LOST, according to a website called Newsarama, ranked the 5th best Sci-Fi TV show in history. It ranked behind Dr. Who, Star Trek, Battlestar Gallactica, and Twilight Zone/Outer Limits.
Complain all you want about the finale, we're here to tell you
something: not all questions ever need to be answered and no one owes
you anything.
Part of the majesty of Lost was that it did dare to raise questions
and challenge assumptions in an age where TV is seemingly ruled by a
vast armada of reality TV.
Lost was unreality TV, charging headlong into time travel,
alternate realities, smoke monsters and more with abandon. Not every
viewer may have been totally satisfied, but one can hardly dispute the
totality of vision and the flair with which the creators, cast, and crew
pulled it off. Plus, polar bears.
This short ranking justification calls out fans who did not like the conclusion of the series. The argument that the greatest of LOST was that it was anti-reality TV.
But the argument loses most value when one looks at the shows ranked higher in its own list. Dr. Who has a set of core principles including explanation of time travel and parallel universes which now has been kept in tact for 50 years. Star Trek had an intense amount of rules explaining its core scientific-fiction principles such was what was warp drive, the transporter, the holodeck, etc. Even Data's brain was explained by the extrapolation of supercomputing technologies. Battlestar also had its own universe principles on how things operated, who were the good guys, who were the bad guys. And the Twilight Zone boiled down the bizarre into understandable and believable short stories. All of these programs gave the viewers answers and explanations to the issue presented in each episode.
“
Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together.
”
—
John A. Morrison
This quote is what the LOST blogs, commentators and fans embraced between episodes. TPTB made comments that they were aware of the fan analysis and theories. The expectations were that TPTB would address most of the most basic questions. Without knowledge, there is no wisdom.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Saturday, September 7, 2013
GRAVITY WELLS
When Daniel Faraday remarked that the light was different on the island, he was trying to fathom what the island was in both time and space.
Many fans have speculated what or where the island was located: it could have been at the edge of a wormhole, or at an inter-dimensional portal between universes, or a gateway between spiritual realms.
Science fiction writers such as Jules Verne or Mark Twain used time travel as a foundation for stories. The LOST version of time travel was puzzling because it lead to no where.
As the PBS science show NOVA explained, Sir Issac Newton's most important contribution to science was his mathematical definition of how motion changes with time. He showed that the force causing apples to fall is the same force that drives planetary motions and produces tides. However, Newton was puzzled by the fact that gravity seemed to operate instantaneously at a distance. He admitted he could only describe it without understanding how it worked. Not until Einstein's general theory of relativity was gravity changed from a "force" to the movement of matter along the shortest space in a curved spacetime. The Sun bends spacetime, and spacetime tells planets how to move. For Newton, both space and time were absolute. Space was a fixed, infinite, unmoving metric against which absolute motions could be measured. Newton also believed the universe was pervaded by a single absolute time that could be symbolized by an imaginary clock off somewhere in space. Einstein changed all this with his relativity theories, which was much broader than one iconic equation, fundamentally changed our understanding of time and space.
Einstein's first major contribution to the study of time occurred when
he revolutionized physics with his "special theory of relativity" by
showing how time changes with motion. Today, scientists do not see
problems of time or motion as "absolute" with a single correct answer.
Because time is relative to the speed one is traveling at, there can
never be a clock at the center of the universe to which everyone can set
their watches. Your entire life is the blink of an eye to an alien
traveling close to the speed of light. Today, Newtonian mechanics have
become a special case within Einstein's theory of relativity. Einstein's
relativity will eventually become a subset of a new science more
comprehensive in its description of the fabric of our universe. (The
word "relativity" derives from the fact that the appearance of the world
depends on our state of motion; it is "relative.")
Modern sci-fi has demonstrated some of these principles in how a hero changes time. Superman speeds around the earth's gravitational axis in order to reverse time; Star Trek used a similar method to go back in time.
But in LOST it was not a single event or construct which shows how time changed. We were led to believe that the frozen donkey wheel somehow controlled the island's space time position, and when it got dislodged by Ben's travel, the island began to time skip. This would infer that the island itself contained a time travel engine at its core, which would have to be different than the light source which was only described as "life, death and rebirth."
The island must be sitting on the edge of a space gravity well. A gravity well is the pull of gravity that a large body in space exerts. The larger the body (the more mass) the more of a gravity well it has. The Sun has a large (or deep) gravity well. Asteroids and small moons have much shallower gravity wells. Anything on a planet or moon is considered to be at the bottom of the gravity well. Entering space from the surface of a planet or moon means climbing out of the gravity well, something that often takes a huge amount of energy. The larger a planet or moon's gravity well is, the more energy it takes to achieve escape velocity and blast a ship off of it.
The earth's gravitational
force keeps us walking on the surface rather than floating
into the air. It is also what makes things fall to the earth.
Gravitational force on the moon is not as strong as on the earth.
Generally speaking, the larger the body, the more gravitational force it
exerts.
The island appeared to be in constant motion and not fixed to the Earth's core. That is why some fans believed it to be a alien spacecraft disguised as a tropical island. Because of its movement, the time on the island was in flux. Like all time mechanisms, it needs to be regulated like clock gears. A reset every 108 minutes could be that regulator which gave the island some form of space time stability.
But it also appeared that the island's time differential was highly localized. It would be hard to imagine how this localized time field could be monetized by powerful men like Widmore. People still aged on the island so it was not the fountain of youth (the exception was Jacob and Alpert who may have been "special" as in spirits).
Gravity was described as a "weak force" in terms of the vacuum of space itself. But it must be in vast quantities that it can affect so many things such as light and sound waves. Gravity itself could be viewed as its own unique space element which may have properties that we have not yet understood.
It may have the property of building up pressure in resistance to energy forces (like the island's EM field) so that it needs to be "released" at timely intervals (again, another possible purpose of the Hatch).
Is it possible that the resistance of a gravity well was the trap that kept both the smoke monster and Jacob in prison on the island? If that is the case, and the island survived their final battle, than that same gravity well would have kept them on the island forever.
It would have been nice if the writers would have given a clearer explanation of their view of time and space as it related to the island events.
Many fans have speculated what or where the island was located: it could have been at the edge of a wormhole, or at an inter-dimensional portal between universes, or a gateway between spiritual realms.
