Of Bald Men and Bears

For those of you who watch LOST, you might be interested in the article published in today's USA Today about how the series uses the names of philosophers from history as their characters. (Thanks to Grant for finding this and telling me about it.)

Unfortunately, I thought that the article was terribly misguided, so I wrote a rather long comment in response. My contention (one that I have had from Season One) is that LOST uses the names of philosophers by giving them to characters who represent the exact opposite of the philosophy espoused by their historical counterpart. I imagine that when we one day meet a character who says and does the same things as their namesake, we should either distrust that person as a fraud, or we should be tipped off that this particular character is the most important in the entire series. Right now, I am wondering if that messianic character would be Desmond.

You can read the article and my comment (at the bottom) here. Note especially my argument about LOST's use of John Calvin in an early portion of my comment.

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Edit 8:54 p.m., 3/28/07: One of the experts that the article cited (whom I contradicted) wrote back and kindly clobbered me. Oh, and I was completely wrong about John Calvin. I guess I've just learned over the years to enjoy the taste of my foot in my mouth. :)

Labels: Fun, Life, Philosophy, Television, Theology

Posted by Jacob on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 5:03 PM | Permalink