Another thing I really like a lot about Lost is that it has a lot of allusions to different pieces of literature or elements of culture. It also has a lot of symbolism which is ultimately what makes it comparable to a piece of literature. There are multiple references to Alice in Wonderland (The "White Rabbit" episode and Jack's quest to find his father) and The Wizard of Oz ("The Man Behind the Curtain"). Furthermore, Sawyer also references numerous canonical pieces of literature including Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies. He often compares the characters in the show to these literary characters.
Therefore, it is my opinion that Lost has a lot of discussion points and different elements of it could definitely be used in the classroom. I like the idea of using the first clip of the show as a means to analyze different elements of film. There are probably also many other clips that could be used to achieve this same goal. Furthermore, I think students could watch different clips and analyze the character interactions and discuss some of the allusions represented in the show. I think this could be used in a lesson about literary allusions in pop culture so that students could see the the books they read in school do have relevance in other parts of their lives. I've attached a link from lostpedia that gives a list of all the literary allusions in the show. It's surprising to see how many there are. I've also attached a link to a youtube video with a list of ten references to lost in popular culture. It's interesting to see how big of an influence Lost had on the entertainment industry.
I agree that some television shows are good to expose students to canonical texts. I watch Family Guy, and I know it is making fun of a lot of texts but it references so many texts, not just books but movies as well. I remember in high school my 10th grade English Teacher was talking to us about Jimmy Neutron and how that show references canonical texts as well. I think it is Sheen, one of the characters, that references Moby Dick. I didn't know all this about Lost, I have never gotten into the series, but it's interesting that television shows do reference books and other texts a lot.
ReplyDeleteI always liked how Sawyer referenced multiple texts. Especially since he is considered crude and mean by the other people on the island. This way, it makes him a more interesting character :)
ReplyDeleteI may not like Lost, but I actually agree that it could be have a good place in the classroom. It has an extremely complex narrative (sometimes a bit excessively complex, even) with dynamic characters that have real depth to explore as the plot unfolds. I think this could do really well with students to have them investigate the complexities of the characters and what is going on in the plot.
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