Science fiction writers such as Jules Verne or Mark Twain used time travel as a foundation for stories. The LOST version of time travel was puzzling because it lead to no where.
As the PBS science show NOVA explained, Sir Issac Newton's most important contribution to science was his mathematical definition of how motion changes with time. He showed that the force causing apples to fall is the same force that drives planetary motions and produces tides. However, Newton was puzzled by the fact that gravity seemed to operate instantaneously at a distance. He admitted he could only describe it without understanding how it worked. Not until Einstein's general theory of relativity was gravity changed from a "force" to the movement of matter along the shortest space in a curved spacetime. The Sun bends spacetime, and spacetime tells planets how to move. For Newton, both space and time were absolute. Space was a fixed, infinite, unmoving metric against which absolute motions could be measured. Newton also believed the universe was pervaded by a single absolute time that could be symbolized by an imaginary clock off somewhere in space. Einstein changed all this with his relativity theories, which was much broader than one iconic equation, fundamentally changed our understanding of time and space.
Modern sci-fi has demonstrated some of these principles in how a hero changes time. Superman speeds around the earth's gravitational axis in order to reverse time; Star Trek used a similar method to go back in time.
But in LOST it was not a single event or construct which shows how time changed. We were led to believe that the frozen donkey wheel somehow controlled the island's space time position, and when it got dislodged by Ben's travel, the island began to time skip. This would infer that the island itself contained a time travel engine at its core, which would have to be different than the light source which was only described as "life, death and rebirth."
The island must be sitting on the edge of a space gravity well. A gravity well is the pull of gravity that a large body in space exerts. The larger the body (the more mass) the more of a gravity well it has. The Sun has a large (or deep) gravity well. Asteroids and small moons have much shallower gravity wells. Anything on a planet or moon is considered to be at the bottom of the gravity well. Entering space from the surface of a planet or moon means climbing out of the gravity well, something that often takes a huge amount of energy. The larger a planet or moon's gravity well is, the more energy it takes to achieve escape velocity and blast a ship off of it.
A black hole is a "gravity well" that is so strong that NOTHING escapes from it, not even light. It sounds like that can't possibly be true, but it is.
Gravity is the common resistance against motion. In sports, every athlete is competing against
gravity. For example, a baseball player who hits towering home runs is
exerting more force on the ball than someone who hits little ground
balls. Sports is all about throwing, hitting, running, and moving
faster. If someone could figure out a way to reduce their own personal
gravity, they would have a distinct advantage.
In space travel, it is possible to escape the
earth's gravitational force and launch a rocket into "outer" space. The
amount of force required to escape the gravitational force is called the
"escape velocity".
At sea level , sound travels at a speed of 769.5
miles per hour (1238 km/h), depending on other factors such as
atmospheric conditions, wind, etc. Modern jets can "outrun" the speed of
sound quite easily. But for purposes of the black hole discussion, it
is important to understand that the biggest force or resistance to the
speed of sound is gravity, just as it is with solid objects.
Similarly, the speed of light is affected by
gravity. Light travels at a speed of 186,282.397 miles per second, which
is 670,616,629.4 miles per hour, 983,571,056.4 feet per second, roughly
one foot per nanosecond! Nothing man-made can outrun the speed of
light.
The island appeared to be in constant motion and not fixed to the Earth's core. That is why some fans believed it to be a alien spacecraft disguised as a tropical island. Because of its movement, the time on the island was in flux. Like all time mechanisms, it needs to be regulated like clock gears. A reset every 108 minutes could be that regulator which gave the island some form of space time stability.
But it also appeared that the island's time differential was highly localized. It would be hard to imagine how this localized time field could be monetized by powerful men like Widmore. People still aged on the island so it was not the fountain of youth (the exception was Jacob and Alpert who may have been "special" as in spirits).
Gravity was described as a "weak force" in terms of the vacuum of space itself. But it must be in vast quantities that it can affect so many things such as light and sound waves. Gravity itself could be viewed as its own unique space element which may have properties that we have not yet understood.
It may have the property of building up pressure in resistance to energy forces (like the island's EM field) so that it needs to be "released" at timely intervals (again, another possible purpose of the Hatch).
Is it possible that the resistance of a gravity well was the trap that kept both the smoke monster and Jacob in prison on the island? If that is the case, and the island survived their final battle, than that same gravity well would have kept them on the island forever.
It would have been nice if the writers would have given a clearer explanation of their view of time and space as it related to the island events.
Friday, September 6, 2013
COVER STORY
In 2010, LOST's showrunners made the following comment in regard to the mysteries of the series:
I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive. - - - Carlton Cuse
Fans who support the final conclusion to the series have jumped on this philosophy. They claim that the producers having to provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life.
They believe that even though the mysteries shown in LOST should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, the mysteries do not need to be “tied together.” The concept is that there is no unified theory to anything. They think scientists will conclude that in life and our universe, there is no grand unified theory. It is futile to think otherwise.
If one accepts this philosophy that LOST mirrors life in that there is never going to be a unified theory to explain the mysteries of life (or the show), fans are only left with the vague, unfilled vision. The TPTB that hyped and worked on the story lines abandon the show's viewers to their own devices; to wonder and philosophize and speculate to what they had invested six years in watching the story when the show's creators tell us that mysteries, as in life, cannot be addressed.
I have to reject TPTB's premise. It is an excuse. It is a cover story. It is a con.
The art of writing a narrative or epic tale is based on a time-tested formula: a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the beginning, we have characters who are confronted with problematic situations (conflicts). In the middle, we have those characters trying to come to terms with those conflicts. In the end, we have those characters have those conflicts resolved, for good or ill.
In 1972, sociolinguist William Labov isolated the historical elements of storytelling that applied to all cultures throughout time:
1. Abstract - How does it begin?
2. Orientation - Who/what does it involve, and when/where?
3. Complicating Action - Then what happened?
4. Resolution - What finally happened?
5. Evaluation - So what?
6. Coda - What does it all mean?
The LOST's creators gave us a weak resolution, nothing to evaluate and no coded principles to find out what it all meant. In some respects, it would be like Jules Verne writing his novel, Around the World in 80 Days, in one sentence: After accepting the wager that he could not make it around the world in 80 days time, Phineas Fogg left for the train station to begin his journey. The End.
