Literary Lost This page intentionally left blank Literary Lost Viewing Television Through the Lens of Literature by Sarah Clarke Stuart 2011 Th e Continuum International Publishing Group 80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038 Th e Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX www.continuumbooks.com Copyright © 2011 by Sarah Clarke Stuart All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers. Th e publishers would be pleased to hear from any copyright holders not here acknowledged. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Stuart, Sarah Clarke. Literary Lost : viewing television through the lens of literature / by Sarah Clarke Stuart. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-13: 978-1-4411-4080-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4411-4080-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Lost (Television program) 2. Television and literature. I. Title. PN1992.77.L67S78 2011 791.45’72—dc22 2010033018 ISBN: PB: 978- 1- 4411- 4080- 7 Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand Printed and bound in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments ..................................................................................vi Introduction: “What, Don’t You Read?” Lost’s Literary Infl uence ...................................................................................1 1. Th e Books of Lost ..................................................................16 2. “Are You Th ere, God?” Faith, Sacrifi ce and Redemption .............................................................................54 3. Who Has the “Power Over the Clay”? Purpose, Fate and Free Will ...........................................................................69 4. Stuck and “Unstuck” in Time: A Tradition of Time Travel ........................................................................................89 5. “Fathers, Provoke not your Children to Wrath”: Lost Parents ...........................................................................103 6. “We’re All Mad Here”: Dreams, Illusions and the Nature of Reality ...................................................................115 7. “Maybe Th ere Is a Beast . . . Maybe It’s Only Us”: Group Dynamics and the Communities of Lost ..............130 8. Conclusion: Th e Purpose of “Stories Th at Aren’t Even True” .............................................................................144 Appendix: List of Literary Allusions ...............................................149 Notes ......................................................................................................152 Bibliography .........................................................................................155 Index ......................................................................................................164 v Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful for the enduring support of my parents, Susan and Gary Clarke. I also want to thank the Department of English at the University of North Florida, especially Linda Howell, whose support and encour- agement paved the way for this project. Above all, I would like to acknowledge my favorite Lost fans, Steve and Alexis, for their dedication and patience. Th ank you. vi Introduction: “What, Don’t You Read?” Lost’s Literary Infl uence In the end, Desmond’s copy of Our Mutual Friend serves as portal, allowing access to the rest of the fi ctional world outside the island and to the extended paratextual world that makes up the show’s complicated reception as a social text. — Steven E. Jones, “Dickens on Lost” Even casual viewers of the popular television series Lost are likely familiar with its frequent literary allusions and penchant for book cameos. Some of the more dedicated fans know that Desmond Hume has “read everything Mr. Charles Dickens has ever written — every wonderful word” (“Live Together, Die Alone”), and that Sawyer can quote Steinbeck at length. Others might recall the scene in which Benjamin Linus and Jack Shephard discuss a Dostoevsky line; or remember Mr. Eko carving biblical passages into his walking stick, or Juliet Burke engaging in a heated dispute about the literary value of genre fi ction. Th e creators of the show spend a notable amount of time and eff ort identifying and addressing other texts and older narratives. Canonical works of fi ction appear on screen to underscore an episode’s thematic concerns; their appearances, along with other modes of literary cita- tion, provide Lost’s viewers with a fresh means of interpreting the televisual text. Th e allusions invite viewers to initiate a discussion of the show in a more compelling manner than the average “water cooler talk,” creating active audiences and expanding “participatory culture”1 to a new level. Within the realm of their own story, several characters read, discuss and directly quote other stories from a variety of genres and media including novels, plays, fairy tales, fi lms and tele- vision shows. Th is book will focus primarily on the literary references, though at times the references transcend the medium of books.2 Viewers of Lost have long recognized the series’ literary meta- n