Honestly, I'm wondering if anybody's thought of this before. It's not so much a theory as an observation. Since the beginning of this show, I've thought that Chuck Palahniuk is either a huge influence on the show, or just coincidentally deals with ALL the same topics.
This observation could work just because of the gigantic themes covered in the show and in Chuck's work, that there's bound to be some overlap, like a Venn diagram - which is probably the truth. However, this thought's pretty fresh in my mind, having recently read Rant for a second time... most Palahniuk books have to be read more than once due to the mindf*cks involved - and having to view the book from the naive standpoint the first time, and to view the book from the more knowledgeable side the second time. Like The Usual Suspects - the first time you watch it, you don't have any clue Verbal Kint is Keyser Soze...yet on second viewing, you see all those subtle hints.
Books by Chuck Palahniuk:
Invisible Monsters
Fight Club
Survivor
Choke
Lullaby
Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregan
Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
Diary
Haunted
Rant
Snuff
I sort of discount Invisible Monsters (despite its title somewhat relating to the show), Stranger Than Fiction (a nonfiction book of essays and articles), and Snuff (his most recently published novel, a fiction piece about the world of Pornography).
Repeated themes that tend to cross over, according to Lostpedia and my own knowledge of Palahniuk's work: Pregnancies, Cons/Deceptions, Time Travel, Fate vs. Free Will, Tabula Rasa, Parent Issues, Rebirth, Amputations, Philosphy, Isolation, Relationship Issues. There's background information on characters that are similar to Palahniuk characters, such as Locke, who's overall character shares many of Palahniuk's repeated themes (support groups, parent issues, the "Enlightenment Guru"). Then there are the techniques like mindf*cks and plot twists.
Okay, let's look at the similarities. I'm limiting this list to the most obvious 16 (mostly because 16 is one of the numbers).
1. Fight Club and the concept of Tabula Rasa: "It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything." Tabula Rasa was thought up by philosopher John Locke, who obviously shares his name with the character from Lost.
2. In Walkabout, Locke works in a box company and his boss, Randy Nations, requests TPS reports. This office is presented in the same dull greenish lighting as that of Edward Norton's office in the film adaptation of Fight Club, where his boss also requests TPS reports. Randy also wears what appears to be a cornflower blue shirt and dark blue tie - the main narrator's boss is fond of cornflower blue.
3. In Orientation, it's revealed that Locke attended support groups for anger management. The narrator of Fight Club attends support groups for afflictions that he doesn't have in order to make himself feel special and connect with others. In Choke, Victor Mancini attends sex addiction support groups.
4. In Hearts and Minds, Locke’s treatment of Boone is very similar to Tyler Durden’s treatment of the unnamed Narrator. They also spout similar lines – Locke: “I think it’s time to let go.” Durden: “You have to give up.” Though not immediately apparent, in context, these statements are rendered in similar situations, after mind-altering experiences that could be perceived as punishment. Locke and Durden could also both be considered neo-Luddites. According to Wikipedia, Neo-Luddism is a modern movement of opposition to specific or general technological development. This also works with Ben’s description of Jacob, as having a similar distaste for technology in The Man Behind the Curtain. In Numbers, Locke states that he created glue from rendered animal fat. Rendering fat is a key plot point in Fight Club, which is taught to the narrator by Tyler.
5. In Deus Ex Machina, Locke's mother approaches him and tells him he was immaculately conceived. In Choke, the main character is led to believe that he is the second coming of Christ, through a cloning experiment. In the same episode, Locke meets his father, and tells him that his mother told him he was immaculately conceived, to which his father responds, "I guess that makes me God." His father later cons him out of a kidney and abandons him. Tyler Durden states in Fight Club, "Our fathers are our models for God. If our fathers failed, what does that tell you about God?" This speaks to the overall parental issues dealt with in the show, including the name "Christian Shephard" as the (apparently) "main" protagonist's father.
6. All of Palahniuk's novels tend to have lots of statistics and surprising but true facts - very similar to things that are stated by Locke in the first two seasons. Locke's story of Michaelangelo's David in the first season is a good example of something that might pop up in a Palahniuk book, Ditto his description of the name "Aaron," etc.
7. Air travel and plane crashes are very important in Palahniuk's works. In the film adaptation of Fight Club, the narrator fantasizes about a mid-air collision that tears open part of an aircraft, similar to Flight 815's splitting apart midair. In Survivor, the narrator (Tender Branson) dictates his story into the black box of an airplane that crashes into the Australian outback. His girlfriend in the story can see the future through identifying patterns, has a particular fondness for disasters, and suffers from the Cassandra complex. In Choke, Victor Mancini's addiction begins with an encounter in an airplane bathroom. In Rant, a car salesman tells the story of how he met the "father" of the main character on an airplane.
