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Please give a big warm DarkUFO welcome to our latest addition to the site. Lyndsey who has been a successful blogger in her own right has decided to start writing some articles for us over here at DarkUFO. She will write a LOST With Lyndsey column each week where she looks at key issues and discussions across the fandom, and she will also be giving joining our team of recappers due to J.Wood not having time this season to write.
So without further ado I'll let Lyndsey introduce herself, followed by here first "LOST With Lyndsey"
Remember those people in your high school literature class who were always piping up about how meaningful everything was? The ones who insisted on beginning their brilliant and inspired examinations of every mundane nuance of a novel with phrases like, “Metaphorically speaking,” or “The allegorical nature of this story is so evident when…”
Yeah, that was me. I was totally that annoying girl who kept the class after the bell because I wasn’t done pontificating on Dickens’ use of shadows and darkness in “A Tale of Two Cities.”
Not much has changed. I still insist that life is filled to the brim with layers upon layers of foreshadowing, double entendre, and synchronicity; all just waiting to be uncovered. If we ever meet and you have the distinct impression that I’m scrutinizing your every move and intonation, you’re probably right. It’s actually really irritating, which is why I don’t have many friends and in turn, have plenty of time to watch and investigate every facet of “Lost.” These are my findings.
“Communication is merely the consequence, not the cause nor the primary purpose of concept-formation—a crucial consequence, of invaluable importance to men, but still only a consequence. Cognition precedes communication; the necessary precondition of communication is that one have something to communicate”Ayn Rand
I’ve long considered what sort of ‘role’ I might play, were I suddenly to find myself in the land of LOST. Would I be a ‘hunter’ or a ‘farmer’? Or would I come to find that perhaps I could be both?
While I may be scrappy enough to rifle through bags and hoard ‘valuables’ to be used as barter commodities, I’d likely end up just giving away whatever anyone needed, so long as they asked nicely…
I’ve thought that it might be a great deal of fun to climb trees and collect fruit, but then John Locke would just turn up with a juicy wild boar, and I fear my fruit would seem a mite paltry, in comparison.
I could definitely explore the terrain in search of water and shelter, but then again, so could those weasels Nikki and Paolo and if I had to choose, I’d much prefer that they deal with the Smoke-ster, while I do something a bit less perilous.
It is with this in mind, I’ve decided that were I suddenly yanked from my current life, dropped on the Island and asked to somehow contribute; I would appoint myself ‘Specialista du Communiqué,’ which is just a fancy, more exotic way of saying ‘Communications Specialist.’
It's not that I’m a great communicator or anything… To the contrary, I’m actually pretty shitty at saying what I mean and meaning what I say, but in this particular case, I’d have the benefit of hindsight.
I would have acute situational knowledge of those seemingly minute, but utterly galling conditions which tend to crop-up in high stress; high stakes circumstances such as building a civilization on a somewhat mysterious, seemingly possessed, deserted Island.
According to the great Ayn Rand, it is this knowledge and awareness that would qualify me to take on this most vital duty…in spite of my own off-balance and slightly dilapidated methods of inter-personal connectivity…
My first order of business would be to create a survey that all survivors, as well as any interloping Others, would be required to fill out immediately upon landing on the Island. This form would facilitate expeditious progress through all of the gnarly secrets and misunderstandings that have been so vexing, and serve to hasten the arrival of the cool stuff like John Locke tripping in the sweat lodge or Kate and Sawyer having ‘you’re-about-to-die-so-we-might-as-well’ sex in Polar Bear cages.
Don’t judge. You know that was awesome.
I’ve oft lamented the inability of our LOST-ies and their cohorts to effectively and openly communicate with one another. So much left unsaid… So many questions unanswered and so many more never even asked… From the legitimate issues (Flt. 815’s loss of communication with the tower and subsequent crash 1000 miles off course) to the falsified nonsense (Sun’s bogus Korean-only ‘language barrier’;) Island-side information exchanges could totally do with a swift shove in a new direction.
