Lost’s “Solitary:” Karma Hole

December 24, 2019March 21, 2020 ~ Piece, of the Sky

Said would be very good in the Gulf Wars version of Apocalypse Now, (not Jarhead, although that’s also a good movie). The Men Who Stare at Goats also comes to mind. Intel and comms.

In Survivor: Borneo, and other seasons, the tribe-mates eat rat. They’re not eating rabbits on the Lost Island. Speaking of rodents, here comes the Island plague. The Losties begin lathering up, to prevent disease. Got to stop the boar rash. Avoid a genetic bottleneck.

Rousseau is a genius. She built her whole bunker and several bunkers – like my underground Minecraft lair, in 2011-2013. She is good at signal, SERE and EOD. She knows her weapons: can’t shoot an M9 without a firing pin.

Rousseau says there are no monsters. Hell is other people. Some people, on the island, are way scarier than random beasts, like polar bears or obscure smoke monsters. Sartre. Cut to Soldier Said executing a prisoner. Nadia’s real name is Nur, Arabic for Light.

There are polar bears on the island, but humans are the most dangerous animal. In a museum I went to, as a kid, they would show you a mirror, after asking you what the most dangerous animal was. They were holding up a mirror to the darkness of the human condition. The true heart of darkness.

As noted earlier, the B plot is a bamboo aqueduct. The Losties get a plumbing system, like in ancient Rome. Showers and bathrooms. Unfortunately, for Rome, many of those pipes, back then, were made of lead. Plumbum. Pb. That certainly made for some wild Saturnalia feasts, near the Winter Solstice.

The Staff Station reminds me of the caduceus, carried by the god Mercury, namesake of another dangerous element. This mystical staff is also often connected, mistakenly, to medicine. Moses lifted up a serpent, on a staff, to heal the Israelites of a disease, in the Old Testament.

Rousseau faced the disease that killed her expedition – an epidemic from the slave ship, the Black Rock, like smallpox blankets, given to the New World. The Black Plague followed one of the Crusades, and was featured in the film, The Seventh Seal. The flu outbreak, that followed World War I, took the lives of millions.

The Others. Polar Bears. Two shipwrecks. Dharma Stations. There are so many threats on the Island. It is a quantum space-time sinkhole, the bottom of the world. One step above the Netherworld, the Other Side. One Step away from the global spirit world. Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun believed that there was life after death. He created the Saturn V rocket that took us to the moon.

The Dark Territory. Smoke monsters. Remnants. The island is a very dangerous pocket dimension. Survivor: Ghost Island is the Lost Island. Rousseau’s expedition was there to study space-time. The Numbers (from the equation) involve all of the planet’s history and time. And of course, the Hatch is a time capsule.

The whole island, itself, is a conduit and a time capsule, from ancient times. It folded away, from the rest of the world, almost 6000 years ago, only to be reconnected by wormholes. The Lost Island is a place that is a medium. The spirit of that place is very strong, like Genius Loci, in ancient Roman spirituality. Some of the statues, of those spirits, that have survived, held up snakes, to offer pilgrims protection and healing. Snakes and rats. Mercury and lead.

Perturbation Theory

March 12, 2018April 6, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

I miss the sea, water

Alli was paddling back, from kayaking out to the Peak, a rock that stood up in the water, rising at least twenty feet. Every time she came out to Ran’s house on the waterfront, she spent the morning heading out to the pinnacle and rowing around it, before heading back to shore.

The morning was hazy. White clouds hung low in the sky. The crest of the Peak, had been covered in fog.

One oar stroke at a time, Alli made her way forward, through the choppy waves of the low tide. She was cruising. The beach was in sight. Trees here and there, and the scrubland of the dunes.

Ran’s house came into view. Ran was sitting on the beach waiting for her. She had a fire going and was grilling breakfast sausages. Just like when I met her, Alli thought.

She tied up the boat at the dock out front. Strolling down the beachfront in her sandals, she waved to Ran, who waved back. In the house, she changed into a T-shirt and shorts that weren’t damp with sweat and put on a new sweatshirt. Outside, she made her way to Ran, who was plating the sausages.

“How was it out there?” Ran asked, as Alli got closer.

“Peaceful,” Alli said, sitting down on the sand.

“How was your parents’ house?” Ran asked, handing her a plate.

“Uneventful,” Alli answered, “We just watched ‘Jeopardy,’ mostly.”

“That’s good,” Ran said. She gave Alli a fork.

They ate the food, watching the sun climb through the low-hanging mist.

“How was your time with Kaan?” Alli asked. She opened a thermos of coffee Ran had brought.

“Oh, you know, just watched the fight,” Ran shrugged.

Ran unrolled a colorful, striped blanket, and they lay down in the dune grass, after eating their food, staring up at the brightening sky.

Ran put her arm around Alli’s shoulders, “Do you like being with me?”

Alli glanced at her and put her arm around Ran’s stomach, “Of course I do.”

She ran her hand over Alli’s soft hair, the medium fade, “Do you think people can reincarnate while still alive?”