LOST

When I think of the word art, I constantly remind myself how little of the world I have seen or been exposed to. There is so much to see and experience that I realize I will never get my hands on and that’s something I can make peace with. For everything else that I do have imprinted on my memory, my mind, and my heart, I am eternally grateful to feel fulfilled at being able to receive the creation that others have chosen to share with me. Creation is difficult, messy, imperfect, and incomplete. Creation is a snapshot of what someone or many choose to walk away from and allow us to view and experience in that moment in time. I think about all the arts that I love and sometimes feel like I was born to experience specific types over others. Music, film, the written word, and television seem to be the front runners for me. And when I look back at the earliest TV and films that gave me that feeling we all know, I realize not much has changed since childhood. I’m always on the hunt for that feeling when I let something new in. So why does Lost deserve my written expressions where so many others have stayed internal and only come up at the round table? I think its more for me and maybe the few that might care to have the written word further stimulate thought.

The End came and washed over me with a captivating presence that made time stand still. I knew before it began that I was a part of something special for me. I also knew that there was a shared audience of friends and stranger alike that for whatever their own reasons, were for the most part equally invested. I suppose the question is, when you experience art, is what are you looking for? Our reactions to many things tend to be a very reflection of ourselves and in that is where something is beautiful in itself. I’m amazed at how so many including myself begin to take ownership of something that we feel belongs to us though not created by us and therefore now have a limit on what will give us that feeling of completion that satisfies our desires and fulfills our wishes. Television series’ have that separation from film that their lifespan takes years in most cases to develop and complete a story and in that time, we have the internal penetration of thought and emotion. I’ve seen a lot of television that is flat out ridiculous and terrible in every objective way measurable. And I also know there is someone armed with a large ideas and a backing fan base of others that can refute me. And that’s pretty incredible. Because people are thinking. They may not think like you or me, and you may pass judgment on them as I often do with a certain level of skepticism and incredulity, but at the core, they’re using their minds to form an opinion.

I’m in no way a good writer, in fact it’s the one thing I love to do that I know I have little craft for and tend to veer into incoherence but today I’m going to try because when you have “the feeling”, you shouldn’t ignore it or trivialize it. I thought tonight’s finale to Lost was amazing and magnificently executed. I also thought it left me asking questions that were both new and old. I also realized this was done intentionally though probably not with the intent of incensing a fan base that the creators are 100% aware and conscious of. I have seen some modes of art that seem to quietly or loudly play with its fan base and appreciators with an intentionally divergent creation that contradicts the very thing that inspired them and us. (see Tool’s 10,000 days or the Matrix sequels). While I can never truly know unless directly told, I do feel that the creators of Lost don’t fall into this aggravating category, at least for the most part. What I saw tonight was a culmination of a story that had been both alluded to and presented in a way that was consistent with the basic premise of the show’s origin. And much like life, we’re left realizing that our satisfaction or dissatisfaction with it as much a healthy criticism as it is a telling reflection of ourselves. I think a big part of the use of mirrors in this final season had a lot to do with that as well. Our characters weren’t simply questioning their self crafted existence, but were giving us a chance to look at ourselves too. And at its heart, I think Lost was a story about human life and the lives and journey of these people we came to know and love in every emotional and logical sense. I think a lot of what happened early on in the series was that while we all love to feel emotion and genuine heartfelt attachment to life, we become obsessed with the mythic presentation of symbolism and mystery. We are in so many ways a present reflection of the real life explorers who constantly sought and seek answers to the great mysteries of the world and universe. The search for answers to archaeology, the quest for gold, the unraveling of the mysteries of the church and countless religions, the secrets of the government and secret societies and countless other things in existence. And sometimes if we spend our life’s work pursuing these obsessions, maybe we forget to love. Or we forget to laugh or call a friend to go out. We forget that the story of our lives involves family, friendship and love. Not the questions we’ll leave when we’re gone from this world. “What’s inside his safe?” “Why did he always wear that yellow shirt on Fridays?” The questions of our lives could keep those interested busy for two lifetimes. Does it bother me that the Sideways world was a construct of the souls of our beloved characters? Not really and while it wasn’t what I was expecting or maybe even hoping for, it did make complete sense and reminded again about how I view things and myself. People make mental constructs all the time in their lives. Some are healthy and some are unhealthy, but what they usually end up being is some type of personal journey that does have a destination. I think of Chuck P.’s Tyler Durden construct that the narrator created for himself as a means to end of personal journey that in literature and in the film adaptation left most people heralding its greatness and brilliance as well they should. The Sideways world storyline device was one that required a lot of patience from its audience and also was the one that received the most vocal distaste and criticism for. Again, a film or book like Fight Club doesn’t have to ask patience of its audience because relative time will allow for a speedy beginning and end within itself versus week at a time waits or season breaks in between. And you know what, we’re not very patient people. From the final season’s begin to now, I felt very happy that my patience was only tested one or two times, but it wasn’t at the start or the end. I feel like I’ve had some incredible works that laid the mental and emotional ground for me to take on a show like Lost and feel positive about its conclusion and entirety. Six Feet Under and Carnivale come to mind as the two shows that also presented character driven stories in a world where everything was impossible until it wasn’t. Constructs of the dead reflecting the characters own selves in their most profound moments of everyday life or the mythology of Good vs. Evil in a time before man traded away wonder for reason opened me up to the conscious altering feeling and knowledge that anything was possible. Disbelief no longer needed suspension, I was ready to take a trip anywhere and would stay aboard as long as it takes.

