Do you think the "Its NOT sci-fi" scene was a shout-out to the arguments on if lost was sci-fi or not?
Of course. But also an allusion to Epicene Wildeblood in Illuminatus!, who phones in a description and unfavorable review of an unnamed book indistinguishable from Illuminatus!, in which among other things he mentions that the book can't seem to decide whether to be science fiction or what. I guess it'd be fair use for me to quote the passage, but I'm too busy now. If ever a character's appearance & demeanor matched what I'd imagine of Epicene Wildeblood, it'd be this guy.
This is not the first very specific allusion by Lost to Illuminatus!. The whole idea of a church's idol statues being used to smuggle heroin is introduced in that novel, and that scene's having taken place on Fernando Poo is among the reasons I'm sure Craphole is Fernando Poo (now Bioko), in Equatorial Guinea.
An interesting trope near the conclusion of Illuminatus! is the way one character figures out, and manages to convince the other characters, that they're in a book. I fully expect that trope to be used in Lost, for old times' sake. It'll probably work like Dave's "revelation" to Hugo.
Epicene Wildeblood refers to the book as "a fairy tale for paranoids". Good description of Lost too, but I think Lost's paranoia will, if anything, exceed that of Illuminatus!, which will be hard to do.
Of course. But also an allusion to Epicene Wildeblood in Illuminatus!, who phones in a description and unfavorable review of an unnamed book indistinguishable from Illuminatus!, in which among other things he mentions that the book can't seem to decide whether to be science fiction or what. I guess it'd be fair use for me to quote the passage, but I'm too busy now. If ever a character's appearance & demeanor matched what I'd imagine of Epicene Wildeblood, it'd be this guy.
This is not the first very specific allusion by Lost to Illuminatus!. The whole idea of a church's idol statues being used to smuggle heroin is introduced in that novel, and that scene's having taken place on Fernando Poo is among the reasons I'm sure Craphole is Fernando Poo (now Bioko), in Equatorial Guinea.
An interesting trope near the conclusion of Illuminatus! is the way one character figures out, and manages to convince the other characters, that they're in a book. I fully expect that trope to be used in Lost, for old times' sake. It'll probably work like Dave's "revelation" to Hugo.
Epicene Wildeblood refers to the book as "a fairy tale for paranoids". Good description of Lost too, but I think Lost's paranoia will, if anything, exceed that of Illuminatus!, which will be hard to do.
Robert
Great post, Robert!
Yeah, I thought that was probably a shout out to the fans.
Man, looks like it's time for me to take Illuminatus! down from my shelf and finally read it.
It really is a shame that the "speculative fiction" never caught on as a designation for stories such as this that don't really fit the designation of science fiction in the sense that there's nothing really scientific about them, yet aren't just plain fiction (or drama, in TV terms) either. I feel like a lot of Ursula LeGuin's novels fit under this category as well.
Of course. But also an allusion to Epicene Wildeblood in Illuminatus!, who phones in a description and unfavorable review of an unnamed book indistinguishable from Illuminatus!, in which among other things he mentions that the book can't seem to decide whether to be science fiction or what. I guess it'd be fair use for me to quote the passage, but I'm too busy now. If ever a character's appearance & demeanor matched what I'd imagine of Epicene Wildeblood, it'd be this guy.
This is not the first very specific allusion by Lost to Illuminatus!. The whole idea of a church's idol statues being used to smuggle heroin is introduced in that novel, and that scene's having taken place on Fernando Poo is among the reasons I'm sure Craphole is Fernando Poo (now Bioko), in Equatorial Guinea.
An interesting trope near the conclusion of Illuminatus! is the way one character figures out, and manages to convince the other characters, that they're in a book. I fully expect that trope to be used in Lost, for old times' sake. It'll probably work like Dave's "revelation" to Hugo.
Epicene Wildeblood refers to the book as "a fairy tale for paranoids". Good description of Lost too, but I think Lost's paranoia will, if anything, exceed that of Illuminatus!, which will be hard to do.
Robert
Ha ha, I did remember that Illuminatus meta-review thing when I saw the scene too! And you know, there was another thing in Lost that reminded me of Illuminatus: Ben/Fenry saying "we're the good guys" to Michael at the end of season 2; it was very similar to Hagbard Celine saying the same thing when he's outed.
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