I have found a new favorite blog.
Once a week, author J. Wood writes about Lost at Powell’s Books.
His posts are intelligent, well thought-out and reasoned, and are quickly becoming the only Lost source on the internet I want to read at all. Rather than recapping the episode, Wood deconstructs each episode, exploring the references and connections that have been made. And even the comments are intelligent! Most recaps/message boards just degenerate into tiresome “bitterness fiestas” that just make me want to beat my head against the wall until the hurting stops.
Wood’s posts are making me want to check out his book, Living Lost. Anyone know anything about it?
Thanks for the kind words! It feels great when someone uncovers and appreciates hard work.
Best best,
G.K. Darby
Garrett County Press
(J. Wood’s publisher)
Hi,
GK sent me this way, and I just wanted to reiterate both his and my thanks for the thumbs up. I teach an essay sometimes about getting past the Beavis & Butthead “this rocks” “that sucks” general response to cultural products, and hope the blog is doing that.
If you have any questions about the book, I’d be happy to offer what I can. The blog is pretty representative of what’s in the book. The main argument is that the show is taking elements that we deal with in our daily walking-around-lives during this war on terror/ism time, abstracts those out, and re-works them into the narrative. That provides some critical distance and a new kind of space to actually work through some of the issues (Bakunin’s manuscript talking about the Mujahideen was a nod in that direction). To that end, I argue that the audience of Lost also functions like a character in the narrative. And there’s a whole section dealing with themes, name connections, literary links, that sort of thing.
Cheers,
J Wood
To answer your question, J’s book is outstanding, albeit a little hard to find. J has a few works on Amazon, but it looks like this is his first major work. I had to order his book at B&N…I suggest that many people do the same.