Notes on Return to Xanadu, Chapter 43
Jan. 21st, 2016 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stefanie_beanWell, haven't done one of these in awhile.
In the comments for the chapter itself, Desdemona remarked on Sawyer as a character with "hidden depths," and on him writing. I thought I'd revisit my thoughts here (or they'd get buried in the comments.)
Sawyer as a writer feels pretty natural to me. In-story he was a voracious reader. Then there's that scene in "Namaste" (5x09) when Jack was jumping out of his skin, wanting Sawyer to help the Ajira time-travelers:
In my head-canon, Sawyer's "reading and thinking" during his Island years led him to finally write something himself when he got back to the mainland.
Sawyer's novel about a con-man in a Southern prison, Big House, was inspired by Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," made into a more-economically titled movie The Shawshank Redemption.
* * * * * * * *
One reviewer thought Carole was a bit harsh about Kate and Claire's respective situations. What I took away from "Par Avion" (3x12) was that teenage Claire had a tumultuous relationship with her mother, culminating in a screaming fight while Claire was driving. This led to the accident which put Carole into a coma, and very likely dumped a truckload of guilt onto young Claire.
Carole (and Lindsey's) strictness with Claire likely led to rebellion on her part, but the root of that strictness probably originated from Carole's fear that Claire would "make the same mistake" that Carole herself did. This fear did come to fruit, and while Carole didn't know that at the time, Lindsey certainly did. While Lindsey couldn't have been too mad at Claire for getting pregnant (Claire does live with her aunt before the fateful flight to LA), I can't imagine Carole or Lindsey being too supportive of Claire's situation.
I figured that Carole and Claire would have some unresolved issues about men, especially - given Carole's rocky relationship with Christian, and the normal human tendency to project one's conflicts onto others.
* * * * * * * *
I've always loved Claire and Kate's friendship, which the show has supported on so many occasions. Richard tries to get Claire to get onboard Ajira 316 by reminding her, "[W]e have a real chance to get far far away from him. We can be free from everything he ever did to us, and never look back." I like to think that as well-intentioned as Richard is, invoking MiB just reminds Claire of all her failures.
Kate, on the other hand, invokes hope and possibility, as well as echoing LOST's most powerful operational theme, "Nobody does it alone:"
This mutual web of support is what I wanted to invoke here in RTX with both Kate and Claire's pregnancies. I also wanted to draw close parallelisms both between the pregnant women *and* their childrens' fathers.
Jack and Hugo were "twin pillars" of Lostie society from their first meeting in the Pilot, until their parting words when Jack makes Hugo the new protector. In the Pilot, he tells Hugo to care for Claire, who later we discover is his half-sister. Thus while the two women have their own organic closeness which develops over the course of LOST, they also become more tightly linked when they each carry each respective protector's child. They are bonded not only by their friendship but also linked in a sense to the Island itself.
In the comments for the chapter itself, Desdemona remarked on Sawyer as a character with "hidden depths," and on him writing. I thought I'd revisit my thoughts here (or they'd get buried in the comments.)
Sawyer as a writer feels pretty natural to me. In-story he was a voracious reader. Then there's that scene in "Namaste" (5x09) when Jack was jumping out of his skin, wanting Sawyer to help the Ajira time-travelers:
JACK: So where do we go from here?
SAWYER: I'm working on it.
JACK: Really? Because it looked to me like you were reading a book.
SAWYER: [Chuckles] I heard once Winston Churchill read a book every night, even during the Blitz. He said it made him think better. It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, 'cause back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead.
JACK: I got us off the Island.
SAWYER: But here you are... [sighs] right back where you started. So I'm gonna go back to reading my book, and I'm gonna think, 'cause that's how I saved your ass today. And that's how I'm gonna save Sayid's tomorrow. All you gotta do is go home, get a good night's rest. Let me do what I do. (link)
In my head-canon, Sawyer's "reading and thinking" during his Island years led him to finally write something himself when he got back to the mainland.
