Okay, Maybe I am LOST

In fiction writing there's this term called "back-story" which most of you know refers to the history of a character's life, motivations, the stuff that happens before the good, juicy inciting incident, in other words, everything that explains a narrative's reason for being. The thing about back-story is that if you were just to offer it up to the reader all at once, a) you'd bore them and b) you'd have no reason to write those cool scenes in which the present time events unfold. BUT, a good narrative will drop just enough of it in that the reader gets a taste and doesn't feel totally clueless.

So I'm a bit perplexed about my new TV addiction, LOST. In trying to understand its baffling storyline, I've started to go online and look up theories, etc. It turns out that the producers have created one hell of a back-story for this show, a back-mythology in fact, that actually explains quite a lot. It explains far more than the show does, and in fact, upon learning much of it, I'm almost overly-satisfied.

I like the idea of a morphogenetic field on the island that can reprogram human behavior. I like the idea of the Venzetti Equation (those infernal numbers) that supposedly predicts the end date of humanity. I like that these Others might just be renegades who stayed behind when the first experiment failed to try again. It does make sense out of a lot.

But I confess I think the producers have put the right information in the wrong place--on the internet for geeks and nerds to dig up, rather than in the actual show, where it would keep viewers hooked and wanting more.

Look for yourself. It's almost absurd how much work has been put into this whole idea.

JPR