drabauer
10-22-04, 06:46 AM
I find cwipperman's theory on the MacGuffin right on the mark as a means to explain how the narrative of Lost is structured. The MacGuffin as a device can be compared to the Lacanian "la petit a," the Freudian "Ding," that little piece of the "Real" that cannot be captured completely, only represented by something that stands in for the true horror/beauty. I say this because so far Lost seems like a textbook example of Lacanian film criticism.
Here's what I'm getting at:
1. We can see the changes that affect the castaways, yet we can never be completely certain how those changes came about. Each individual will have a different explanation, as each one's desire has been ignited in a different way; i.e. Locke's explanation for his recovery is magic, Jack's explanation for seeing his father probably a pragmatic realization that he was hallucinating, etc.
2. the monster is always out of sight/reach, evident only by the destruction left in its wake, as the "Real" is that which we can never really experience firsthand, only through the traces it leaves (in language, etc).
3. the ability to reinvent oneself could be seen as that act that marks the end of psychoanalysis: "traversing the fantasy," the death of one's entire symbolic matrix (the social roles/beliefs/values that defined the criminal/doctor/subserviant wife, etc) and the acceptance of a self-defined destiny. Some will embrace this reinvention, others will retreat into their comfortable, pre-"Lost" identity.
4. If this seems a little obscure, just think of classic Hitchcock films like "North by Northwest," or other classic examinations of subjectivity. From this POV, the "character" of the multi-faceted island exists to cause each person to completely reevaluate who and what they are.
In this sense I think Lost may be the complete opposite of Alias which, despite its name, has very strongly-etched characters in a world that is constantly changing. For the most part these characters DON'T change (we just don't often truly know them), but are caught in a world which seldom is what it seems. Although the island may seem mysterious, in this series it is the characters that will be constantly changing, while the island remains as it ever was, even though we only slowly grasp its secrets.
Here's what I'm getting at:
1. We can see the changes that affect the castaways, yet we can never be completely certain how those changes came about. Each individual will have a different explanation, as each one's desire has been ignited in a different way; i.e. Locke's explanation for his recovery is magic, Jack's explanation for seeing his father probably a pragmatic realization that he was hallucinating, etc.
2. the monster is always out of sight/reach, evident only by the destruction left in its wake, as the "Real" is that which we can never really experience firsthand, only through the traces it leaves (in language, etc).
3. the ability to reinvent oneself could be seen as that act that marks the end of psychoanalysis: "traversing the fantasy," the death of one's entire symbolic matrix (the social roles/beliefs/values that defined the criminal/doctor/subserviant wife, etc) and the acceptance of a self-defined destiny. Some will embrace this reinvention, others will retreat into their comfortable, pre-"Lost" identity.
4. If this seems a little obscure, just think of classic Hitchcock films like "North by Northwest," or other classic examinations of subjectivity. From this POV, the "character" of the multi-faceted island exists to cause each person to completely reevaluate who and what they are.
In this sense I think Lost may be the complete opposite of Alias which, despite its name, has very strongly-etched characters in a world that is constantly changing. For the most part these characters DON'T change (we just don't often truly know them), but are caught in a world which seldom is what it seems. Although the island may seem mysterious, in this series it is the characters that will be constantly changing, while the island remains as it ever was, even though we only slowly grasp its secrets.