LOSTCasts 32: Island

We're back with our second LOST book review of the summer. In this podcast, we take a look at Island, by Aldous Huxley. Your fellow LOSTCasts listeners contributed a ton of great content that guides our conversation. A special thanks to Holli from Memphis, whose in-depth analysis makes up a great deal of our look at this LOST book. In addition, we've got an update on the LOST Experience, some great LOST links, and some recent season 3 spoilers for those who are curious.

Download podcast #32 here

Links related to the podcast:
Official LOSTCasts MySpace page
Wikipedia entry for Island, by Aldous Huxley
Wikipedia entry for Serial Experiments Lain
PBS podcast about Tintin
IMDB entry for "The Island" starring Michael Caine
New interview with Michael Emerson (Fenry)

LOST experience links:
Updated Rachel Blake website
Updated Valenzetti Equation website
DJ Dan's grandma podcast
Mittlewerk commercial #1
Mittlewerk commercial #2
Mittlewerk commercial #3

LOST links:
MAD magazine LOST parody
Speculation about LOST movie
Channel 4 UK LOST blog

Our next LOST book review will be in a few weeks for Watership Down, by Richard Adams. We'll post here on the site to let you know when it will be posted. If you're reading along, make sure to send us your comments by posting them here, sending us an email or leaving an audio comment on our automated voicemail at: 206-666-2278.

Make sure to visit the official LOSTCasts MySpace page as well. Add us as a friend!

Stay LOST.

Comments

[Matt Lafferty]

John,
Fantastic job flying solo! As I've said before, it's great that LostCasts is so concerned about its listeners, and your comment that "a podcast was promised on the 23rd, so you'll get one on the 23rd" really drove that home. Many thanks for playing my audio comment too! It's always an honor to have a web comment/email/audio comment contribute in a small way.

I'm interested to hear more about some of those Lost books that were mentioned--I'm not usually one to go for an unofficial tie-in theory type book, but a LostCasts seal of approval would make quite a difference.

Keep up the great work!

[Phil]

Hey, has the podcast not been put onto itunes yet because I just had a quick look at it wasnt there

[Phil]

Sorry change that, it is in your section but not in my podcast section when update is used

[Matt Jones]

Article on the LOST panel dsicussion at Comic Con. Good stuff.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23952

Sorry I couldn't make the cast. Good job. I'll be down with Watership Down.

[Alex]

I've been watching episodes from Season 1. In White Rabbit I noticed: Jack never touches his father's body. The doctor that showed him in could be Alvar Hanso. His father could have faked his death?

Sorry if it's a horrid repetition. Cheers,
~A

[Popcorn Samurai]

Thank you for the mention on the cast and in keeping with my theme of recommendations for things to watch to fight off Lost withdrawals I bring you this link:

http://www.suncoast.com/Movies/Movie.aspx?v_id=SETE+96540&From=NewReleases&week=07/25/2006&media=0&prodid=AEV75858DVD

You guys have discussed this show a few times on the cast and it is now out in one boxed set.

Great job on the cast even without the interaction of our other friends you still provided an informative show.

Thank you and

Ja Matashita

The Popcorn Samurai

[John]

I actually just got the first disc of The Prisoner through Netflix... the whole 60s thing is kinda cheesy, but all in all, it's a great show!

[Kathy aka Fangirl]

The Lost panel was great. It took a second to figure out that the Rachel chick was part of the Lost Experience, but once the audience did everyone was real quiet hanging on every word.

Oh and you may have heard that after someone asked what we can see in Season 3, some girl yelled out "Naked Jin!" That would be my friend sitting next to me. It was her first comicon panel. Her boyfriend was the one who yelled "and naked Hurley!"

I picked up a Dharma Swan patch and an Oceanic airlines patch. They had t-shirts for Oceanic as well.

[Cameron]

That was an excellent podcast John and a great solo effort! It can't be easy trying to banter when there is no one else in the room. It’s clear that you are the driving force behind this thing. That said, I am sure we are all looking forward to hearing from Robert and Matt too. LOSTCasts really is the only thing keeping us going through the long, long Summer/Winter break. I'm going to read 'Watership Down' and provide some comments for the next podcast, and this time I really mean it!

The update on the LOST experience was also great. I'm sure everyone has noticed a lot of Rachel Blake videos floating around YouTube. Her appearance at Comic Con - that Kathy aka Fangirl was lucky enough to go to - is here in case anyone can't find it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvVJNYZ5PuQ

I have to say, however, that Rachel Blake is starting to remind me of that other ubiquitous (some may say downright annoying) You Tube all star 'Brookers'. Oh well, at least they are doing something to keep us going.

[John]

There are some good photos of the LOST panel at Comic Con on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=comic+con+lost&m=text

[jg]

John,
I would like to repeat Matt Lafferty's praise for you. It was great to have a Lostcast to listen to. You presented the subject with balance and insight. Your cogent thoughts are always appreciated. I never miss your podcasts.

I also always appreciate Matt Lafferty's perceptive input, be it a post or an audio comment.

