THEORY! The Dharma Initiative was an experiment in psychic marketing. The world-saving idealism was a bunch of crap. That was just a story — a Trojan horse — designed to push an agenda: subliminally influencing people to buy and eat Apollo candy bars.
THEORY! Lost is a meditation on the evolution of media and the impact of external forces on artistic integrity.
MEMO TO SELF: It's curious to me that many of the hatches are linked to a distinctly different form of media technology. And if you follow Dr. Marvin Candle as he has appeared on Lost, a chronological pattern is detected. The Swan: film. The Pearl: television. The Flame: computer. Now, the unfolding story of media's progression of film to computer is the story of increasing interaction between consumer/producer, user/programmer. In the Swan orientation film, the order is clear: do NOT communicate with the outside world. In the Pearl orientation films, occupants are asked to communicate by sending diaries through pneumatic tubes. It also should be noted that asking TV viewers to keep diaries of what they watch is EXACTLY how ratings information for TV shows used to be collected and tabulated. Finally, in the Flame, Dharma agents could access an interactive Marvin Candle video after mastering a computer chess game. The twist: the interactive video provides instructions on blowing up the Flame in case it is invaded by ''hostiles.'' Taken together, the Marvin Candle progression is a cautionary tale about cultivating interaction between the artist and the audience. It also could be a parable about human relationships in general. What happens to the writer when he allows a reader into his process? Similarly, what happens to the individual when he comes part of a couple or a community?
ADDENDUM: The presence of Apollo candy bars in the Dharma stations = the evolution from traditional advertising to product placement. Now if you excuse me, I feel like eating some chocolate.
THE DOC JENSEN MANIFESTO!
A perspective of Lost; a theory of popular culture; a call to action; and a joke, all rolled into one! From Y: The Last Man number 54, a comic book written by Lost scribe Brian K. Vaughan, the following is a snippet of dialogue between two friends, both artists, one slightly more pretentious (idealistic!) than the other.
CAYCE: You're right that not everything we do has to have some kind of social agenda, but that doesn't mean it can only be anesthetizing crap. We could create something new, something that challenges our audience at the same time it's helping them escape. Artists are supposed to hold a mirror to society, but ours could be a... a f---ed-up funhouse mirror!
HENRIETTA: What in God's name are you talking about?
Doc Jensen says: Amen.
TO BE CONTINUED ON FRIDAY...
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