Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Warning: Geeking Out Again


I'm still catching up on Lost. I'm not quite halfway through "The Brig", but already I can see one of my long-held suspicions coming true. "Anthony Cooper" - whatever his real name is - is Sawyer. Not a big shock. Just like most people knew perfectly well Christian Shepherd was also Claire's father. Another certainty I have is that Ben isn't "Him". Ben, as I've said, is strictly middle-management material. Devious, yes, ruthless, yes, but the leader of the pack? Nope. Him is A. someone who's not actually on the island very often (perhaps DeGroot or Alvar Hanso, though I doubt it), B. a Howard Hughes/Colonel Kurtz-type loony, C. a Moses-y, Promised Land, quietly demented messianic dude, or D. Some combination of all these types. We know his name is Jacob. Does he have a literal twin, or a double/nemesis? The twin imagery is popping up like crazy. Naomi the copter pilot basically said each survivor has a body double somewhere in an ocean trench off Bali, for instance.
I know I could be wrong about this stuff. I did have a cool, rather elegant theory about an alien ship being buried on the island, causing all the paranormal phenomena like in Quatermass and the Pit (or The Tommyknockers; same diff). But the creators insist there's nothing alien-related happening.


The UMMO sign (noticed by at least one other blogger) has dredged up some interesting insights, though. From Jacques Vallee's Revelations: [the Ummite philosophy, as laid out in the UMMO documents] "is a version of Kant's view of the world, mixed with a puritanical attitude toward morality..." Does that sound like The Others, or what?! The attitudes of these people just screeeeaammm "categorical imperative".


The "Ummites" claimed to have drugged humans and collected samples from them for some unknown purpose.


Carlos Jerez, founder of an UMMO "medical facility"/intelligence service in South America, claimed to have a cure for cancer. So did Ben. Jerez also claimed to have established an international network of scientists.


Vallee describes Borges's Uqbar, Tlon, Orbus Tertius, suspecting it might have been the inspiration for the UMMO hoax. "On Tlon..there is no concept of time as we know it. The past only exists s a present memory, and the future as a present expectation. Therefore it should be as easy to alter the past is it is to change the future. There is also a theory that all common objects have doubles..."


On Tlon, imagined objects can become real.


One UMMO researcher, physicist Jean-Pierre Petit, was inspired by the UMMO documents to write papers on speculative cosmology, including "Entantiomorphic [Mirror-Image, Twin] Universes with Opposite Proper Times" and "Universes Interacting with Their Image in the Mirror of Time."


Whoa. That is the island, is it not?

12 comments:

tweetey30 said...

Havent you heard that we all have some kind of twin out there some where?LOL... Yes I know what you are talking about. The show is weird and you just put a good twist to it thinking in these terms. I have never thought of it like that I guess. Great post though.

Wandering Coyote said...

Well, you'll have to tell me what you think of the episode where Ben takes Locke out to Jacob's place - WEIRD! Just plain weird. I have just completed season 1, and season 2 has just finished downloading and is ready for burning! Looking forward to tonight's two-hour finale!

S.M. Elliott said...

I hope I never meet my double. Too freaky. :S

I can't watch the finale, unfortunately, 'cause I'm not caught up yet and Richard is home tonight. He's still on season 2.

tweetey30 said...

How many seasons are there now? I havent kept track. Oh by the way I just e-mailed your mom about whats going on for July. I will e-mail you later. J is still working on getting some days off.

S.M. Elliott said...

It's the end of season 3 tonight.

I'm STILL looking for a place to board the bunny. The vet is one option, but they haven't confirmed yet.

Notta Wallflower said...

Wow, you give "Lost" way more thought than I do. I just watch it for the entertainment value. I'm glad it's gotten better, because I was about to give up on it.

tshsmom said...

THIS is why I don't watch Lost! ;)

S.M. Elliott said...

I'm not into Lost as much as some people, believe it or not! I don't even listen to the podcasts or anything. That's why I thought my Quatermass theory was pretty sound. The idea of alien artifacts that profoundly change the environment are a staple of sci-fi, like "2001" or Tarkovsky's
"Stalker". Oh well. Back to the drawing board. That's the fun thing about this show - it can be appreciated on different levels!

Wandering Coyote said...

Well, I saw the finale last night - shocking! My brother and I were stunned! I have just started watching season 2.

S.M. Elliott said...

I just saw the one with Jacob. BIZARRE. But I guess invisibility isn't any weirder than seeing the dead, Walt's bilocation, or Desmond's time travel. Could explain The Whispers, maybe. There's also a possibility the Others are trying to manifest intelligent beings with their thoughts alone, as in the "Philip" experiment that took place in Toronto in the '70s.

Wandering Coyote said...

Well, I just thought the whole Jacob thing made Ben look absolutely loony and idiotic. But you're right - invisibility isn't any weirder than the other sh*t that's gone on on that island. I am still thinking about the finale from last night. It was just so...so...stunning...

S.M. Elliott said...

I'm all caught up and about to watch it! Finally!