LOST began with the riveting tale of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island. A diverse group of people would need to band together in order to survive and to be rescued. The complication was that they were not alone - - - people were spying on them, kidnapping some of the survivors, played mind games, and killed many people. The survivors had to confront the hostiles in order to live, but many died in the process. The initial story could have concluded whether any of the survivors were rescued in a Robinson Caruso way. But instead, in order to pad the story line, TPTB added layer upon layer of secondary backstories and more conflicts (Others v. Dharma; Ben v. Widmore; Jacob v. MIB). TPTB also brought in not only the big question of "where was the island?" but "what is the island?" If you are going to add smoke monsters, Egyptian temples, reincarnation, and time travel, people will want a reasonable explanation for those elements in the conclusion of the story.
TPTB wanted to make LOST a grand, epic, "different" adventure story. But to believe at the beginning they needed no unified theory to any of the story elements that they would film defies common sense in the writing craft or common courtesy to the viewers. They were more engrossed in wild plot twists than the actual premise of the show. The sideways world was just another twist they used as an escape hatch to give viewers a "happy" ending with no answers. It is like a child going out Trick or Treating to be given instead of candy, a travel bottle of mouth wash. Yes, it could be worse: a razor blade in an apple. It is all a matter of perspective, which itself was lost at the end of the series (apparently by design).
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.yZyUefSJ.dpuf
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf
I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive. - - - Carlton Cuse
Fans who support the final conclusion to the series have jumped on this philosophy. They claim that the producers having to provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life.
They believe that even though the mysteries shown in LOST should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, the mysteries do not need to be “tied together.” The concept is that there is no unified theory to anything. They think scientists will conclude that in life and our universe, there is no grand unified theory. It is futile to think otherwise.
If one accepts this philosophy that LOST mirrors life in that there is never going to be a unified theory to explain the mysteries of life (or the show), fans are only left with the vague, unfilled vision. The TPTB that hyped and worked on the story lines abandon the show's viewers to their own devices; to wonder and philosophize and speculate to what they had invested six years in watching the story when the show's creators tell us that mysteries, as in life, cannot be addressed.
I have to reject TPTB's premise. It is an excuse. It is a cover story. It is a con.
The art of writing a narrative or epic tale is based on a time-tested formula: a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the beginning, we have characters who are confronted with problematic situations (conflicts). In the middle, we have those characters trying to come to terms with those conflicts. In the end, we have those characters have those conflicts resolved, for good or ill.
In 1972, sociolinguist William Labov isolated the historical elements of storytelling that applied to all cultures throughout time:
1. Abstract - How does it begin?
2. Orientation - Who/what does it involve, and when/where?
3. Complicating Action - Then what happened?
4. Resolution - What finally happened?
5. Evaluation - So what?
6. Coda - What does it all mean?
The LOST's creators gave us a weak resolution, nothing to evaluate and no coded principles to find out what it all meant. In some respects, it would be like Jules Verne writing his novel, Around the World in 80 Days, in one sentence: After accepting the wager that he could not make it around the world in 80 days time, Phineas Fogg left for the train station to begin his journey. The End.
LOST began with the riveting tale of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island. A diverse group of people would need to band together in order to survive and to be rescued. The complication was that they were not alone - - - people were spying on them, kidnapping some of the survivors, played mind games, and killed many people. The survivors had to confront the hostiles in order to live, but many died in the process. The initial story could have concluded whether any of the survivors were rescued in a Robinson Caruso way. But instead, in order to pad the story line, TPTB added layer upon layer of secondary backstories and more conflicts (Others v. Dharma; Ben v. Widmore; Jacob v. MIB). TPTB also brought in not only the big question of "where was the island?" but "what is the island?" If you are going to add smoke monsters, Egyptian temples, reincarnation, and time travel, people will want a reasonable explanation for those elements in the conclusion of the story.
TPTB wanted to make LOST a grand, epic, "different" adventure story. But to believe at the beginning they needed no unified theory to any of the story elements that they would film defies common sense in the writing craft or common courtesy to the viewers. They were more engrossed in wild plot twists than the actual premise of the show. The sideways world was just another twist they used as an escape hatch to give viewers a "happy" ending with no answers. It is like a child going out Trick or Treating to be given instead of candy, a travel bottle of mouth wash. Yes, it could be worse: a razor blade in an apple. It is all a matter of perspective, which itself was lost at the end of the series (apparently by design).
May 25, 2010
From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf
May 25, 2010
From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.yZyUefSJ.dpuf
May 25, 2010
From a fascinating discussion between LOST producers Cuse and Lindelof and theoretical physicist Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here:Carlton Cuse: I think there’s this essential human desire to have a unified field theory. But there is no unified field theory for Lost, nor do we think there should be. Philosophically we don’t buy into that. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, “Oh, that’s cool” or “Oh, fuck those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.” But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it — that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive.This is similar to the point I was trying to make in my pre-finale essay “Why LOST Doesn’t Need to Answer Every Question.” To provide a basis for every mystery is not only bad writing, it’s not true to life. The mysteries should have a plausibility within the universe of the story, but they do not need to all “tie together.” There is no unified theory of everything. Indeed, an increasing number of scientists are beginning to think that the search for a grand unified theory is futile.
So what are we LOST fans left with then? A gift that is the same as one of the greatest gifts we have as humans: the capacity to wonder and philosophize and speculate. Some of us need to get over our anger that LOST abandoned any attempt at a “theory of everything” (if that was ever the goal) and embrace the gift, a gift that will live in our discussions for years to come.
- See more at: http://foolishsage.com/2010/05/25/lost-producer-cuse-no-unified-theory/#sthash.lrjvILoT.dpuf
Thursday, September 5, 2013
THE GREAT THING
To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
— Anatole France
What was the great event, the great accomplishment, that made the end the LOST saga worth while?
In Season 6, the only conclusion presented was the fact that Jacob and his followers defeated the MIB who sought to leave the Island. No one viewing the pilot episode could have imagined that would be the key climatic event that would end the series. For those who believe that the series went back to the beginning to focus in on the main characters to finish their journey, the Jacob-MIB tangent doe nothing to resolve the deep emotional scars, fears, phobias and anti-social behavior deep within the main characters back stories.
