Mental Floss

A Few Interesting LOST Theories

By Chris Higgins

facebooktwitterreddit

I'm a big LOST fan, and have started re-watching first few seasons while waiting for season 4 to start in 2008. If you're in the same boat (or should I say, on the same island?), the first thing you should check out is the Orchid Station Orientation Video, revealed at Comic-Con earlier this month. Next, I have rounded up a series of theories from around the web for your review. Please DON'T read on if you're not interested in speculation, and/or haven't watched all the episodes yet!

(Theories are after the jump, to protect innocent eyes!)

LOST as Postmodernist Text About Meaninglessness. Doc Jensen reviews some of the philosophical bits and pieces present in the series, ultimately concluding that it's a show about meaninglessness. (There's a fine, but important, line between that notion and the Seinfeld idea of a show about nothing.)

LOST as Gedanken Experiment About Time Travel. This is pretty interesting -- basically a big rambling theory involving 108-minute time travel, the Grandfather Paradox, and the island's monster. This is an interesting summary: "The question isn't, Where is the Island? The question is, When is the Island?" (Note that this theory is officially marked as "debunked" on lost-theories.com.)

LOST as Garden of Eden. This Biblical theory puts the pieces together in the context of Genesis, even incorporating the mysterious foot statue.

LOST as Walt's Dream. This was my personal theory throughout seasons 1 and 2, but I think is now pretty much disproved. I was convinced that Walt was projecting his own psyche across the island -- for example, he sees a polar bear in a comic book, then moments later a polar bear appears in the jungle; he projects his daddy issues onto everyone else (this might account for why Michael is so ridiculously obsessed with saving his son); he mysteriously appears in places he can't physically be; and so on. However, something occurs at the end of season 2 that seems to make this theory impractical.

So what do you think? Have you heard a better theory? (Note: if your theory contains a major spoiler, please warn readers before you spill the beans!)