Monday, May 24, 2010
(Not so) Lost
So, I watched the series finale of Lost last night. (Don’t worry, if you Tivo-ed it, I won’t ruin the ending.) I know, I know, you’re thinking, “But, K, you only watched the first three hours of the first season on DVD before both you and your hubby looked at each other and agreed to pass your time with other endeavors. Why would you watch the end without watching the interim episodes first?”
Well, just ask my love-bug. He’ll tell you that I tend to do things out of order. I never start my stories to him with a subject. Keeps him guessing! :-> And, sure, I teach English, but I don’t think, talk, or compose in a linear fashion. I couldn’t create an outline prior to a story if my life depended on it. I don’t know what I think about lots of things until I talk it out. Asking me to start with a thesis statement is the surest way to a fight I know of. Just ask some of my former professors. (May the gods bless Dr. Seitz! He actually gets me.) I have to meander before I gain a sense of direction. So, telling a linear story makes no sense to me.
So, when the finale for the show came on yesterday, it made perfect sense in Kristen-world to tune in. If I liked it, then I wouldn’t be sad like the rest of the Lost fans, I would still have nearly six whole seasons to look forward to. They would be coming to the end of an era that I would just be starting. And, if the finale sucked, well, I would only have given up two hours of my life, which really wouldn’t be a total loss, since the scenery in Hawaii - where it’s filmed – is so pretty. So, I settled in with more of my stinky cheese, three cats, and a bottle of wine to see what the entire hubbub was about. (Or, maybe it was one cat and three bottles of wine…I'm just sayin'!)
Turns out the show’s creators suffer from the same lack of linearity of thought that I do – and I mean that in a complimentary way. I learned that not only do they use flash-backs and flash-forwards, but something called flash-sideways gambits to advance the plot…or retreat the plot…or something. And, somehow, even though the show has been going on for six years, I wasn’t lost (sorry, pardon the oh-so-obvious pun) at all. I’m not sure if the mythology of the show has just seeped in around the pop-culture corners of my life, or if, since I don’t walk through my own thoughts in a straight line, the storyline and folklore just kind of make sense to a bat-shit nut-job like me. So, to answer the question that I know is on my husband’s mind, since I never start with the subject…I liked the finale. It just seemed right. It was like putting on my favorite pair of footie pajamas that my parents got me for Christmas when I was in sixth grade and finding that they still fit.
And, I think the deployment is a major part of the reason I could get a handle on the show. (You knew I’d connect it back to the deployment somehow, right? This is a deployment survival blog, after all!)
Warning: What follows is what’s in my head after watching the show…still, no plot spoilers. But you might get trapped in the labyrinth of my thoughts, though. And, yes, I’m pretty sure there’s a Minotaur in there somewhere - along with lots of cats wearing neon-colored high-top Reebok tennis shoes. Don’t ask! Anyway, back to the show…
The whole show seems an apt metaphor for what couples or families go through while undergoing a deployment separation. The island, in an odd way, represents our home front, and as in the show, it must be protected at all cost. Everyone who deploys wants to return there when their job is done. There is a peace that comes with reuniting, but in the iterim, you end up living parallel lives with your mate while you’re apart, so the flash sideways plotlines apply here, too. Though you aren’t always in the same “somewhere” you are in the same “somewhen.” You can still touch each other, even if not literally. You are linked to that person: what affects him or her will affect you in some collateral fashion. Your stories impact each other, even though they are occurring on different pages of the script right now.
What I think I liked the best is this: the notion of unseen, unexpected bonds between people. Similar, dissimilar, related, or not, lovers, families, friends, strangers – we’re all players in this story. We are all woven into the same fabric. As deployments drag on, those threads of connection can start to wear a little thin, but then something like this show comes along and reminds us that even though distance separates us, we are still an ensemble. We’re a group of sometimes like-minded people doing the best we can in less than perfect circumstances and in the end, the alliances with each other, those relationships, are the payoff.
So, yeah, I think I’ll start watching Lost from the beginning now. It seems I have a lot to look forward to.
Peace, love, and flash forwards to you all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"I couldn’t create an outline prior to a story if my life depended on it. I don’t know what I think about lots of things until I talk it out."
ReplyDeleteOh K, I so needed you as an English teacher!! I hated the term papers where we had to submit in steps, the thesis statement, the outline, etc... just more busy work that actually distracted me from the actual paper. My best stuff was written not following the linear rules.
I hated those term papers, too! Which is why I don't force my students into that mold. If they want to write that way, great! If not, we'll find something that works. Seems to take the fear away from them. Turns out, most of them are better at writing than they'd thought! And, I would have loved to have you as a student!!
ReplyDeletethat's a beautiful and eloquent way to put how long separations work. glad you posted this. :) also, you're the first person who's really made me want to go watch Lost.
ReplyDelete