Sawyer's novel about a con-man in a Southern prison, Big House, was inspired by Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," made into a more-economically titled movie The Shawshank Redemption.
* * * * * * * *
One reviewer thought Carole was a bit harsh about Kate and Claire's respective situations. What I took away from "Par Avion" (3x12) was that teenage Claire had a tumultuous relationship with her mother, culminating in a screaming fight while Claire was driving. This led to the accident which put Carole into a coma, and very likely dumped a truckload of guilt onto young Claire.
Carole (and Lindsey's) strictness with Claire likely led to rebellion on her part, but the root of that strictness probably originated from Carole's fear that Claire would "make the same mistake" that Carole herself did. This fear did come to fruit, and while Carole didn't know that at the time, Lindsey certainly did. While Lindsey couldn't have been too mad at Claire for getting pregnant (Claire does live with her aunt before the fateful flight to LA), I can't imagine Carole or Lindsey being too supportive of Claire's situation.
I figured that Carole and Claire would have some unresolved issues about men, especially - given Carole's rocky relationship with Christian, and the normal human tendency to project one's conflicts onto others.
* * * * * * * *
I've always loved Claire and Kate's friendship, which the show has supported on so many occasions. Richard tries to get Claire to get onboard Ajira 316 by reminding her, "[W]e have a real chance to get far far away from him. We can be free from everything he ever did to us, and never look back." I like to think that as well-intentioned as Richard is, invoking MiB just reminds Claire of all her failures.
Kate, on the other hand, invokes hope and possibility, as well as echoing LOST's most powerful operational theme, "Nobody does it alone:"
KATE: Claire, come on please!
CLAIRE: I can't!
KATE: Why?!
CLAIRE: Look at me! This Island's made me crazy, I--I don't want Aaron to see me like this. I don't even know how to be a mother anymore.
KATE: Listen to me, none of us do. Not at first. But you're not alone. Let me help you. Come on, let's go. (link)
This mutual web of support is what I wanted to invoke here in RTX with both Kate and Claire's pregnancies. I also wanted to draw close parallelisms both between the pregnant women *and* their childrens' fathers.
Jack and Hugo were "twin pillars" of Lostie society from their first meeting in the Pilot, until their parting words when Jack makes Hugo the new protector. In the Pilot, he tells Hugo to care for Claire, who later we discover is his half-sister. Thus while the two women have their own organic closeness which develops over the course of LOST, they also become more tightly linked when they each carry each respective protector's child. They are bonded not only by their friendship but also linked in a sense to the Island itself.
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(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-22 02:08 am (UTC)I will way, I'll have to reread once it's finished. I'm old and lose the sweep of the narrative. But it'll be fun and very satisfying to reread.
Thanks for writing it!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-29 10:55 pm (UTC)Kate is a saint at that point in the show, because at this point she knows that while she's doing what Jack has asked her to, it's going to cost her dearly.
The idea of a communal family is very appealing to me: not the hippie-dippy kind with no regularity or boundaries, but the kind where multiple couples raise their kids together.
Glad you liked the notes; thanks for reading them!
(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-30 03:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-29 10:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-01-29 11:05 pm (UTC)It's related to what in Catholicism is called "the baptism of desire." It's where the intention of the person is enough to convey the grace and spiritual consequence of the sacrament, even if the formalities can't be completed. For instance, if you intend to receive baptism but are hit by a bus on the way to the ceremony, that desire is enough to produce the spiritual effects of baptism.
In other words, when Jack really gives himself over to the Island (and shows his commitment by being willing to get on the Ajira plane), he shows an implicit desire to serve the Island, even before he meets Jacob and drinks the water. In a sense he's already "anointed." (I think Sayid speaks prophetically when he announces right before his own death in the sub, "Jack, it has to be you.")
So I'd say that all the healing and life-affirming powers of the protector are flowing to Kate - and her baby - through Jack.