LOST: a Study in Storytelling

I admit it. I am way too excited about tonight's big premier. The latest previews on abc.com pretty much rule out the infinite loop theories, which makes it oh so ironic that our time-travel cliffhanger picks back up on Groundhog's Day. Count that as one more homage to an influential story, one more pop culture reference embedded by Damon & Carlton. How perfect. As one critic suggested this week, "LOST is a show that is fascinated with the art of storytelling itself."

Yes. And the prominent and creative manipulation of time in storytelling. To be honest, LOST continues to influence my thoughts about re-presenting the New Testament Story. So much of the past is always going to be learned about in bits and pieces. Putting it all back together in order is very important, but it may not need to be the top priority in teaching and learning the Story itself. After all, whose introduction to scripture was ever restricted to chronological order? Like all things, an awareness of time comes, well, in time.

In homage to these thoughts, witness a different way of viewing the crash of Oceanic flight 815. Damon Lindeloff himself tweeted this link with one word, a week ago. "Wow." There are times for alignment, and there are times for thematic flashbacks. Eat your heart out, Jack Bauer fans. ;-)