The Literature of Lost

This month's Pages magazine has a great article about the many literary influences and references in the hit TV show Lost. As an addicted Lost viewer and book lover, I had noticed some of the incidents in which characters are shown reading books (most especially the hard-edged Sawyer reading the classic children's books Watership Downand A Wrinkle in Time). But there are a lot of references that I missed that are mentioned in the Pages article. In particular, did you know that "major characters are named after author Umberto Eco, as well as philosophers John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau"? I mean, I know who Eco and Locke are on the show, but I didn't realize that they were so deliberately named.

Mostly, though, what I found heartening is that the many literary references and allusions are apparently all part of a conscious strategy on the part of the show's producers. Or, as the Pages article states, "literature is very important to the people that produce this show." What a great thing that a hit TV phenomenon can also be literary!