To accomplish a "great" thing, one needs:
1. Action
2. A dream
3. A plan
4. A belief.
How does Jack's apparent victory over Flocke meet those requirements?
Jack fought MIB but he had no plan. Jack was a non-believer in faith, fate or spiritual aspects of life. He led his life in reality, in science, through the lens of a highly trained spinal surgeon. He had no use for politics, cliches, focus groups or public relations.
There are several key unanswered or poorly explained elements to the end.
Jacob is immortal. He has lived on the island for a thousand years. He can grant the gift of immortality. MIB calls him the devil. So how can a mere mortal like Ben kill him? And once he is "killed," he still wanders around the island interacting to various people, including the remaining candidates.
MIB as the smoke monster is also apparently immortal. The smoke monster is depicted on ancient hieroglyphs in the Temple. It is termed a Cerberus, a security system, and pure evil. It can transform its shape to take the appearance of dead people like Locke, with all his faults and memories.
One must make several long assumptions to try to figure out how an immortal being becomes mortal.
The alleged dislodged frozen donkey wheel made the island time skip. It's core life force was in jeopardy. As a result, Jacob could be killed but not at the hands of his "brother," in the form of MIB, but at the hands of a human. The problem with this logic is that Jacob's brother died so the reincarnated smoke monster image of his brother was not bound by Crazy's Mother's rule that Jacob and his brother could not harm each other. Jacob broke that rule already. For that sin, he was left to a lonely existence.
To somehow make MIB into a mortal Flocke, Desmond and Jack had to "reset" the stone cap in the light cave, a place where intense electromagnetic energy would tear a human a part. Now, Desmond allegedly survived the Hatch explosion-implosion to become an electromagneto superhero. But Jack only took a job title of guardian without any special transformation. Again, there are no rules that grant such powers. The "reboot" of the Light Cave source somehow "trapped" MIB in Flocke's body (not Locke's actual human body because those remains were buried; MIB transformed matter to create Flocke). If one can transform matter, why would putting a stone back on a light source change or eliminate that power?
Even if one goes backward from Season 6, this Jacob-brother dynamic goes past the plane crash to the early beginnings of the island itself, even before Jacob and his brother as children came to this place.
This place, the island, is also a debatable unknown. It seems real, with plants, animals, people, machinery, temples, beaches, food, water and human beings. But even vivid dreams can seem absolutely real to the dreamer.
One aspect of the Jacob-MIB relationship was the fact that young Jacob appeared before Flocke during the final back and forth with Widmore's men. Young or ghost Jacob had appeared before in the series, usually warning someone that they could not kill. This young ghost Jacob also appeared at the same time as ghost grown-up Jacob after Ben killed him in the statue. It is odd that dead Jacob would appear at two different ages around the same climatic time.
Or is it?
We have viewed the series through the eyes of adults. We used our personal experience, knowledge, education, research and common sense to try to figure out the island happenings and events. Some of us were disturbed by how TPTB handled and mistreated (or misused) children during the series. But that may be the point. The series would be different if it was viewed through the eyes of a child.
It now occurs to me that the end was an end as the beginning was just that, a new start. The ghost spirits of young Jacob and his young brother never grew up. They stayed children harbored away in a spiritual place we saw as an island. When MIB tells Jacob it is he who "brings" people to the island, it is a metaphor for the imagination of Jacob to create his own "stories" and "adventures" with his mind. The lighthouse is merely a window to the world of the living, just like a television set to a shut-in. There Jacob can spy on actual humans to get a blueprint for how people act, react and behave. There is no moral judgment just observation. That is why there is no moral tone or lesson in LOST. As a lonely unsupervised child spirit, Jacob would have no cause to know the difference between right and wrong.
So a child spirit begins a new adventure story to play against MIB, or his imagined brother. He "brings" people to the island by creating characters and placing them in a situation where they come to the island. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Claire , Charlie, Desmond . . . they are all figments of Jacob's imagination. The interactive game of characters is just like MIB creates forms out of its matter; Jacob can do the same as he shifted from various states. We have the island more as a holodeck than a real place. We have programmed characters running through story lines created by a child. This is not black or white. It is not a game. It is an adventure like cowboys and Indians, capture the flag, or combat. Children at play. Jacob and his brother at play.
The concept that the entire LOST story is the telling of a tale made up by a child is probably the closest thing we can get to a unified theory. Nothing matters because nothing was real. The characters happy ending was a child's creation for his favorite action figures. They never died because they never lived on the island. It explains why certain family members of the characters who had strong bonds with them were not in the church. It also shows the imprint of loneliness that Jacob had in himself. It is probably Jacob's personality that keeps his brother from leaving the island playground because Jacob does not want to move on. As a child, who did not have a sibling or friend whine that he did not want to play the current game anymore. Kids get bored and want to move on to do something else. Some kids do not, and want to continue playing with or without their friends. In his fantasy world, he is the king and creator. He is the master of his universe. What ever he can imagine, he can make. He lives in the land of illusion with endless adventure stories that he can capture and rerun.
The great thing Jacob accomplished was to create his own self-sustaining fantasy world.
To accomplish a "great" thing, Jacob needed a plan (the lighthouse to see into the human world to gather observations about people), a belief (that putting various people together in his fantasy world could create vast amounts of entertaining situations and events), action (in the devious plot twists he would throw at his characters) all within the confines of his own child-like dreams.
What was the great event, the great accomplishment, that made the end the LOST saga worth while?
In Season 6, the only conclusion presented was the fact that Jacob and his followers defeated the MIB who sought to leave the Island. No one viewing the pilot episode could have imagined that would be the key climatic event that would end the series. For those who believe that the series went back to the beginning to focus in on the main characters to finish their journey, the Jacob-MIB tangent doe nothing to resolve the deep emotional scars, fears, phobias and anti-social behavior deep within the main characters back stories.
To accomplish a "great" thing, one needs:
1. Action
2. A dream
3. A plan
4. A belief.
How does Jack's apparent victory over Flocke meet those requirements?
Jack fought MIB but he had no plan. Jack was a non-believer in faith, fate or spiritual aspects of life. He led his life in reality, in science, through the lens of a highly trained spinal surgeon. He had no use for politics, cliches, focus groups or public relations.
