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It's a trick
I've been thinking of Lost finale while marking my last papers. I need to write my thoughts down before I resume my marking.
Symbolism is very important in Lost. It's what got me hooked and that I still enjoy. I don't care about the mystery actually and I don't expect the questions to be answered and the big plan (if there's one) to be revealed. I take Lost as a play on words, philosophical theories and symbols.
As I said in my previous entry the writers played a lot with philosophers from Enlightment, but we know they also played with fantasy books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or Alice...and they borrowed some Mythological stuff as well.
There were several hints at The Odysseus in the finale, especially through Desmond, the lost sailor whose woman was named Pen...but I think that Sayid himself was another representation of Ulysses or Odysseus...When he was on the boat with Jin and Sun and he spotted the four toes statue, it was a scene that rang very Myhtological. Besides Sayid is very clever, he embodies what the Greeks called Mêtis and that Ulysses represented in The Iliad.
Also the seemingly pointless button routine that Locke wanted to stop is a hopeless labour that reminds me of Sysiphean punishment. Pushing the button every 108 minutes is like what Sysiphus had to do: to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he reached the top of the hill the rock always escaped him and he had to begin again ! Desmond was the archetypal Odysseus/Sisyphus on Lost. But his journey resonates with the other characters. It isn't only Locke that is his brother, they all are.
By the way, Sysiphus could have been Odysseus' father and he was supposed to be the crafiest of men. The mêtis again...
"It's a trick" Locke told Desmond inside the hatch. That line echoed in me for a while...
Craft is something that is recurring in Lost. Not only the boats, but the guile. Besides our cunning Sayid we have Henry the master of duplicity, Sawyer the con man, The Others who tried to fool everybody with their props, Michael whose scheme caused two deaths, Hurley whose real name is Hugo and who can be rather tricky when it comes to food, Kate who beguiled Sun in season 1, Sun whose deceit lay in her language skills and who might have cheated on her husband too, Hooded Charlie who teamed up with Sawyer against Sun...
There's another thing about Sisyphus that connects him to our characters. He tricked Death which is exactly what our survivors did.
They all should be dead. How could they survive a crash? How could Desmond survive his own boat accident? BTW I noticed that in the flashback he hit his head on the boat just like Corbin (![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
comova called him Kelvin, I I decided to call him Corbin for I didn't get his name!) fatally hit his on the stone afterwards...
I copied this bit from wikipedia:
Zeus then ordered Hades to chain him in hell. Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to try the chains to show how they worked, and when he did so, Sisyphus secured them and threatened Hades. This caused an uproar, and no human could die till Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost its fun because his opponents won't die) intervened, freeing Thanotos and sending Sisyphus to Tartarus. However, before Sisyphus died he had told his wife that when he was dead she was not to offer the usual sacrifice. In the underworld he complained that his wife was neglecting him and persuaded Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, to allow him to go back to the upper world and ask her to perform her duty. When he got back to Corinth he refused to return and was eventually carried back to the underworld by Hermes.
I think that in the end, Desmond became Ulysses rather than Sysiphus, he found the courage to escape, to use his key.
could see The Others as a representation of Hermes actually...And it's funny that Hurley has been released by them to play a role of messenger. Libby who popped up everywhere could be like Pallas Athena who appeared in disguise to Odysseus (because Libby wore a wig, didn't she?).
BTW I think that the title of Dickens' book might be a clue: "our mutual friend"
Of course now I see Walt as Telemachus, because he grew up away from his father, and Vincent as old Argus!
As I said in my previous entry the writers played a lot with philosophers from Enlightment, but we know they also played with fantasy books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or Alice...and they borrowed some Mythological stuff as well.
There were several hints at The Odysseus in the finale, especially through Desmond, the lost sailor whose woman was named Pen...but I think that Sayid himself was another representation of Ulysses or Odysseus...When he was on the boat with Jin and Sun and he spotted the four toes statue, it was a scene that rang very Myhtological. Besides Sayid is very clever, he embodies what the Greeks called Mêtis and that Ulysses represented in The Iliad.
Also the seemingly pointless button routine that Locke wanted to stop is a hopeless labour that reminds me of Sysiphean punishment. Pushing the button every 108 minutes is like what Sysiphus had to do: to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he reached the top of the hill the rock always escaped him and he had to begin again ! Desmond was the archetypal Odysseus/Sisyphus on Lost. But his journey resonates with the other characters. It isn't only Locke that is his brother, they all are.