arrative or self-r efl exive commentary. Ulysses, Th e Invention of Morel, 1 2 LITERARY LOST Notes From Underground, Th e Th ird Policeman, Everything Th at Rises Must Converge, Our Mutual Friend and Catch- 22 are just a few of the serious works of fi ction with brief but noteworthy periods of screen time within the diegesis of Lost. Th e writers also incorporate literary quotes from well-k nown books like Animal Farm and Moby Dick. Th e references, whether they appear on the screen, in the dialogue or as appropriated story lines, provide a hint of intellectual heft , as their inclusion assumes that viewers are familiar with particular notable works. Th e result of this trend leads to a sense of exclusivity among some viewers, but also to an overall elevation of the typical television consumer. As I will illustrate in the pages to come, numerous fans have been inspired to read because of their connection to Lost, demonstrat- ing an interesting twist in the history of television watching. Certainly Lost is not the only popular television show that delib- erately employs classic literature, but it is distinct in its mode of presentation. In “Th e Allusions of Television” David Lavery presents a number of television programs including Lost, Buff y the Vampire Slayer, Th e Gilmore Girls, Twin Peaks, Seinfeld and Angel that rely on an audience’s familiarity with specifi c works of fi ction. One of his most notable examples is Th e Sopranos, with its quotes from works like Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Yeats’ “Th e Second Coming” (Lavery 2006). But Lost viewers were in a unique position in their anticipation of new allusions, knowing that additional texts would be introduced on a regular basis. During its 6- year, 121- episode run on ABC, Lost featured more than 70 books, and many of these appearances were announced long before their episodes aired. For instance, before the fi nal season began in February of 2010, Chad Post, who served as an unoffi cial literary consultant to the Lost writing team, announced that the novel Deep River would make an appearance, and fans immediately began speculating about its implications for the next narrative twist. Th is “leaking” of information serves two purposes: it provides the viewer with a kind of “sneak peek” into the workings of the narrative and it also increases his or her dedication to upcoming episodes. Literary TV? Literary Lost does not support the argument that Lost is literature or that television is comparable in form or aesthetic to literary works. Rather, I am primarily concerned with the thematic similarities between Lost and its featured books, as well as some of its literary forebears and generic infl uences. I recognize that some readers might Introduction 3 hesitate at the prospect of television programming as an entryway to literary studies. Attempting to compare notable works of fi ction to the messy plot of an episodic mystery adventure dreamed up by a team of collaborators “churning out” stories likely sounds like an examination of popular culture that has been confused with the study of literature. Some readers might point out that Lost is a stimulating narrative as television shows go, but still an unabashed franchise, very diff erent from a serious work of fi ction. Without doubt, the series is a product of popular culture, but I would remind readers that authors like Charles Dickens enjoyed cult popularity similar to current serial dramas on television, developing his stories in a comparable episodic fashion. However, this work is not a defense of television nor does it attempt to compare the show aesthetically to novels and short fi ction or try to interpret the show as a work of literature. Common thematic concerns, however, are a different matter. Literary Lost attempts to provide an examination of Lost through other narratives, mostly canonical works of fi ction that draw attention to the most signifi cant themes of the series, such as free will, faith, redemption, community and the individual’s desire for an external savior. Th is book simply identifi es, describes and briefl y explores the books that are featured in the show or implied as comparison texts. It acknowledges Lost as a shared cultural construct and urges the reader to consider the series’ subsequent legacy as an infl uence on literary taste in viewers. “Intertextuality” Any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations; any text is the absorption and transformation of another. — Julia Kristeva If viewers have learned nothing else about Lost’s vast array of literary and pop culture references it’s that, taken individually, they some- times act like red herrings (distractions that seem, at fi rst glance, to be important clues), leading fans down confusing or meaningless interpretations of the show. And yet, they always provide a deeper understanding of the show’s themes and characters. Considered col- lectively, the books help to expand the meaning of the show, which is sometimes a great relief when meaning within the text seems a little thin. Consider this relevant quote from a signifi cant Lost reference, in which the narrator of Heart of Darkness illuminates the presence of