Poetry Friday: More John Donne

May15

I so enjoyed thinking about death (enjoyed paradoxically speaking, like the metaphysical poets) this week with Wit and Mr. Richardson’s little book, and John Donne and of course, LOST, that I thought I’d share another poem by Mr. Donne written on his sick-bed:

HYMN TO GOD, MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS.

SINCE I am coming to that Holy room,
Where, with Thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made Thy music ; as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before ;

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
That this is my south-west discovery,
Per fretum febris, by these straits to die ;

I joy, that in these straits I see my west ;
For, though those currents yield return to none,
What shall my west hurt me ? As west and east
In all flat mapsâ€”and I am oneâ€”are one,
So death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific sea my home ? Or are
The eastern riches ? Is Jerusalem ?
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar ?
All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them
Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ’s cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place ;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ;
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.

So, in His purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord ;
By these His thorns, give me His other crown ;
And as to others’ souls I preach’d Thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own,
â€œTherefore that He may raise, the Lord throws down.â€

“As west and east are one, so death doth touch the resurrection.” I do like that simile. And then there are the other similes and comparisons: Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross and Adam’s tree, the first Adam meets the Last Adam, a crown of thorns translated to a crown of glory.

I do like Mr. Donne’s poetry. It reminds me of the incongruities and the paradoxes of LOST, and of life in general.

Poetry Friday round-up is at the blog of Kelly Polark today.

LOST Rehash: The Incident

May14

Scattered thoughts and observations which may or may not become more coherent during the eight months that we must wait for our next LOST fix:

The conversation at the beginning of the episode:
Antagonist: “They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.”
Jacob: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Is this summation the same as Sawyer’s statement something to the effect: “Whatever happened, happened.”?
Discuss. ‘Cause I’m clueless.

Jacob was reading from a book of short stories by Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge, as John Locke fell from the umpteenth story of that building. I must read some Flannery O’Connor, even though I don’t like short stories.

Locke is/was the “loophole” that allowed the Smoke Monster/Partner of Jacob to do whatever it is he’s doing inside Locke’s (second?) body or with Locke’s appearance. Those two, Jacob and his antagonist, reminded me of the two brothers in the computer game Myst. In that game two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar (Cain and Abel?), are engaged in a struggle for power in which they both try to engage the person playing the game to help them.Of course, the problem for the game player is figuring out which brother is the “good guy” and which is not. The emphasis in LOST on books and puzzles and an unexplored island is also very Myst-like.

I loved the Star Wars moment when Sawyer shot the communication console in the sub. Sawyer is definitely the Han Solo type. And when Juliet gave Sawyer fits by changing sides with the simple declaration, “I changed my mind”?Classic woman’s prerogative. And Sawyer had the best lines last night:
“I don’t speak destiny.”
“This don’t look like LAX.”

However, I’m mad at Juliet. She gives up Sawyer, who obviously adores her, who tamed himself for her, who has her back, because she saw the way he looked at Kate? Stupid. Wrong-headed. Kate goes with Jack; they deserve each other. Sawyer goes with Juliet; they complement each other. Happily ever after.

So Jacob shows up at crisis points in each of the Losties lives and does what? Except for the conversation he had with Hurley, I can’t see that Jacob did much to influence the course of events or make them do anything in particular. Oh, I guess Jacob did cause Nadia’s death. Was he just mostly watching them, waiting to see what they would do, knowing that their destinies intersected? I don’t get it.

Ben was playing Aaron to Locke Impersonator’s Moses. Ben was going on and on about how Jacob never revealed himself to Ben in all the years he was on the island, and how he was passed over, and how, when Locke requests a meeting, Jacob immediately shows himself. But Ben didn’t know that Locke wasn’t really Locke.

Miles: “Has it occurred to any of you that your buddy is actually going to cause the thing he is trying to prevent. Perhaps the nuke is the incident.”
Good call, Miles.

I loved the Rose and Bernard retirement scene. They’re retired. “It’s always something with you people.” And now Rose and Bernard have opted out. I think they’re out of the show now, and although I will miss them, they made the right decision. Little Cabin in the Woods/Jungle.

LOST Rehash: Follow the Leader

May7

I’m a little late with this week’s rehash because I can’t figure out whom to follow. In fact, as far as LOST is concerned, I’m officially lost.

