Lost Week: Pitting Bloggers of Science against Bloggers of Faith

Last Sunday night, Lost ended with a two and a half hour extravaganza. This sparked a fury of conversation between Joe and I which was interrupted by the demands of real life. Neither of us were content to let it end with that, and so we have decided to let the dialogue seep on for awhile. As there is a real void of Lost related discussion on the internet by random people, we thought we would chronicle this discussion online on this here blog. Anyway, be forewarned that we will definitely spoil many major plot points for those of you haven't seen the show and plan on doing so.

The following entry was written by Rick.

You are completely correct to point out that we come from very different approaches to the show. Obviously we have a lot of common ground having known each other for so long. But we do differ slightly in our entertainment tastes, and we did consume this show in a completely different way. When a show ended on a cliffhanger, I could simply start the next episode but putting in the next DVD. You had no such luxury as you had to stay on the edge of your seat for whenever the next episode was delivered.

And perhaps I did the show a disservice watching it in the way I did. I found that consuming it in such a compressed time-span can be a bit overwhelming considering how much conflict is thrown at the viewer.  Because of this, the never-ending onslaught of obstacles did occasionally become tiresome.

As a result, I became somewhat jaded as the seasons wore on, and while I was still entertained, I became less and less convinced they would wrap things up in any over-arching ways. Let me badly abuse a Lost-based metaphor for a second: I was the Shepherdian cynic who was perplexed by your Lockian faith in the producers of the show. I was still enjoying the ride, but I just assumed they would never be able to tie it together.

My main issue with the show was that I felt that in an effort to constantly one-up some previous level of tension and conflict, the producers felt it necessary to keep jumping from one widely divergent sci-fi thread to another. I gave up hope that they ever could achieve narrative closure, which is why I was quite content with what I got.

So where do we take this discussion? From my vantage point, the obvious question is "Where did it all go astray?" which to me is interpreted as "At what point did it become impossible to close enough loose ends?" I suspect your Lockian interpretation will instead be the much more optimistic "What are the main plots points that I needed to be addressed, and could have been if they had a little more time?"

A few final thoughts. Obviously categorizing each of us in the tiny boxes of Locke and Jack is silly. These things aren't binary, and the analogy isn't even particularly apt. I mostly just like writing the word "Lockian." Makes me feel like a big man.

In addition, there is the possibility that the only reason I am bringing up this line of questioning is because I want to point to some specific event in the show that you found bothersome, to which I can respond with "No Joe, we have to go back." After all, I am a simple man with simple pleasures.

Rick