One of Malibu Jack's matchbooks. Source: Reddit . The reader's willing suspension of disbelief depends on believable detail, driven by plot and characterization. I have the perfect locus of nostalgia and a watershed moment when a happy time and place crashed, burned and ended. First, the location. I and my dear friend, artist, Chris Dorosz , keep talking about Malibu Jack's, a California-style restaurant which opened in 1985 in the ByWard Market in Ottawa, Canada . Picture this: Lost Boys and Less than Zero were in cinemas; Miami Vice was on the television. Everything was covered with neon and palm trees. Malibu Jack's tapped into the fad and Ottawa's teenagers converged there for crab croissant sandwiches, cheeseburgers, homemade potato chips and tacos. People remember the restaurant on Reddit ; and some of its recipes are still circulating online . One of the busboys, Stephen Beckta, was so impressed by his experience there ...
In the 2010s, whistleblowers, conspiracy theorists and hackers ruled the Internet, firm in their conviction that if we only had (and shared) all the information, if we could just crunch the numbers, we could finally make the world make sense. Ironically, this movement placed great faith in the rational mind. Even though this netizens' movement opposed the rising technocrats, who mean to hold sway with big data and artificial intelligence, both responses to hypertechnology were similar. Whether we looked at the powerful or the powerless, everyone believed in quantification over qualification.
Fast forward a decade, and we have sobered up. Our predicament defies understanding. Truth in the real world is slippery and elusive. We are all part of a gigantic, surreal mystery. I don't think anyone is really in control. Our souls ache for resolution and get only ongoing tension. Tonight, to ease the tension, I listened to the video, Slow Nights in Manhattan - 40s Jazz (above); underneath the video, someone wrote the comment: "my heart aches for us all ... I send you love and joy, a light in the darkness ... from my soul to yours ..."
An example of the tension occurred to me this week, as I began watching the television show, Lost(2004-2010). I lived abroad when it originally aired and thought I would finally binge watch it this summer.
Was Lost Predictive Programming?
The basics of Lost's story resemble that of ill-fated flight MH370, the real lost airplane from 2014. With the benefit of hindsight and the hype around the original show now
long gone, an eerie thought came to me as the characters talked about
how their plane had suddenly turned and gone off course and then broken up in the South Pacific. I wish no disrespect to the families of MH370 passengers in making the comparison. Nor do I wish any disregard for the actors and crew who produced Lost. But it struck me how truth followed fiction, particularly the way the fictional characters repeat the name of the series' airplane, Oceanic Flight 815.
Conspiracy theorists would call the television show predictive programming for a future air disaster. But that would mean that a non-divine someone was in control of the mystery that bears down upon us all.
As I stated in this post, I think we have to move past conspiratorial speculations and get to Level Three - where we accept the larger mystery and move past the idea that we can mentally control reality. At the same time, we can relinquish our modern obsession with the artificial dichotomy between faith and reason. This is possibly why Lost featured characters' names shared with famous philosophers: Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Burke, Carlyle, Austin, Bentham. Did the characters' trials mirror tests of those philosophers' ideas?
MH370: The New Search in 2025
Meanwhile, the search continues. Malaysia reopened the MH370 investigation this year. There is no extensive wreckage to speak of - no bodies, just silence and unknown answers out there somewhere. Commentators on both sides of the political spectrum are still trying to get to the bottom of what happened to that plane. From a 2019 piece in The Atlantic: "The fact remains that ... no one has yet been able to
work backwards from where the debris has washed ashore and trace it to
some point of origin in the southern Indian Ocean."
Redditorsdo keep track of this story. They debate everything from basic details, to the semiconductor researchers who were on board, to UFO abductions of the passengers:
"The original secondary radar + ACARS pings show that the aircraft was
deliberately deviated from its planned route and flown to a remote spot
in the Indian Ocean, where it ultimately crashed due to fuel exhaustion,
either crashing uncontrolled or deliberately ditched."
In another eerie resemblance with the television show, there is a complex conspiracy theory that the plane and passengers were sabotaged by the US military and/or redirected to a UK/US military base at Diego Garcia. As of 2025, a new company has been contracted to search the ocean bed:
"Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook announced that the Malaysian
government has formally signed an agreement last week with British seabed exploration company Ocean Infinity to resume the search for the
missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. However, he stated that the search has been paused due to seasonal
weather conditions, and will resume at the end of the year. ... Loke was speaking at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
during a welcoming ceremony for the resumption of British Airways’
direct flight from London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur.
🛥️ Ocean Infinity’s New Technology
When asked whether Ocean Infinity’s upgraded technology —
including the use of robots and three vessels — increases the likelihood
of finding MH370, Loke responded: 'Whether it can be found depends on the search. No one can predict the outcome.'"
