Open Thread...

by Eric Martin

Mondays.  Discuss.

Comments

[Jesurgislac]

In Norman Hunter's Incrediblania stories, the King and Queen decide to abolish Mondays. But then Tuesday becomes as annoying a day as Monday, so they abolish Tuesdays. And so on...

...eventually of course a week of seven Sundays becomes annoying in itself, and they just go back to having the Monday to Sunday week.

It's a story that made more sense before the Sunday Trading laws were abolished, though.

[russell]

I guess I missed out on the whole "Lost" thing.

[CaseyL]

I wanted to watch Lost, but even trying to start halfway through the first season was an exercise in bafflement, so I never did pick up the habit.

Fortunately, someone somewhere makes "catch up" videos easily found by googling for them (not just for lost; I was able to catch up on BSG when I missed a couple seasons of that one) made one for Lost. So I watched that a couple times which - put together with the knowledge of the show I seem to have gotten by social osmosis - enabled me to understand most of what happened in the finale.

The finale (to my johnny-come-lately eyes) was very satisfying emotionally. I was disappointed some that the Antechamber to the Afterlife was so firmly Western/Christian in flavor, esp. considering how syncretic and adventurous the show was in building its Island mythos.

I'm happy the show lasted 6 seasons and was so successful *because* it was so adventurous intellectually. Amazing to think it was a network show! So even though I can hardly call myself a real fan, I'm happy for everyone involved that the series and the finale were a big success.

[cleek]

get a NetFlix sub, and watch Lost from the start.

it was really a brilliant show for the first few seasons - more than good enough to keep me interested through the end.

the finale... i dunno. i was disappointed. it felt like a bit of a cop-out. but, i'm still digesting... maybe i'll learn to accept it.

[Sebastian]

Lost is over? I kept thinking about trying it.

[Catsy]

Yeah, that's one I managed to skip. Had it recommended to me, and I may go through it at some point--but I'm not in a hurry.

I don't really get into watching epic TV series these days. I /love/ them--but I'm done with getting invested in series that just get canceled, I did way too much of that in the 90's and 00's.

Now that Lost is over, maybe I'll watch it. :)

[Jesurgislac]

Lost is over? I kept thinking about trying it.

Me too. But that's what boxed set DVDs are for.

[hairshirthedonist]

My wife more or less forced me to watch the pilot of Lost when it aired almost six years ago. I haven't missed an episode since. I've never had that sort of geeky devotion to a TV show. Now I'm as bad as a Trekkie. (Is that how you spell it?) I've had all these fairly well developed theories about the different mysteries of the show and musings about the implications of time travel (something I never seem to tire of). It's sad, really.

I thought it was wrapped up about as well as it could have been, given the complexity and ambition of the storyline. If it was a cop-out, it wasn't nearly as egregious as it might have been. And I'd say the finale as a whole was pretty compelling to watch, even for those who may have been disappointed with the very end.

I've been reading people's interpretations here and there around the internets, and it's funny to see how many people have the whole thing completely twisted. Is it really that hard?

[Tony P.]

Catsy: Now that Lost is over, maybe I'll watch it. :)

Samuel Johnson: "I am always glad to hear of a poet dying, for then I can be sure of having all of him on my shelf."

A fondness for "closure" seems both widespread and timeless :-)

Changing topic, I have been reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire this past week. Well, browsing in it might be a more accurate description. I don't actually hope to finish reading all four volumes in my remaining lifetime. For one thing, I find myself having to read half his sentences more than once -- and some of them do run on a bit.

I mention this not to lament the decline and fall of literary language in recent centuries, but to marvel at the fact that Gibbon managed to write this monumental pile of verbiage with (I suppose) a quill pen, mostly (I also suppose) by candlelight. Did human beings have more than 24 hours in a day, in Gibbon's time? Even if Gibbon himself was unusually industrious, what about his readers? Granted they were probably all members of the leisured class, I'm still amazed they found the time to slog through such a book.

The only explanation I can think of is that television did not exist back then.

--TP

[JanieM]

The only explanation I can think of is that television did not exist back then.

--TP

Or the internet.

[russell]

Did human beings have more than 24 hours in a day, in Gibbon's time?

This guy believes that before industrialization, it was common for people to go to bed relatively early (nine-ish), sleep for a couple of hours, wake up for an hour or two, then go back to sleep until daylight.

The nightly interval between "first" and "second" sleeps was spent in any of a variety of ways, often in reading and writing.

Gibbon's on the cusp of the change historically, but perhaps he did his writing at night.

[Slartibartfast]

Do NOT go all time-cubey on us, russell.

[russell]

Hey man, I got $10,000 says you can't prove me wrong!!

Don't make me get out the 30 point type!!!

[liberal japonicus]

Catsy, you were just invoked over at TiO. Drop by if you have a chance

[envy]

get a NetFlix sub, and watch Lost from the start.

If you don't want to bother with Netflix, ABC has the whole series online with a pretty solid image quality. That's how I got caught up back in the day when my housemate at the time got me watching it. I'll admit I found myself unable to care enough to continue watching it somewhere in season 5 though...

[debbie]

It was a real struggle to watch all 6 seasons of Lost, but I'm glad I stuck it out for the finale. It ended how I hoped it would end. I'd have been real disappointed if they'd tried to incorporate some of the more ridiculous subplots.

[publius]

My fear was always that Lost basically had no real explanation for all its twists and turns. It was sort of flying blind, or as I prefer to say, Rumsfeldish.

I was burned by Twin Peaks many moons ago -- which started great and sputtered around aimlessly. So i didn't want to invest the time.

but... people do seem to love it. so maybe i'll give it a try.

[Mike Schilling]

The nightly interval between "first" and "second" sleeps was spent in any of a variety of ways, often in reading and writing.

Nowadays, it would be spent updating one's profile and playing Mafia Wars.