I'm a little disappointed on how many people picked up and ran with the "Final Destination" reference, rather than the "Clockwork Orange" scene. You seemed to go with Clockwork a little more than most, so I figured I'd write to you.
Since the producers/writers are a little closer to my age group, the brainwashing/aversive therapy scene in #23 might have conked me over the head a bit harder than most of the people I saw posting to message forums and blogs. The scene didn't just 'remind' me of "A Clockwork Orange", I saw it being recreated with a "Lost" spin.
First of all - The room in which Alex de Large [in Clockwork] gets his Aversion Therapy is #23. That's the reference to #23 that we are supposed to get. Not the rest of the rooms, etc. It's a direct reference to "A Clockwork Orange". Also, Karl's girlfriend is named Alex. That may or may not be accidental, considering the other larger themes of the show, and that it is likely that she is the only person on the show who's truly lived her entire life on the island.
There are plenty of other references to Clockwork in the episode, including the references to the Burkes - Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism plays a huge part in the telling of Alex de Large's tale. His is the telling of the difference between Liberalism (Man is born good and is made bad by society) and Conservatism (Man is born bad and made good by society) and that much relates to the way that things are playing out between the two Islands, particularly the idea that one is reborn and able to start anew. Which theory will play out best in the lives of the Losties and the Others?
BF Skinner and the theory of Aversive Conditioning is the basic idea behind what happens to Alex in ACO, and what probably happens to Walt and definitely to Karl. Aversive conditioning also looms large in the theory of man is born bad and must be rehabilitated by society in order for civilization to survive. Hence, there's a tremendous connection to The Others, Edmund Burke, and Modern Conservatism. Burke was frequently in opposition to other thinkers of the enlightenment, especially Rousseau. I'm not certain that we are to make the jump from Edmund to Juliet, but the connection is certainly there.
Back to ACO. If you want a good jumping off point, check out this series of letters written at the release time of A Clockwork Orange. I think you will find it interesting.
My Mostly Misinformed Lost 101 theory on Sawyer's reaction -> He's been through some sort aversion therapy, as part of his prison time. I'll further bet it was voluntary experimental psychopharmacology by some branch of Mittelos Science. I'll be looking for that in the future. In the form of eye drops and big blue glasses - Remember Sawyer and the funky glasses in Season 1? Foreshadowing.
"Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions."
-Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France [1790].
Theory by authenticpoppy
Since the producers/writers are a little closer to my age group, the brainwashing/aversive therapy scene in #23 might have conked me over the head a bit harder than most of the people I saw posting to message forums and blogs. The scene didn't just 'remind' me of "A Clockwork Orange", I saw it being recreated with a "Lost" spin.
First of all - The room in which Alex de Large [in Clockwork] gets his Aversion Therapy is #23. That's the reference to #23 that we are supposed to get. Not the rest of the rooms, etc. It's a direct reference to "A Clockwork Orange". Also, Karl's girlfriend is named Alex. That may or may not be accidental, considering the other larger themes of the show, and that it is likely that she is the only person on the show who's truly lived her entire life on the island.
There are plenty of other references to Clockwork in the episode, including the references to the Burkes - Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism plays a huge part in the telling of Alex de Large's tale. His is the telling of the difference between Liberalism (Man is born good and is made bad by society) and Conservatism (Man is born bad and made good by society) and that much relates to the way that things are playing out between the two Islands, particularly the idea that one is reborn and able to start anew. Which theory will play out best in the lives of the Losties and the Others?
BF Skinner and the theory of Aversive Conditioning is the basic idea behind what happens to Alex in ACO, and what probably happens to Walt and definitely to Karl. Aversive conditioning also looms large in the theory of man is born bad and must be rehabilitated by society in order for civilization to survive. Hence, there's a tremendous connection to The Others, Edmund Burke, and Modern Conservatism. Burke was frequently in opposition to other thinkers of the enlightenment, especially Rousseau. I'm not certain that we are to make the jump from Edmund to Juliet, but the connection is certainly there.
Back to ACO. If you want a good jumping off point, check out this series of letters written at the release time of A Clockwork Orange. I think you will find it interesting.
My Mostly Misinformed Lost 101 theory on Sawyer's reaction -> He's been through some sort aversion therapy, as part of his prison time. I'll further bet it was voluntary experimental psychopharmacology by some branch of Mittelos Science. I'll be looking for that in the future. In the form of eye drops and big blue glasses - Remember Sawyer and the funky glasses in Season 1? Foreshadowing.
"Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions."
-Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France [1790].
Theory by authenticpoppy