As I asked last week, which leader?

Jack is trying to lead the Losties (1977) in carrying out Faraday’s vision of blowing up the entire island with a hydrogen bomb. I’m with Kate on this idea: since when did detonating bombs and shooting kids become anyone’s “destiny”? Sayid is the only one following Jack, and Eloise seems to have her own agenda.

Oh, yeah, and who’s the leader of the Others (1977)? Whidmore or Eloise? Or RIchard Alpert?

John Locke thinks he’s the leader of the Others (200?), and Richard is just an “advisor.” But it’s Richard who is leading the Band of Others to Jacob, who may be a leader or may be a fraud? John’s such a great leader that he gets to tell Richard to tell John Locke (time-travelling version) what to do so that John basically tells himself to die before returning to the island.

Alpert and Ben (200?) are letting Locke have his head, so to speak, but at the same time they’re muttering to each other about how Locke is starting to be a problem. So Ben thinks he’s still in charge, manipulating things from behind the curtain, as he’s always done.

Sawyer (1977) led Juliet right onto that sub and had plans to make a fortune investing in Microsoft. But he gained an unwanted (by Juliet, at least) follower at the last minute as Kate made the investment partnership into a triangle —again. Kate, get lost; go sober up your first boyfriend, Jack.

In Dharmaville (1977), the leadership question is even murkier, if that’s possible. Horace is supposed to be the Dharma mayor or Grand Poobah, or something. But Crazy Radzinsky, along with his nerdy henchman Phil, has staged a coup and taken over. However, they all let Dr. Chang tell them to send the women and children to safety, and it’s Hurley who’s the behind-the-scenes instigator of that decision.

So, “follow the leader” might be good advice if anyone knew who the leader was.

By the way, Star Wars isn’t the only 70’s/80’s movie to which I’m seeing flashbacks:

The scene where Jack and his crew swam under the pond to get to the caves where the hydrogen bomb was stored reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure (1972). And those Poseidon survivors had leadership issues, too. If only LOST could have Shelley Winters as one of the Losties!

Then, all the torches in underground tombs or whatever they are with hieroglyphics on the walls: shades of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)! I was waiting for the snakes to come crawling out of the walls.

Of course, the whole time travel thing and can we fix the past to make the future turn out differently? Or are we messing up things in the past in a way that will mess up the future in a catastrophic way? Back to the Future (1985).

I know that scene with the submarine leaving the island reminded me of some movie, too. Anyone?

LOST Rehash: This Place Is Death and 316

Feb19

Last week, honestly, I was too concerned and upset and hormonal about CPSIA to blog about LOST. I’m still concerned and upset, but I’m past the hormones. So, this week you get a two-fer. My thoughts on last week’s episode, This Place Is Death, and this week’s, 316.

This Place Is Death:

Dare I say, this episode is about Death. Lots of death. the French girl Nadine is killed by the smoke monster. The other three French guys get some sort of evil disease, and Rousseau kills them. Charlotte dies. John Locke goes back to not-Island time and place, and we know that he dies. Sun almost kills Ben. But maybe the Island is Death. Have you noticed that nobody has died off-island, except for Locke? Michael had to go back to the Island, or nearby, before he could die. Lots of people have died on the island, but none of the people who left have died —yet. As for Locke, why does he have to leave the island? He doesn’t really gather up all the Losties and bring them back. Instead, he dies. Does he have to leave the island in order to die?

What does it mean that the Island is Death? Are we back to purgatory? Nope, that theory was denied several seasons ago by the writers. And if the Island is a place of Death, it’s also a place where people are healed, come back to life. Rose at least thinks she’s been healed of her cancer. Locke could walk again. For some people. the island is Death, and for others it’s Life? By the way, I read somewhere that the name on the side of the van Ben is driving in this episode, Canton-Rainier, is an anagram for “reincarnation.” Not a coincidence, but I’m not sure what it means either.

