Something that has always been a great focus of the show LOST, from the beginning, is the idea of black and white, and what they come to represent. When Jack found Adam & Eve in the caves, he picked up the black and white stones, and forever now the debate has been raised over who these two people are, especially now that we know for sure that time travel is most definitely a part of the show.
Firstly, let me convey my own ideas I’ve had about time travel (if it were ever to happen), and how I believe (thankfully!) TPTB have decided to make time travel ‘work’ on the show.
The major point is that you cannot change the past, and this is crucial… because then people raise the question ‘Well can you change the future? Is the future not just, in essence, someone else’s past?’ This is a very good question, but can be answered, in my opinion quite simply. Whatever you do when you travel to the past, this has already happened, so when we see Sawyer view Claire’s birth, we can always assume he was there.
In truth, you can do whatever you want in the future, just as you can in the past. What you have to account for, however, is the fact that this has already happened, and we the cunning viewers know already how some things have turned out. TPTB don’t mind throwing some crazy ideas our way though, and one such instance is the compass that Alpert gives Locke. Alpert gives Locke the compass, so that he will believe it is Locke, because he knows that Locke gave him the compass to make him believe him, which Alpert then goes onto doing. This compass has no maker, it is just an object that exists, and is necessary.
The same thing goes for the black and white rocks that Jack picks up, we are led to believe. I would not be in the least bit surprised if (this is if Jack is ‘Adam’) lays down in the cave with Kate or Julliet at the end of season six only to find that he has put on a pair of trousers that just happen to have the stones he found way back in season one in. You get the idea? Jack passes two people dying in a cave, who he then realises must be Adam and Eve that he sees in the future, and for whatever, lays down the stones he found before. It is a necessary act, and invokes the necessary existence of the stones.
It’s a lot like, excuse me for the tangent, in one of the Bill & Ted movies where they say that in the future they will go back in time and put a key to something that they need there so they can use it then… this doesn’t make sense (sorry to shock a lot of you Bill and Ted fans) because this relies on the fact that they need they key in the first place to get to somewhere to be able to, somewhere in the reliable future, go back in time and put the key there. The universe seems to be a lot more agreeable than most philosophers would think in this example, and this is just like the island.
The island is allowing the instances of the stones and the compass to happen, perhaps because it figures into the greater plan of the island. Perhaps when Jack comes across Adam and Eve, or realises himself as being Adam, he hatches an epiphany, and then he finally makes the cross over into being a man of faith, as the island almost demands it of him. If the stones weren’t there, who knows what would have happened.
For the compass instance, if the compass did not exist, Alpert would not have gone to see Locke as a child and followed him through various stages of his life. It could be that Alpert is on the side of Abaddon who was the one that suggested first the idea of the ‘Walkabout’ to John Locke, bringing him to the island in the first place. Brought to the island because when he got to the island (and travelled through time) he told Alpert to bring him to the island… perhaps John Locke is the greatest mystery here, not infact the compass, or at least they are both on equal footing. The universe isn’t by all means ‘allowing’, it is random and chaotic, and the fact we get out of bed in the morning and our feet don’t fall through the floor is viewed in the eyes of many well educated philosophers as a miracle.
The island is, in my eyes, the dominant force. It is the one allowing such events to take place in it, and in my eyes, for the greater good. The island is an amazing place, where ‘miracles happen’. To assume that the island’s intentions are bad would be to cast doubt on the whole show. I believe that even the child bearing problems are the faults of those that are on the island, not the island itself. It calls into question who the island is either master of, or master to, ultimately. If the island is trying to instil faith in Jack, and to bring Locke to the island no matter what the cost, we can see that Christian Shephard is obviously not a good man. Ben believes Locke saw Jacob, and Jacob told him to turn the wheel; I would love to know what Ben would have thought if Locke said it wasn’t Jacob. If Ben saw that Jacob must have been wrong in saying that Locke was to turn the wheel, because Ben knew that Locke was meant to come to the island, perhaps he suspects some! thing is foul, if not just that he thinks Locke misheard Jacob’s intentions.
Finally, perhaps it is Jack, man of science, that needs to have his faith instilled in him fully to be able to tackle his father, who in my eyes is a representative of the ‘bad guys’ on the island.
