LOStTalk

The Monster in the Jungle: Lost and the 21st Century American Gothic

2008-03-28T08:34:24Z

The Monster in the Jungle: Lost and the 21st Century American Gothic

Laura Dickinson considers Lost as a 21st century reemergence of the American gothic, which derived from the British gothic by adapting its sense of mystery, foreboding, and menace to the lush wilderness of the frontier instead of the ruins of a castle or manor house. The gothic elements of the island present a physical manifestation of the psychic/psychological disarray of the characters’ lives. And, importantly, as was the case for the 19th century anxieties about the future, Lost could very well reflect the disquiet experienced by many Americans today in the face of concerns about swiftly changing technology, a war that has no end in sight, and a potentially disastrous climate change, where polar bears may start to inhabit tropical islands.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: A Structural Analysis of "The Constant"

2008-03-28T08:34:51Z

"I think I've just been to the future": A Structural Analysis of The Constant

An analysis of the Season 4.05 episode reveals the internal structure of its dual narrative, and suggests larger parallels to Lost the series.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: Lost: Poststructural Metanarrative or Postmodern Bildungsroman?

2008-03-28T08:35:20Z

Lost: Poststructural Metanarrative or Postmodern Bildungsroman?

Despite its narrative, psychological and philosophical complexity, and widespread popularity both within and beyond the television medium, there has yet to be a sustained dialogue on the theoretical aspects of Lost. Michelle Lang’s paper provides a framework for such a discussion, one that encompasses interdisciplinarity while focusing on a theme that is of particular relevance: the tension between the foregrounding of the structural aspects of the show and the maintenance of the ‘fourth wall’ within the story itself – the island as a self-contained thematic narrative within the larger contemporary sea of intellectual context, as it were.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: Free Will and Narrative Closure in Lost

2008-03-28T08:35:52Z

“So much for fate”: Free Will and Narrative Closure in Lost

Amy Bauer looks at the debate between free will and determinism in Lost, as crystallized by repeated iconic events at odds with the forward movement of plot and character development. Each time the characters encounter the numbers or push the button they enact the traumatic collision between fate and free will in its literal fullness. In season 3 the ethical dimension of this becomes explicit when Desmond sees flashes of a future that include Charlie’s untimely death. Yet when Charlie finally dies it is not because he has succumbed to fate, but because he has embraced it. His “spiritual” rebirth into full full subjectivity suggests that only when the remaining characters accept the apparent contingency of the plane crash as destiny, will Lost resolve its founding trauma and achieve emotional, as well as narrative, closure.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: Finding Lost, getting lost

2008-03-28T08:36:21Z

Finding Lost, getting lost

Neil Shyminsky considers Lost as a "trope of a trope," with an often self-conscious relationship to its precursors in high and low culture. The producers of Lost encourage audience interaction with the text, even if it leads to a conflation of actor and character (in the case of Jorge Garcia's Hurley and Terry O'Quinn's Locke). Shyminsky evokes that Harold Bloom's theory of “poetic misprision” captures the viewer's complex misreading of Lost, a process that favors active participation over truth.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: The Art of World-making

2008-03-28T08:37:23Z

The Art of World-making: Lost and Time Travel

Stephen Hawking biographer Kristine Larsen summarizes canon and fan references to time travel before the epochal season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes," as a prelude to a thorough review of the scientific literature on time travel. Larsen discusses as well the paradoxes and restrictions on free will implied by time travel with reference to Desmond's philosophical alter ego. Her final speculations connect the hatch implosion, "Flashes," electromagnetic energy and various narrative anomolies in Lost, with reference to both the consistent and alternate history approaches to time travel.

Lost Online STudies 2.1: Eko's Jesus Stick

2008-03-28T08:37:44Z

The (Many) Meanings of Eko’s Jesus Stick

An analysis of the writings and references on Eko's Jesus Stick

Lost Online STudies 2.1: Lost In Hypertext

2008-03-28T08:38:08Z

Lost In Hypertext: Intertextuality in the Television Show Lost

Cari Vaughn takes us on an intertextual tour of literary and in seasons 1-3, revealing Lost as the ultimate hypertext, allowing the viewer, via associated reading, fan-made websites, and extratextual references, to construct his or her own Lost experience.

