tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post2667018556814658943..comments2024-02-04T05:13:04.501-05:00Comments on Nik at Nite: Lost Series Finale Title Announced!!Nikki Staffordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04463618183850438914noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-67240596337711657852010-04-17T13:29:28.110-04:002010-04-17T13:29:28.110-04:00Jen: Good luck on the polisci paper. See you in Ma...Jen: Good luck on the polisci paper. See you in May.<br /><br />Gotta get Nikki to move this thread to a more recent one, so we don't have to go hunting for it all the time.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-5523375044482948922010-04-17T02:14:39.383-04:002010-04-17T02:14:39.383-04:00Fred: just wanted you to know i'm not avoiding...Fred: just wanted you to know i'm not avoiding, but desperately am exited to enter into this convo again. right now i'm writing a Political Economy paper that is eating my life, and my brain can't be divided or the whole thing will explode (it's true). So, MAY is the month of LOST. then i will research, and i will re-read your brilliant critique of my thesis, and we shall continue! see you then. :)Jen Galicinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11521074334468047128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-45391187061545095272010-04-03T17:33:54.835-04:002010-04-03T17:33:54.835-04:00thanks Fred! will do. and i do really want to dive...thanks Fred! will do. and i do really want to dive into what you were saying, but it'll have to wait till this next week is over! :)Jen Galicinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11521074334468047128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-33995842923468872892010-04-03T13:16:22.693-04:002010-04-03T13:16:22.693-04:00Jen, this isn't a requirement to read. Just ha...Jen, this isn't a requirement to read. Just have fun with it. And, really, good luck on your papers. How they all get A's (I guess the proper punctuation is with an apostrophe, otherwise I'd be saying get "as", and we do puncuate our P's and Q's). <br /><br />Remember a few things about exams: (1) they are designed to be finished in the alloted time; (2) generally half the questions are of moderate difficulty, but light enough to get the class to pass the course; and (3) you have the knowledge to write a complete exam, you might just need to scramble it a bit to fit the question. <br /><br />And after it's all over, relax. Drop in a DVD and watch LOST Season 1.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-23239744582445197862010-04-03T12:44:52.585-04:002010-04-03T12:44:52.585-04:00@Fred: Easter weekend + 5 pg. paper + one final e...@Fred: Easter weekend + 5 pg. paper + one final exam = I'll get to this next...Thursday. ish. It all sounds fascinating though, and I can't wait to get to it!Jen Galicinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11521074334468047128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-43359107223228756262010-04-03T03:52:40.374-04:002010-04-03T03:52:40.374-04:00cont ...
Those flashbacks represent history, the...cont ... <br /><br />Those flashbacks represent history, the personal history of each character. Perhaps a theory closer to the impulse behind LOST is that those flashbacks are implanted memories. LOST would then share a cinematic history with Blade Runner, where the replicants are simulated humans except they lacked a history. Our sense of reality is largely based on our maintaining a sense of continuity expressed through our memories. If already LOST posits a breakdown in the symbolic realm of signifiers and signifieds (see previous), there is also a reliance on pastiche in place of history.<br /><br />The importance of pastiche to post-modernism is championed by the critic, Frederic Jameson, who coined the term “spatial pastiche.” Jameson’s understanding of spatial pastiche originated from post-modernist architects whose buildings borrowed dead styles from the past in a non-satirical manner, and incorporated them into a new overall design where the usual boundaries between styles was erased (look up ‘postmodern architecture’ on Wikipedia for some examples). Pastiche is older than the twentieth century, and has its origins in the High Renaissance, when artists would copy the style of masters within an original design. These were not parodies, which have a ironic interpretation of the original work, but aesthetic quotations. We might see pastiche as a practice of cultural memory, as when composers blended musical styles of other composers. A recent example of musical pastiche is Michael Giacchino’s score for The Incredibles, reminiscent of John Barry’s score for James Bond. <br /><br />Musical