Perhaps we could establish some sort of intra-Island-investigative-informational-intake-survey, meant to inhibit incorrect interpretations of intentions, and also to help suss out any scheming Others/ Hostiles/ angry indigenous types.
Questions would include (but are, of course, not limited to):
* Name (please include assumed names, pen names, and noms de guerre)
* Father’s name and occupation (please include all known aliases, false identities and pseudonyms as well as any faux-careers)
* Please list all unresolved Daddy/ Mommy issues and/ or complexes, which may effect your day-to-day interactions with others (or Others)
*Do you have any strong feelings either for or against, the idea of sacrificing a human being, if say, the Island, should ‘demand’ it?
* Do you believe in the following edict: “Live together or Die Alone”
A) Yes B) No C) Yes, unless I see an opportunity to get my son and myself off of this God-forsaken place. Then, screw you, suckers D) No, I prefer to live and die alone in the aptly named, C4-laden,‘Flame’ station, while wearing an eye-patch.
* Have you ever resided at a mental institution (voluntarily or otherwise)?
* Have you ever killed and/ or murdered someone be it for your own revenge or to protect a loved one? Please do include any accidental slayings.
* Do you suspect that you might be cursed and/ or have any strong emotions surrounding a specific set of numbers?
* Any pre-Island drug addictions that may be re-ignited, should you happen upon a drug-filled plane in the jungle?
* Do you have any special skills that might make you handy should we ever have a war with this Island’s indigenous people? For instance, were you ever a torturer for the Iraqi Republican Guard, or a Korean mafia ‘enforcer’?
“One cannot violate the promptings of one's nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.”Jack London"White Fang"
It seems that this problem, this 'communication deficiency' if you will, is not simply your run of the mill, ‘we-crash-landed-on-a-freakin’-haunted-Island’ post-traumatic stress induced sort of ‘trust issue.’ It appears to run far deeper...
Were we to look at the character flaws and actions surrounding the situations which led each survivor to board 815 in the first place, I do believe we would see many instances where a little clarification of intention would’ve been super helpful.
For example, upon feeling that extra-special sparkle with homespun police-boy Kevin, Kate might have spoken up (after a bottle or three of wine, of course) and said something like, “Hey Kev, my name’s not Monica, it’s Kate. We all have a past and mine includes murdering my father because he deserved it, but whaddya say we leave all that ugliness behind us, eat tacos every Friday and breed.”
It would be scary, for sure, but confessing a murderous past to your betrothed is certainly easier than life on the run with that arrogant Marshall Mars on your ass.
And Jin…sweet Jinny-Jin-Jin; maybe he’d have done well to take the upfront approach with his Sun-shine, re: his heinous occupation and resulting mental isolation… He could’ve tried something like: “Hey baby, because I am the son of a poor fisherman and a whore, and am not considered ‘good enough’ to be with you according to our backwards-ass societal caste system, I sold my soul to your father in exchange for your hand in marriage, and have been forced to maim, torture and kill on the reg, ever since. So, I do hope you’ll forgive me if I’ve been a bit distant lately, that shit is taxing as hell on the brain and the soul.”
*Also, you have to imagine that whole conversation happening in Korean. It sounds much more legit in Korean.*
This argument for the ‘more direct communication equals less problems’ approach to life could be made for each 815 survivor, and likely, each individual human on this planet. The problem, the innate flaw in this plan is that wherever you go, there you are.
Or as James Joyce put it in Ulysses: “Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.”
And, therein lies the rub. Kate will always wander, Jack will always need to be the savior, Sayid will always contend with his innate depravity, and John will always be the victim… At the end of the day, ‘communication’ itself may be an exercise in futility, unless those you communicate with are willing to endure the consequence that comes with abandonment of their own ignorance.
And that shit is totally ‘one to grow on.’
“James, you ought to discover some day that words have an exact meaning.” Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
