Lyst: Cuse and Lindelof on Lost and Videogames

Until you mentioned it, I hadn't really connected Lost and Myst in my mind, but I think you really stumbled onto something here. In both, the beauty/tranquil nature of the surroundings always seemed unsettling - while you were safe and nothing was going to jump out at you on Myst, you always felt like something bad MIGHT happen. Mysteries in both have been solved by using logic and noting patterns, and like Myst, Lost frequently answers one mystery only to open up another mystery.

And wasn't the idea of Myst that these magical books created new worlds/dimensions? And time/fate/destiny could be manipulated or changed (I really don't remember too well...)? Even Myst's sequel, Riven, involved it's own "magic" number - 5 - a la Lost's magic numbers (4-8-15-16-23-42)....

Chad,

Please don't type those numbers. They are bad luck dude.

'Complex storytelling' is a misnomer; the story is largely generic conspiracy boilerplate with dollops of castaway stories. Indeed Cuse/Lindelof show a distressing myopia in their description of the characters: if the writers weren't inventing overheated Freud-101 backstories often devoid of anything but superficial interest (wanting facts isn't the same thing as caring about the characters), the castaways would be...going about the incredibly complex, interesting business of building a civilization on the beach while trying to get rescued.

It's the writers' staggering failure to engage with their promising premise that's pushed them further into Myst territory. If they gave a damn about the island community, only limply gestured at over the last 2.5 years, the show would be a mix of Deadwood (on the beach) and The X-Files (Jack/Kate/Locke/etc. having pointless boys'-adventure-novels troubles inland). With much, much, much worse dialogue, of course - there's nothing to suggest that most of the Lost writers are even capable of the kind of sharply-observed wit and empathy that Milch fills even his least creations with.

(And in any case Myst was a boring-as-the-tomb Zork knockoff about which the less said the better.)

"Indeed Cuse/Lindelof show a distressing myopia in their description of the characters: if the writers weren't inventing overheated Freud-101 backstories often devoid of anything but superficial interest (wanting facts isn't the same thing as caring about the characters), the castaways would be...going about the incredibly complex, interesting business of building a civilization on the beach while trying to get rescued."

And the show would be cancelled, because people don't give a rats rear parts about that.

What you off-handedly refer to as conspiracy boilerplate sets people's minds in motion, trying to bridge the gaps. And that is where magic happens.

You write as if with some authority, that Lost is a staggering failure, which is interesting, considering Lost's track record.

So maybe-just maybe--you just need to face that perhaps Lost isn't a staggering failure, but your expectations for the show are... well... warped.

It's called storytelling, you should look it up, it's fascinating.

(Myst was fine, and it is no more a Zork knockoff than Star Wars is a Star Trek knock-off).

Michael sez:

"...the castaways would be...going about the incredibly complex, interesting business of building a civilization on the beach while trying to get rescued."

And the show would be cancelled, because people don't give a rats rear parts about that.

Don't be a buffoon. Haven't you seen Deadwood? Or for that matter Swiss Family Robinson? To be sure, Lost's popularity is positively affected by the fact that it's a faux-profound potboiler that makes the audience feel like it's thinking. But the show's creators really do have pretensions to seriousness; listening to Lindelof and Cuse talk is slightly embarrassing at this point, as they shuffle around trying to justify the emptiness of the show's endless plot maneuvers and explain away the dead ends and dropped balls that plague it.

The audience is shrinking for the same reason The X-Files's audience shrank: viewers are running out of patience, and justifiably so.

Lost's artistic impact is a good deal smaller than you suspect; it's not treading new ground at all, formally or metaphorically. Its immediate commercial impact has already sailed past, in the form of doomed over-plotted hackwork like The Nine and more interesting formal experiments like Daybreak. Oh well.

Since you're presumably kidding about Myst and Zork - what debt could be clearer, after all? - I'll refrain from making fun of your analogy.

Best,
Wa.

You may want to take a good look at http://www.LOSTisaGame.com

It explains my long standing theory that LOST is a video game.

My theory is the most comprehensive theory available to date about LOST. It explains the mythology, character development, mission accomplishments, deaths, and rules of the game.

It also explains all of the duplicates in names, situations, professions, repeated dialogue, and why so many of the characters resemble each other.