Hi dark- I've recently e-mailed you about the writings of A. Merritt while looking up broader connotations of the 'Moon Pool' mentioned on Sayid's map. Check out wikipedia and www.sfsite.com, they are my sources for the following:
Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was a journalist and writer of what we now call "pulp" science-fiction. Check out his biography, I thought it was very interesting. Although wikipedia states, "His reputation has not stood well over the years among speculative fiction fans and critics" it goes on to state "but at one time he was a major influence on H.P. Lovecraft..." Furthermore, "Merritt's stories typically revolve around conventional pulp magazine themes: lost civilizations, hideous monsters, etc..."
According to wiki again, "In 1917, he published his first fantasy, "Through the Dragon Glass", in Argosy All Stories Weekly. This was followed by many more tales, including People of the Pit (1918), The Moon Pool (1919), The Metal Monster (1920), The Face in the Abyss (1923), The Ship of Ishtar (1924), The Woman of the Wood (1926), Seven Footprints to Satan (1927), Burn, Witch, Burn! (1932), Dwellers in the Mirage (1932), Creep, Shadow! (1934), and The Drone Man (1934)."
Two of them have struck me as a little more than curiously similar to the happenings on our favorite island.
1) "The Moon Pool" (1918)-"The Moon Pool is the combination of two stories (see author notes), both narrated by the eminent scientist Walter Goodwin, as authorized by the "Executive Council of the International Association of Science," giving the story a semblance of veracity. Dr. Goodwin, doing research near the island of Ponape in the South Pacific...has seen his entire staff and his new wife drawn into a mysterious entity, mingled ultimate evil and ultimate good, which emerges from ancient ruins on a remote rocky island..." Sound familiar?
2)"The Metal Monster" (1920) To get to the bottom quickly, the metal monster is a sentient being which manipulates "crystalline metal dust" via electromagnetic force!!!
From chapter 1 "Valley of the Blue Poppies" where our heroes first encounter the monster from a distance and debate what they saw, "Some magnetic phenomenon...I was half angry at myself for my own touch of panic...Light can be deflected by passage through a magnetic field. Of course that's it. Certainly."
"I don't know." Drake's tone was doubtful indeed. "It would take a whale of a magnetic field to have done that -- it's inconceivable." He harked back to his first idea. "It was so -- so damned deliberate," he repeated."
Also this monster "whispers" to these characters as seen in Ch. 14 "Free! But a Monster!", "Some new and alien thing within my heart, my brain, my soul. It came to me...and -- he -- sealed upon me when I was in -- his -- again she crimsoned, "embrace."...It whispered and then seemed to float ...and cover me like -- like a veil, and from head to foot. It was a quietness and peace that held within it a happiness at one and the same time utterly tranquil and utterly free. I seemed to be at the doorway to unknown ecstasies -- and the life I had known only a dream -- and you, all of you -- even Martin, dreams within a dream. You weren't -- real -- and you did not -- matter." "Hypnotism," muttered Drake, as she paused. "No." She shook her head. "No -- more than that. The wonder of it grew -- and grew. I thrilled with it..."
This seems extremely similar to Locke's first experience with smokey. I believe he said something to the effect of-I looked into the heart/eye of this island and what I saw was...beautiful.
In the final chapter, after the monster's destruction, we learn even more, "And it grew increasingly obvious that Drake's theory of the destruction was correct. The Monster had been one prodigious magnet -- or, rather, a prodigious dynamo. By magnetism, by electricity, it had lived and had been activated. Whatever the force of which the cones were built and that I have likened to energy-made material, it was certainly akin to electromagnetic energies.
When, in the cataclysm, that force was diffused there had been created a magnetic field of incredible intensity; had been concentrated an electric charge of inconceivable magnitude.
Discharging, it had blasted the Monster -- short-circuited it, and burned it out."
Our heroes go on to speculate about the origin of the creature but it is clear we will never really know, "This world," he mused, "is a place of struggle. Air and sea and land and all things that dwell within and on them must battle for life. Earth not Mars is the planet of war. I have a theory" -- he hesitated -- "that the magnetic currents which are the nerve force of this globe of ours were what fed the Metal Things.
"Within those currents is the spirit of earth. And always they have been supercharged with strife, with hatreds, warfare. Were these drawn in by the Things as they fed? Did it happen that the Keeper became -- tuned -- to them? That it absorbed and responded to them, growing even more sensitive to these forces -- until it reflected humanity?"
"Who knows, Goodwin -- who can tell?"
Enigma, unless the explanations I have hazarded be accepted, must remain that monstrous suicide. Enigma, save for inconclusive theories, must remain the question of the Monster's origin.
If answers there were, they were lost forever...
I found this to be some fun stuff in the context of LOST, however I don't think I could call this a "great read" on its own merit (pun intended). A. Merritt's work could very well be a hidden and direct inspiration for the island and its greatest secret. Check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts on it!
