Lost 3/21/2007

[GoodKingJayIII]

I'm in the "It's a MET-A-PHOR!!!" camp, personally. Ben even said he was trying to describe it in a way that Locke would understand.

Yes, I got the whole "MET-A-PHOR" thing...

I doubt there's some cardboard box labeled "Magic" in Ben's basement that allows him to pull out dead people and horses and black clouds and miscreant fathers at whim. I give the Lost writers a little more credit than that... but not much.

I thought it was stupid, but that doesn't make me brainless.

 

[Fast Learner]

Regarding Benry's eyes, I just rewatched and they're blue in the middle, too. For example, when he's talking to Jack, saying that yes, he'll let Jack's friends go just as soon as Jack leaves the island, his eyes are repeatedly clearly blue.

 

[Fast Learner]

Yes, I got the whole "MET-A-PHOR" thing...

So how does Benry using a metaphor do describe the freaky stuff we've all been seeing for the last three year mean the show has jumped the shark, then?

 

[Wycen]

Just a shot in the dark. The Others are descended from the people with 6 toes or the people that worshipped them.

Ah, yes, it all comes back to DnD

 

[Mark CMG]

Soon we'll have to start calling him Gilligan.

He can be hit with a hat at the end of each episode by Hurley.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes yes yes, it is of course a metaphor.

I don't think there is any other camp.

Yep, you're correct.

It was just a tremendously ty metaphor in the increasingly stupid nonsense-speak the Others seem to like to use.

GoodKingJay seems to be in another camp, hence the comments.

And you'd be wrong.

 

[RigaMortus2]

So, we have learned the specifics of how Locke was crippled. It did in fact involve his father, but it did not involve a car. Funny, but somehow I thought he was hit by a car.

I haven't read this whole post yet, so this may have been mentioned already...

Anyone remember the Hurley episode? There was a scene where he went to his lawyer (I believe) because he wanted to get rid of his money, because "bad things" keep happening. And as he states that, a man falls past the window in the background. Could this be Locke falling past him?

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

So how does Benry using a metaphor do describe the freaky stuff we've all been seeing for the last three year mean the show has jumped the shark, then?

Because a "magic box" (even a metaphorical one) where anything you desire pops out is a get out of jail free card. Writers short on ideas? Let's use the magic box! Plus, in a show that has completely lost focus since Season 1, a device like this only serves to further destroy that focus. They have spent far too much time developing--and then discarding--useless characters. The flashbacks, once a creative window into the connections each of these characters has to another, are now trite. Now they have a device that let's them do any old thing they want and explain it within reason because, well... it's a magic box!

You're welcome to your opinions, but the show's been teetering on the edge since about the middle of season 2. As far as I'm concerned, this ridiculous concept has thrown it over the cliff.

 

[Fast Learner]

Now they have a device that let's them do any old thing they want and explain it within reason because, well... it's a magic box!

I'm nearly positive that you don't know what a metaphor is. There is no box, there is no device, and it doesn't work the way Benry described it. It's a metaphor for the way something related to the island makes threads of reality tie together in non-deterministic ways.

To sum, no box, no device, no magical writer escape route. It's a metaphor for an effect.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I'm nearly positive that you don't know what a metaphor is. There is no box, there is no device, and it doesn't work the way Benry described it. It's a metaphor for the way something related to the island makes threads of reality tie together in non-deterministic ways.

To sum, no box, no device, no magical writer escape route. It's a metaphor for an effect.

Sure it is a metaphor for the way the island makes things happen. But that doesn't make it any less of a "magic box" that can be used to justify anything. A metaphor is just another way of describing something that is similar in some ways to something else in a maner that is easier to understand. Whether it is the island making threads of reality tie together, or a "magic box" the end result is the same. The writers have esentially opened the box (so to speak) to letting them "pull any rabbit of of a hat" that they need to whenever they need to and then hand wave away any need for logic by saying it was the "magic box" or "the island pulling together threads of reality." Whether intentional or not, Benry basicly summed up the effect and I agree not for the better of the show.