Lost Online STudies 1.3: The Split/Join Theory of Lost

2008-03-24T01:07:50Z

The Split/Join Theory of Lost

J. M. Berger proposes that Lost is intended to be a microcosm or allegory of the universal creation story. He follows Lost’s story of existence from creation to collapse using the tools of this archetypical myth.

Lost Online STudies 1.3: The Bad Twin

2008-03-24T01:07:24Z

The Bad Twin: Clues or Diversions?

Dorothy Distefano reviews the Lost tie-in book Bad Twin, cataloguing its wealth of intertextual allusions and characters that intersect with both the Lost ARG and the television series.

Lost Online STudies 1.3: Frame Story/Historical Fiction

2008-03-24T01:06:54Z

Frame Story/Historical Fiction: Understanding The Lost Experience

Sean Casey analyzes the literary techniques of frame storytelling and historical fiction as they combine in the The Lost Experience, and asks why the Lost writers chose to tell their stories as they did.

Lost Online STudies 1.3: Lost as the Neo-Baroque

2008-03-24T01:06:21Z

Lost as the Neo-Baroque

Michelle A. Lang reveals Lost as Neo-Baroque in its violation of frames, active integration into media dominated consumer society and complex, reflexive narrative strategies. Yet in a twist on the postmodern denial of the integrated subject, she maintains that the core of the series remains the integrity of human agency.

Lost Online STudies 1.2: John Locke on Personal Property

2008-03-24T00:58:46Z

John Locke on Personal Property and Possessions

Kim Lyons examines the triangular logic of property that binds Locke the philosopher, Locke the button pusher, and Zeke, the Other.

Lost Online STudies 1.2: Discipline & Punish

2008-03-24T00:58:07Z

Discipline & Punish: The Lost Experience as Panopticon

Amy Bauer brushes up on her Foucault to critique Lost's culture of control as reflected in both the narrative of seasons 1 and 2 and the Lost Experience ARG.

Lost Online STudies 1.2: The Art of the Grift

2008-03-24T00:57:30Z

The Art of the Grift

Job Weiss, aka perfesser camelsmoker, dissects Sawyer's Long con and initiates us all into the art of the grift.

Lost Online STudies 1.2: Is the Island a Body Without Organs?

2008-03-24T00:56:44Z

Is the Island a Body Without Organs?

Matthew O. and Wendy C. Cory look at the island through a Deleuzean lens. They ask the important question: is not the Lost island a "body without organs," a field for the immanence of desire, which we continually decode and deterritorialize?

Lost Online STudies 1.2: Flashbacks, Memory and Non-Linear Time

2008-03-24T00:56:00Z

Flashbacks, Memory and Non-Linear Time in ABC's Lost

J. M. Berger draws on both on scientific and spiritual temporal traditions to understand the "time out of joint" at the heart of Lost's narrative.

The Lost Sonnets

2008-03-24T00:55:19Z

David Ledbetter has composed a beautiful series of sonnets on the 815 survivors.

The Rescuers: Jack, Kate, Locke and Boone, the first of a series on our castaways.

Michael, Jin, Sawyer and Walt

The Lost Sisterhood: Shannon, Claire and Sun.

Lost Online STudies 1.1: Lost de la lettre

2008-03-24T00:53:33Z

Lost de la Lettre: messages, mistaken identities and the other who really believes

Amy Bauer reflects on the function of letters, ethics and identity in Lost, especially as regards the roles of Desmond, Jack and Locke.

Lost Online STudies 1.1: "Abandoned (Remix)"

2008-03-24T00:53:01Z

"Abandoned (Remix)"

J. M. Berger offers a "remix" of the controversial second season episode "Abandoned," one which follows the main outline of the original while offering an alternate version of not only the episode but character continuity as it might illuminate the entire Lost universe.