quotation, by itself, is not necessarily pastiche. Frederic Jameson describes musical quotation in video as “blank parody.” Goodwin notes, “the textual ‘quotes’ are blank because we are neither asked to criticize nor endose them” (see Andrew Goodwin, “Popular Music and Postmodern Theory,” Cultural Studies, 1991, 5:2) LOST’s extensive musical references serves as blank parodies, as they act as mise en scene (back ground) or references to a character’s mood, or even to plot development. For instance, Claire’s asking the prospective parents of Aaron to sing “Catch a Falling Star” is not an example of pastiche, but serves as plotting device when it reoccurs in later episodes. The association of Patsy Cline with Kate only helps viewers perceive an added depth to Kate’s character. Similarly, Hurley’s remark about Glenn Miller’s “Moonlight Serenade” serves only as a comment on the background, that LOST belongs to the genre of science fiction. A point Goodwin makes is that quotation historicises culture, and LOST’s quotation of pop music, its use of novels, and 1970s computer technology historicises the show’s narrative. Paraphrasing Goodwin’s words, it invokes authenticity, as much as Eliot incorporated elements of literature into the Waste Land—there is more of modernism than of postmodernism in LOST’s practice of pop musical quotation.<br /><br />LOST, for all its uniqueness in telling a story, is an example of cultural and personal nostalgia. And in this sense, LOST embraces pastiche by recycling the 1970s and the Cold War era, periods bracketed historically and in terms of pop culture. It is at this point that intertextuality emerges in LOST. By referencing the 1970s, LOST’s writers assume the audience shares a generic understanding of the ‘language’ of the decade, a set of conventions which impart meaning about what the 1970s were: styles, behaviour, thought, images, etc. In a similar way, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill is a movie filled with examples of pastiche. It’s pastiches are of genres, kung fu movies, spagetti westerns, Japanese samuri, and revenge films. Roger Ebert wrote of Kill Bill: “The movie is all storytelling and no story.” The same warning may be said of LOST. It is all about American culture and no story.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-40481042900960937932010-04-03T03:52:00.857-04:002010-04-03T03:52:00.857-04:00cont ...
The problem I have with books appearing...cont ... <br /><br />The problem I have with books appearing on LOST is that despite their implicit service to audience’s understanding plot points, in fact many of these books have confounded resolving the storyline. Tracing out the various novels’ plots, deciphering the importance of themes, and recognizing character parallels, has only led to an endless maze without an exit (if Sartre’s notion of Hell is other people, LOST’s notion of Hell is other books). In the post-modern age of smart phones etc., basically of electronic surfaces, LOST construsts its background world retrogressively. And the show does this self-consciously in its presenting books as ‘doors to understanding.’ The visual rhetoric of LOST challenges post-modernist claims; however, the world outside the show’s frame is post-modern (ARGs, blogs, alternate videos). There is a reliance on those technologies most associated with the post-modern world by the showrunners at Comic Con and online. <br /><br />Even before Seaosn 6, mirrors framed images of characters. Mirrors allow characters to confront themselves as other, as object seen by other people. The mirror questions the reality of the world, while at the same time recreating an image of the world. Stephen King’s Dolores Clairborne (film) uses mirror imagery, especially when Dolores smashes a window which holds her reflection as it breaks (interestingly, Dolores’ daughter, Selena shows a neck scar, “ a sign of the inescapability of the past,” see Mark Browning, Stephen King on the Big Screen). Carrie also shatters her bedroom mirror, an action of empowerment. LOST also uses mirror images as moments of stasis. Juliet tries to collect herself before the mirror, to repose her appearance in order to achieve a more bouyant mood. While the mirro may allow for internal reflection, mirrors also create copies, images that are recognizably like us. Blade Runner plays on this concept using replicants who are mirror images of other replicants, without a seeming original. Extending this to the reality of the world, we begin to see how viewers of LOST might see the show as only a representation of reality.