Is Holli's commentary still available? Your comments regarding her review/synopsis intriged me.

Lastly, I was honored and surprised to hear you read my rather bilious book review. Thanks.

Cheers
jg

[adam!]

regarding the reveal/spoiler/whathaveyou about the LOSTies experiencing a relatively slower timeframe as opposed to the rest of the world (as mentioned by Cuse and Lindelof in the SDCC LOST panel): that'd explain away the question i posted in this site a while back, about the LOST EXPERIENCE (that shares the same timeframe as our reality) not mentioning anything about finding any of the LOSTies from 2004 in their timeframe (which means it's possible that the LOSTies will never ever escape the Island within the show's projected timeframe, which will probably be an equivalent of one year, show time (if they continue the average of one-and-a-half - to two months of LOST time per TV season)).

it's a widely-held belief (no idea if people have already seen this happen in real life, as far as i'm concerned it's still theoretical) that timespace bends strangely in places of heavy gravity (ie, black holes, or mysterious islands with unique EM fields), so, yeah, theoretically, the LOSTies COULD be experiencing life in a slightly slower timeframe than ours.

but that throws a monkey wrench on the concept of Desmond being in the Island since 2001, as i remember hearing a line of dialogue from season 2's ender of him mentioning that he'd been in the Island for three years, which means that time is still normal for everyone in the Island.

and what's up with them debunking the theory about the Island Smoke Monster not being made of Nanobots?

[vera]

I payed E4,10 to download this in an terrible slow internet caf'e. So I hope it's worth it.

[Amy Dougal]

Hey! Great podcast i never got round to reading the book but I did see it in a shop and was tempted to buy, but Im more interested in finding Mysterious Island somewhere. Im sure I read Watership Down along time ago, but I cant remember much of it. I'll see if I can dig it out to read it again.

Also just thought I'd mention this video that I found on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S_q4iLILSk&search=lego%20lost
its quite funny.

[John]

That's one messed up looking polar bear.

[mike]

i rented all 10 discs of the prisoner on netflix. what a colossal waste of time.

[Matt Lafferty]

jg,
I'm humbled by your kind comments and am most appreciative. All I do is share my thoughts while remaining in awe of what the guys do with LostCasts.

[Lara]

Hey. Can I just give a shout out to all the UK Lost Fans - 'Mysterious Island' is showing on channel Sky One, on Weds 26th of July, 9pm. I think it's in two parts, and im pretty sure its based on the book, even if it's not im sure its worth looking at. I'll have a look, and try and compare it to lost if i can.
Great podcast guys! Keep it up.

[Maggie]

John,
I love the podcast.

I just have a comment. You quoted Michael Ausiello's blog from TV Guide. I am a fan of your podcast and of the TV guide podcast. I just wanted to let you know how to say his last name. It is Ausie like the people from Australia and ello like hello. If you are still confussed, download the tvguide podcast and listen to the first few minutes where they introduce the panelists.
Keep up the great work.
Maggie

[Matt Lafferty]

A quick suggestion: I thought it would be neat if ahead of season 3 starting that the site had a poll for "which character do you think has most good in them?" I think the real benefit of the poll would be how it looked when it was over; this being Lost smartypants central, it might make some good discussion fodder by seeing how all the characters shake out, i.e. "Eko got the most and Jack the least--let's discuss why."

Incedentally, I personally would put Eko and Sayid as having the most "good" in them, which I think works for the direction of the show, especially if one likes the "Post 9/11" view which I increasingly love. What could shake up the ideas of the average person more than the African former warlord and the Iraqi former soldier being good, and the white middle aged doctor being bad? (I personally increasingly dislike Jack as a "person" (love the character).)

So what do you all think? Let's get a little discussion going, even if things are a bit slower for the summer!

[WeakLemonDrink]

A bit of interesting casting for us. Apprently - http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0763928/ - this fella is our hunky Latino.

So, do we reckon he'll be an Other or another survivor? He's Brazillian so *I* reckon he'll be connected to the listening station/Penny in some way.

[agua fresca]

are you guys single? ;)

(no, that isn't a dig -- i really wanna know!)

[Matt Lafferty]

Nice to see your name pop up, WeakLemon! Here's an article about the Hispanic fellow joining Lost... it's basically spoiler-free too (unless "Kate" and "romance" is a big shock to you).

Oh, and the article quotes Lindelof as saying that something midyear will fry our brains. Plan for extra bandwidth, John!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060726/en_tv_eo/19588;_ylt=As3dufqhW3wgwx6TFM4IMRBpMhkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Here's an article about the new blonde gal joining Lost. It's got a spoiler warning in the 3rd paragraph, so I dunno what it says after that!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060729/en_tv_eo/19621;_ylt=AsYS0wehPnJANGR6SWE8g9NpMhkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

Oh, and did you all see that the season premiere (4 October!) was written by J.J. Abrams? Nice to see he's back after MI:3... hopefully he'll stick around a while before his Star Trek stuff starts.

[WeakLemonDrink]

Good to be back commenting, Matt, so thanks for noticing! I've just completed a move to London (not that anyone will care) so I've been away from the net.