By the way, Sysiphus could have been Odysseus' father and he was supposed to be the crafiest of men. The mêtis again...
"It's a trick" Locke told Desmond inside the hatch. That line echoed in me for a while...
Craft is something that is recurring in Lost. Not only the boats, but the guile. Besides our cunning Sayid we have Henry the master of duplicity, Sawyer the con man, The Others who tried to fool everybody with their props, Michael whose scheme caused two deaths, Hurley whose real name is Hugo and who can be rather tricky when it comes to food, Kate who beguiled Sun in season 1, Sun whose deceit lay in her language skills and who might have cheated on her husband too, Hooded Charlie who teamed up with Sawyer against Sun...
There's another thing about Sisyphus that connects him to our characters. He tricked Death which is exactly what our survivors did.
They all should be dead. How could they survive a crash? How could Desmond survive his own boat accident? BTW I noticed that in the flashback he hit his head on the boat just like Corbin (
comova called him Kelvin, I I decided to call him Corbin for I didn't get his name!) fatally hit his on the stone afterwards...I copied this bit from wikipedia:
Zeus then ordered Hades to chain him in hell. Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to try the chains to show how they worked, and when he did so, Sisyphus secured them and threatened Hades. This caused an uproar, and no human could die till Ares (who was annoyed that his battles had lost its fun because his opponents won't die) intervened, freeing Thanotos and sending Sisyphus to Tartarus. However, before Sisyphus died he had told his wife that when he was dead she was not to offer the usual sacrifice. In the underworld he complained that his wife was neglecting him and persuaded Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, to allow him to go back to the upper world and ask her to perform her duty. When he got back to Corinth he refused to return and was eventually carried back to the underworld by Hermes.
I think that in the end, Desmond became Ulysses rather than Sysiphus, he found the courage to escape, to use his key.
could see The Others as a representation of Hermes actually...And it's funny that Hurley has been released by them to play a role of messenger. Libby who popped up everywhere could be like Pallas Athena who appeared in disguise to Odysseus (because Libby wore a wig, didn't she?).
BTW I think that the title of Dickens' book might be a clue: "our mutual friend"
Of course now I see Walt as Telemachus, because he grew up away from his father, and Vincent as old Argus!
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I need to watch it again before commenting further. But, the only thing that seemed over the top to me was the four toed statue. Any ideas on that one?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
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I do think that the statue was supposed to point out the Greek connection. It's the kind of things that sailors (Odysseus, Jason and The Argonauts ) could see during their nautical journey in Mythology, when statues or monsters were there to keep the edges of the known universe on maps...It's a bit like Charybdis and Scylla in The Odysseus, or The Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar)
The 4 toes thing seems to say that it is not a human foot, so it fits in the idea of gods, half-gods or monsters...
Oh I'm thinking of something! Pillars of Hercules were considered the western end of the world and also are mentioned at some places as portals, or gates to different locations on Earth. Beyond them there was only Chaos (the end of the world being also the birth of it). In Homer's book we can see Odysseus who sails west out of the Pillars of Heracles and into the Atlantic Ocean, eventually reaching a place which gives him access to Hades.
Is it a coincidence if we have Brazilian guys looking for a signal in the end? Like in the Butterfly Effect you know...a butterfly in Brazil flaps its wings etc
A system failure is another name for Chaos!
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I wish I was more familiar with these Greek myths like you are - I honestly can't tell if you're onto something or not, because I'm really not sure who those people are! :o) Any idea where I should go to to find out more about them? I'd like to learn more, and then I'll be better at discussing this with you! hee! x
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You cannot not know Odysseus, Penelope and Sisyphus, that is not possible!
I'm sure you can find webites on Greek mythology, otherwise there are still...books! ;- )
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The rest is coincidence...
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Although I did think the clues were a bit more obvious this season than the first one.
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I think I need to watch them all again you know! Too much to remember!
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[We see Sayid, handcuffed, being taken by two soldiers to see Joe Inman, apparently a CIA operative.]
Looks like "Inman" is really his name. Funny!
Desmond did not call him Joe though...
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