<br /><br />Some early theories of lOST were that it was a computer-generated reality. But if that were the case, there would still be an ‘outside’ still awaiting the Losties, a territory (reality) in contrast to the simulated reality (map). In Braudillard’s version of post-modernism, the real has been replaced by electronic versions that they are no longer models of the real, but have replaced reality (a post-modernity in which maps only refer to other maps). LOST is however, more than just a confusion over appearance and reality, as the theory of a computer-generated reality suggests. Unlike The Matrix, which despite its pretensions to post-modernism, is closer to a traditional movie with a quasi-religious Messiah and Romantic undertones, LOST undermines any possibility of understanding reality. But in what way?<br /><br />Let’s consider those flashbacks, once more. In Season 5, we finally got to see Jack’s flashback of the famous monologue of 5 seconds and fear. In this flashback we see that what we had assumed to be true was a mere illusion, a rewriting on the part of Jack. But the question arises, from whose point of view was that flashback? Initially we thought it was Jack, as previous flashbacks had focused the camera on the character whose flashback was being presented. But suddenly, Christian comes into the frame, and we acknowledge his role, which had been ommitted in the monologue. It is at this point the POV changes to Christian. Similarly, outside the operating room, the POV shifts once more to Jacob. Each of these shifts reposition our beliefs, and we conclude our understanding of Jack depends on other subjectivities interpreting him. With this revelation in hand, viewers have to go back to reexamine earlier scenes in the light of alternate points of view conveying meaning.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-77560126051435823562010-04-03T03:50:53.005-04:002010-04-03T03:50:53.005-04:00cont ...
Tony Magistrale writing on Stephen King...cont ... <br /><br />Tony Magistrale writing on Stephen King’s The Shining (my references are to Kubrick’s film), likens many features of King’s novel with Total Recall, finding in King’s work a post-modernist impluse. The schizoid qualities of Quaid’s mind reach into Jack’s mind, and the labyrinthine world of Total Recall parallels the labyrinthine corridors and gardens of the Overlook Hotel. The claustrophibic atmosphere in the film is accentuated by mirroring of images, and characters, even reversals, such as “redrum.” What is of interest for LOST, is the association of mirrors being present in a scene whenever Jack (Nicholson) talks with a ghost. The alternate reality of mirrors, is emphasised when Danny tells Jack he saw Tony way down in the mirror, and then he went through, a reference to Alice in Wonderland. <br /><br />In both Total Recall and The Shining, protagonists fall through the mirror surface of reality into worlds that operate by seemingly nonsense rules. Those rules, like the metaphor of the labyrinth in the Shining, emplots the narrative towards some ending, some hoped for meaning. It is significant that Total Recall ends with the glass barrier of the station shattering, and our world (symbolized by air) rushing into the Martian environment (Mars no longer becomes an other world, but is completely colonized by the production of air via an alien technology). In The Shining, Jack’s frozen face expresses the Kurbrick stare, a modern representation of Kurtz’s last words, “The horror! The horror!” Either option is open to the ending of LOST. Yet, let’s linger again on the question of the mirror, since that is significant in LOST.<br /><br />Here we come to a central premise of post-modernism, the Saussurean distinction in language between the signifier (sound-image) and the signified (concept), what Andrew Goodwin calls “sliding signifiers.” With the mirror, our ability to distinguish between the real and representation dissolves, just as Alice cannot distinguish between the wonderland world and her own world. In making her way through Wonderland, Alice has no real understanding of the rules governing this world, and indeed there do not seem to be any sensible rules. But the world of Wonderland does have rules of cause-and-effect which can be understood. Rules direct players, such as Alice, towards the meaning of things. But what if there are only rules, without guidance towards meaning? <br /><br />In post-modern language, the world becomes a simulacrum, a surface of images represented in a fragmented scheme. If LOST truly is post-modern at this point, then examination of surfaces are one of the best entries into LOST post-modern identity. A good example of the simulacrum (the representation of reality) in LOST is the book. We all know the rules of books—books contain meanings that are relatable as facts to the world (they make the world meaningful). But what