There are several key unanswered or poorly explained elements to the end.
Jacob is immortal. He has lived on the island for a thousand years. He can grant the gift of immortality. MIB calls him the devil. So how can a mere mortal like Ben kill him? And once he is "killed," he still wanders around the island interacting to various people, including the remaining candidates.
MIB as the smoke monster is also apparently immortal. The smoke monster is depicted on ancient hieroglyphs in the Temple. It is termed a Cerberus, a security system, and pure evil. It can transform its shape to take the appearance of dead people like Locke, with all his faults and memories.
One must make several long assumptions to try to figure out how an immortal being becomes mortal.
The alleged dislodged frozen donkey wheel made the island time skip. It's core life force was in jeopardy. As a result, Jacob could be killed but not at the hands of his "brother," in the form of MIB, but at the hands of a human. The problem with this logic is that Jacob's brother died so the reincarnated smoke monster image of his brother was not bound by Crazy's Mother's rule that Jacob and his brother could not harm each other. Jacob broke that rule already. For that sin, he was left to a lonely existence.
To somehow make MIB into a mortal Flocke, Desmond and Jack had to "reset" the stone cap in the light cave, a place where intense electromagnetic energy would tear a human a part. Now, Desmond allegedly survived the Hatch explosion-implosion to become an electromagneto superhero. But Jack only took a job title of guardian without any special transformation. Again, there are no rules that grant such powers. The "reboot" of the Light Cave source somehow "trapped" MIB in Flocke's body (not Locke's actual human body because those remains were buried; MIB transformed matter to create Flocke). If one can transform matter, why would putting a stone back on a light source change or eliminate that power?
Even if one goes backward from Season 6, this Jacob-brother dynamic goes past the plane crash to the early beginnings of the island itself, even before Jacob and his brother as children came to this place.
This place, the island, is also a debatable unknown. It seems real, with plants, animals, people, machinery, temples, beaches, food, water and human beings. But even vivid dreams can seem absolutely real to the dreamer.
One aspect of the Jacob-MIB relationship was the fact that young Jacob appeared before Flocke during the final back and forth with Widmore's men. Young or ghost Jacob had appeared before in the series, usually warning someone that they could not kill. This young ghost Jacob also appeared at the same time as ghost grown-up Jacob after Ben killed him in the statue. It is odd that dead Jacob would appear at two different ages around the same climatic time.
Or is it?
We have viewed the series through the eyes of adults. We used our personal experience, knowledge, education, research and common sense to try to figure out the island happenings and events. Some of us were disturbed by how TPTB handled and mistreated (or misused) children during the series. But that may be the point. The series would be different if it was viewed through the eyes of a child.
It now occurs to me that the end was an end as the beginning was just that, a new start. The ghost spirits of young Jacob and his young brother never grew up. They stayed children harbored away in a spiritual place we saw as an island. When MIB tells Jacob it is he who "brings" people to the island, it is a metaphor for the imagination of Jacob to create his own "stories" and "adventures" with his mind. The lighthouse is merely a window to the world of the living, just like a television set to a shut-in. There Jacob can spy on actual humans to get a blueprint for how people act, react and behave. There is no moral judgment just observation. That is why there is no moral tone or lesson in LOST. As a lonely unsupervised child spirit, Jacob would have no cause to know the difference between right and wrong.
So a child spirit begins a new adventure story to play against MIB, or his imagined brother. He "brings" people to the island by creating characters and placing them in a situation where they come to the island. Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, Claire , Charlie, Desmond . . . they are all figments of Jacob's imagination. The interactive game of characters is just like MIB creates forms out of its matter; Jacob can do the same as he shifted from various states. We have the island more as a holodeck than a real place. We have programmed characters running through story lines created by a child. This is not black or white. It is not a game. It is an adventure like cowboys and Indians, capture the flag, or combat. Children at play. Jacob and his brother at play.
The concept that the entire LOST story is the telling of a tale made up by a child is probably the closest thing we can get to a unified theory. Nothing matters because nothing was real. The characters happy ending was a child's creation for his favorite action figures. They never died because they never lived on the island. It explains why certain family members of the characters who had strong bonds with them were not in the church. It also shows the imprint of loneliness that Jacob had in himself. It is probably Jacob's personality that keeps his brother from leaving the island playground because Jacob does not want to move on. As a child, who did not have a sibling or friend whine that he did not want to play the current game anymore. Kids get bored and want to move on to do something else. Some kids do not, and want to continue playing with or without their friends. In his fantasy world, he is the king and creator. He is the master of his universe. What ever he can imagine, he can make. He lives in the land of illusion with endless adventure stories that he can capture and rerun.
The great thing Jacob accomplished was to create his own self-sustaining fantasy world.
To accomplish a "great" thing, Jacob needed a plan (the lighthouse to see into the human world to gather observations about people), a belief (that putting various people together in his fantasy world could create vast amounts of entertaining situations and events), action (in the devious plot twists he would throw at his characters) all within the confines of his own child-like dreams.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
THE ENDING
Michael Emerson, who played Ben, earlier this year gave an interview about his time on LOST.
When asked about the ending, he said he understood what the writers and producers were doing with the story. He said that by the end, the series have various tangent story lines going out from the beginning, in both time and space. He agreed with the decision to go back to the beginning in order to end the series. He said the TPTB decided to go with a spiritual end.
Many fans would agree with Emerson that the spiritual ending was a fine way to end the series.
But the main complaint of the spiritual ending as it was presented to us was that it did not explain the previous five long seasons of events and mysteries.
LOST exploded on the television scene. It took critics and fans by storm. Like a real explosion, TPTB had to top themselves on a weekly basis by throwing more drama and mysteries at the public. They did so by spoon feeding parts of back stories, adding crazy mysteries like polar bears in the tropics, and power struggles among various island factions. That would have been well and good but for the added madness of time travel, frozen donkey wheels, island disappearing, ancient civilization hieroglyphs and the Numbers of the Hatch. You can't just throw out a dozen new story arcs with crazy attributes and not answer them - - - how they are connected to the main story line.
