The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – L. Frank Baum

Rating: 3/5

Lost References:

There are so many references to this work, some of which I didn’t even catch until reading up on fan sites. Where to begin?

A man named Henry Gale crashes on the island in a hot air balloon. (Ben Linus steals his identity.) Later, Sawyer calls Tom Friendly, one of the Others, “Zeke.” Zeke is one of the farmhands that works for Henry Gale, just as Tom works for Ben.

There is an episode titled “The Man Behind the Curtain” in which Locke calls Ben this and then directly mentions the Wizard of Oz. (As it turns out, the actual powerful being behind the curtain is Jacob, though he, unlike the Wizard, has real powers.) There is also a three-part episode called “There’s No Place Like Home” with flash forwards for Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Kate, & Aaron.

Then there are also some references to the film, like a character getting crushed and having red shoes sticking out. (In the book, they were silver shoes, not ruby slippers.) But such references don’t really count, so I think I’ll let it go here.

Speaking of shoes, Dorothy uses her shoes and a wish to return home to get back to Kansas. To get back to the Island, Jack thinks he needs his father’s shoes.

On a larger, thematic note, both stories are about people being caught in a storm and thrown into a magical land.

Thoughts:

If I’m honest, I didn’t really care for this book. It wasn’t bad, but with all the hype around both the book and the movie, I was expecting a little bit more. It was written very simplistically, which one would expect from a children’s book, but there was far more “telling” than “showing” in the action. I never really felt engaged or like I was part of the story, just observing from the outside. Dorothy’s emotions especially were told very passively, and even when she did say or do things that would support the purported emotions, it just wasn’t enough to make up for the rest.

The Eyes of the Dragon – Stephen King

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Ben and Locke talk about Stephen King, and several of the author’s books influenced the Lost creators.

Thoughts:

This book is very different from King’s other books, as it was written for a younger audience, and I have to say… he should do more of this! Stephen King excels at wordcraft as a rule, and this adds to it with a level of innocence that contrasts with the darkness of certain characters and situations. The result was a fun and intelligent fairy tale with the slight drawback of predictability. But then, all fairy tales are predictable, aren’t they?

Watership Down – Richard Adams

Rating: 5/5

Lost References:

Boone had this book in Australia, but Sawyer found it and is seen reading it in a few scenes. (“It’s about bunnies.”) Also, the book has a big bunny motif, largely thanks to Ben and DHARMA.

Thematically, the novel has the ongoing idea of home, which is important to all the various rabbit communities. Some of the rabbits are lead to find this home through one rabbit’s prophecies.

One group of rabbits is reminiscent of the Others, as a military state from which no one is allowed to leave. They practice kidnapping and murder (and at one point, they even have some of the protagonists captive). This group also has difficulties with childbirth.

As in Lost, Watership Down has some Smoke Monsters. One is a train, and the other is the legendary Black Rabbit of Inlé who brings fear and sickness, lives in a cave (where no time exists), and plays a game with stones.

Thoughts:

When I was a kid, Tales From Watership Down was one of my favorite books. I had a thing for rabbits, and this book seemed a little edgier than other bunny books. Some parts of the book even genuinely freaked me out, like the White Blindness (which, incidentally, is a real rabbit disease known as Myxomatosis and is used by humans to control their population). The rabbit characters were more fleshed out here than in other rabbit books. They have a very complete culture of their own, and I loved the side stories about their folk hero, El-ahrairah.

Looking back years later, I have no reason to change my opinion. The original novel, Watership Down, has the same charm and originality, so it was a pleasant foray into children’s literature.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Rating: 3/5

Lost References:

Ben has this book on his shelf.

Thoughts:

I loved this book at first – there was more humor and excitement than I expected. Then the storyline took a nosedive and the rest of the book became a string of ethical discussions. Stowe just seemed to lose the plot and ramble instead.

Valhalla Rising – Clive Cussler

Rating: 3/5

Lost References:

This book is on both Ben and Jack’s shelves. So far, it’s the only one I know of that’s on both. The villainous corporation in the book is called Cerberus, which is DHARMA’s name for the smoke monster.

Thoughts:

Brace yourselves, because I have more than usual to say. I’ll start with the one aspect of the story that I had to do research for. In the climax of this book, which was published in 2001, the villains attempt to bomb the World Trade Center, which might seem, er, tacky, but I looked it up, and this book came out almost a month before the September 11 attacks, on August 13. That said, I can move on to the actual book.

