Making a list for 'Lost'
I've been thinking about lists over the past twenty-four hours. And not just grocery lists, either, although Lord knows we need some butter in these parts. No, I'm more concerned with the list-happy members of Lost. Seems you can't go a few episode of this show without a new list popping up, now can you?
Last week, I unveiled my "Sins of the Fathers Theory" of Lost, in which I stated that one could look at the events of the show as the result of the baby boomer generation heaping their shortcomings upon their unwitting offspring. I thought this was an interesting way to view the show, given that our historical moment is rife with baby boomers about to collect Social Security in a world that falls well short of the idealistic goals of their youth.
But there's another historical trend at work, and one that I believe ties in with the pervasive list-making in the show. At the risk of turning this blog overtly political, we're in a world in which we as ordinary citizens are not always entirely sure who, on a macro level, is in charge. That is to say: we know there are governments, and bodies that nominally regulate daily events, but do we truly know or believe that to be the ultimate reality?
I think of some of my favorite genre shows of recent years: Lost. Heroes. Firefly. Shows in which the protagonists find themselves constantly searching for those people pulling the strings around them. And what do they tend to find? Not governments, but corporations. Private entities that truly wield the purse strings and enact the secret power plays that place our protagonists in the situations in which we are viewers find them.
(Spoilers on Heroes and Firefly in the next paragraph.)
The Widmore Corporation. The Company. The Blue Sun Corporation. All acting outside governmental rule (albeit often with their assistance on some level), all with agendas that act nominally in the best interests of humanity but who hide an often sinister agenda. Widmore seeks to save the world from the Valenzetti Equation, but opts for mass genocide as a viable option by which to achieve this goal. (Widmore's involvement is speculative at this point, but likely.) The Company seeks global harmony via viruses and plots to destroy New York City. And Blue Sun sought to restore order to a calamitous galaxy through the introduction of gases into terraformed planets in order to make its inhabitants more docile.
I'd argue these shows all point to a latent concern in today's society that corporations, not governments, truly run the show. The protagonists' fight against these forces isn't any pro-government mantra on behalf of the shows, so much as a way to celebrate individual freedoms and the ability to make one's way in the world in one's own way. As long as these forces remain a mystery to the protagonists, they remain a mystery to us as well, and as such tap into our our modern fears that we are not as in control of our lives as we'd like to think.
As such, one can look at the list-making in Lost as multiple forces conscripting the players of the show into a war in which the stakes are truly clear to only a few, largely unseen players. It's up to the ground soldiers (if you will) to question their orders, and their incessant questioning both drives the narrative and raises the stakes. Having spent an entire season fighting the Others (and ultimately "winning"), Jack and the Lostaways soon learn that their victory might have in fact been a fatal loss. The ripples effect from that victory echoes throughout Season 4 and should echo long into Season 6.
What do you make of the list-making on the show? Is it representative of a cultural moment or simply an interesting device for the show to use? And why do certain people end up on certain lists?
Drop your comments below, or email me your thoughts/questions on the matter. I'll publish the best comments and questions in tomorrow's edition of "Letters from The Flame".
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude.
As someone who is border-line OCD, I tend to make a lot of lists in my everyday life.
I'm a strong believer that there was an original list made of people who were supposed to be on Oceanic 815. How they got on this list is up for debate, but I do believe they were put on there for a reason.
Because there at least 2 entities (corporation or group) fighting over control of the Island, there are now seperate lists at play. Sooner or later we'll find out who and how the Oceanic 6 got off the Island, but there is certainly a list involved with them for whatever reason.
Everybody will have a part in what happens in the end, and there will surely be a list as to who will play what part in the grand scheme of things.
On a side note, Ryan, I was wondering which e-mail you prefer us to use? In the past you've had a yahoo account listed, but now you have a g-mail account listed.
Steve: both work just fine.
Then I hope you got my messages over the weekend. It's some good stuff. Looking forward to hearing your perspective.
Ryan - where did you get that corporation from in heroes? aren't you confused at all with prison break?
By the way, when are you gonna make a list of must "go" characters on lost (like the ever yawning bernard and rose)?
I'd like to know how Nikki & Paulo made it on a list of characters to do a flashback worthy story on. Whoever's list they were on deserves a slow, painful death.
Well, each list on Lost has had it's own context. The first lists by the Others were to find and collect the "good" among the survivors. Ben's list at the end of Season 2 was simply to collect Jack, and the people most likely to be useful in manipulating him. And the list in Sayid's flash forward was a list of the "bad" guys as dictated by Ben, the people that Sayid was instructed to kill.