316:

Numbers. The LOST numbers, the “cursed” numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42. The original plane that crashed was Oceanic Flight 815. Now, the Oceanic Six are returning to the island on Ajira Flight 316. Why not 416, to go with the numbers? Because the numbers “316” mean something new. I googled and 316 is the title of a Van Halen song, an instrumental number that Van Halen named after the birthdate of his son. 316 also evokes the Biblical reference John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

I don’t think the writers are preaching (yet), but that Biblical reference does tie into the whole theme of “believing.” “I wish you had believed me,” read John’s note. Jack’s still not sure he believes. Ben (of all people) comes nearest to preaching when he retells the story of the apostle Thomas who had enough faith to follow Jesus to his probable death, but not enough to believe in the resurrection. Ben’s priceless line, “We’re all convinced, sooner or later, Jack” echoes Philippians 2:8-11:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: hat at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

On the one hand, I like all the Biblical and Christian references, but on the other hand, I like my religion “pure and undefiled.” There are also references on LOST to reincarnation, psychics and astrology, numerology, TIbetan Buddhism, and and who knows what else. I hope they’re not throwing everything in there helter-skelter, Matrix-style, and hoping that everyone will fixate on what fits with their belief system and ignore the rest. Or hoping for some sort of religious/philosophical syncretism that doesn’t really work, even in a fantasy. So, I would agree with Ben, that we’re all convinced sooner or later, but convinced of what? It matters not only that one believes, but also WHAT one believes. Or to (loosely) quote the latest episode of House that I also watched today, “Quit saying A truth! A truth! There is only one truth.

We keep being reminded that Ben is NOT a good guy and not trustworthy. Jack asks Eloise Hawking if Ben is telling the truth, and she answers, “Probably not.” Jack asks what is going to happen to all the other people on the plane, and Ben says, “Who cares?” Jack asks Ben how he can read, and Ben lies, for absolutely no reason, saying “My mother taught me me how.” (Ben’s mom died at his birth.) I think Ben went to kill Penny as his “loose end to tie up” because he promised Widmore that he would kill his daughter in retribution for the murder of Alex. Why is Ben on the plane anyway? I think he only kept the Oceanic Six alive and helped them go back because it was HIS only way of returning. I don’t think he was supposed to return; I’m not sure he was “supposed” to be the Leader of the Others. In other words, I think Ben is the fly in the ointment.

By the way, I haven’t read Ulysses, don’t plan to read it, especially not since Ben was reading it on the plane. It must be an evil book.

I can hardly wait to find out the story of how and why Sayid, Hurley, and Kate changed their minds and got on the plane. And what’s Jin doing in a Dharma suit?

Oh, I love the Narnia references, and even the Star Wars and Star Trek nods. Charlotte said the only other language she spoke was Klingon. The underground Pendulum Station was called The Lamppost. Locke returns in next week’s episode(?), hooded and looking just like good old Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Thinklings discussion of LOST 316: “I don’t know how comfortable I am with John Locke being a Christ figure, but that certainly seems to be where they are going with this. How do you feel about that? ”

Rocks in My Dryer: “We learn that Mrs. Hawking and her crew have been hanging out in a bizarre laboratory with a giant swinging pendulum that searches for The Island. I think I may have missed a few important plots elements at this point, because I was distracted by the way all the characters walked right around the pendulum perfectly gracefully, and I wondered when it was going to knock someone over. PLEASE, WHACK BEN!”

SO, what did you think of this week’s episode of LOST? What did it make you think about? Leave a comment, and I’ll link.

LOST Rehash: The Little Prince

Feb4

SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS

Jin’s back! We knew he couldn’t really be dead. Is anyone really, truly, without a doubt, never to revived, dead as a doornail, dead on this island? Boone, Shannon, Locke’s dad Cooper, all those Dharma people and redshirt Losties, Ana Lucia and Libby, Mr. Eko, Charlie? I suppose they’re dead, but if we’re going to rewind Island time, why couldn’t we rewind to before they died and start again there? And if we did, would it change anything?

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”

And yet Marley’s ghost returns. And yet Jin’s near-dead body washes up on shore in another time and place. And I think John Locke is Hamlet. Hamlet’s been talking to his father’s ghost when that confused and indecisive Danish prince complains:

The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

Of course, Locke is the prince, the anointed one, who’s supposed to set the island right in time and space. But whereas Hamlet was supposed to accomplish his father’s revenge, Locke has another mission: to bring back the wandering Losties who have left the fold and become lost in their lies and deceit.

