A great day for another LOST episode:

Sir Thomas More, b. 1478 More’s Utopia is a novel which “describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island nation of Utopia (a play on the Greek ou-topos, meaning “no place”, and eu-topos, meaning “good place”). Wow, if that’s not related to LOST island, the noplace/good place . . .

Samuel Butler, b. 1612. Butler was a nineteenth century author whose masterpiece was a novel called Erewhon (“nowhere” backwards). Erewhon was an imaginary country, neither utopia nor dystopia, but rather ambiguously satirical of the British Empire at the time. Is LOST a utopia or a dystopia, and can we tell the difference?

Charles Dickens, b. 1812. Of course, Dickens is Desmond’s favorite novelist, and he’s read all of DIckens’ novels except for the one he’s saving to read just before he dies, Our Mutual Friend. Here’s my post on LOST and Our Mutual Friend.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, b. 1867. Sawyer says he watched Little House on the Prairie when he was a kid. Can’t you just picture little James watching Laura and Mary on Little House?

Sinclair Lewis, b. 1885. Lewis’s novel Arrowsmith is about a brilliant but self-involved doctor named Martin Arrowsmith who moves from swmall town practice to large hospitals to research and eventually works to contain an outbreak of the bubonic plague that kills his beloved wife. After the loss of his wife, Dr. Arrowsmith becomes lost to himself and his principles and deserts his second wife. I’m not sure exactly how this plot relates to Jack Shepard, dedicated doctor who becomes an alcoholic and a druggie, but surely there’s a parallel there.

Everything relates in some way to LOST, right?

Other Dickensian posts:

Scrooge Goes to Church

Quotes and Links

Born February 7th

Favorite Dickensian Things

A Dickens of a Quiz

Charles Dickens by Jane Smiley

A Little More Dickens

Mere Comments on Dickens’ Christianity.

Dickens Dissed:

Anthony Trollope: “Of Dicken’s style it is impossible to speak in praise. It is jerky, ungrammatical and created by himself in defiance of rules … No young novelist should ever dare to imitate the style of Dickens.”

Oscar Wilde on Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop: “One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.”

So as not to end on a sourly laughing note, let me say that I didn’t laugh when Little Nell died, although I do hiss audibly when Madame Defarge enters the story in A Tale of Two Cities, and I admit to feeling not too much sympathy for Little Em’ly. And I would love to think it within my abilities to imitate Dickens, The Inimitable.