8. Time Travel: The novel Rant specifically deals with time travel and it's paradoxes, namely the grandfather paradox. It discusses "Liminal Time" - which is a concept similar to the island of Lost. Liminality is defined as "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the 'threshold' of or between two different existential planes."
9. Reincarnation: The novel Diary specifically deals with the concept of reincarnation, and a small group of people who live on a small island who exploit the reincarnated soul of the protagonist (Misty Wilmot). Compare this to Richard Alpert’s “test” of John Locke in the episode Cabin Fever. The exploitation factor could be very important due to the ambiguous "assignment" of "being chosen" as spoken by the "ghost" of Christian Shephard in that same episode. John Locke is a notorious sucker, taken by many different cons repeatedly throughout the show, while still believing in his "destiny."
10. Haunted: This collection of short stories has an overall narrative where aspiring authors attend a writing retreat only to become trapped by the organizer. In an effort to make their stories more sympathetic after their inevitable rescue, they begin mutilating themselves and amputating body parts (another theme in the show). One of the final stories, "Obsolete," reveals another theme that could possibly be pertinent to the island of Lost - that Earth is just a way station on the path to enlightenment. “In the big factory of human souls, the Earth was a kind of tumbler. The same as the kind people use to polish rocks. All souls come here to rub the sharp edges off each others. All of us, we’re meant to be worn smooth by conflict and pain of every kind. To be polished. There was nothing bad about this. This wasn’t suffering, it was erosion. It was just another, a basic, an important step in the refining process… According to the government estimates, as many as 1,7! 60,042 human souls were already freed and living a party lifestyle on the planet Venus. The rest of humanity would have to live on through a series of lifetimes, of suffering, before they were refined enough to emigrate.” I just always thought that might be a really neat way to describe what's really happening with the Island itself; That the knowledge the Island has to impart involves some sort of internal "enlightenment." An example of this might be Locke's description of the Moth in the episode of the same name - "You see this little hole? This moth's just about to emerge. It's in there right now, struggling, it's digging it's way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it, take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free. But it would be too weak to survive. The struggle is nature's way of strengthening it."
11. Repetitions of certain lines in the stories' narratives (what Palahniuk refers to as "choruses") are one of the most common aspects of his writing style, found dispersed within most chapters of his novels. This is similar to the regularly spoken phrases that are often used in Lost: "work to do..." "don't tell me what i can't do..." "live together, die alone..."
12. The main characters of Palahniuk's stories all share a common theme: a desire to connect with others, and to have been badly burned and disconnected from others in the past - which could correlate to all of the characters in Lost. Palahniuk refers to this as "emotional currency" - the means that people use to gain that feeling of connection, whether through support groups, fight clubs, "party crashing," etc. The Lost characters don't necessarily try to find the odd ways to fulfill their needs like the Palahniuk characters, but their reasons for disconnection are reminiscent of Palahniuk.
13. Two of his books, Lullaby and Haunted, deal with characters who perform unusual assassinations. Compare to the character of Sayid "after the island."
14. Palahniuk wrote a travel book for Portland, Oregon. This corresponds to the episode Not in Portland, where Richard Alpert leads Juliet to believe that Mittelos BioScience is headquartered in Portland. Ben Linus was also born just outside Portland.
15. Palahniuk specializes in plot twists and mindf*cks that occur near the end of his novels, similar to the "Lost" mindf*cks that usually occur at the end of episodes. These are referred to as "the hidden gun" by Palahniuk - a good example of this technique in Lost is the episode Walkabout, where, through clever camerawork, the viewer can't tell Locke is crippled until it's revealed at the very end of the episode.
16. Fertility: Tender's girlfriend in Survivor, the one who can see the future and suffers from the Cassandra complex, her name is Fertility. Her job is to con infertile married couples into becoming a surrogate mother for them, when she is in fact infertile herself. The twist comes when Tender ends up impregnating her at the end of the novel...something she did not see coming. In Lost, the Others suffer from problems with pregnancies, which end up killing the mothers somewhere around the second trimester. Juliet Burke is a fertility doctor hired by Richard Alpert in the episode "Not in Portland." She is hired because she is able to successfully impregnate her sister Rachel through a series of treatments. Rachel was previously infertile due to cancer treatment.
This might be a sort of apophenia on my part, but part of this show is based on apophenia - see the Numbers. What all of this might mean for Lost or it's future, I think, is totally irrelevant. What's important about it is recognizing a possible influence to the show that hasn't been pointed out yet - and with the importance that the book club has for the fans of the show, I think any new reference is worth exploring. And Chuck's work is definitely worth it.