Clive Cussler has an unfortunate, removed way of writing. He prefers telling to showing, for one thing. For another, he treats huge passages like a history lesson, rushing ahead of himself (which removes the element of suspense), forcing facts into the story (to show how much research he did), and telling about events in a broad sweep. The only exception to this is when there’s something he particularly likes – usually a car or boat or something that Dirk Pitt is doing. Then he hones in and purple proses the passage to death. His fixation with eyes is almost as silly as Stephanie Meyers’s. His characters, all cardboard-cutout stereotypes are particularly irritating, from the conscienceless villains to the perfect, devotedly heroic, and far too lucky heroes. Pitt’s only “flaw” seems to be his aversion to the spotlight.

Even worse, at one point this paragon is rescued, along with his friends, by Clive Cussler, who writes himself in for an extended cameo (and it seems he’s made other visits over the course of the series, which wouldn’t surprise me). He seems to love all the same things as Pitt, who essentially serves as his author avatar anyway. They have the same hobbies, job, fondness for tequila, etc.

But you may want to know about the series of contrivances that masquerades as a plot. They include: Vikings, sabotage, pirate mercenaries, castaways, a damsel in distress, terrorism, Jules Verne’s Nautilus, and a dogfight where the hero’s passengers are fifteen disabled children. Are you sure you don’t want some ninjas to save an orphanage, Mr. Cussler?

In spite of all this, the adventure of the story was engaging for some reason I can’t explain. For this reason I checked the dvd of Sahara, a movie based on another Cussler book, out from the library and I actually really enjoyed it. It was the adventure without the boredom and without Cussler. Apparently, another Cussler movie called Raise the Titanic! came out a while before that, but Cussler hated it even though he was granted a cameo, and it was a while before he’d let anyone try again. This time around, he was a mega control freak and ended up suing some of Sahara’s filmmakers. Granted, it bombed in the box office, but the writing quality is better than his own, so he ought to be thanking them.

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Sawyer reads Of Mice and Men in jail and then has a conversation with Ben where they’re quoting it at each other. Later Sawyer tells the Man in Black that it’s his favorite book, and the Man in Black replies that he never read it because it was after his time.

Thoughts:

The book is written well enough but is needlessly depressing. Granted, it’s tough to write a good story about the American Dream. If it ends well for the dreamer, then the story’s too warm and fuzzy. If it ends badly, then it’s sad. Either way, the ending’s disappointing. The author can’t win.

Hotel – Arthur Hailey

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

Hotel is on Ben’s bookshelf. Also, it deals with a group of strangers with suspect pasts whose lives and stories collide.

Thoughts:

The book was well-plotted, with a collection of plotlines all straightened out by the end of the book. Some were a little too neat. Yes, Hailey did let one of his villains get away, but I think it was supposed to be a likeable villain, so even though I didn’t like him myself, I don’t think it counts.

Speaking of characters, they were plentiful and varied, as people are in a hotel, and the main man is easy to root for as he’s handed a plateful of problems and is limited in the ways he can resolve them. All in all, it’s not a very thought-provoking read, but it has some merit. At the very least, it’s entertaining.

The Glass Menagerie – Tennessee Williams

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

When studying screencaps, I found this book on Ben’s shelf near VALIS.

Thoughts:

There’s barely a plot, and it tries too hard to be artsy. (The premise is that the narrator is looking at the events through the distorting lens of memory, so that’s an excuse for weird proportions, lighting, pictures, etc.) Yes, the kids have parental issues like every single character on Lost, but that tiny little connection doesn’t help.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

It’s one of the books on Ben’s shelf.

Thoughts:

It’s a book for book lovers. Obviously I’m one of those, or I wouldn’t be on this project. It’s not for the audience. It makes a strong case for books, which take imagination, when contrasted with television and other media that think for you.

Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This book is on Ben’s shelf. There’s a more indirect, or circumstantial reference in the mouse experiment. In the book, Algernon the mouse has experimental brain surgery before Charlie (the first human subject). When Algernon regresses and dies, this foreshadows the end for Charlie. In Lost, Daniel experiments on a mouse named Eloise’s brain. She gets a brain hemorrhage, just like later humans exposed to similar conditions. But some of the humans survive. Go, Desmond!

Thoughts:

It’s interesting as a social commentary. If you want to know about discrimination against those with special needs, this is probably the best-known book on the subject. Only, I didn’t actually enjoy it. It pushes the cause of acceptance, and it even has a storyline and style that I could have found not only realistic but compelling, but Keyes just tries too hard.