Lost opened itself to a common quandary that we see in everyday life in ourselves or others. Something is presented that stimulates us mentally or visually in its pure form or symbolism. We’re filled with the excitement and anticipation of the journey that will lead to its step by step, inferred, or direct revelation. And slowly but surely, week by week, season to season, our patience begins to wear, our excitement fades and morphs into dissatisfaction and the toe tapping for answers begins. And worse, that invisible window of time passes and we’re left hanging or at least we believe we are and fury takes over. But with the emotional investment and opposing batch of satisfying resolutions we did end up with, we’re able to keep our heads up and our mouths ready for the next meal. Think of a relationship or purchase or dinner that had the same qualities and carried with it similar expectations, rewards, let downs all mixed in together. Then ask yourself if another person would have felt the exact same way with the same circumstances at their hands. A lot of questions we had in Lost were never answered directly or indirectly but many of them were and most likely as a way to remind us what the creators intent for their art was for. And in some ways to purposely present the reality that in life we are faced with the exact same thing. Do we really need them to do that for us? Shouldn’t we be entitled to know the WHAT, HOW and not just the WHY? Yeah I think so, but it doesn’t take away anything from the amazing 6 year emotional journey that I felt in my heart for the story of the people. So they never explained the food palette drop? Or did Ben simply tell Mikhail to press the computer execute code for food in the station he was in to help sustain the castaways nutrition to make sure at the least Jack would stay healthy enough to do a spinal surgery. Ok fine, so who received that call and why weren’t they interested in discovering what events were happening on the island long after the dissolution of the Dharma Initiative? Or was Alvar Hanso and Gerald DeGroot behind the food and just let it be. Or did Charles Widmore use his finance and technology to intercept that signal call and orchestrate the food drop himself? You see how this could go on all day but doesn’t further the story and could start to reflect just how obsessive we are capable of being with details and questions. Sure I’d have loved gradual answers to all the meticulously placed details that were scattered in the six year tenure of the show. Women can’t have birth on the island. Maybe electromagnetic radiation from the incident, maybe Jacob magically punished the women. How did Eloise Hawking have the knowledge of Desmond’s time traveling and his original choices made in the season three episode where we see his instantaneous journey after turning the failsafe key? We could go on all day. And then, just like that, we got answers too. The numbers, the numbers….Just a way to organize flawed, lonely candidates that needed the island as much as it needed them. Chalk on a wall as Jacob said. Who is the man in black and Jacob? Just two twin brothers orphaned and summarily adopted by a woman with supernatural ability needing both a replacement and a euthanizer which whom she bestowed immortality. Simple. Yet, as she said in the episode, almost speaking to us rather than Claudia, answers to our questions will simply lead to more questions.

Well done, keep us focused on the task at hand. Remind us that your story’s intention is not to unravel the mysteries of the universe but to tell a powerful, moving, inspiring story that has a beginning and an end. And it worked, mission accomplished. Story told. Destination found. I laughed, I cried, I yelled, I pondered, I theorized, I mulled, and I exhaled during the run of this incredibly crafted vision and story. And now I’m writing, and thinking, and hoping you’re thinking too and will tell me your thoughts. Tell me why its great, tell me why its not, tell me why its both and show me how your view of how you experience art is a reflection of who you are. Or maybe its not, maybe its just a straight opinion that objectively in your mind, you’re positively convinced is irrefutable. I know one thing, Lost will absolutely do what so many of its creators and actors and fans hope for: stand the test of time. Lost will continue to be discussed, critiqued, applauded, dissected, and so forth. Someone will see it for the first time without commercials, millions of viewer hype, advertising and viral marketing and see much of themselves again or maybe for the first time. And they too will be ready to ask what you think, and they’ll want to tell you what the loved or didn’t. Can someone experience art differently seeing it in the natural course of time, staggered and patiently? Is it different experiencing it in a hurried rush? Would someone experience the catalogue of a great musical artist listening to it straight through in a day’s listen compared to someone who heard each album in its natural release year by year? I’m sure you have answers. I’m sure you have questions. Today is a snapshot of the written word I’ve created about someone else’s creation and I have no doubt that I’ll continue to evolve thoughts and ideas, praises and criticisms, and undeniable excitement from this experience. It sounds like brilliant fun, and that’s where art should take us. Thanks Lost, you found me.