Theory by heathen_king
This observation could work just because of the gigantic themes covered in the show and in Chuck's work, that there's bound to be some overlap, like a Venn diagram - which is probably the truth. However, this thought's pretty fresh in my mind, having recently read Rant for a second time... most Palahniuk books have to be read more than once due to the mindf*cks involved - and having to view the book from the naive standpoint the first time, and to view the book from the more knowledgeable side the second time. Like The Usual Suspects - the first time you watch it, you don't have any clue Verbal Kint is Keyser Soze...yet on second viewing, you see all those subtle hints.
Books by Chuck Palahniuk:
Invisible Monsters
Fight Club
Survivor
Choke
Lullaby
Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregan
Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
Diary
Haunted
Rant
Snuff
I sort of discount Invisible Monsters (despite its title somewhat relating to the show), Stranger Than Fiction (a nonfiction book of essays and articles), and Snuff (his most recently published novel, a fiction piece about the world of Pornography).
Repeated themes that tend to cross over, according to Lostpedia and my own knowledge of Palahniuk's work: Pregnancies, Cons/Deceptions, Time Travel, Fate vs. Free Will, Tabula Rasa, Parent Issues, Rebirth, Amputations, Philosphy, Isolation, Relationship Issues. There's background information on characters that are similar to Palahniuk characters, such as Locke, who's overall character shares many of Palahniuk's repeated themes (support groups, parent issues, the "Enlightenment Guru"). Then there are the techniques like mindf*cks and plot twists.
Okay, let's look at the similarities. I'm limiting this list to the most obvious 16 (mostly because 16 is one of the numbers).
1. Fight Club and the concept of Tabula Rasa: "It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything." Tabula Rasa was thought up by philosopher John Locke, who obviously shares his name with the character from Lost.
2. In Walkabout, Locke works in a box company and his boss, Randy Nations, requests TPS reports. This office is presented in the same dull greenish lighting as that of Edward Norton's office in the film adaptation of Fight Club, where his boss also requests TPS reports. Randy also wears what appears to be a cornflower blue shirt and dark blue tie - the main narrator's boss is fond of cornflower blue.
3. In Orientation, it's revealed that Locke attended support groups for anger management. The narrator of Fight Club attends support groups for afflictions that he doesn't have in order to make himself feel special and connect with others. In Choke, Victor Mancini attends sex addiction support groups.
4. In Hearts and Minds, Locke’s treatment of Boone is very similar to Tyler Durden’s treatment of the unnamed Narrator. They also spout similar lines – Locke: “I think it’s time to let go.” Durden: “You have to give up.” Though not immediately apparent, in context, these statements are rendered in similar situations, after mind-altering experiences that could be perceived as punishment. Locke and Durden could also both be considered neo-Luddites. According to Wikipedia, Neo-Luddism is a modern movement of opposition to specific or general technological development. This also works with Ben’s description of Jacob, as having a similar distaste for technology in The Man Behind the Curtain. In Numbers, Locke states that he created glue from rendered animal fat. Rendering fat is a key plot point in Fight Club, which is taught to the narrator by Tyler.
5. In Deus Ex Machina, Locke's mother approaches him and tells him he was immaculately conceived. In Choke, the main character is led to believe that he is the second coming of Christ, through a cloning experiment. In the same episode, Locke meets his father, and tells him that his mother told him he was immaculately conceived, to which his father responds, "I guess that makes me God." His father later cons him out of a kidney and abandons him. Tyler Durden states in Fight Club, "Our fathers are our models for God. If our fathers failed, what does that tell you about God?" This speaks to the overall parental issues dealt with in the show, including the name "Christian Shephard" as the (apparently) "main" protagonist's father.
6. All of Palahniuk's novels tend to have lots of statistics and surprising but true facts - very similar to things that are stated by Locke in the first two seasons. Locke's story of Michaelangelo's David in the first season is a good example of something that might pop up in a Palahniuk book, Ditto his description of the name "Aaron," etc.
7. Air travel and plane crashes are very important in Palahniuk's works. In the film adaptation of Fight Club, the narrator fantasizes about a mid-air collision that tears open part of an aircraft, similar to Flight 815's splitting apart midair. In Survivor, the narrator (Tender Branson) dictates his story into the black box of an airplane that crashes into the Australian outback. His girlfriend in the story can see the future through identifying patterns, has a particular fondness for disasters, and suffers from the Cassandra complex. In Choke, Victor Mancini's addiction begins with an encounter in an airplane bathroom. In Rant, a car salesman tells the story of how he met the "father" of the main character on an airplane.