On Heroes, there was two versions of the same list, and the version depended solely on the viewpoint of the person in control of it; to Mohinder, it was people who were gifted with unique abilities, that needed to be told about it, or if they already knew, interviewed in the name of science. However, the same list in Sylar's hand was basically a menu, each person wielding a delicious entree he wanted to consume. It was only after Sylar entered the picture that Mohinder's goal with the list became not only one of finding the superpowered people, but to warn them of the danger they faced.
I think a fundamental element of all of these lists on the various shows are that they seperate people; everyone on the list, for good or evil, for safety or danger, are inherently "better" than their cohorts just by the fact of being on it. Being on the list elevates a person from obscurity into significance; the people who make the list want these people, and everyone not on the list are expendable or unworthy of attention.
I remember the scene between Goodwin and Ana Lucia. After she called him out as an Other, his demeanor changed dramatically; he was actually glad to no longer be playing the charade, and he was so smug at her exasperation at not knowing what the Others were, and her anger at having been decieved for so long. He fed on it, and in his mind, he knew he was better than her. With delight, he told her she wasn't good enough to be on the list, and thus, she didn't matter. It was almost as if he was justifying his deception, because she wasn't good enough to be wanted by the Others.
I think it's interesting that both Ben and Sylar have called the people on their lists "special", and at times displayed a sort of reverance for them.
Really? you had nothing more to talk about then lists, come on ryan, now you reaching.
I echo the Prison Break sentiment. It features one of the most far-reaching "companies" in television.
Per Doug's request (thanks for the kudos, Doug!) I'm re-posting my comments (currently at the end of "Courting Controversy") that were written Tuesday afternoon just before Ryan started this new thread ("Making a list"), so that more people (including Ryan) will see it (and perhaps respond):
Paul -- I've been ***uming that since radio waves travel at the speed of light they aren't time-dialated as much as the rocket, which travels much slower (should take 15 seconds to travel the 80 miles) (or whatever it was -- the distance from the island to the freighter). And since the helicopter goes much slower than the rocket, it is time-dialated more -- three years or whatever (the difference between current time and island time). And all this time-dialation started with the plane crash (when Desmond didn't get to the button in time).
But the more I think about it the more I'm not sure of this. And after watching "Eggtown" a second time I'm developing an even greater concern, because they (or at least the writers of this episode) seem so unconcerned about realistic consistency even in simple matters that I'm worried that when we find out what's going on overall that it isn't going to make sense. To wit:
1) As others have pointed out, at the beginning of the episode Kate's lawyer tells her that she could get 20 years on each of several counts, and a life sentence for the murder. Yet when the mother decides not to testify they let Kate go virtually scott-free.
2) If I'm wrong on this point someone please (please!) correct me, but don't all prosecution witnesses (except perhaps rebuttal) go first, THEN the defense has a chance to make it's case? Thus to me it was a hokey, unrealistic contrivance by the writers that Jack would testify first, before the mother (or apparently any other prosecution witnesses).
3) Speaking of unrealitic convenient writer contrivances, that is why all of a sudden Kate was denied bail (after having been free for some time) -- so we wouldn't find out that Aaron was her kid until the end of the episode.
4) Like others, I also found the argument between Kate and Sawyer contrived (not organic). And I also have a hard time believing Jack wouldn't want to be with Kate just because of Aaron -- but I realize I have to withhold judgement on that until we find out exactly what happened. Maybe it is far more horrible that I can imagine.
Don't get me wrong -- I love LOST. I've seen every single episode. But I found this episode not as good as the first three this season, and very troubling for the aforementioned reasons.
(By the way, this is the only LOST blog I look at, since it is spoiler free. Kudos to Ryan and everybody for the high quality.)
I believe it was the 1970s James Cann film "Rollerball" that first suggested (to a m*** audience, anyway) that in the near future the main organization of oppression (that the individual would have to fight against to retain his soul) would be huge multi-national corporations, not governments.
Come to think of it, an even better example might be "Network", one of my all time favorite films. (As you can probably tell, I came of age in the 70s.)
Yet the distinction between big government and big corporations is not as great as many (especially pro-big-government types) think, for much of the power of huge companies is derived from government contracts (especially "defense" [read: military] companies) or special favors (for example, the use of the TV airwaves for free) -- along with the fundamental fact that a corporation is an artificial government construct (set of laws) specifically designed to benefit those who own and run corporations at the expense of those who don't. (For intance, a corporation has limited liability, a person does not.)
Often, over time, the end result is a kind of merging of big government and big corporations; this is called fascism -- and the most extreme example is what happened in Germany in the years leading up to WWII.
It is my hope that with the help of shows like "Lost" (and the aformentioned films), the people will be sufficiently enlightened that they will never let things get that bad in this country.
But I am, as my nome de plume would suggest, concerned.
P.S. On the lighter side, I have no thoughts regarding the "lists" except to say that I'm glad to see that everyone on this thread has resisted the urge to use the phrase "and checking it twice." We should all be proud of ourselves.