applied to everyday objects. The issue Schrodinger had was the this interpretation of quantum mechanics did not yield a description of an objective reality but dealt only with probabilities of observing, or measuring, various aspects of energy quanta, entities that fit neither the classical idea of particles nor the classical idea of waves. The act of measurement causes the set of probabilities to immediately and randomly assume only one of the possible values.
Schrodinger's experiment postulated that a cat would be placed in a sealed box with a vial of poison. The poison would be released at an unknown, random time. This uncertainty of what is happening inside the sealed box presents the possibility that a cat that may be both alive and dead, depending on an earlier random event. This thought experiment is also often featured in theoretical discussions of quantum physics. In the course of developing this experiment, Schrodinger coined the term Verschränkung ("entanglement").
LOST is the cat in the magic box we all call our television sets.
Based upon the information we have received, we did not know whether the characters were dead or alive at any given moment in the series. Also, the show featured themes that included paradoxes (time travel events), various aspects of unique energy properties (the heart of the island) and most certainly the entanglement of various diverse character lives with each other. Faraday thought of the island dynamic as a measurable place in time and space, until he found that the set of probabilities could be adversely affected by "variables," which in some viewers minds meant the free will decisions of the characters.
Further, Ben clearly described the concept of the Magic Box to Locke. Ben said that if Locke wanted something badly, the magic box would produce it. Locke wanted to see the box, but Ben scoffed that aside. In Locke's case, suddenly Anthony Cooper was captured and on the island (as he said right after an automobile accident; and that the island was hell). At the time, Locke's whole life revolved around the betrayal of his father and the revenge he sought for the downfalls in his life. Those strong emotional thoughts created the situation where Locke could confront his worse nightmare face to face.
The island as a magic box does not yield an objective reality, but dealt with the probabilities of observing various aspects of a person's life outside the classical ideas of religious thought (judgment, punishment, penance, accountability, and redemption). It gave the main characters various opportunities to relive difficult moments in their lives, to give them second chances or the possibility to change (their perceived outcome of key life events). The island could be viewed as one large interactive, interpersonal experiment in which the viewers got an inside peek of the events transpiring therein.
Monday, December 9, 2013
JACK'S WORLDS
“ No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things. ”
— Epictetus
As a follow up on the last post, there is something to be said that Jack was caught in a trap.
Jack was a man by all appearances to have a great career, special skills, admired by colleagues, wealthy and stable. He had an even temperament even in times when miracles were needed for his patients. In some ways, he was a constant dreamer.
But outside his public persona, Jack had his own demons. He had a hard time coping with women; his personal relationships would sour; and he had an addictive streak towards alcohol and drugs as a means of escape. And it appears he tried to escape - - - after his divorce, he went on a bender to Thailand to meet an exotic woman. Why a skilled spinal surgeon would flee his career to to go island native is unexplained.
So during Jack's life, he lived in two separate worlds. The world of medicine where he sought acceptance by his father, and the dream world where his personal life would be perfect. Jack was a perfectionist. He had to be when cutting around a person's spinal cord. But those skills would never transfer to his interpersonal skills.
Next, Jack gets trapped between two worlds on the island. He is an important focal point for the survivors: he has the medical skills to keep them alive and well while they waited for rescue. Jack also gave the aura of being a calming presence which led his fellow passengers to push an uncomfortable leadership role on him. At the same time, he wanted to run away from the responsibility and accountability. He saw people like Kate and Sawyer who had little cares except for their own well being. He must have been envious of their personal freedom as Jack spent his entire life studying and mastering science to get his father to notice him. After a while, the island did give Jack the opportunity to explore his wild side - - - get outside his comfort zone, and lead adventurous missions as a commander.
But once he left the island, Jack broke down mentally. He turned into a shell of his former self: needy, greedy, alone, disheveled, and on the brink of suicide. But apparently at the same time, his soul was running through an opposite world where Jack had a very stable and content after life in the sideways world where he had a relationship with his son.
The concept that the series was really about Jack's mind bouncing back and forth between various worlds is intriguing because Jack's eye is the beginning and the end of the show. The conflict was not with other people or smoke monsters, but the real conflict was within Jack himself.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
STAIRWAY
Try to imagine what it took to get to The End.
Then try to figure out why it took that path.
Trying to work backwards from memory of the key deaths that allowed the main characters to move forward, I found an analogy to the Stairway to Heaven.
It seems that each step needed a death, a sacrifice, a closure.
We don't know why some 815 passengers died while others survived the crash. We don't know why the Tail Section survivors were killed off to leave just Bernard alive. We don't know why Daniel was killed off by the time skip nose bleeds (considering he was never on the island before and had a "constant" in his own theory). It did not stop the time quirks on the island. We don't know why Charlie killed himself (he had an opportunity to open the station door and leave with Desmond). We don't know if Juliet accomplished anything tangible when she died after she was recovered from the site debris. Ben got his revenge by killing Widmore, but that did not stop or appease MIB. Sayid took the submarine bomb down the hallway (and created a more dangerous situation by not closing any blast doors to minimize the impact of the blast). Sun's entrapment was improbable and staged, as was their farewell which did not take into account their child on the mainland. We don't know if immortals like Jacob or shape shifting smoke monsters like MIB can ever really "die." But it seems all those deadly steps led to Jack collapsing in the bamboo thicket to die. The place where his island adventure began ended in the same place.
Now, a few people could conclude that Jack never left the bamboo thicket. He was thrown to the ground and laid there, semi-conscious from his injuries. He could have imagined the entire series in his head. Jack, the hero, in his own mind, "fixes" things in a plane load of broken people. It seems more plausible than the apparent random death steps to get the souls to the sideways church.
Then try to figure out why it took that path.
Trying to work backwards from memory of the key deaths that allowed the main characters to move forward, I found an analogy to the Stairway to Heaven.
It seems that each step needed a death, a sacrifice, a closure.
We don't know why some 815 passengers died while others survived the crash. We don't know why the Tail Section survivors were killed off to leave just Bernard alive. We don't know why Daniel was killed off by the time skip nose bleeds (considering he was never on the island before and had a "constant" in his own theory). It did not stop the time quirks on the island. We don't know why Charlie killed himself (he had an opportunity to open the station door and leave with Desmond). We don't know if Juliet accomplished anything tangible when she died after she was recovered from the site debris. Ben got his revenge by killing Widmore, but that did not stop or appease MIB. Sayid took the submarine bomb down the hallway (and created a more dangerous situation by not closing any blast doors to minimize the impact of the blast). Sun's entrapment was improbable and staged, as was their farewell which did not take into account their child on the mainland. We don't know if immortals like Jacob or shape shifting smoke monsters like MIB can ever really "die." But it seems all those deadly steps led to Jack collapsing in the bamboo thicket to die. The place where his island adventure began ended in the same place.
Now, a few people could conclude that Jack never left the bamboo thicket. He was thrown to the ground and laid there, semi-conscious from his injuries. He could have imagined the entire series in his head. Jack, the hero, in his own mind, "fixes" things in a plane load of broken people. It seems more plausible than the apparent random death steps to get the souls to the sideways church.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
