L O S T WITH AS I LAY DYING’S NICK HIPA: HATE TO SAY “I TOLD YA SO,” BUT…
Hello connoisseurs of heavy music and television shows,
Thank you all who thoroughly read, perused, or just kind of stared at my last blog, as well as all of you who left any form of comment. I read every single one of them and answered several of the ones that pertained to the topic. Before I start discussing the previous and upcoming episode, I would like to address just a few of the trending opinions I noticed in last week’s comments section:
Why a column on L O S T?
When the idea of doing this was presented to me, I was slightly apprehensive because it seemed a little random for a metal blog. What I’ve always like about MetalSucks, however, is that they do things differently then other metal sites (or maybe just better). While the majority of posts here are related to the current happenings in the metal community, the rest of the stuff we’re periodically subjected to appeals to our idiosyncrasies as “fans-of-heavy-music-who-probably-spend-way-too-much-time-on-the-internet.” A whole blog (or even maybe a thesis!) could be written on the social anthropology of the aforementioned group (us), but to get to my point quicker, I’m going to generalize and say that my assessment of most of you is that you’re educated, have a sense of humor, have very diverse tastes in music beyond metal, are extremely opinionated, and enjoy interacting with similar “birds of a feather.” This sites’ ability to creatively keep your interest beyond cleverly commentating on press releases, shows, albums, etc. is why I think its been doing so well, and why we all keep coming back. Simply put, its seems a lot of you can dig “off topic” stuff. With that in mind, I didn’t think it would hurt to discuss L O S T with those of you who care.
No one cares.
I gathered that a fair amount of you don’t like, hate, or are indifferent towards L O S T. Perhaps the most annoying thing about super fans of anything is when they punish you with all their reasons why you should get into what it is they have huge boners for… I don’t want to be that dude.
The Wire, now that’s a REAL show!
After reading how many of you are pumped on The Wire, I’m going to give it a shot. The dudes in God Forbid were raving about it the last time we toured together, and they did me a serious kindness by sharing the complete series onto my hard drive. I’m looking forward to getting into it!
Lots of you hate Metallica.
I visit this site daily, so I actually knew that. Careless as I am, I made a terrible analogy, disregarding my knowledge on the matter. Lesson learned.
Now on to L O S T…
Sitting down to watch last week’s season premiere, I honestly didn’t think the writers would be able to do anything that would garner an “urban” reaction out of me. In true L O S T fashion though, I found myself “nu-uh’n” through out the first commercial break. We’ve got two timelines now: one where the Oceanic Six and Jin are in the present but still on the Island, and then an alternate timeline where everyone makes it back to “LA X.” A lot of speculation has been made about the significance of the space between the A and the X, but the one I’m going with is that the X simply refers to an LA different than the one the original Oceanic Flight 815 was heading towards. This is an LA that has been without any (or with a different) influence, and beyond (or with a different) consequence of anything having to do with the Island, since it has been underwater since “The Incident” in 1977. In spite of the apparent alternate timeline, however, the appearance of Desmond on the flight, the disappearance of Christian Shephard’s body, and the mysterious cut on Jack’s neck are all crucial tidbits of detail that imply the main characters’ may still be destined for the exact same purpose the Island had planned for them in the first place. If this is the case, then the concept of Eternalism might be what the writers are scratching at.
Back on the Island, in the timeline we’ve been accustomed to, an extremely crucial mystery/theory has been realized… Nemesis Dude IS the Smoke Monster! As I was getting at in the last blog, it would be a bummer if all the mysteries of the Island were answered with supernatural or non-scientific reasoning, but the fact of the matter is that this is a prime time TV show – hence, there still a possibility that the answers will turn out to be non-scientific.
Yet there are still many angles the writers could take that would yield an interesting explanation, which from the looks of it is going to be a complete intertwining of everything (philosophy, science, religion, mythology, physics, etc.). If this is the case, then big ups to this dude, who may have gotten closer to guessing the point of the show in greater detail, more thoroughly, and before anyone else.
On the topic of religion and mythology, the Statue of Taweret is one of the many huge mysteries I’m looking for the show’s creators to answer soon. The only theory I could come up with is that Taweret was intentionally destroyed by the Others because it possesses a similar essence to that of Jacob. They broke it down, ground it up, put it in huge burlap bags, and saved it for use only as protection against Smokey. Wiki says Taweret is the egyptian goddess of birth, rebirth, the northern sky, protection, and fertility; which all seem to lean more towards what Jacob is about (mankind). It would make sense to me if ash, derived from something revered as divine and on the opposite end of the spectrum from Nemesis Dude, would possess a protective quality against him.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Hopefully tonight we’ll find out Richard Alpert’s history, who the resurrected Sayid really is, and where in the world (or time) Christian’s body is! I’m looking forward to hearing everyone thoughts on it too!
-NH
As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, will be out this spring on Metal Blade. While you’re awaiting its release, why not get L O S T on AILD’s MySpace page?