if this code of books is unsettled or disturbed? What if books are only reflections of the world, in the sense of being fragmented doubles of things in the world? The we might be in a play of surfaces, where the meaning in one book refers to another, and yet still to another without end. Borges describes in a short story an infinte library of books, that include all books and even those where one letter is changed. LOST’s library of books echoes Borge’s Library of Babel by not only acknowledging a host of books, but also implying a host of unseen books. Bioy Casare’s The Invention of Morel serves as a intertextual reference to Borges himself, to H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau, to Kafka, all relevant to understanindg LOST.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-5531695349135857832010-04-03T03:49:59.457-04:002010-04-03T03:49:59.457-04:00cont ...
Pearson’s observation is a little troubl...cont ...<br /><br />Pearson’s observation is a little troubling regarding just how post-modernist LOST really is. Pearson is arguing, programmes like LOST or Sopranos pursue particular narrative strategies which impose frames of psychological portrayal on their characters. The motivation for the fragmentary and fluid representation of characters’ pyschological traits in LOSTmay have less to do with an adherence to post-modernist ideas, than with narrative premise. The focus on character development found in LOST may have more to do with the writers’ control of the show, and their desire to remian true to the narrative demands. Compare LOST’s characters with the depthlessness of Tim Burton’s Willy Wonka, whose portrayal by Depp is described as “a perfect postmodernist character, all surface and no depth, his entire life consisting of his economic function as a designer and producer of sweets” (see Keith Booker, Postmodern Hollywood). <br /><br />To be precise, post-modernists embrace the notion of the “fragmented subject,” essentially the creation of the subject through intersubjectivites. The self is as depthless, Jameson writes, as an Andy Warhol painting; it is a mask which is replaced with another mask and so on. Narratives of the past become mere representations without depth. As a consequence who the subject is becomes decentered. Is that the case with LOST. Consider how LOST uses flashbacks as a means of generating character background.<br /><br />LOST, with its almost obsessional psychotherapeutic (is the island a location on which to work out “daddy issues”) representation of individual flashbacks pursues a more traditional idea of subjectivity. Intersubjectivity is there in the form of family dynamics, but whether the writers of the show have presented these flashbacks as an argument for understanding the characters depends on how we as viewers interpret those flashbacks. <br /><br />For instance, flashbacks are intrusive in the narrative flow (post-modernist), they convey an intention of advancing the story on the part of the writers placing them where they do (conventional), they are cumulative in conveying explanations (conventional), they may be inaccurate being based on the subject’s point-of-view (post-modern). Is LOST’s use of flashbacks any different than that in Casablanca? Aside from the woosh sound indicating a flashback (and isn’t that woosh just an alternate for the dissolve of the traditional flashback), it seems LOST uses the flashback for much the same reasons we see in Casablanca, to resolve a narrative enigma (for Casablanca see James Morrison, Passport to Hollywood).<br /><br />If LOST is not postmodernist at its heart in its handling of characters, it truly is so in its representation of them. Just as in The Matrix, main characters are shown on-screen as images, revealing the illusion that is The Matrix or Max Headroom, so, too, we see many of the Losties on screens being observed. These moments raise the question of the projection of an illusion of reality and reality, itself. The most well-known of these Plato’s Cave being the Pearl. As opposed to the various CSI programmes, which adhere to the belief the world can be objectively known through reason and science, LOST distorts this assumption by positing a Dickian world akin to Total Recall in which subjectivity is integral in interpeting reality. To put it in Darko Suvin’s words, LOST is successful at creating “cognitive estrangement” in its audience.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-66947554475023911952010-04-03T03:48:33.201-04:002010-04-03T03:48:33.201-04:00Jen, this is a bit longish, but hopefully full of ...Jen, this is a bit longish, but hopefully full of ideas you can use in the future, if not now. Let's begin:<br /><br />Before we embark on the question of pastiche in LOST, let’s contextualize why Jen and myself and most of you reading here would argue LOST is a post-modernist television drama, though I would have a number of qualifications where LOST is not post-modernist. I will endeavour to present both views as to why LOST is and is not post-modernist in various cases.