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Paperback
Publisher: Garrett County Press, LLC
ISBN13: 9781891053023
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Miracles, viruses, plane crashes and acts of terror perpetrated by a group of Others: This is the perplexing and radical world of the television show Lost. With wit and insight, J. Wood explores the show's strange engagement with the psychodynamics of the war on terror/ism we all experience through the media and mediated government -- war, (mis)information, terrorism -- and re-works those psychodynamics through its narrative. And that argument underlies a broader discussion of the mysteries and secrets and strange narrative forms the show has taken on. There's also an appendix that goes over the major characters up through the six-episode miniseries and discusses how the themes of the narrative are refracted through the characterizations.
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| An excellent commentary on Lost and society |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This book is not entirely what I was expecting. When I was out looking for books on Lost because I was sure I was missing out on some of the more subtle aspects of the show. I kind of wanted something that would help bring me up to speed on all the elements that Lost tends to include. This book has a lot of those elements, but it is also so much more than that.
Rather than just being an abridged overview of Lost "Living Lost" is also an extensive social commentary about elements that may or may not be used as an influence for Lost. Much of what J. Wood goes over is merely conjecture, thus it is likely just a coincidence. However, he touched upon the fact that the producers seem to be reading the forums that the fans go on, because he's noticing a bit of a feedback loop between theories fans have and elements in the show. I thought this was incredibly brilliant. While I'm really interested in Lost, my experience with the show is sort of in a vacuum, consisting of just myself and the show. Lost incorporates many other methods and elements to keep fans interested and I miss out on a lot of these. I feel this book was excellent in getting me somewhat acquainted with aspects I may have missed.
This book mainly covers aspects found in the first and second season, so concepts concerning terrorism are constantly revisited. J. Wood draws many parallels to the 9/11 plane crashes in the U.S. and the following era that is the War on Terror. He suggests that Lost is directly influenced by these real world elements and I don't think he's very far off the mark. As the saying goes "art imitates life". I do wish J. Wood would write another book for the later seasons, because I feel the scientific elements of the island are getting quite a lot more treatment. Not to mention the metaphysical elements are also being heavily emphasized. I would love to read J. Wood's commentary on these later seasons.
"Living Lost" is a relatively quick book to read through, but the volume of information it contains is quite impressive. The latter half of the book is merely a character overview and gives the reader a brief description of all the characters we've encountered thus far. It would probably be rather boring for someone who watches Lost closely, but I read it anyway, just to see if there was anything I missed out on. When it came to these things, there wasn't much for me in here. The one element that was kind of annoying was the poor character sketches. I'm not sure who did those pictures, but they would've been better off hiring a sketch artist at the very least. My girlfriend is an illustration major and her abilities are leagues ahead of whoever drew these.
I actually think this book has a lot of merit for fans of Lost. It gives a great overview of elements someone may have missed out on in the first viewing. Also it closely discusses some links that were harder to see within the seasons. I found this book utterly fascinating and I would recommend it to any Lost fan.
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| Interesting read |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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After reading all the reviews on this book, I was very excited to receive it and read it cover to cover. Wood's literary, scientific, and character analyses were very good--he is a learned person. In fact, one of the reasons I love Lost is that politics are left out of it. Imagine my surprise when a large percentage of the book is dedicated to a left-wing political agenda. Specifically, too much comparison is made with the current climate in the United States regarding terrorism, Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo, and the supposed attack on our "civil rights" in fighting this monstrous evil. From now on, I'll get my info on blogs and websites instead of funding writers who have ulterior motives.
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| Deep analysis - overlook the liberal views |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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Although this book was written before the third season, Living Lost delves into every aspect of the show: the names, the numbers, the psychology, the literary references, and so on. The author seems to know his stuff. He has incredible knowledge of the show and, although I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about Lost, he has surprised me with new facts. The cross-referencing is helpful - different aspects of the same "truth" covered under different headings. He couldn't help pontificating on some liberal views of his own, but I could overlook that. Very entertaining book.
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| Great Lost analysis, the best book about this series! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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The first part of this book is a fully overview of the Lost thematics, included a great analysis of the related literature and information about the scientific aspects such as Minkowski space, covering seasons 1, 2 and a few episodes of the third one.
The last part of the book is a detailed description of all the characters , even Pickett and Colleen have their (although short) chapter...and so the Lost Experience guys (Rachel, Mittelwerk, etc.), with really every connection among them!
What you will NOT find in this book?
- an episode guide
- photos
- just a list of theories.
But this is no doubt the best Lost book publishe till now!
It is not clear to me if an updated version covering the whole season 3 is going to be published...
Somebody can help?
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| a tad disappointed |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Well I guess I am in the minority here! A heads up to all the LOST fans that would like something to complement the show LOST. This is NOT the book for you, unless you do want a work of criticism...on EVERYTHING! Thomas Hancock is correct, "Not a guide, great cultural criticism." But where I disagee is that it is not great if you dont agree with writer J Wood's beliefs.
Beeker is also correct, " He seems to know a little something about everything." The author sure did put his two cents into it when it came to everything from politics, government, movies, books, etc etc. He was extremely critical of stuff which to me was just a way for the author to grandstand his ideas and beliefs.
I honestly thought that by the title, the author would explain why each of us, the readers, were stuck on the island, as we are hopelessly stuck in this analytical world of deciphering the show and its mysteries. How wrong I was when I read this book!
This book has 264 pages of text and the 1st 134 pages nearly bored me to death or angered me beyond belief! I almost put the book down several times and had to force myself to continue reading hoping it would finally get on with it and really examine the TV show! This 1st half was all about comparing LOST to the real world and how the author sees this world through his own eyes. Sure he related bits and pieces of the show and went off on a tangent to the problems in the world and how it (remotely) relates to those bits and pieces.
If you can make it through the first 134 pages, you will delight in the rest of the book as the author finally examines each of the characters and where they've been and what they are doing now in the series. I DID enjoy the 2nd half of the book.
I feel that I should give this a 2 1/2 since I hated the 1st half and enjoyed the 2nd half. I am therefore being generous in giving that extra 1/2 star to the positive.
If you want a book on the TV Show LOST and dont want to be bogged down in real life problems, if you want to read for enjoyment and not to feel like you are being pulled into debates, do NOT buy this book. Getting through the 1st half is not worth it unless you like to debate hot topics of the world.
A disappointment overall, I wont be reading it much in the future unless I need quick access to info on the LOST characters for trivia or something.
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