Theory by Harry
Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was a journalist and writer of what we now call "pulp" science-fiction. Check out his biography, I thought it was very interesting. Although wikipedia states, "His reputation has not stood well over the years among speculative fiction fans and critics" it goes on to state "but at one time he was a major influence on H.P. Lovecraft..." Furthermore, "Merritt's stories typically revolve around conventional pulp magazine themes: lost civilizations, hideous monsters, etc..."
According to wiki again, "In 1917, he published his first fantasy, "Through the Dragon Glass", in Argosy All Stories Weekly. This was followed by many more tales, including People of the Pit (1918), The Moon Pool (1919), The Metal Monster (1920), The Face in the Abyss (1923), The Ship of Ishtar (1924), The Woman of the Wood (1926), Seven Footprints to Satan (1927), Burn, Witch, Burn! (1932), Dwellers in the Mirage (1932), Creep, Shadow! (1934), and The Drone Man (1934)."
Two of them have struck me as a little more than curiously similar to the happenings on our favorite island.
1) "The Moon Pool" (1918)-"The Moon Pool is the combination of two stories (see author notes), both narrated by the eminent scientist Walter Goodwin, as authorized by the "Executive Council of the International Association of Science," giving the story a semblance of veracity. Dr. Goodwin, doing research near the island of Ponape in the South Pacific...has seen his entire staff and his new wife drawn into a mysterious entity, mingled ultimate evil and ultimate good, which emerges from ancient ruins on a remote rocky island..." Sound familiar?
2)"The Metal Monster" (1920) To get to the bottom quickly, the metal monster is a sentient being which manipulates "crystalline metal dust" via electromagnetic force!!!
From chapter 1 "Valley of the Blue Poppies" where our heroes first encounter the monster from a distance and debate what they saw, "Some magnetic phenomenon...I was half angry at myself for my own touch of panic...Light can be deflected by passage through a magnetic field. Of course that's it. Certainly."
"I don't know." Drake's tone was doubtful indeed. "It would take a whale of a magnetic field to have done that -- it's inconceivable." He harked back to his first idea. "It was so -- so damned deliberate," he repeated."
Also this monster "whispers" to these characters as seen in Ch. 14 "Free! But a Monster!", "Some new and alien thing within my heart, my brain, my soul. It came to me...and -- he -- sealed upon me when I was in -- his -- again she crimsoned, "embrace."...It whispered and then seemed to float ...and cover me like -- like a veil, and from head to foot. It was a quietness and peace that held within it a happiness at one and the same time utterly tranquil and utterly free. I seemed to be at the doorway to unknown ecstasies -- and the life I had known only a dream -- and you, all of you -- even Martin, dreams within a dream. You weren't -- real -- and you did not -- matter." "Hypnotism," muttered Drake, as she paused. "No." She shook her head. "No -- more than that. The wonder of it grew -- and grew. I thrilled with it..."
This seems extremely similar to Locke's first experience with smokey. I believe he said something to the effect of-I looked into the heart/eye of this island and what I saw was...beautiful.
In the final chapter, after the monster's destruction, we learn even more, "And it grew increasingly obvious that Drake's theory of the destruction was correct. The Monster had been one prodigious magnet -- or, rather, a prodigious dynamo. By magnetism, by electricity, it had lived and had been activated. Whatever the force of which the cones were built and that I have likened to energy-made material, it was certainly akin to electromagnetic energies.
When, in the cataclysm, that force was diffused there had been created a magnetic field of incredible intensity; had been concentrated an electric charge of inconceivable magnitude.
Discharging, it had blasted the Monster -- short-circuited it, and burned it out."
Our heroes go on to speculate about the origin of the creature but it is clear we will never really know, "This world," he mused, "is a place of struggle. Air and sea and land and all things that dwell within and on them must battle for life. Earth not Mars is the planet of war. I have a theory" -- he hesitated -- "that the magnetic currents which are the nerve force of this globe of ours were what fed the Metal Things.
"Within those currents is the spirit of earth. And always they have been supercharged with strife, with hatreds, warfare. Were these drawn in by the Things as they fed? Did it happen that the Keeper became -- tuned -- to them? That it absorbed and responded to them, growing even more sensitive to these forces -- until it reflected humanity?"
"Who knows, Goodwin -- who can tell?"
Enigma, unless the explanations I have hazarded be accepted, must remain that monstrous suicide. Enigma, save for inconclusive theories, must remain the question of the Monster's origin.
If answers there were, they were lost forever...
I found this to be some fun stuff in the context of LOST, however I don't think I could call this a "great read" on its own merit (pun intended). A. Merritt's work could very well be a hidden and direct inspiration for the island and its greatest secret. Check it out for yourself and let me know your thoughts on it!
Theory by Harry