I’m sure the title of this episode mostly refers to Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s fantasy, Le petit prince. Interesting that the book was originally written in French, and Danielle’s French contingent shows up on the beach in this episode. Also, Aaron’s sort of in the middle of everything (a little child shall lead them?), and I suppose he’s also the “little prince” of the title. I don’t really understand why Aaron is so very important, but he’s another “special” child, isn’t he?

Speaking of special children, why was it OK for Walt and Michael to leave the island, but not for Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley, Sayid and Aaron? What’s Walt doing these days anyway? Growing up, I reckon.

What’s going on between Ben and Sayid? Sayid was working for Ben, but now Sayid doesn’t trust Ben and wants to save Hurley from Ben’s influence and machinations. It’s almost as if Ben has some kind of control thingie implanted in Sayid; Sayid’s eyes go dead as soon as Ben enters the picture. Maybe it’s similar to the kind of control he planted in Sawyer (or didn’t plant in Sawyer). Something weird is going on there.

Everyone in Jumping Around Island Time is starting to hemorrhage. Except for Locke, Sawyer, and Faraday. Maybe Charlotte and Miles were on the island as children? And Juliet’s been there longer than Sawyer and Locke. Why are only the Losties jumping around in time and not Danielle’s French people or the Canoe People or Richard’s people or the Dharma people? Who are the Canoe People, anyway? Am I forgetting something?

I’m sure I’m forgetting lots of things.

Best lines go to Sawyer as usual: “Thank you, God!” “I take that back!”
And, Sawyer to Juliet: “Yeah, time travel’s a b—!”

Worst attempt at being profound: Locke says, “I needed that pain to get where I am now.” But the question is: where is he now, and is it such a great place (or time)? I still don’t like Locke, never have, probably never will.

Worst love quadrangle: Jack still loves Kate. Sawyer loves Kate, too. Kate still doesn’t know whether she’s with Jack or Sawyer. Juliet always gets stuck with the leftovers. But Sawyer’s unstuck in time with Juliet, not Kate. And Kate says she’s “always been with you, Jack.” If you can’t be with the one you want, love the one you’re with?

If you’re down and confused
And you don’t remember who you’re talkin’ to
Concentration slip away
Cause your baby is so far away.
Well, there’s a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can’t be with the one you love
Love the one you’re with
Love the one you’re with

Not suggesting those lyrics as guidance for life, just drawing connections. Leave your connections and links at the Lost Books Challenge blog.

Till next week . . .

7 Quick Takes Friday

Jan30

1
The Guardian has a list of Ten of the Best Butlers in Literature, and it doesn’t include Jeeves. Is that because he’s a valet, not a butler? According to Wikipedia:

Jeeves is a valet, not a butler. However, Bertie Wooster has lent out Jeeves as a butler on several occasions, and notes that “if the call comes, he can buttle with the best of them”.

I saw this idea at Beyond Homemaking’s Seven Quick Takes, and it looks like such a great mind-sharpener and spiritual boost. Only two problems: I already have 12 (huge) projects for the year, and If I do this memorization project, I want to memorize something else, not James. Maybe Philippians, as Sara mentions in her post.

3
Speaking of projects, Friday Quick Takes would be a good time to check in on my projects and update you and myself on how I’m doing.
Bible Reading Project: I have been reading II Samuel 1-8 all month, but not every day. I’ve decided that I don’t like David very much right now. His sons turned out rotten, and I don’t need that kind of discouraging example in my life right now.
February: I Thessalonians. Maybe I should take it as my memorization project.

4
For my Newbery Project, I was trying to read the Newbery winners and honor books in order from 1923 when the award was first given until now. I haven’t picked up on that yet, but I am reading Holes by Louis Sachar, the winner of the 1999 Newbery Medal. So far, I can say it’s fantastically weird, but I think I kind of like it.

5
For Operation Clean House I was supposed to clean out the dressing area and closet in January. I got the dressing area, but the closet is untouched. Maybe this afternoon and tomorrow.

For my LOST Reading Project, I signed up for the LOST Books Challenge and chose some books to read. Now I just need to get reading.