<br /><br />What defines post-modernism? Post-modernism holds a fundamental distrust in reason and earlier philosophical thought as a means of arriving at understanding what it is to be human, the appearance of fundamental social beliefs, and the question of meaning. This distrust extends also to an objectively known reality—post-modernists are anti-realists. And post-modernists see our social world as composed of oppositional views held by groups whose only means of dealing with each other is through force and violence. <br /><br />Although post-modernism has a number of aesthetic avenues, a popular vehicle for its ideas is through science fiction. All that cyber punk in William Gibbson, or alternate realities in Philip K. Dick, or the ontological explorations in Jorge Borges, or the creative paranoia of Thomas Pynchon, are but a small sampling of what is most popular as post-modernist literature. But science fiction is a major avenue to distribute the aesthetics and ideas of post-modernism. <br /><br />Science fiction is the literature of the possibilities of tomorrow. But what if there isn’t a tomorrow, or if the tomorrow is pessimistic and bleak. In other words, science fiction posits the question, “What if the social myths which are the underpinnings of our society prove to have no foundation?” Ted Anthony, in a review of “Flashforward,” raises the issue of freewill as an underpinning of American society: “But in reality, it's a meditation on Americanism — a story that tells Americans they cannot control the outcome. And that's not something modern Americans are accustomed to hearing” (see Ted Anthony, “’Flashforward’ taps into need to need to shape future”, MSNBC). Destiny, as an unreasonable force, keeps popping up, like Dracula from his grave, or some Freudian childhood trauma, affecting the present. This certainly does sound familiar to the LOST fan.<br /><br />As I suggested above, one of the distrusts post-modernism has is with understanding what it means to be human. Post-modernists argue that individuality, or subjectivity, is constructed. They might even go as far as saying, the self, what you and I take to be our consciousnesses, is fragmented (like the broken mirror Sawyer observed himself in). LOST goes even further in its awareness of this by having character traits shift between characters—thus Mikail speaks Korean, while earlier Charlotte was the Korean speaker. LOST hints at the possibility that the construction of individuality entails an absence of stability of psychological traits. Roberta Pearson (see Reading LOST, chapter 8), argues the “character-driven narrative requires characters who maintain a core stability of psycholgical traits.” Thus, in most series character traits rarely change over the course of the series seasons: are Frasier Crane or Jerry Seinfeld really that much different at the series finale as at the pilot of the show?Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-24319276496095946472010-03-30T13:08:26.207-04:002010-03-30T13:08:26.207-04:00Jen and Fred: Great discussion! It takes me back t...Jen and Fred: Great discussion! It takes me back to my college days, and is a good way to shake off some of my mental cobwebs when it comes to Lit Theory. <br /><br />@Joan: <i>I am pretty much already rehearsing my rendition of "The Gambler"</i><br /><br />Sister, I don't NEED to rehearse my rendition. :)Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-42201449460659168292010-03-30T01:19:19.238-04:002010-03-30T01:19:19.238-04:00Also: I have started a blog called House of David ...Also: I have started a blog called House of David (there's actually a bit of an injoke in that, but it's so obscure it's not worth explaining) on Google. I intend to spend the next few weeks posting my choices for the best 50 episodes of television I've seen over the last twenty years. I would be more than delighted if any of you fine people (including you Nikki would spare a minute of your time, take a look, and share your own opinions. I'll be repeating this message at one point, but for now (hopefully) be seeing you.DavidB226Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14657872509025417712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-25868787223512010492010-03-30T01:15:23.180-04:002010-03-30T01:15:23.180-04:00The End was also the title of the Season 5 finale ...The End was also the title of the Season 5 finale for the X-Files, the shows last episode shot in Vancouver. I can't help but feel if Chris Carter HAD actually made that the show's last episode, we might remember The X-Files a lot more fondly then we do.DavidB226Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14657872509025417712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-57050102888321567212010-03-30T01:00:23.591-04:002010-03-30T01:00:23.591-04:00I am so ridiculously late to the party, but I'...I am so ridiculously late to the party, but I'm going to throw my 2 cents worth in here anyway.