The Lost Community Book Club podcast for William Shakespeare's The Tempest was October 8th.
Listen in as hosts David A. Dein and Melissa Lossa discuss a story about a band of survivors who end up on a magical island populated by mysterious others, and also the TV show Lost. You can hear it now on Talkshoe.
The next Lost Book Club selection is On The Road
To join the LIVE podcast, visit The Lost Community's TalkShoe page and sign up for a free TalkShoe account.
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Lost Community Bookclub Update
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Here is the updated reading list for the 
5 comments:
Character parallels are always fun. It's interesting to me that Ben really parallels both Prospero and Caliban very nicely.
Prospero: very "man behind the curtain," manipulating the powers in place on the island to suit his own goals. Has a somewhat naive daughter and meddles in her romantic interests.
Caliban: abandoned on the island by a now-dead mother, greedy, willing to partner with anyone who will advance his own petty aims.
They represent the two sides of Ben: the side that calmly pitted Juliet against Jack in the Hydra, up to and including letting Jack threaten her life, and the side that shot Locke at the DHARMA grave and pummeled a bomb-rigged Keamy in the Orchid, despite endangering everyone on the freighter.
Re: talking like Shakespeare.
Well, Shakespeare did appear to invent an awful lot of words (to be clear, whether he invented them or not isn't entirely known, but OED lists Shakespeare as the first printed appearance of these words, so YMMV).
But in terms of grammar and the floridity of the language, sometimes. In terms of pacing and structure, not likely. Here's a decent breakdown.
I'm not very good at Shakespeare but I'll give it a shot. If we ever get ready to compare Lost to Gone with the Wind, I'm all over it.
If Ben is Prospero, did he manipulate Desmond via Kelvin luring him away from the button. Thus creating a EM tempest that brought down the plane that contains people who are somehow connected to Ben's enemies? Is that the connection between the people - they're somehow related to Ben's enemies?
Does Jacob equal Ariel - trapped in his cabin/tree by a force that left the island or died before Ben every showed up? Ariel has power but is still a slave. Seems like Jacob to me. Powerful but trapped.
Liked from the podcast the discussion of Richard as a paralell to Caliban. That makes a lot of sense.
Also interesting is that the Tempest in the story is a magical or "fake" storm. And The Tempest station in Lost is a fake power plant. Both had an ulterior motive. The Tempest station on Lost ends up bringing Ben to power. And The Tempest in the play ends up bringing Prospero to power.
I suppose there's another paralell between Alex and Miranda I guess. Ben is pretty hard on Karl. Puts him in Room 23 and all that. I guess you could interpret that as testing him.
It's kind of hard to read, but I always like to watch the plays. Unfortunately, I've never seen this one.
Kyle,thank you for that great info.
Shakespeare was a brave genius to go where no man had gone before.
Jacob could equal Ariel, but so could Juliet. But then, Juliet could be Miranda, too. But that really should be Alex, because of the whole Karl romance angle....
It's quite a tangle.
And yes, I like the direction we are led by the idea that Ben did in fact manipulate the plane crash, and that it has something to do with Widmore...
Lots of ellipsis, but it's really a fascinating play and an equally fascinating comparison to LOST.
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