Some passengers' family members even believe, in a way akin to the television series, that the passengers of MH370 were secreted away to a military-controlled wormhole island. Rumours persist that their loved ones have been alive for the past eleven years. In other words, just because passengers were lost to the information and communication networks of the modern world, just because their plane never arrived at its destination, it does not mean that they are dead.
Are We Lost?
The television series gives us even more to consider. The actors have moved on - and they could not now go back to the time and place when and where they made Lost, even if they wanted to. The series lives on, and can be revisited or watched for the first time, as I am doing this summer. The art is out there, acting on its own accord.
Moreover, that fiction has overlapped with our reality. It is interesting that the whole era of Reality TV began in earnest in 2000 with an island metaphor on Survivor, where survival depended on 'voting people off the island.' Season One winner Richard Hatch's antics formed the blueprint for a whole new way of existing in a new real-fictional space of the undefinable and the unexpected. We see where this trend has brought us: the current US President is a former (and current?) Reality TV star.
Lostpedia states that the series breached the energetic field of realities between created drama and audience:
"Breaking the 4th Wall
The Island is not a physical entity, it is a metaphysical escape for those who are not ready 'to let go' or to 'cross over.' The most interesting of this, is that the Island concept does not only apply to the characters in the series, but for all people who are 'thinking' about the series. Since we continue reading and discussing about it, WE ARE STILL ON THE ISLAND. We are still looking for 'answers.' The Island is a metaphysical metaphor for the viewer and his/her relationship to the show. Life of the characters before the crash represents the life of a viewer before the airing of the television show, LOST. The afterlife/FS represents the point of view of the viewer after the show. The funeral represents the moment a viewer of show realizes the 'truth,' which is not known at the moment.
At the end of the show, it is not Jack's homecoming in the church. Jack is in the pew facing the departed: you. You're dead. You are part of the narrative. You are part of the cast; you are part of the production. You are the one being encouraged to move on. You are the one they have been waiting for.
Damon Lindelof summed up the drama this way: 'The show is, at [its] heart and soul, a character study. We were fascinated as storytellers by what makes people the way they are.'"
What lies beyond the purgatorial compulsion to find the answers? What transcends reason if not faith? Perhaps: artistic expression. People believe in stories, even the most anti-rational narratives, because that is the most rational thing they can do when they live in the midst of a mystery. And inside that mystery, if they choose to believe in a love story, it means they are connected to the most primal tale of survival there is. The lead actors below, Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly, posed below in character; the publicity shot reminds us of the art which they briefly brought to life. It's a fictional love that lights the way for us in real hard times, twenty years later.
L, You have a weird genius for sleuthing out meme patterns embedded in pop culture - I salute you!
I had a much longer reply in mind involving the loss of reality in the Digital Age, discordian demons and the relinquishing of true autonomy. But, in the end, it all boiled down to one thing: If it doesn't make your garden grow, it isn't worth shit. No? ;-)
The good ship Disinformation has sailed. In the States, it's a bipartisan vessel. Inquiring minds want facts. They also need room and board. - D
Thanks for dropping by Dia! I am not sure if we are dealing with disinformation or another dimension, lol. During the 2010s, there were some experiments with the idea that art allowed us to see beyond the veil into the mystery that we can't quantify or define, no matter how hard we try. For example, Grant Morrison and probably Alan Moore dabbled with these ideas. Morrison calls himself a psychonaut and implies that 'imagination is the fifth dimension.' https://bigcomicpage.com/2014/12/14/imagination-is-the-fifth-dimension-garry-mac-on-grant-morrison/ I contend there that we have to move past the point of believing that data, quantification, rationalizations will give us any control over what is happening. It's kind of a moment when we are piling so much data and AI, rationalization and logic onto something that is growing beyond that scope of understanding. So all we can really do is become creative artistic mystics. Other people live in blue-pilled denial on the surface of reality. Others become sense-driven, in which case life is more like jumping off a diving board, or sliding down a gigantic water slide at high speed. My question, since I belong to the first group, is how to define the beyond-rational rationalization? How to be rational when the world moves beyond rationalizations?
Quite right. It is the good ship LOGIC which sailed. And it sailed away during the Pandemic... I.e., the mystery of which never truly went away. We still suffer paralysis from the fallout.
Artists and Makers must design their own way of dealing with it... while attempting to fulfill the impossible task of bringing some light into a world of dark rooms. Congratulate yourself; you're still going strong!