The main story line itself was lost by the third season. The idea of rescue became a non-focal point. Even the idea of survival from rival tribes seemed to be secondary to the weird science fiction elements that have been thrust before our viewing eyes.
For a show that landed its ending on a spiritual note, there was very little spiritualism in the series. There were some religion icons in the background, but there was no moral center to the series. There was no real punishment for those who did heinous crimes. There were little debate between right and wrong. In fact, just listing the attributes and events of each character would create a long rap sheet for most of them. More than a few of them would have been institutionalized as criminally insane, including Ben.
So the series created a massive among of diverging story mysteries that were analyzed by fans for clues and meaning, but abandoned all those allegedly important stories for a spiritual reunion in the sideways realm. There is a huge gap in logic on why the characters in the church met back up in the after life when in fact most of them had stronger bonds with other people, especially their family members. The spiritual ending did not answer any of the real questions that were posed by TPTB and that drove the rabid attention of fans.
Once TPTB exploded the series into fragments of diverse story lines, scientific principles, strange occurrences, they had no means to reconstruct the early story. In other words, they broke the ceramic plate and they could not put the pieces back together. And this is why the ending still hits a raw nerve with many fans.
They feel that LOST was a great show with a bad ending. Even the most forgiving fans say that LOST was a great show with a satisfying ending. But a great show should have a great ending. When led down the path with great expectations, the show should have delivered a mind blowing conclusion and not another story U-turn.
When asked about the ending, he said he understood what the writers and producers were doing with the story. He said that by the end, the series have various tangent story lines going out from the beginning, in both time and space. He agreed with the decision to go back to the beginning in order to end the series. He said the TPTB decided to go with a spiritual end.
Many fans would agree with Emerson that the spiritual ending was a fine way to end the series.
But the main complaint of the spiritual ending as it was presented to us was that it did not explain the previous five long seasons of events and mysteries.
LOST exploded on the television scene. It took critics and fans by storm. Like a real explosion, TPTB had to top themselves on a weekly basis by throwing more drama and mysteries at the public. They did so by spoon feeding parts of back stories, adding crazy mysteries like polar bears in the tropics, and power struggles among various island factions. That would have been well and good but for the added madness of time travel, frozen donkey wheels, island disappearing, ancient civilization hieroglyphs and the Numbers of the Hatch. You can't just throw out a dozen new story arcs with crazy attributes and not answer them - - - how they are connected to the main story line.
The main story line itself was lost by the third season. The idea of rescue became a non-focal point. Even the idea of survival from rival tribes seemed to be secondary to the weird science fiction elements that have been thrust before our viewing eyes.
For a show that landed its ending on a spiritual note, there was very little spiritualism in the series. There were some religion icons in the background, but there was no moral center to the series. There was no real punishment for those who did heinous crimes. There were little debate between right and wrong. In fact, just listing the attributes and events of each character would create a long rap sheet for most of them. More than a few of them would have been institutionalized as criminally insane, including Ben.
So the series created a massive among of diverging story mysteries that were analyzed by fans for clues and meaning, but abandoned all those allegedly important stories for a spiritual reunion in the sideways realm. There is a huge gap in logic on why the characters in the church met back up in the after life when in fact most of them had stronger bonds with other people, especially their family members. The spiritual ending did not answer any of the real questions that were posed by TPTB and that drove the rabid attention of fans.
Once TPTB exploded the series into fragments of diverse story lines, scientific principles, strange occurrences, they had no means to reconstruct the early story. In other words, they broke the ceramic plate and they could not put the pieces back together. And this is why the ending still hits a raw nerve with many fans.
They feel that LOST was a great show with a bad ending. Even the most forgiving fans say that LOST was a great show with a satisfying ending. But a great show should have a great ending. When led down the path with great expectations, the show should have delivered a mind blowing conclusion and not another story U-turn.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
DESTINY
Confucius said "It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long as you don't stop."
Season 6 of LOST was slow.
It was heralded as a return to the fast paced Season 1.
Season 5 ended with a cliffhanger when Juliet was sucked into the hole and woke up with the bomb near her. She hit the bomb with a rock and it was the end of the episode. To keep fans in excitement, ABC has posted a very short sneak peek of the 6th Season where an aye opens up in shock. No clue to who the green eye belongs to.
Also in the Season 6 preview, it is revealed that the big idea is "Destiny Found" and it could as well be the ultimate reason why they are all stranded on the island in the first place, not the kind of destiny that each of the characters thought. At the time, Michael Emerson told reporters that Ben's work is not done in the Season 5 finale but he is also still crossing fingers for it because nothing is set in stone in "Lost." Juliet's comeback was teased by EW with no other details while Claire's involvement was suggested by Carlton Cuse. "Claire is a wonderful part of the show and the audience can rest assured that they will see (her) again on Lost," Cuse said. TPTB promised that with the LOST story would come back to full circle. "Season six will feel a lot like season one," Damon Lindelof teased. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet is left of The Others. We're getting down to the end now."
So the whole set up for the final season was to double back to the beginning to focus on the first main characters and to reveal their Destiny.
Destiny is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. It is a hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.
What were the current events at the end of Season 5 which would set into motion the conclusive destiny of the main characters? It was the apparent Jughead explosion by Juliet - - - her death was to make things "work." But nothing worked out as expected. The island did return to his normal time frame, but the main characters were no better off than before the time skips. They had less answers to their own questions than ever before.
And even the random fan had a few concerns going into the final season.
The Others made their importance known in Season 3 but the viewers had not been told really anything about them except their fertility problems. The Others overall purpose and connection to the Island had not been to be revealed. They seem to have people recruited around the world and they seem to have a limitless amount of resources. Is it all in the name of protecting the island or do they have other work to do?
After two seasons of hearing about Jacob, viewers finally got a look at him in the Seasons 5 finale. Then there is the twist that Jacob and a mysterious Man in Black may have been controlling the LOST story this entire time. The big question is what has been the purpose of the power struggle between these two. Is it just a game between the two or do they have a higher purpose to their actions?
Just as the dynamic between Jacob and MIB remains a mystery, Widmore and Ben's relationship is obvious based upon hate. Widmore obsessed with getting back to the island and reclaiming his place as the leader of the Others. But what is so important about a tiny hidden island that would make a billionaire crazy? But, like Jacob and MIB , there seems to be an unwritten rule that prevent these two from harming each other directly. What are the Rules? Have they been controlling and manipulating people along the way for their own game?
