Lost and Other Stuff
Mar. 30th, 2010 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperx* {{hugs}} and thanks to Rowan for the e-gift!
* Finally finished Blackout by Connie Willis, and --as warned -- it ended on a cliffhanger. I want the sequel now. The story definitely picked up in the last half of the book when the characters began to worry whether their actions had changed history and followed each of their dawning realizations that they may be permanently stuck in the past. I was particularly moved by the sequence when Polly concluded that her fellow air-raid shelterers had died in the Blitz.
But now I need the sequel All Clear to discover whether they actually changed the course of WWII and whether they all make it home to the year 2060.
* Lost tonight! USA Today has an article/review.
Quote Excerpt:
Lost has always been a series of paradoxes — a beautifully told, universally sound drama of personal redemption wrapped within a sometimes maddeningly perplexing spiritual/sci-fi fantasy.{...} And yet Lost is also unlike any network show before, since and probably to come, a series liberated by its unprecedented, pre-set, three-years-in-advance end date to be as bizarre and intricate as it likes. Just try to explain the current plot — with its sideways leaps into an alternate universe, its battle between seemingly eternal beings who may or may not represent good and evil, and its transformation of one of the show's characters into the human representation of a monster — to someone who has never seen the show.
If ratings and renewal were still an issue, how likely is it that ABC would be on board for story lines that leave you wondering not just who and where people are, but when and in which universe {...} Still, while those magical-mystery answers are of interest, it's a mistake to let them consume your viewing energy. As the show reminds us time and time again, it's not the island that's "lost" — or Lost — but rather its characters. What matters most isn't the way the smoke is blowing; it's Jack's loss of faith, Sawyer's loss of humanity, and Sun's loss of Jin. Jacob and the Man in Black are beyond our grasp; it's the people they're using who are the soul of the show...
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 08:01 pm (UTC)I was glad I knew going it that it was to be continued, because otherwise I would have wailed at the end. Like you, I want the sequel NOW.
I found the multiple viewpoints a bit confusing and disjointing at first, but after a while, I got used to it and enjoyed seeing what was going on with each person. I admit that a couple of times I skipped over a chapter or two to continue a specific person's story and find out the resolution to a mini-cliffhanger. I did find I was more interested in Polly and Merope/Eileen's stories than I was Mike's. Perhaps because I'm traditionally more interested in what was going on on the "home front" with the Blitz than the actual fighting and military stuff.
I had never heard about the inflatable-tank decoys. Funny!!
Since we never heard anything else from Mary after she got caught outside in the bombing, I figured that sadly meant she had died. Did you think that?
My guess for the unnamed time traveler at the end is Colin. I wonder what's going on in Oxford to make all the drops fail, but yet allow someone else through? I rather wonder if it's deliberate on Dunworthy/Oxford's part -- the rampant drop-switching was extremely suspicious. Perhaps they're trying to disprove the time-travel opponent's theory, though that strikes me as dangerous and I can't believe Dunworthy would endanger the time-travelers like that. Or maybe the time travel is screwing things up, like the time-travel opponent had theorized.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-30 11:01 pm (UTC)I enjoyed Mike's plot although, I admit all I know of Dunkirk came from Atonement.
Since we never heard anything else from Mary after she got caught outside in the bombing, I figured that sadly meant she had died. Did you think that?
I had thought that she'd saved the person she was with, but then she was never mentioned again. When they kept trying to figure out who else was in WWII I thought someone would mention her but... nothing. I figure that thread will have to return in the next book.
My guess for the unnamed time traveler at the end is Colin.
Totally! In fact, I wondered whether it's in fact an older Collin... just like he promised.
I rather wonder if it's deliberate on Dunworthy/Oxford's part -- the rampant drop-switching was extremely suspicious.
My thought was that there was definitely something going wrong even before they took their drops. Perhaps history was being changed even then and that's the slippage. Perhaps there's a back to the future bit to it that while things are slipping the future is different. However, I also think that the part about history making corrections to re-align will be how it works out. Things have slipped and thus it's incredibly difficult to schedule because from the 2060 perspective, history may keep changing, but eventually it will realign and work out... I think. I don't think history will be radically changed in the end and the mystery time traveller shows that the portals haven't stopped working even if their individual portals have.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-31 07:03 pm (UTC)Heh. Me too!
When they kept trying to figure out who else was in WWII I thought someone would mention her but... nothing. I figure that thread will have to return in the next book.
She didn't have any dealings with the other three back in Oxford, so I guess they didn't know she was there. Perhaps Gerald knows, and they'll meet up with him at some point.
Totally! In fact, I wondered whether it's in fact an older Collin... just like he promised.
Hmm, that hadn't occurred to me. In that vein, I wonder if it's significant that Polly had a bit of a flirtation with Sir Geoffrey despite their age difference.
It will be interesting to see how/if history works itself out. Like you, I imagine it will re-align eventually. But how?