7
For my US Presidents Reading Project, I read Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner (Semicolon review here). In February, I’m going to start on John Adams by David McCullough, which happens to be the Semicolon Book Club selection for March.
US Presidents Reading Project home page.

Thanks for dropping by. See you next week for more project updates and random book and homeschool thoughts. Right now, I’ve got to get on that closet.

LOST Rehash: Jughead

Jan29

First, you should read J. Wood on last week’s double episode.

For four seasons we’ve watched the narrative jump from the island time to flashbacks and flashforwards, and we’ve had to piece together events in order to make sense of the storyline and locate ourselves in relation to that storyline. This is just what the island characters are forced to do now; piece together out-of-order events to make sense of them, and locate themselves in relation to those events. In this way, the experiences of the watchers and the watched converge through the narrative.”

Yeah, and then some. The whole time travel thing is messing with my mind. Computer Guru Son said something that helped: each character is on his on timeline/road, and when those timelines intersect may be one time for one character and another for someone else. For instance, Locke meets WIdmore in 2007 (?three years after the crash) when Locke is time-travelling back to the past. But Widmore should remember, in 2007, meeting Locke and Faraday and Sawyer and Juliette on the island when WIdmore was just a youth. (I still don’t understand why Desmond forgets, until his nightmare, that he already met Faraday.) Locke remembers all the times he has met Richard Alpert, as a boy in California, on the island, but in the 1954(?) time travel event, Alpert had not yet met Locke. In fact, Locke wasn’t even born yet. It’s still very confusing for me, and it helps to write it out like that. I am sometimes a bear of very little brain.

In his piece on last week’s episodes, Mr. Wood also talks about what he calls, after another author, Paul RIcoeur, “cosmological time (time that’s measured; minutes, hours, days) and phenomenological time (time as experienced; past, present, future).” I’m assuming that these terms are the same as Madeleine L’Engle’s chronos and kairos. L’Engle defines chronos as ordinary clock time and kairos as God’s time, in which notions of past and present are irrelevant. In kairos it is possible to arrive at a place and time in a sort of circular route before you ever left it. I wonder if Jack and the rest of the Oceanic Six will return to the island in 2007 or before they left in 2004, perhaps taking advantage of what Wood calls a wormhole or what L’Engle names her book, a wrinkle in time.

Oh, and did you notice that Faraday’s abandoned girlfriend is “unstuck in time”, too? And we still don’t know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Is Widmore an evil exploiter, or is he the benefactor of a sick and helpless victim of Faraday’s dangerous experiments? Or both? If Ben is fighting Widmore, is he a good guy? Who is Abadon and for whom is he working? Is Faraday bad because he abandoned the girl in the bed (Theresa Spencer), or is he good because he’s trying to save the island and Charlotte? But can Faraday be good if he’s working for Widmore?

Awwww, Penny and Desmond have a baby! And Penny’s loyal to the end, even when it looks as if Desmond is headed back to the Island. Can Penny go there, even if she wants to? And they named the baby Charlie. Awwww.

No books or literary references in tonight’s episode that I caught, but next week’s episode is called The Little Prince.

“Men occupy very little space on Earth. If the two billion inhabitants of the globe were to stand close together, as they might for some public event, they would easily fit into a city block that was twenty miles long and twenty miles wide. You could crowd all humanity onto the smallest Pacific islet.
Grown-ups, of course, won’t believe you.”
Le petit prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-ExupÃ©ry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission.

Go to the LOST Books Challenge blog to leave a link to your thoughts on this episode of LOST.

Poetry Friday: Hurley Needs a Cool Code Name

Jan23

Dude, are you OK? You’re looking kinda….goth.

Great, go look down the burning death hole!

Dude, that was like a. . . jedi moment.

Back home, I’m known as something of a warrior myself.

We’re lost on an island, running from monsters, boars, freaking polar bears.

Locke’s out in the jungle killing stuff.

The numbers are bad.

Did either of you see a guy run through here…in a bathrobe…with a coconut?

I just go along with it, ’cause I’m along for the ride. Good old fun-time Hurley.

I like that I like chicken?

The torch near the dynamite thing, not making a whole lot of sense to me.

Let’s look Death in the face and say, ‘Whatever, man!”

Did that bird just say my name?

So, like, the hatch blew off your underwear?