8. Time Travel: The novel Rant specifically deals with time travel and it's paradoxes, namely the grandfather paradox. It discusses "Liminal Time" - which is a concept similar to the island of Lost. Liminality is defined as "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective, conscious state of being on the 'threshold' of or between two different existential planes."
9. Reincarnation: The novel Diary specifically deals with the concept of reincarnation, and a small group of people who live on a small island who exploit the reincarnated soul of the protagonist (Misty Wilmot). Compare this to Richard Alpert’s “test” of John Locke in the episode Cabin Fever. The exploitation factor could be very important due to the ambiguous "assignment" of "being chosen" as spoken by the "ghost" of Christian Shephard in that same episode. John Locke is a notorious sucker, taken by many different cons repeatedly throughout the show, while still believing in his "destiny."
10. Haunted: This collection of short stories has an overall narrative where aspiring authors attend a writing retreat only to become trapped by the organizer. In an effort to make their stories more sympathetic after their inevitable rescue, they begin mutilating themselves and amputating body parts (another theme in the show). One of the final stories, "Obsolete," reveals another theme that could possibly be pertinent to the island of Lost - that Earth is just a way station on the path to enlightenment. “In the big factory of human souls, the Earth was a kind of tumbler. The same as the kind people use to polish rocks. All souls come here to rub the sharp edges off each others. All of us, we’re meant to be worn smooth by conflict and pain of every kind. To be polished. There was nothing bad about this. This wasn’t suffering, it was erosion. It was just another, a basic, an important step in the refining process… According to the government estimates, as many as 1,7! 60,042 human souls were already freed and living a party lifestyle on the planet Venus. The rest of humanity would have to live on through a series of lifetimes, of suffering, before they were refined enough to emigrate.” I just always thought that might be a really neat way to describe what's really happening with the Island itself; That the knowledge the Island has to impart involves some sort of internal "enlightenment." An example of this might be Locke's description of the Moth in the episode of the same name - "You see this little hole? This moth's just about to emerge. It's in there right now, struggling, it's digging it's way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it, take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free. But it would be too weak to survive. The struggle is nature's way of strengthening it."
11. Repetitions of certain lines in the stories' narratives (what Palahniuk refers to as "choruses") are one of the most common aspects of his writing style, found dispersed within most chapters of his novels. This is similar to the regularly spoken phrases that are often used in Lost: "work to do..." "don't tell me what i can't do..." "live together, die alone..."
12. The main characters of Palahniuk's stories all share a common theme: a desire to connect with others, and to have been badly burned and disconnected from others in the past - which could correlate to all of the characters in Lost. Palahniuk refers to this as "emotional currency" - the means that people use to gain that feeling of connection, whether through support groups, fight clubs, "party crashing," etc. The Lost characters don't necessarily try to find the odd ways to fulfill their needs like the Palahniuk characters, but their reasons for disconnection are reminiscent of Palahniuk.
13. Two of his books, Lullaby and Haunted, deal with characters who perform unusual assassinations. Compare to the character of Sayid "after the island."
14. Palahniuk wrote a travel book for Portland, Oregon. This corresponds to the episode Not in Portland, where Richard Alpert leads Juliet to believe that Mittelos BioScience is headquartered in Portland. Ben Linus was also born just outside Portland.
15. Palahniuk specializes in plot twists and mindf*cks that occur near the end of his novels, similar to the "Lost" mindf*cks that usually occur at the end of episodes. These are referred to as "the hidden gun" by Palahniuk - a good example of this technique in Lost is the episode Walkabout, where, through clever camerawork, the viewer can't tell Locke is crippled until it's revealed at the very end of the episode.
16. Fertility: Tender's girlfriend in Survivor, the one who can see the future and suffers from the Cassandra complex, her name is Fertility. Her job is to con infertile married couples into becoming a surrogate mother for them, when she is in fact infertile herself. The twist comes when Tender ends up impregnating her at the end of the novel...something she did not see coming. In Lost, the Others suffer from problems with pregnancies, which end up killing the mothers somewhere around the second trimester. Juliet Burke is a fertility doctor hired by Richard Alpert in the episode "Not in Portland." She is hired because she is able to successfully impregnate her sister Rachel through a series of treatments. Rachel was previously infertile due to cancer treatment.
This might be a sort of apophenia on my part, but part of this show is based on apophenia - see the Numbers. What all of this might mean for Lost or it's future, I think, is totally irrelevant. What's important about it is recognizing a possible influence to the show that hasn't been pointed out yet - and with the importance that the book club has for the fans of the show, I think any new reference is worth exploring. And Chuck's work is definitely worth it.
Theory by heathen_king
