Posts under ‘Essays’

Time to go down the rabbit hole, into an odd Wonderland. But what kind of hole, what kind of Wonderland? The kind we’ve been set up for, in the pilot, with a tabula rasa, a walkabout.
Jack goes out to save a drowning woman, finds Boone, who has already gone out to try to save her. [...]

Walkabout — as Locke describes it, “a journey of spiritual renewal where one bcomes one with the Earth and derives strength from it.” As the survivors are all lost and trying to find themselves and the island represents in so many ways the Earth, it seems the entire series is an epic walkabout.
Noise, rumblings in [...]

Tabula rasa — the blank slate. The notion that people are born with nothing innate, “blank,” “clean,” and that everything we are comes from our experiences. Our modern conception of this comes mostly from 17th century philosopher John Locke, who also thought this meant that each individual is free to define the content of his [...]

The moment with Charlie at the end of the pilot episode — where he asks his fellow hikers, in response to the French distress signal, “Guys, where are we?” — seems to be the question that launched a thousand theories. Indeed, one of the key phenomena surrounding Lost fandom is theorizing about what the heck [...]

The proper critics will scoff — I remember my Environmental Sociology professor being horrified that I was going to go through Titanic in chronological order rather than thematically. After seeing the look on her face, I did a rewrite, and I admit it’s a better way to write criticism and analysis. But chronological is exactly [...]

(If you haven’t read the introductory Lost, Found post, you might get some value from doing so, but maybe not, it’s up to you!)
Right out of the gate, in only the first half of the pilot episode, we are exposed to most of the main themes and ideas that will run through the series. As [...]

I’d resisted watching Lost for a very long time. Television had become less important in my life, and other things demanded my time. Taking on another hour-long series just didn’t seem wise. I’d hear about it. And what I’d hear was intriguing. But I’d never seen J.J. Abrams’ other lauded television work — like Felicity, [...]

There is a movement in Africa to bolster pride in the continent by debunking European myths about ‘wild Africa,’ i.e. that before Europeans arrived here there was no civilization. This effort is attempting not only to reveal the truth about that period, but also build local pride in the ancient civilizations there. But, given the actual impact that human civilizations have had on the planet and on people outside any given society, is civilization really something to build pride upon? How we understand this history has impacts on not only Africans but people of all civilizations - the way we perceive ourselves and the future directions we take. For this piece I have drawn on my own observations of Ghana, my visit to Ghana’s Mole National Park, interviews with a tour company operator, recent developments regarding the San (Bush People) of Botswana and that country’s recent Supreme Court decision to allow them back onto their tribal lands but with strict conditions imposed, and extensive secondary research into African politics and history.

As I’ve begun to have a go at making a living as a musician and artist, I’ve thought at times about how difficult it seems for people who try this. So many struggling artists, starving artists, nobodies trying to become somebody, so little opportunity to make it into much more than a hobby, such [...]

This piece began in the Spring of 2002 as an essay that I thought would provide a compelling new understanding of the Star Wars films. After writing more than a dozen versions, I had yet to produce something that met with the approval of an editor I was working with. Frustrated, I put the piece [...]