lost, stolen, strayed

[freckles_and_doubt]

Henry Jenkins has a really interesting analysis of narrative pleasure in Lost, here, with a vague stab at accounting for JJ's unaccountable tendency to jump the shark. Not because he wants to, but because the wilder and wilder speeds of the jetski make it inevitable that he'll finally lose control just as the shark happens by. (Plus bonus Twin Peaks references. No-one remembers Twin Peaks these days. Possibly because they retain only the most confused sense of it? I remember watching it with strawberryfrog, back in the day, and ascending regularly to new and surprising levels of bafflement. Ah, nostalgia.)

I now return you to the speaking end of Seagoon... no, wait. I now return to the thrice-damned Masters thesis the editing of which is causing me teeth-gnashing, hair-tearing and inexorable mental and moral decay. The student's grasp of causal logic is considerably worse than JJ's.

Comments

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

Twin peaks ... You have to watch it from the start, then the bafflement kind of makes sense. I sould get the box set or something, assuming that there is one.

[(Anonymous)]

I've done that. Spent a whole weekend watching back-to-back Twin Peaks (video, this was a while back). Not sure it made any better sense, but it was very enjoyable.

scroob

[extemporanea.livejournal.com]

The thing about Twin Peaks is that, unlike Lost, the bafflement doesn't actually matter. One enjoys being baffled. I never watched the end of the series, so none of the mysteries were ever explained, but the series stays with me as a series of weird, inexplicable vignettes which are, in style and detached significance, their own reason for existing. Lost, on the other hand, doesn't have enough substance to simply baffle as a raison d'etre. IMNSHO, anyway.

Strangely, AmazonUK acknowledges the existence of no boxed set, or, for that matter, of DVDs after Season 1. Strange. Very strange.

[pinkthulhu.livejournal.com]

Seinfeld took forever before it started coming onto DVD, and think how huge that was.

[strawberryfrog.livejournal.com]

I watched the end of the series, and none of the mysteries were ever explained.

I didn't say that the bafflement ceases to be bafflement, merely that the fact of bafflement makes sense...

[kadekraan.livejournal.com]

I've got Twin Peaks Season 1 on DVD (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twin-Peaks-Complete-Season-1/dp/B000071IYQ/sr=1-1/qid=1157042219/ref=pd_bowtega_1/202-1660997-4319855?ie=UTF8&s=dvd) if you ever want to borrow it.

[(Anonymous)]

I adored Twin Peaks, have the entire series on tape from when it aired (along with the music CD and Laura Palmer's diary, and...), and have oft compared it to Lost. Whereas Northern Exposure had a more gentle sense of magic realism (and a wonderful Twin Peaks spoof in the first season).

Cheers, Dayle
"There's a fish in the percolator."

[pinkthulhu.livejournal.com]

Northern Exposure, yeah that had a pretty cool whimsical atmosphere. And Chris the DJ later turned up as Carrie's boyfriend Aidan on Sex and the City, I seem to recall!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, Chris in the Morning later became Aidan, and also the fiance in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. He's still most gorgeous as Chris, though. Major yumminess. :-) I have a feeling he's going to be the inspiration for a hero in one of my upcoming books...

Cheers, Dayle

[wolverine-nun.livejournal.com]

I watched Twin Peaks with a sense of detachment from the bafflement. No, I don't understand, no, this doesn't bother me. I wondered about this attitude at one point, and became convinced that it was because of first year physics. I didn't understand that either, and had learnt to just ride the confusion, and hope that it would all make sense one day. Neither Twin Peaks nor physics ever did.