Spoiled Rotten on LOST

I have writer envy. Every once in a great while, I’ll read something so perfect, that it ticks me off that I didn’t (and possibly couldn’t) come up with it myself.  A pitch-perfect piece of dialogue, or character development, or a plot turn that just floors me. I read the mother-of-all-spoilers regarding LOST’s season finale and the infamous “Rattlesnake in the Mailbox.”  While it’s possible that what I read was a foiler (a fake spoiler put out to confuse people), if it is then the writers should have gone this direction.  (Note–the link doesn’t contain the spoiler.)As it stands, I’m a little in awe.   I’m not going to spoil it here, because I understand that most people aren’t like me and prefer to be actually surprised by the surprises other writers cook up.  For me, it’s all about the execution, and knowing what’s going to happen beforehand doesn’t detract from that.  But just reading a summary of what happens, I’ve got writer envy.  I don’t think I could have come up with a turn of plotting this good, and it sorta ticks me off. Anyway, without giving anything away, reading the spoiler made me think of The Prestige.  Don’t mistake that for saying what actually happens is going to be similar to the plot of The Prestige (it’s not).  Rather, it made me realize that the writers are masters of illusion and misdirection.  All the acts are there: the Pledge, the Turn and the Prestige.  And when the Prestige is revealed, the best part is that through your surprise, you’ll feel like you should have seen it coming.  I can’t imagine that you could possibly figure this out ahead of time, but you’ll look back and realize that they gave you a TON of hints and clues.  They’ve been foreshadowing it all along. I really wish I could discuss it in more detail, because it raises a lot of the same themes and questions that I’m going to be focusing on more around here.  But I guess I’ll just have to wait another week and two days.

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May 15, 2007 | Filed Under the writing life 

Comments

3 Responses to “Spoiled Rotten on LOST”

  1. daryn on May 16th, 2007 2:05 am

    Long time, no blog. Missed ya. I have been checkin’ on you every day.

    I am like you. (scary, isn’t it.) I am lovin’ the spoilers. It irritates DH to death because he is a spoilerhater. It is fun to see what turns out to be true or not. For me, it keeps all of the “To be continueds…” at bay. What site are you finding season finale spoilers on? I am having no luck.

  2. kat on May 16th, 2007 5:56 pm

    ((((((Daryn)))))))

    You have no idea how you’ve made my day. First, that you’ve been checking on me here and second, that you GET why spoilers rock. Chris, I think, is torn on the spoiler question.

    http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com ;)

  3. My Not-To-Do List for 2009 | Internet Bard on January 8th, 2009 12:46 am

    […] Read spoilers for the season finale of Lost.   Yeah, I’ve done it the last two or three seasons running.  This year, I really, truly […]

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