Funny. I ran out of gas on analyzing the DC Comics' Multiverse back in the mid 2010s. They tried to depict not just Earth One, Earth Two, etc., but Universe One, Universe Two, Universe Three, including the parts where our reality was, and how it connected to the lived reality of created artworks, an imaginarium as universe. I'll have to go back to that drawing board and see what they did with it. You can see someone else playing catch up too: https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/1mgxpy5/discussion_havent_catch_up_on_dc_comics_since_the/
Lol. Universe 3? Well, I think your analytical capacity outshone most... who, like me, would've given up at universe 2.
But, these 4 words of your reply really blew me away: "an imaginarium as universe." What an amazingly brilliant concept! Take it a step further - Imaginarium as Whole Universe - an it explains a number of things! :-)
An imaginarium as universe - but whose imagination is crafting that universe? This is a really problematic concept because it assumes that only human consciousness is manifesting reality. I think we begin to see why there is such a scrum to dominate and direct the collective unconscious, because that collective unconscious forms a whole separate universe beyond the one we are actually living in, and these are multiplied for each universe. So on Universe 1 there is an Ego version of the Universe, a Collective Id version of the Universe, and a Super-ego version of the Universe 1. Then multiply, same with Universes 2, 3, 4 ... but what about the planet, the plants, minerals, animals, birds? They all have consciousnesses too - so how do they fit into these constructs that map out human consciousness?
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L, You have a weird genius for sleuthing out meme patterns embedded in pop culture - I salute you!
ReplyDeleteI had a much longer reply in mind involving the loss of reality in the Digital Age, discordian demons and the relinquishing of true autonomy. But, in the end, it all boiled down to one thing: If it doesn't make your garden grow, it isn't worth shit. No? ;-)
The good ship Disinformation has sailed. In the States, it's a bipartisan vessel. Inquiring minds want facts. They also need room and board. - D
Thanks for dropping by Dia! I am not sure if we are dealing with disinformation or another dimension, lol. During the 2010s, there were some experiments with the idea that art allowed us to see beyond the veil into the mystery that we can't quantify or define, no matter how hard we try. For example, Grant Morrison and probably Alan Moore dabbled with these ideas. Morrison calls himself a psychonaut and implies that 'imagination is the fifth dimension.' https://bigcomicpage.com/2014/12/14/imagination-is-the-fifth-dimension-garry-mac-on-grant-morrison/ I contend there that we have to move past the point of believing that data, quantification, rationalizations will give us any control over what is happening. It's kind of a moment when we are piling so much data and AI, rationalization and logic onto something that is growing beyond that scope of understanding. So all we can really do is become creative artistic mystics. Other people live in blue-pilled denial on the surface of reality. Others become sense-driven, in which case life is more like jumping off a diving board, or sliding down a gigantic water slide at high speed. My question, since I belong to the first group, is how to define the beyond-rational rationalization? How to be rational when the world moves beyond rationalizations?
ReplyDeleteQuite right. It is the good ship LOGIC which sailed. And it sailed away during the Pandemic... I.e., the mystery of which never truly went away. We still suffer paralysis from the fallout.
DeleteArtists and Makers must design their own way of dealing with it... while attempting to fulfill the impossible task of bringing some light into a world of dark rooms. Congratulate yourself; you're still going strong!
BTW, can't beat 40s jazz for mood noir. :-)
Funny. I ran out of gas on analyzing the DC Comics' Multiverse back in the mid 2010s. They tried to depict not just Earth One, Earth Two, etc., but Universe One, Universe Two, Universe Three, including the parts where our reality was, and how it connected to the lived reality of created artworks, an imaginarium as universe. I'll have to go back to that drawing board and see what they did with it. You can see someone else playing catch up too: https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/1mgxpy5/discussion_havent_catch_up_on_dc_comics_since_the/
DeleteLol. Universe 3? Well, I think your analytical capacity outshone most... who, like me, would've given up at universe 2.
DeleteBut, these 4 words of your reply really blew me away: "an imaginarium as universe." What an amazingly brilliant concept! Take it a step further - Imaginarium as Whole Universe - an it explains a number of things! :-)
An imaginarium as universe - but whose imagination is crafting that universe? This is a really problematic concept because it assumes that only human consciousness is manifesting reality. I think we begin to see why there is such a scrum to dominate and direct the collective unconscious, because that collective unconscious forms a whole separate universe beyond the one we are actually living in, and these are multiplied for each universe. So on Universe 1 there is an Ego version of the Universe, a Collective Id version of the Universe, and a Super-ego version of the Universe 1. Then multiply, same with Universes 2, 3, 4 ... but what about the planet, the plants, minerals, animals, birds? They all have consciousnesses too - so how do they fit into these constructs that map out human consciousness?
Delete