<br /><br />@Nathan: <i>"The End" should be a really obvious choice to anyone who's read Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events </i><br /><br />Yes! That is exactly what I was thinking! YEah! Another Snicket fan! (at least I'm assuming you're a fan)<br /><br />@Jen and Fred: wow. My brain can't even comprehend this stuff right now. I will have to come back when I am rested and try again.<br /><br />@Jen/Joan/et.al. An after party would ROCK. But I am on family vacation the week before and my sister and I are racing back on Sunday to get here in time for the finale and I don't think I could convince my boss to give me even MORE time off for a finale party. Even though he understands my deeply rooted LOST insanity. :(Rebecca T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11994380364321336824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-67587447656895321692010-03-29T23:03:16.204-04:002010-03-29T23:03:16.204-04:00We could pull it together by renting a bunch of ro...We could pull it together by renting a bunch of rooms at a hotel in Toronto! At a discount! And then , as I mentioned, reserving space at karaoke bar. NO VIDEOS OR OTHER RECORDING DEVICES ALLOWED. Pics are OK. We will be in a circle of trust and dork-a-tude. We could cook up all sorts of things to do (plus if people have a few drinks*, the entertainment is sure to follow) and it could be awesome. I will totally work towards this if we decide to move on it. <br /><br />*I am pretty much already rehearsing my rendition of "The Gambler".Joan Crawfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04513335615114222374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-79192303635385837742010-03-29T22:59:03.529-04:002010-03-29T22:59:03.529-04:00Maybe we could have an after LOST party? I can und...Maybe we could have an after LOST party? I can understand some wanting to watch the end in private - maybe after we could get together to just hang out and talk about LOST (but mostly to eat Chinese buffet and sing Karaoke)? we could do other LOST related stuff - competitions and prizes, dressing up...I'm a huge nerd and totally on board with it. Who's with me!? <br /><br /><i>*stares menacingly at general audience while plastering on a terrifying facsimile of a smile*</i>Joan Crawfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04513335615114222374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-78847472700775518022010-03-29T22:35:18.949-04:002010-03-29T22:35:18.949-04:00Jen:I forgot to add to the little bit I added toda...Jen:I forgot to add to the little bit I added today, that the next topic will be on pastiche. Oh fun.<br /><br />Good luck on all your papers and exams. This is always a hellish time, but it does come to an end.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-15101299399064137992010-03-29T22:27:00.458-04:002010-03-29T22:27:00.458-04:00Nikki, Jen, Joan: since the finale is now on a Sun...Nikki, Jen, Joan: since the finale is now on a Sunday, it might certainly be easier to pull off.<br /><br />It's worth bringing it up again!Bennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16036549649615941601noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-85229743338278920342010-03-29T22:22:29.817-04:002010-03-29T22:22:29.817-04:00Jen and Joan: I asked a while ago if anyone was up...Jen and Joan: I asked a while ago if anyone was up for a Lost finale party, and the general consensus seemed to be that most people just wanted to stay at home that night. There were definitely a few who expressed a desire to watch Lost with a bunch of people. <br /><br />Oh how I'd love to have the lot of us in one room to watch this show. Could you imagine??? We could all have this amazing LIVE discussion afterwards and then I'd blog all of it and it would be the big Nik At Nite joint blog... oh, it would be epic. EPIC, I tell you. <br /><br />I could post again to see if there's any interest, but I'm not sure how we'd pull it together.Nikki Staffordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04463618183850438914noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-75049985986576974842010-03-29T22:10:22.379-04:002010-03-29T22:10:22.379-04:00Hang on. There is a LOST party going on? I had sec...Hang on. There is a LOST party going on? I had secret hopes for this...is this true?Joan Crawfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04513335615114222374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-83909506485507832902010-03-29T18:04:39.441-04:002010-03-29T18:04:39.441-04:00cont .... Jen,