Please, I would like to hear your comments! In short summary, the island is ‘allowing’ the compass and the two stone paradoxes to occur, because they are necessary for the ‘final good’ so to speak. Christian Shephard is a ‘bad guy’ because he told Locke to leave the island, when Ben knows that this simply should not be the case, as Locke is the man the island wants. Even Jacob asked for his help. Theory by Barnie Abraham
Firstly, let me convey my own ideas I’ve had about time travel (if it were ever to happen), and how I believe (thankfully!) TPTB have decided to make time travel ‘work’ on the show.
The major point is that you cannot change the past, and this is crucial… because then people raise the question ‘Well can you change the future? Is the future not just, in essence, someone else’s past?’ This is a very good question, but can be answered, in my opinion quite simply. Whatever you do when you travel to the past, this has already happened, so when we see Sawyer view Claire’s birth, we can always assume he was there.
In truth, you can do whatever you want in the future, just as you can in the past. What you have to account for, however, is the fact that this has already happened, and we the cunning viewers know already how some things have turned out. TPTB don’t mind throwing some crazy ideas our way though, and one such instance is the compass that Alpert gives Locke. Alpert gives Locke the compass, so that he will believe it is Locke, because he knows that Locke gave him the compass to make him believe him, which Alpert then goes onto doing. This compass has no maker, it is just an object that exists, and is necessary.
The same thing goes for the black and white rocks that Jack picks up, we are led to believe. I would not be in the least bit surprised if (this is if Jack is ‘Adam’) lays down in the cave with Kate or Julliet at the end of season six only to find that he has put on a pair of trousers that just happen to have the stones he found way back in season one in. You get the idea? Jack passes two people dying in a cave, who he then realises must be Adam and Eve that he sees in the future, and for whatever, lays down the stones he found before. It is a necessary act, and invokes the necessary existence of the stones.
It’s a lot like, excuse me for the tangent, in one of the Bill & Ted movies where they say that in the future they will go back in time and put a key to something that they need there so they can use it then… this doesn’t make sense (sorry to shock a lot of you Bill and Ted fans) because this relies on the fact that they need they key in the first place to get to somewhere to be able to, somewhere in the reliable future, go back in time and put the key there. The universe seems to be a lot more agreeable than most philosophers would think in this example, and this is just like the island.
The island is allowing the instances of the stones and the compass to happen, perhaps because it figures into the greater plan of the island. Perhaps when Jack comes across Adam and Eve, or realises himself as being Adam, he hatches an epiphany, and then he finally makes the cross over into being a man of faith, as the island almost demands it of him. If the stones weren’t there, who knows what would have happened.
For the compass instance, if the compass did not exist, Alpert would not have gone to see Locke as a child and followed him through various stages of his life. It could be that Alpert is on the side of Abaddon who was the one that suggested first the idea of the ‘Walkabout’ to John Locke, bringing him to the island in the first place. Brought to the island because when he got to the island (and travelled through time) he told Alpert to bring him to the island… perhaps John Locke is the greatest mystery here, not infact the compass, or at least they are both on equal footing. The universe isn’t by all means ‘allowing’, it is random and chaotic, and the fact we get out of bed in the morning and our feet don’t fall through the floor is viewed in the eyes of many well educated philosophers as a miracle.
The island is, in my eyes, the dominant force. It is the one allowing such events to take place in it, and in my eyes, for the greater good. The island is an amazing place, where ‘miracles happen’. To assume that the island’s intentions are bad would be to cast doubt on the whole show. I believe that even the child bearing problems are the faults of those that are on the island, not the island itself. It calls into question who the island is either master of, or master to, ultimately. If the island is trying to instil faith in Jack, and to bring Locke to the island no matter what the cost, we can see that Christian Shephard is obviously not a good man. Ben believes Locke saw Jacob, and Jacob told him to turn the wheel; I would love to know what Ben would have thought if Locke said it wasn’t Jacob. If Ben saw that Jacob must have been wrong in saying that Locke was to turn the wheel, because Ben knew that Locke was meant to come to the island, perhaps he suspects some! thing is foul, if not just that he thinks Locke misheard Jacob’s intentions.
Finally, perhaps it is Jack, man of science, that needs to have his faith instilled in him fully to be able to tackle his father, who in my eyes is a representative of the ‘bad guys’ on the island.
Please, I would like to hear your comments! In short summary, the island is ‘allowing’ the compass and the two stone paradoxes to occur, because they are necessary for the ‘final good’ so to speak. Christian Shephard is a ‘bad guy’ because he told Locke to leave the island, when Ben knows that this simply should not be the case, as Locke is the man the island wants. Even Jacob asked for his help. Theory by Barnie Abraham