Attention Others. Come in Others.
best stay away from our beach…

Can’t believe you’re just giving him Australia. Australia’s the key to the whole game.

I don’t wanna see the ocean.

Dude, I’ve been having regular conversations with dead people.

The last thing I need now is paranoia.

Never say never, dude.

OK, as poetry it’s severely lacking in form, rhythm, and other poetical elements. However, it works for me as a sort of shorthand summary of Hurley’s experience on the island (LOST) and our experience as viewers trying to understand and assimilate all the plot lines and themes and numerous strands of the show that is LOST. In other words, I’m having fun.

Check in with Laura Salas for some real poetry on this Friday.

My LOST Reading Project

Jan22

Scroll down or click for my thoughts on last night’s episode of LOST. I’m joining Amy’s LOST Books Challenge in which “(p)articipants are asked to choose at least five books off the list of books alluded to or mentioned on the show to complete by the time the series concludes in 2010. If participants did not complete the first challenge, they can use those same books again. Find books here, here, or here.”

My books (subject to change):

Island by Aldous Huxley.

On Writing by Stephen King.

The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien.

The Stone Leopard by Colin Forbes.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I’ve never read this (cult?) classic, and I figure I ought to?

I’ve chosen five, and I may choose more. I may start some of the above selections and not be able to finish. I’ve done a lot of that for some reason this month. Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading some of these and correlating them to LOST as the season progresses. If you’ve already read any of the books I’ve chosen, tell me what you thought.

Go here to sign up for the LOST Books Challenge.

LOST Rehash: Because You Left and The Lie

Jan21

I just got through three hours of LOST, and to tell the truth, as Hurley insists we should always do, I’m a little bit disappointed. The season premiere at any rate seems to be all about action and adventure and chases and people getting shot, not much character development and no interesting relationship stuff. I’m NOT talking about the Kate/Jack/Sawyer triangle, just relationships and friendships and even enmities. There wasn’t anything new about the people themselves.

Hurley doesn’t trust Ben. Hurley’s mom believes in him. Sun doesn’t like Ben, and she blames him for Jin’s death. Sayid and Ben have had a falling out. Locke’s not really dead, or else he’s going to come back to life on the island. Faraday has a mother, probably the white-haired lady whose name I don’t remember. Widmore’s evil, which is no surprise to anyone.

There was some graphic violence and general nastiness, but no “wow!” moments when I thought “Man! That blows my mind!” I’m glad Faraday is becoming a key player on the island, that he’s the only one who has any idea what’s going on. I don’t like the idea that Locke is so special that he, and only he can save the island (save the world?). I don’t like Locke, never have.

Questions:

Where did the flaming arrows come from? Dharma people? Or someone else?

Why didn’t Desmond remember meeting Faraday before outside the hatch? Way before at Oxford?

Where are Claire and her dad while the island is moving around in time?

What’s with the compass that Richard gave Locke?

Walt’s special. Locke’s special. Desmond’s special. Ben’s special. How many “special” people are there?

What was Faraday doing under the Orchid Station with the Dharma people?

What’s this thing Miles has with dead people —and dead boars? And Miles corrects Sawyer’s nicknames?

I’m still in for the duration, but I hope they get some interesting character development in the mix because I don’t want to spend the entire season watching people run around the dark jungle and getting flashed through time and Jack and the rest of the Oceanic Six chasing each other and trying to form a posse.

If you posted about LOST, whether you got more out of it or less, leave a comment, and I’ll link.

Shannon loved it, even though it “messed with my mind,” at Rocks in My Dryer.

Amy thinks it’s going to be a great season.

Robyn’s kinda lost.

Joanna’s a hopeless addict, and her mind is buzzing with questions and theories.

Sarah asks, “When am I?”

My Friend Amy loves Faraday, too.

Michelle at Pridelands Mommy is also happy that Fraday is going to be a key character this season.

Friend Donna doesn’t like Faraday. She thinks he’s sneaky and pretentious. C’mon, Donna, he’s a lovable physics nerd. What’s not to like?

Lisa thinks Charlotte is Ben’s little childhood playmate. Only her name was Annie, wasn’t it?

Crystal has lots of questions and observations.

Bay at Queen Mother blog likes seeing dead people pop up again.