LOST: The 'Solaris' Theory

[XmasDVD]

from Docartz.com


The topic of the rather spry dead and imaginary people populating our Island and our living characters' lives has been much on people's minds lately, and more and more I found myself wondering why no one (or at least no one in Lost fandom I've been able to find) has mentioned Stanislaw Lem's brilliant novel (and Andrei Tarkovsky's critically-adored film), Solaris.


Let's have a look-see shall we? Solaris tells of a living planet (well, technically, a living "ocean" on a distant planet) which communicates with its human visitors by materially manifesting people from their pasts and forces them to confront their own limitations and foibles in the process. Sound familiar?


That the titular Solaris is an incomprehensibly alien sentience not necessarily advancing the best interests of its visitors as it attempts to communicate with them and understand them (while, in turn, the human scientists try to understand Solaris) also holds sounds a lot like Lost's Island.


As in Solaris, the Island's interactions with its human visitors and inhabitants cause insanity and death. Also, as in Solaris, the Island seems pretty indifferent to human suffering. It's been very willing to select the most traumatic possible "visitor" for those to whom it's manifested (Jack's father, Eko's brother, Ben's mother, Charlie for Hurley, Libby for Michael), has actively inflicted or allowed to occur various ailments (Ben's tumor, Jack's appendicitis, Locke's legs giving out at inopportune moments) and even "demanding sacrifice" (note that one of those inopportune moments for Locke's legs was what required Locke to send Boone to explore the Beechcraft, killing him).


None of which is to say that the Island is "evil" any more than Solaris was "evil"...they're both simply alien and have motivations incomprehensible to and arguably uncaring for humans. Or, to use Ben's colorful description from "Cabin Fever", they're (to human eyes) fickle bitches.


So, as usual, I would caution against taking too strong a "one-to-one" correlation. Lost is always, in the end, its own creature even if its genetic code contains DNA from a host of narrative ancestors. But I'll leave you with this thought: None of the other "mysterious islands" commonly considered antecedents for Lost's Island--Verne's The Mysterious Island, the island of Shakespeare's The Tempest (and the Forbidden Planet of film), Lemuria, Mu, Atlantis, and so on--were alive in and of themselves like Lost's Island and Solaris are.

[Rocko593]

Solaris is mentioned in the book "Lost's Buried Treasures" as an ancestor text. I recommend reading if you want to learn about different Television shows and Books that have influenced LOST. It also talks about music and the meaning behind different songs, geographical clues, etc.

[Himmel]

Very interesting topic

[Lockeisthekey]

This is why I love this board. Every day there's another example of folks' cleverness and imagination. Let's see if I have any kind of handle on the gist of your theory, Xmas. The island could actually be a living extra terestrial enity (without the big headed gray skinned creatures, though - unless they would be the whisperers) that landed on this planet perhaps hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago (the world on the back of a turtle, so so speak) and a jungle grew up upon it. It has intelligence and the motivation to be kept a secret. It has ways of remaining hidden, compasses don't work on it, it has amazing electro-magnetic properties, exists outside of normal time, radiates healing energy, isn't securely attached to the Earth as other islands are, is very receptive to human thought and psychic abilities, can manifest objects (deceased people as well as creatures, like Kate's horse) by reading minds, and wishes to understand the humans who have come to inhabit it.
It wants the humans to face their own inner demons and makes that happen. It's not above making value judgements though, and uses its "swiss army knife" tool, or "security system" which we call Smokie, to really get up close and personal with some people to read their minds and kill them if it deems that to be necessary (Eko). The humans that it sees as very special, like Locke (the miracle baby) are given special treatment and connection. Like a god figure, it tests by demanding a sacrifice. (Boone had to die, Charlie had to give up the drugs and then drown, Rousseau had to lose Alex, Jack gave up his chance to go home by saving Ben's life, Ben had to watch Alex die).
It allowed Dharma to dig, build, experiment and exploit, but only up to a point. It used Ben to purge them when the Science became too intrusive. It much prefers Faith, and seems quite interested in this particular human ability. It seems to want to know more about it.
The island/entity is powerful, but it still needs the actions of humans to protect it and keep it from being discovered and completely exploited. Over the centuries that it has allowed human inhabitation, it has learned a great deal about Good and Bad. It knows about devotion, gratitude, faith and acceptance. It has also seen averice, greed, cruelty and vice. As Bernard said to Jin, good choices are rewarded with good things happening, and bad choices bring bad Karma. It knows all about cause and effect. It wants to learn all it can about the yin and yang of the forces that drive our human lives, about the black and white that divides our character, about how it all seems to a grand game.
Is that kind of what you're talking about?

[XmasDVD]

WOW nice! Sounds like it to me!

[Tater13]

Are you talking about the same Solaris that was also a movie?? With George Clooney and Natalie McElhone? If so, that's freaky. Because the actor that plays Daniel Farraday was also in Solaris. :eek:

[notsolost42]

"Or, to use Ben's colorful description from "Cabin Fever", they're (to human eyes) fickle bitches."

I love your postings and they are always very well done. This is also a very interesting idea.
I think what Ben said was "Fate is a fickle bitch". I completely agree with him!