While LOST has included black acto...cont .... Jen,<br /><br />While LOST has included black actors in principal roles, these characters have often been interpreted in stereotypical ways. Harold Perrineau was highly critical of the portrayal of Michael Dawson, and the “ghetto stereotype” image of Walt raised by his grandmother. Nikke Finke raises the larger issue of “Do ‘LOST’ and ‘Heroes’ Hate Black People?” (http://www.deadline.com/2010/02/do-lost-and-heroes-hate-black-people/). A more sympathetic voice, Celeste-Marie Bernier raises issues of representation of blacks on LOST and the presence of a fabricated Africanist persona on the show (see Roberta Pearson (ed.) Reading LOST). Bernier notes the writers of LOST disrupt the linear story of progress and civilization through fragmented and looped narratives, flashbacks, and ellipses, allowing for a “self-reflexive touchstone for European and European-American explorations of selfhood throughout the series.” <br /><br />However, at the time of writing her essay, Bernier assumed the Black Rock was a slave ship carrying African slaves. She notes racialized terms such as ‘the Dark Territory’ and the presence of the Black Rock “resonates with European definitions of Africa.” But in the final season, we discover the slaves are not African but European, and the slavers are marginal capitalists, seeking to exploit resources in the New World. The uneasy binary relationship between civilization and savagery is replaced with an alternate relationship which lies at the core of the show: salvation and damnation. The possibilities for re-reading the show have taken over, eliding earlier interpretations in favour of a more racially neutral interpretation. The story in Ab aeterno becomes less one of historical revisioning, than an allegorical tale of loss and redemption in a single man.<br /><br />For everything we have come through on this show, to transform the Black Rock into a nineteenth century counterpart of Oceanic airlines, speaks to a kind of amnesia of what has gone before. The issues of Africa are represented in the Nigerian drug-runner aircraft, emphasizing earlier images in Eko’s flashback of Africa as a failed state of illegal activity, violence and priests. Bernier argues the Black Rock is a site of repressed memories, and Sawyer’s murder of Anthony Cooper a lesson on the costs of those repressed memories. Yet the Black Rock is also a place of denial by Richard, and a place of affirmation of faith by Jack. As Arnzt says, the Black Rock is a ghost ship, but the ghost may neither be there nor be real. If Isabella’s ghost never visited Richard in the ship, then the ship becomes a place of duplicity. In terms of the linear story underlying the show, the Black Rock represents the epistemological shortcomings of our understanding. We first hear of Jacob as the devil, told by an uncertain figure, whose ability to tell the truth is in doubt. The place of importance for Richard is not the Black Rock, but the stone bench under a great tree where he had buried Isabella’s pendant. The Black Rock has shifted from a symbol of cultural resonance to vehicle to further the plot.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-4703771445770999722010-03-29T18:03:58.969-04:002010-03-29T18:03:58.969-04:00Jen: I thought I'd just add a few comments on ...Jen: I thought I'd just add a few comments on otherness, as that is part of your topic. Knowing you are quite busy, I am not expecting you'll get to read any of this soon. But sometime.<br /><br />Let me briefly turns aside from what we discussed last time and examine LOST’s handling of the “other” as a community, an epistemological object, and a subject for media broadcast. Otherness is as that which resists understanding. The construction of space involves the construction of otherness (marginal), and, in the setting of community, otherness becomes a way of interpreting class, social structure, power. Otherness resists fixity of interpretation, and as such is a fluid identity—the construction of identity is relationally intertwined with epistemological understanding. Otherness is embedded in media discourse, yet media’s pursues the attention of its audience rather than the question of otherness. I am of of the opinion that LOST’s questioning of otherness is insightful, and over the seasons that questioning has become eviscerated of any content.