Anyway, I'm fully approve of all the new casting choices, especially this one - http://www.thetailsection.com/lost_spoilers/exclusive_natash_henstridge_jo.php) - and I frankly can't wait until we see how they all fit in.

I'm delighted at JJ Abrams getting back in front of the keyboard to write A Tale of Two Cities, though. I can't imagine him being too heavily involved later in the season, as he's got the small matter of the Star Trek film to be getting along with. Unless, of course, he's written his scripts already or he's going to be heavily involved with the mini-season only. That'd make sense.

It makes me laugh that one of those Yahoo! News liks described Lost as "Emmy snubbed", rather than mentioning the awards it *has* been nominated for and won - it reminds me of the current backlash I'm witnessing over here a bit. Most people I talk to have proudly proclaimed that they're no longer watching the show because they "know it'll end up being a huge dissapointment and they spend too much time with boring character stuff, anyway". Idiots. Half of them haven't even seen episodes like Lockedown, ? or Live Together, Die Alone!

Incidentally, I know it's a little late, but here's a link to a Season 1 box-set review I penned for a media site I co-run a few months back. It's got some interesting reader comments at the bottom. http://www.noisetosignal.org/tv/2006/05/lost-season-1-dvd.php

[Robert]

Thanks for flying solo on the last podcast John. My vacations are done for a while, so I'll be back and won't leaving you hanging.

Aqua - As far as our relationship status I'll only speak for myself - I'm married. I've been with my wife for 9 years and we had a child 9 months ago.

[lost_abc_hawaii]

I have been e-mailing updates to Lostcasts, and I have decided to announce my presence to everybody. (I cannot post more than 2 posts every three weeks, ABC checks all sites for leaks-I am carefull though) I can awnser your questions, but through email: lost_abc_hawaii@yahoo.com. Thank you.

Tyler Marks

PS: PARDON THE SPELLING

[JohnTheComposer]

For my birthday (today) my kids bought me the following books:

Island
Brothers Karamazov
Lord of the Flies

I'm in heaven!

[Jay & Jack sucks compare to you]

I listened to all your podcasts the week after the finale. It was fun listening to alot of your wacked ideas on whats going on because they were so off (mostly). I then tried to listen to other podcasts about the show and wow, they are terrible. You guys do such a great job you make everyong else look so bad. I cant wait to listen to you guys during season 3 because then I will be right there with you in the theories and not know what happened.

I am pretty bad at making sence when I type things out..

Keeps it up, later.

Juggs

[Matt Lafferty]

WeakLemon,
Interesting that (if I'm gathering what you're saying correctly) the US Emmy snub for season 2 with season 2 over may be having the effect that those in the UK and elsewhere that are behind think the Emmy news means the show is going downhill. Simply put, the media companies need to rethink the global picture. I think I'm correct in saying that Canada and Australia are in synch with the US for Lost, so why not the UK? I mean, the show is in English--heck, it's got 3 Brits in the show!

Robert,
Welcome back!!!

Juggs,
It is interesting to go back and hear what theories didn't quite pan out. I think I started listening late this past winter, the mural discussions from September left me a bit bemused. However--and this is key to remember--Lost requires you to remember very far back (think about the Boone/Bernard radio conversation), so who knows when the "wacky" theories will become very pertinent.

[Cameron]

Matt Lafferty: sadly Australia isn't in synch with the US, unless you download the shows. Not that I would condone that *of course*. We are just getting the final 2 hours of season 2 this week and next. They aren't even doing a 2 hour special on.

[Juggs]

Matt Laffy,

Who are you again? I don't remember you from the podcasts, just mentions of your name. People I remember listening to are: John - The apparent ring leader of lostcasts, Brian - The *sshole of the cast (makes the show more entertaining), Robert - The third amigo, and special guests Matt Jones - The more intellectual aspect fo the show, and Joy – so its not a ____ fest....

I better stop before I get banned from listening, anyway who are you?

Juggs

[Jon W]

Hi, its Jon from the UK, Great job on the last podcast I thought the Island was a much better read than Bad Twin (for obvious reasons). I checked out ABC's free streaming of Lost and I found what everyone else found, which was that you cannot download it from the UK. But it was no surprise but why did ABC have to delay the release in the UK, fortunatley however I do get all of the US episodes from an entirely legal sourse, honest, but why dont ABC just allow the UK to get the episodes rather than have us have to donwloads it from shady sources? Doesnt make sense. Keep up the great work as October draws nearer

PS. Could you put up a link to that AudioBook website that was mentioned in the last Podcast

[anthony]

im a big fan of lostcats, and i enjoyed this episode especially. i cant wait for the next podcast devoted to "watership down."
stay lost.

[anthony]

im a big fan of lostcats, and i enjoyed this episode especially. i cant wait for the next podcast devoted to "watership down."
stay lost.

[anthony]

im a big fan of lostcats, and i enjoyed this episode especially. i cant wait for the next podcast devoted to "watership down."
stay lost.

[ma134zda]

c449t

[ma927zda]

c536t