Thoughts on Alice, LOST, and the Book of Job

Last Thursday I finished reading a book. In former days that was not a rare occurence, but this year it seems I can barely find a moment to curl up with anything other than a short magazine article. Though I am keeping up with my Bible study lessons better now...

Anyway, the book that I finished? Alice in Wonderland. Fantastic. I definitely enjoyed it for what it was, a rambling story to entertain some children on a summer's boat ride, but upon this reading I was seeing it more through the eyes of an English teacher. You can tell that Lewis created the plot on the fly, but his inside jokes and literary references are clever and witty. I'd love to get my hands on a copy of The Annotated Alice, for two reasons:

1. Annotations. (Duh.) I'm a literature geek and think that all the puns, allusions, farces and satire in the book are hilarious, and though I am actually familiar with some of the references that Carroll spins in the book, I'd really like to know what all the songs, poems, and rhymes are all about. The real versions, anyway.

2. LOST connections. They blatantly threw the book at us on last week's episode of LOST with Jack's son. And we'd also seen it once before with Jack and Aaron in an earlier season. Plus, there were all those mirrors. Either the writers REALLY want us to get the connection between the show and Through the Looking Glass, or, someone there also worked for the new Alice movie coming out and wants everyone to read the book, too.

(I actually do want to see the film, though with Tim Burton it could go either way. Plus, my cousin Lawson worked with the art department so it'd be kind of cool to watch the credits and go "Hey, I know that guy!" rather than just making fun of the weird names.)

Just so you know, I started this post well before I saw Doc Jensen's column today about this called "Go Ask Alice," and though he's always CRAZY, he makes some points I agree with, especially in light of the aforementioned allusions.

On to a different theory concerning LOST. Two weeks ago we saw some spooky ghost kid come running up to the Smoke Monster/Locke and say, "You know the rules. You can't kill him." Now, I'm still not sure who the "him" is referring to, though my hunch is Sawyer, since he's one of Jacob's candidates. It could also be Richard. But, upon watching it a second time, it struck me that perhaps this is similar to the scene between the Lord and Satan in the Book of Job, where God only allows him to torture Job to a point -- he can't kill him (see verse 12 in this passage).

And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand."

So is Jacob the God-figure in this retelling? I'm still not sure. But it does make me think that perhaps SOMEONE only allows the Smoke Monster so much freedom on the island. We already know he can't go inside the ash. But I wonder if he's only allowed to kill certain people? Like the pilot (AKA that guy from Felicity and Alias), and Mr. Eko. If he wants to kill someone "on the list," he has to get someone else to do his dirty work. Think: Michael killiing Libby and perhaps even Ana Lucia when she killed that love-interest of Juliet. What are those "rules" exactly? And who made them? And when?

This is turning out to be a most intriguing final season. I am not ashamed to proclaim where I like to spend my Tuesday evenings. :) Anyone else care to offer their thoughts and theories in the comments? (No spoilers on tonight's episode until after 10pm EST, please!)

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