<br /><br />LOST presents a number of visual images of the “other” as community. Jack’s escapade in Thailand embodies clichés of the exoticness/eroticism and violence inherent of the other community. Michael Newbury notes the community Jack encounters are composed of “local inhabitants, who are mostly manipulating fishing nets and carrying baskets in this distinctly pre-modern economy” (see Roberta Pearson (ed.) Reading LOST). That pre-modern economy finds its counterpart on the island with Rousseau’s habitation, an other primitive hut buried into the earth. In a reverse of Jack, the white man, coming to a foreign land, it is Sayid, the Iraqi, coming to Rousseau, a namesake of the Western Enlightenment and writer on the construction of an ideal social community. As Newbury notes, “Jack is the avatar of a prosperous, mobile, technologically advanced global order,” while Sayid is one of a group of survivors recently come from such a global order. Unlike Jack, who cannot assemble a simple kite, Sayid can repair the unrepairable. Sayid embodies both the made-do world of the bricoleur and modern society. The modern world, the global order finds an oriental otherness in the Korea of Sun and Jin. Although the general society is indistinguishable from other global societies, at its margins it retains the clichés of exoticism/eroticism and violence. <br /><br />These images of other communities contrast most strikingly with New Otherton, a cold-war, white suburban community at first glance. In contrast the transnational community of the fuselage survivors, the inhabitants of New Otherton a white middle class of the 1950s. This white hegemony begins to dominate in later seasons as Jin switches form Korean to English, as Michael, Walt and Rose drop out of most of the scenes, and the only ancestral language of the Others is Latin, a western language of empire. Newbury calls this the globalization of U.S. multiculturalism. In the last few seasons, LOST has diluted even this multicultural community as the appeal in the show has shifted from questions of otherness to action. If we turn to the spatial representation of otherness, than the others are not those in Newotherton, but the Oceanic survivors, whose existence has been marginalized on the island beach.Fredhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01474623954925835867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-63452983126572757862010-03-28T15:39:20.874-04:002010-03-28T15:39:20.874-04:00@Fred - wow, do you ever sleep? :) there is a lot ...@Fred - wow, do you ever sleep? :) there is a lot in there to digest, mull over, and clarify, and unfortunately being in the last week of school i have exams, presentations, papers and hundreds of pages of reading to do that is prohibiting me from spending the quality of time needed to respond adequately. i will try get to it by the end of the week though - stay tuned! <br /><br /><br />@JS - i LOVE Pearson Moore! But I think he's at sl-lost, not Dark UFO. He is absolutely brilliant in his analysis of every LOST ep, especially this last week's theological inversions that he noticed. And i know - how stoked am i that i get to obsess over LOST (after this week's exams are done) for the next two months! :)Jen Galicinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11521074334468047128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-15033099795552092010-03-28T15:25:21.726-04:002010-03-28T15:25:21.726-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Jen Galicinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11521074334468047128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30892649.post-7385438506835304142010-03-28T14:57:19.174-04:002010-03-28T14:57:19.174-04:00@Benny - great Finale title analysis! I think thi...@Benny - great Finale title analysis! I think this is the ONLY title I could accept considering that ominous line. The whole conflict comes down to its resolution in those two hours. I expect to get the two answers that matter most - why these people and how will it end? <br /><br />@Fred - you started out not-so-impressed with the title, but by the end you seemed to get to the deeper meaning of it for yourself. <br /><br />@Jen - so you are basically sanctioned to obsess about lost for the next 2 month. That is just awesome. I think there is a guy over on DarkUFO (Pearson Moore) doing the same thing.<br /><br />@Jen & @Fred - this is fascinating. This helps me understand why the LOST story, the experience, actually, is so special. We would definitely not find this level of intellectual dialogue and analysis in the comments of, say, Doc Jensen's column.JShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06219841452322761803noreply@blogger.com