Lastly, we learned very little about the Smoke Monster. We don't what it is or how it manifests itself. Is it organic, spiritual, nanotechnology? And the island inhabitants, the Others, seem to ignore the Smoke Monster's origin and purpose. The open question is that is the Smoke Monster the actual controlling being on the island, and the various personal conflicts (Jacob-MIB, Ben-Widmore) are somehow to appease it.
The main characters literally fell into the Jacob-MIB saga. The main characters also literally fell into the Ben-Widmore Dharma remains story line. The 815 survivors continue to look out of place and serve no purpose in resolving these pre-existing conflicts.
So those were some of the major question marks going into the last season. It was teased as a series of events for the main characters to find their destiny. But the side stories soon consumed Season 6. Then the addition of the sideways parallel story arc created more confusion than answers. Instead of running around one circle for clues and answers, we had to run around two circles.
The only destiny found at the end of the series that viewers were destined never to find out what were the foundational theories (science fiction or otherwise) explanations for the various connections, island events, and rules of the series as applied to the characters.
Season 6 of LOST was slow.
It was heralded as a return to the fast paced Season 1.
Season 5 ended with a cliffhanger when Juliet was sucked into the hole and woke up with the bomb near her. She hit the bomb with a rock and it was the end of the episode. To keep fans in excitement, ABC has posted a very short sneak peek of the 6th Season where an aye opens up in shock. No clue to who the green eye belongs to.
Also in the Season 6 preview, it is revealed that the big idea is "Destiny Found" and it could as well be the ultimate reason why they are all stranded on the island in the first place, not the kind of destiny that each of the characters thought. At the time, Michael Emerson told reporters that Ben's work is not done in the Season 5 finale but he is also still crossing fingers for it because nothing is set in stone in "Lost." Juliet's comeback was teased by EW with no other details while Claire's involvement was suggested by Carlton Cuse. "Claire is a wonderful part of the show and the audience can rest assured that they will see (her) again on Lost," Cuse said. TPTB promised that with the LOST story would come back to full circle. "Season six will feel a lot like season one," Damon Lindelof teased. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet is left of The Others. We're getting down to the end now."
So the whole set up for the final season was to double back to the beginning to focus on the first main characters and to reveal their Destiny.
Destiny is the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future. It is a hidden power believed to control what will happen in the future; fate.
What were the current events at the end of Season 5 which would set into motion the conclusive destiny of the main characters? It was the apparent Jughead explosion by Juliet - - - her death was to make things "work." But nothing worked out as expected. The island did return to his normal time frame, but the main characters were no better off than before the time skips. They had less answers to their own questions than ever before.
And even the random fan had a few concerns going into the final season.
The Others made their importance known in Season 3 but the viewers had not been told really anything about them except their fertility problems. The Others overall purpose and connection to the Island had not been to be revealed. They seem to have people recruited around the world and they seem to have a limitless amount of resources. Is it all in the name of protecting the island or do they have other work to do?
After two seasons of hearing about Jacob, viewers finally got a look at him in the Seasons 5 finale. Then there is the twist that Jacob and a mysterious Man in Black may have been controlling the LOST story this entire time. The big question is what has been the purpose of the power struggle between these two. Is it just a game between the two or do they have a higher purpose to their actions?
Just as the dynamic between Jacob and MIB remains a mystery, Widmore and Ben's relationship is obvious based upon hate. Widmore obsessed with getting back to the island and reclaiming his place as the leader of the Others. But what is so important about a tiny hidden island that would make a billionaire crazy? But, like Jacob and MIB , there seems to be an unwritten rule that prevent these two from harming each other directly. What are the Rules? Have they been controlling and manipulating people along the way for their own game?
Lastly, we learned very little about the Smoke Monster. We don't what it is or how it manifests itself. Is it organic, spiritual, nanotechnology? And the island inhabitants, the Others, seem to ignore the Smoke Monster's origin and purpose. The open question is that is the Smoke Monster the actual controlling being on the island, and the various personal conflicts (Jacob-MIB, Ben-Widmore) are somehow to appease it.
The main characters literally fell into the Jacob-MIB saga. The main characters also literally fell into the Ben-Widmore Dharma remains story line. The 815 survivors continue to look out of place and serve no purpose in resolving these pre-existing conflicts.
So those were some of the major question marks going into the last season. It was teased as a series of events for the main characters to find their destiny. But the side stories soon consumed Season 6. Then the addition of the sideways parallel story arc created more confusion than answers. Instead of running around one circle for clues and answers, we had to run around two circles.
The only destiny found at the end of the series that viewers were destined never to find out what were the foundational theories (science fiction or otherwise) explanations for the various connections, island events, and rules of the series as applied to the characters.
Monday, September 2, 2013
WE
We all make mistakes.
We can never know everything. Even with a trillion neurons in our brains, no one can know everything about anything.
We all fixate on something that other people could consider strange. A kid whose chore is to the mow the lawn won't understand why his neighbor is into master gardening.
We are all curious but not everyone acts on it. There are people who spend their entire lives looking for answers while there are other people who would rather do the minimum in the shadows to avoid the limelight of errors, setbacks and criticism.
We like mysteries but we like answers better.
We have micromanagers and macromanagers. We have those who lead, those who delegate, those who follow, and those who complain.
We have dumb representatives making dumb decisions. We have a certain amount of apathy towards real change. We are creatures of habit even when that habit is not necessarily good for you.
So on this Labor Day weekend, I asked myself why I am still posting content on this blog.
This will be the 459th post on LOST. A modest 6,800 page views later, LOSTheory continues on. It started during the beginning of Season 6 as a means of expanding ideas that were too long for my normal fan site postings. The rev-up in the final season was supposed to answer most of the big questions that the fans had harbored and debated for years. But with more and more tangential story lines were throw at us, theories became more complex to convoluted to the point of default statement like "it must be a continuity error," or "this is just filler before the good part."
