Magnetical Island

Just randomly read about Magnetic Island in the New Yorker. Here's a Wikipedia snippet:

The first European accounts of the island come from Captain James Cook who in 1770 while navigating the Australian coast called the island Magnetical Island as a magnetic pull interfering with his vessel's compass appeared to emanate from the island. People have since explored the general area of Magnetic Island with various instruments to discover what might have caused the effect that Cook reported, but nothing has been discovered.

And here's a World War II era observation post on the island:

Um, the Dharma Initiative called...

Proto-Losts

Yet again I'm just blatantly ripping off boingboing and once more it's in the same vein of premakes/remakes/preminiscent versions of current popular culture. First, a 60s-fied version of Lost:



Second, a show similar to Lost from the 60s:



For no real reason the second one reminded me of a secret town the USSR built in Siberia only reachable by train where they deposited all their brightest young creative talents. Completely cut off from the rest of the world they had their own folk music revival at the same time as the one in the United States, adding credibility to the theory that many sociopolitical movements aren't spearheaded by a few individuals or institutions but primed to happen in a (worldwide) culture. I can't remember or find the name of this town so you'll just have to trust me.

Many people whose opinion I respect and value love the 60s TV show The Prisoner and consider it to be Lost's true predecessor. I can only just barely see the resemblance. You can watch them all here but I suggest watching the first one in it's entirety to get a feel for it's campy appeal and then save yourself most of a day and watch AMC.com's Prisoner-In-A-Minute distillations (same page but separate tab).

Spoiler Alert!

I can't decide which I like more, the new season of Lost where people on a jet airliner inexplicably travel back in time, or this 1961 episode of the Twilight Zone where people on a jet airliner inexplicably travel back in time:



[Strangely you can watch it fine here but I can't embed it!]

Trivia: The episode's wiki page notes that there is a major scientific inaccuracy in the episode. Shortly before they spot the Brontosaurus, Flight 33's crew identify the contours of Manhattan island. But Manhattan didn't exist hundreds of millions of years ago because of continental drift. While dinosaurs may not have technically roamed New York City, mastodons probably did.

The Only Book Club I'd Ever Consider Joining

Fuck being poor and working all the time just to pay rent. All I want to be doing is reading and blogging (and drinking and sleeping and watching movies and making music) so on that note...:

I just came across both these websites about Lost and the books that are referred to or are seen being read (i.e. by Sawyer) in the series (the ABC.com website even links to the full episode that features the book). Reading some of these would probably be a much better between-season-time-waster (early 2009?! Ugh!!) than my previous one of watching all 105 episodes of J.J. Abrams' first series Alias (I can't believe I'm admitting this). Anyway, here are some books that I either have already read or am looking forward to reading and their possible symbolism in the show (I'm going to quote heavily without attribution from the Lostpedia website):

Lord of the Flies / Golding
This one is easy.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland / Carroll
Girl goes to alternate reality (maybe) where things are definitely not the same. Through the Looking Glass is also the name of an episode.

The Chronicles of Narnia / Lewis
Narnia is a hidden world where time passes faster than on Earth. It is guarded by Aslan, a figure who appears after death. Only certain people chosen can enter Narnia.

Dune / Herbert
Moving the island is similar to the spacefold technology used by the Spacing Guild to move the heighliners from one location to another. (I don't know what this means...yet)

Jurassic Park / Crichton
Scientists conduct illicit experiments on a remote island with lethal consequences.

The Moon Pool / Merritt
The Moon Pool of the Looking Glass DHARMA Initiative Station is a possible reference to this classic, pulp-scifi/fantasy novel concerning the strange adventures of the botanist Dr. Walter Goodwin on mysterious, otherworldly islands in the South Pacific

The Mysterious Island / Jules Verne
In the novel, several people and a dog crash-land a balloon onto an island in the South Pacific (as the actual Henry Gale apparently did), where odd things happen.

The Odyssey / Homer
Odysseus takes 10 years to return to his wife Penelope, maybe, possibly a connection to Desmond trying to get back to his girl Penelope? Nah, forget it...

Slaughterhouse-Five / Vonnegut
Desmond's experiences of becoming "unstuck in time" are similar to those experienced throughout the book by the protagonist Billy Pilgrim. Both Desmond and Billy Pilgrim experience these in a military setting, and become shunned by their squadmates. One of Desmond's squadmates is called Billy in reference to the novel's protagonist.

The Stand / King
The producers of the show said this is an influential book on the series. It deals with what happens to society after a virus kills almost everyone. Interesting until God and the Devil show up (I was so disappointed by the miniseries...)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz / Baum
Dorothy Gale's Uncle Henry is assumed by many to be named Henry Gale, although his and Aunt Em's surname was never established in Baum's books. The Lost character Henry Gale came to the Island in a balloon (and Ben claimed he had done so when he was calling himself "Henry Gale"); the Wizard arrived in Oz in a balloon.

And finally, the two books I am most interested in reading, The Invention of Morel by Casares (published by the New York Review of Books who in my very very limited experience can do no wrong) and Island by Huxley. Don't tell me what happens in them, I'm trying to find cheap used copies. [Update: my review]

One last thing. Here is what you get when you enter the Lost number sequence (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) as GPS coordinates (Latitude 4.815, Longitude 162.34) in Google Maps:


They moved the island!