After a lengthy hiatus Lost Online Studies returns with a special, jam-packed issue, in which we take stock of seasons 1-3 and look ahead to the other side of the rainbow, seasons 4-6. In celebration of our growth – and in recognition of Lost's own upcoming hiatus – I have attached a blog to the journal. Most existing articles as well as those in this latest issue are linked to their own discussion page, and articles to date have been tagged by author, topic and season.
Our new issues features articles on time travel and intertextuality, along with five articles presented at various symposia on Popular Culture in 2006 and 2007 and two essays, on an iconic item (Eko's Jesus Stick) and episode (The Constant, 4.05). Thanks to all our new members and special thanks to our extremely diverse and insightful contributors, and to my fellow editor Michelle A. Lang. Lost Online Studies is a regular publication of the Society for Lost Studies, an interest group devoted to all aspects of the ABC/Touchstone series Lost as a an artistic and cultural phenomenon.
I urge all interested readers to submit articles, reviews, essays and feedback for Lost Online Studies 2.2.
Amy Bauer
Lost: Poststructural Metanarrative or Postmodern Bildungsroman?
Despite its narrative, psychological and philosophical complexity, and widespread popularity both within and beyond the television medium, there has yet to be a sustained dialogue on the theoretical aspects of Lost. Michelle Lang’s paper provides a framework for such a discussion, one that encompasses interdisciplinarity while focusing on a theme that is of particular relevance: the tension between the foregrounding of the structural aspects of the show and the maintenance of the ‘fourth wall’ within the story itself – the island as a self-contained thematic narrative within the larger contemporary sea of intellectual context, as it were.
The Monster in the Jungle: Lost and the 21st Century American Gothic
Laura Dickinson considers Lost as a 21st century reemergence of the American gothic, which derived from the British gothic by adapting its sense of mystery, foreboding, and menace to the lush wilderness of the frontier instead of the ruins of a castle or manor house. The gothic elements of the island present a physical manifestation of the psychic/psychological disarray of the characters’ lives. And, importantly, as was the case for the 19th century anxieties about the future, Lost could very well reflect the disquiet experienced by many Americans today in the face of concerns about swiftly changing technology, a war that has no end in sight, and a potentially disastrous climate change, where polar bears may start to inhabit tropical islands.
The Art of World-making: Lost and Time Travel
Stephen Hawking biographer Kristine Larsen summarizes canon and fan references to time travel before the epochal season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes," as a prelude to a thorough review of the scientific literature on time travel. Larsen discusses as well the paradoxes and restrictions on free will implied by time travel with reference to Desmond's philosophical alter ego. Her final speculations connect the hatch implosion, "Flashes," electromagnetic energy and various narrative anomolies in Lost, with reference to both the consistent and alternate history approaches to time travel.
Neil Shyminsky considers Lost as a "trope of a trope," with an often self-conscious relationship to its precursors in high and low culture. The producers of Lost encourage audience interaction with the text, even if it leads to a conflation of actor and character (in the case of Jorge Garcia's Hurley and Terry O'Quinn's Locke). Shyminsky evokes that Harold Bloom's theory of “poetic misprision” captures the viewer's complex misreading of Lost, a process that favors active participation over truth.
“So much for fate”: Free Will and Narrative Closure in Lost
Amy Bauer looks at the debate between free will and determinism in Lost, as crystallized by repeated iconic events at odds with the forward movement of plot and character development. Each time the characters encounter the numbers or push the button they enact the traumatic collision between fate and free will in its literal fullness. In season 3 the ethical dimension of this becomes explicit when Desmond sees flashes of a future that include Charlie’s untimely death. Yet when Charlie finally dies it is not because he has succumbed to fate, but because he has embraced it. His “spiritual” rebirth into full full subjectivity suggests that only when the remaining characters accept the apparent contingency of the plane crash as destiny, will Lost resolve its founding trauma and achieve emotional, as well as narrative, closure.
Cari Vaughn takes us on an intertextual tour of literary and in seasons 1-3, revealing Lost as the ultimate hypertext, allowing the viewer, via associated reading, fan-made websites, and extratextual references, to construct his or her own Lost experience.
The (Many) Meanings of Eko’s Jesus Stick
by Dillon Burroughs
"I think I've just been to the future:” A Structural Analysis of The Constant
by Amy Bauer
Amy Bauer
Assistant Professor of Music Theory, University of California at Irvine
Michelle Lang
Assistant Professor of Art History, University of Nebraska at Kearney
J.M. Berger
consultant, journalist, producer, writer, Somerville, MA
John Lenarcic
School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria Australia
Douglas Zukunft
M.A. in Theology