Just a random Lost thing
I couldn't help but notice some things yesterday as I was browsing through TwoP Lost forums after watching the latest episode. It keeps on coming back to my mind, so better just write it down.
The first thing that I noticed was that many commenters on the Lost 6x15 thread were complaining about still not knowing MIB's name. I found this pretty strange and even irritating, for when watching the episode myself, I thought "wow, he's actually nameless, now that's powerful." Namelessness is of course a powerful cultural idea and MIB having no name didn't bother me at all. On the contrary, I thought it was significant, and should be left that way. However, for TwoP viewers, MIB's name was one of the Great Mysteries to which they hoped they'd get an answer. I haven't followed any discussions on TwoP, but as far as I know, the messageboard has played an important part in the Lost fandom and the writers' communication with the fans. Some of the TwoPers want their theories confirmed (most notably, if MIB's name is Esau, all based on biblical symbolism, cf. Jacob), others just want to know the darned answer. I wonder who are those that want the name so desperately... I sense study material.
Anyway, another issue on TwoP also seems to be the genre/purity question. Lost writers are being flogged for not knowing what they're writing. E.g. this comment:
I don't get this Jacob/MIB story, and haven't from the moment it was introduced. They took a perfectly good story structure and introduced this annoying unnecessary element for no apparent reason. More Dharma, less dorky mysticism.
Or:
How did anyone know that the way to get off the island was to build a donkey wheel into a bricked up wall that hid a blinding light? Did I miss something in Engineering class? Is this a lost secret of the ancients?
I had another brilliant quote for a counter-argument to this, but lost it.
Anyway, don't know what I'm trying to say here, but it's just amazing how different audience readings of the same text can
be. Whatever the writers intended the text to be, audiences will always read various things into it. So some Lost readers will be hooked on the biblical references, others will look for a scientific explanation, others will feel like they're "investing time" (I love that metaphor) into a few main characters. A very rich field, if you ask me.
As for the 6x15 episode, personally I found it interesting, although I do agree it was too slow-paced and had too little subtlety in some scenes (Adam&Eve montage, anyone?). It's also amazing how an American "r" can ruin Latin pronunciation...
Here's another TwoP comment to sum it up:
What I got out of this episode:
1. Jacob was a bitch-ass crybaby in his formative years.
2. He's a 43(00) year old virgin living in his mama's basement.
3. The casting people are geniuses, because that kid looked exactly like Mark Pellegrino.
Two weeks to go, and then it's over.
The first thing that I noticed was that many commenters on the Lost 6x15 thread were complaining about still not knowing MIB's name. I found this pretty strange and even irritating, for when watching the episode myself, I thought "wow, he's actually nameless, now that's powerful." Namelessness is of course a powerful cultural idea and MIB having no name didn't bother me at all. On the contrary, I thought it was significant, and should be left that way. However, for TwoP viewers, MIB's name was one of the Great Mysteries to which they hoped they'd get an answer. I haven't followed any discussions on TwoP, but as far as I know, the messageboard has played an important part in the Lost fandom and the writers' communication with the fans. Some of the TwoPers want their theories confirmed (most notably, if MIB's name is Esau, all based on biblical symbolism, cf. Jacob), others just want to know the darned answer. I wonder who are those that want the name so desperately... I sense study material.
Anyway, another issue on TwoP also seems to be the genre/purity question. Lost writers are being flogged for not knowing what they're writing. E.g. this comment:
I don't get this Jacob/MIB story, and haven't from the moment it was introduced. They took a perfectly good story structure and introduced this annoying unnecessary element for no apparent reason. More Dharma, less dorky mysticism.
Or:
How did anyone know that the way to get off the island was to build a donkey wheel into a bricked up wall that hid a blinding light? Did I miss something in Engineering class? Is this a lost secret of the ancients?
I had another brilliant quote for a counter-argument to this, but lost it.
Anyway, don't know what I'm trying to say here, but it's just amazing how different audience readings of the same text can
be. Whatever the writers intended the text to be, audiences will always read various things into it. So some Lost readers will be hooked on the biblical references, others will look for a scientific explanation, others will feel like they're "investing time" (I love that metaphor) into a few main characters. A very rich field, if you ask me.
As for the 6x15 episode, personally I found it interesting, although I do agree it was too slow-paced and had too little subtlety in some scenes (Adam&Eve montage, anyone?). It's also amazing how an American "r" can ruin Latin pronunciation...
Here's another TwoP comment to sum it up:
What I got out of this episode:
1. Jacob was a bitch-ass crybaby in his formative years.
2. He's a 43(00) year old virgin living in his mama's basement.
3. The casting people are geniuses, because that kid looked exactly like Mark Pellegrino.
Two weeks to go, and then it's over.