Post by robertg on Apr 1, 2016 23:56:49 GMT -5
I knew Damon Lindelof for years before Lost, realized he had made a puzzle out of it, and started solving it, but it took me until years after its run had concluded before I nailed down most of it. I'm still refining it at irregular intervals, but see my progress recorded here. The "real" story of Lost was never revealed explicitly by the show proper or its ancillary materials, but both were loaded with plenty of clues. It helps to have a lot of background reading, viewing, and even listening, mostly in the mystery genre, and mostly British.
Some tidbits to pique your interest:
Lost was based, albeit very indirectly, on an actual event that took place in England on Sept. 22, 1892. That event inspired an Arthur Conan Doyle story after which Lost was named.
The most blatant clue occurred not in the show proper, but in its season 2 promo: "THEY'RE NOT THE SURVIVORS / THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE".
The most direct inspiration for the plot was a TV detective serial that was before Damon's time, but which I had told him about. However, the thematic inspiration for the plot outline was Hamlet.
There was no time travel on Lost. The Monster was a piece of technology/illusion. Faraday's machine did one thing and one thing only: produce brain damage in a target, like a KO punch.
Alvar Hanso (named for a combination of Department S characters and Hamlet) is dead. His death was the point of the whole story.
The "survivors" weren't really dead, but some people who looked like them and whose names they're using were. Lost is a vast case about identity theft.
The "fake" Oceanic 815 on the sea floor was the real one. The wreckage on the Island is fake.
The Island is, or is near, Fernando Poo -- Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea in the Bight of Biafra of the Atlantic, not the Pacific or Indian Ocean.
The Kate we see really is Aaron's biologic mother. His ostensible birth to Claire was done by sleight of hand, her pregnancy having been fake.
There was no sickness on The Island killing pregnant ladies, unless murder be counted as a "sickness".
"Continuity errors" were clues. The music contained clues. Actors' faces contained clues. Characters' names were clues. Casting included at least one clue. Prop & scenery "mistakes" were clues.
The contents of Mystery Tales #40 were not clues, but its name & cover art were.
If you have my sense of humor, the kind that laughs at outrageous crime & mystery stories, Lost is a comedy. It has hilarious super-villains. Hugo and Charlie are among the most brazen. Test it out by reading "The Lost Special"; if you're laughing nonstop by the time you get to the end of it, you're in the right spirit for Lost. (Saw, which Michael Emerson was in, is in the same spirit, but not directly connected to Lost as the A.C. Doyle material is.) When you see the connections between bits of Lost and its predecessor material, that's also likely to induce shrieks of laughter.
Some tidbits to pique your interest:
Lost was based, albeit very indirectly, on an actual event that took place in England on Sept. 22, 1892. That event inspired an Arthur Conan Doyle story after which Lost was named.
The most blatant clue occurred not in the show proper, but in its season 2 promo: "THEY'RE NOT THE SURVIVORS / THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE".
The most direct inspiration for the plot was a TV detective serial that was before Damon's time, but which I had told him about. However, the thematic inspiration for the plot outline was Hamlet.
There was no time travel on Lost. The Monster was a piece of technology/illusion. Faraday's machine did one thing and one thing only: produce brain damage in a target, like a KO punch.
Alvar Hanso (named for a combination of Department S characters and Hamlet) is dead. His death was the point of the whole story.
The "survivors" weren't really dead, but some people who looked like them and whose names they're using were. Lost is a vast case about identity theft.
The "fake" Oceanic 815 on the sea floor was the real one. The wreckage on the Island is fake.
The Island is, or is near, Fernando Poo -- Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea in the Bight of Biafra of the Atlantic, not the Pacific or Indian Ocean.
The Kate we see really is Aaron's biologic mother. His ostensible birth to Claire was done by sleight of hand, her pregnancy having been fake.
There was no sickness on The Island killing pregnant ladies, unless murder be counted as a "sickness".
"Continuity errors" were clues. The music contained clues. Actors' faces contained clues. Characters' names were clues. Casting included at least one clue. Prop & scenery "mistakes" were clues.
The contents of Mystery Tales #40 were not clues, but its name & cover art were.
If you have my sense of humor, the kind that laughs at outrageous crime & mystery stories, Lost is a comedy. It has hilarious super-villains. Hugo and Charlie are among the most brazen. Test it out by reading "The Lost Special"; if you're laughing nonstop by the time you get to the end of it, you're in the right spirit for Lost. (Saw, which Michael Emerson was in, is in the same spirit, but not directly connected to Lost as the A.C. Doyle material is.) When you see the connections between bits of Lost and its predecessor material, that's also likely to induce shrieks of laughter.