After the last episode, there were three general fan camps. One, those who thought the ending was great; that the characters got their reward; and the show wrapped up with a happy conclusion. Two, there was a group who neither cared nor hated the finale; they may have lost interest a while back or coming on board to watch the media event of the decade only to find a bait and switch ending confusing and uninspiring. Three, there was a group that really hated the ending. They were upset that the first five seasons had little meaning or importance in the outcome. There were really upset that the big questions were not answered, but more questions (like the sideways world) were created in Season 6.
I was one of those who was disappointed in the ending even though many parts of it confirmed my early theories that the show was about the after life. I was looking for the writers to answer the mysteries that they had posed to us to figure out. I compared it to a big time mystery writer (King, Chandler, Christie) building up a complex story line then forgetting to write the final chapter to reveal who-dun-it. I also thought that with all the build up, fan involvement, and TPTB knowing the expectations of the viewers, LOST could have done a dramatically better job with the show's ending.
Even today, I would not be upset if the show runners made the final scene a camera pan into a hospital room where Hurley's head is hooked up to a TV monitor showing The End, making the conclusion that the series was a complex dream-nightmare inside his head. I would accept that production vision of the series.
But TPTB punted the end of the series instead of standing a firm stand on what the series was all about. They would claim later that they could not please all the fans, but that excuse still does not hold water in any college creative writing course. The story started with "where are we? what is happening to us?" to "we are in a new place, and we don't know what's going to happen next." That is not very fulfilling at any level, whether emotional or intellectual.
Since the series ended, I have bounced around trying to fill the story gaps with analysis, new ideas, old ideas, new tacks, new takes, to see if there was something major that we all missed when we first viewed the series. It seems like Atlas holding a planetary sphere on his shoulders as punishment for his defeat.
I have fallen into a habit while surfing that when I find something interesting (a quote, a science research study, an odd news article, etc.) something in my brain triggers a response of what, if any, implications of that fact or story has in the LOST saga. So I continue to explore random observations. Whether it is beneficial or healthy is a subjective matter best left alone. I have noticed that after Season 6, most fan web sites and blogs faded away within a year. I am only aware of one other fan site that is still in continuous update mode. I think that is a telltale sign that though LOST captivated a large audience for six years, it has not had the staying power in the hearts and minds of the majority of fans after the show ended. Part of the problem was that the end of the series did not solve any of the fan debates, fan theories, or fan expectations. People quickly moved on from their weekly obsession with LOST to other things, other shows, other creative outlets.
But for some reason, I continue to push the PUBLISH button for this blog like Locke in the Hatch. It is not a matter of faith, fate or science. It seems like it is a bad habit which is hard to break.
We can never know everything. Even with a trillion neurons in our brains, no one can know everything about anything.
We all fixate on something that other people could consider strange. A kid whose chore is to the mow the lawn won't understand why his neighbor is into master gardening.
We are all curious but not everyone acts on it. There are people who spend their entire lives looking for answers while there are other people who would rather do the minimum in the shadows to avoid the limelight of errors, setbacks and criticism.
We like mysteries but we like answers better.
We have micromanagers and macromanagers. We have those who lead, those who delegate, those who follow, and those who complain.
We have dumb representatives making dumb decisions. We have a certain amount of apathy towards real change. We are creatures of habit even when that habit is not necessarily good for you.
So on this Labor Day weekend, I asked myself why I am still posting content on this blog.
This will be the 459th post on LOST. A modest 6,800 page views later, LOSTheory continues on. It started during the beginning of Season 6 as a means of expanding ideas that were too long for my normal fan site postings. The rev-up in the final season was supposed to answer most of the big questions that the fans had harbored and debated for years. But with more and more tangential story lines were throw at us, theories became more complex to convoluted to the point of default statement like "it must be a continuity error," or "this is just filler before the good part."
After the last episode, there were three general fan camps. One, those who thought the ending was great; that the characters got their reward; and the show wrapped up with a happy conclusion. Two, there was a group who neither cared nor hated the finale; they may have lost interest a while back or coming on board to watch the media event of the decade only to find a bait and switch ending confusing and uninspiring. Three, there was a group that really hated the ending. They were upset that the first five seasons had little meaning or importance in the outcome. There were really upset that the big questions were not answered, but more questions (like the sideways world) were created in Season 6.
I was one of those who was disappointed in the ending even though many parts of it confirmed my early theories that the show was about the after life. I was looking for the writers to answer the mysteries that they had posed to us to figure out. I compared it to a big time mystery writer (King, Chandler, Christie) building up a complex story line then forgetting to write the final chapter to reveal who-dun-it. I also thought that with all the build up, fan involvement, and TPTB knowing the expectations of the viewers, LOST could have done a dramatically better job with the show's ending.
Even today, I would not be upset if the show runners made the final scene a camera pan into a hospital room where Hurley's head is hooked up to a TV monitor showing The End, making the conclusion that the series was a complex dream-nightmare inside his head. I would accept that production vision of the series.
But TPTB punted the end of the series instead of standing a firm stand on what the series was all about. They would claim later that they could not please all the fans, but that excuse still does not hold water in any college creative writing course. The story started with "where are we? what is happening to us?" to "we are in a new place, and we don't know what's going to happen next." That is not very fulfilling at any level, whether emotional or intellectual.
Since the series ended, I have bounced around trying to fill the story gaps with analysis, new ideas, old ideas, new tacks, new takes, to see if there was something major that we all missed when we first viewed the series. It seems like Atlas holding a planetary sphere on his shoulders as punishment for his defeat.
I have fallen into a habit while surfing that when I find something interesting (a quote, a science research study, an odd news article, etc.) something in my brain triggers a response of what, if any, implications of that fact or story has in the LOST saga. So I continue to explore random observations. Whether it is beneficial or healthy is a subjective matter best left alone. I have noticed that after Season 6, most fan web sites and blogs faded away within a year. I am only aware of one other fan site that is still in continuous update mode. I think that is a telltale sign that though LOST captivated a large audience for six years, it has not had the staying power in the hearts and minds of the majority of fans after the show ended. Part of the problem was that the end of the series did not solve any of the fan debates, fan theories, or fan expectations. People quickly moved on from their weekly obsession with LOST to other things, other shows, other creative outlets.
But for some reason, I continue to push the PUBLISH button for this blog like Locke in the Hatch. It is not a matter of faith, fate or science. It seems like it is a bad habit which is hard to break.
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