"Lost" and the Emergence of Hypertext Storytelling 170
Hugh Pickens writes "The TV series 'Lost' involves a large cast of characters marooned on a tropical island after a plane crash, with episodes that thread lengthy flashbacks of characters' backstories with immediate plots of day-to-day survival and interpersonal relationships, and a larger 'mythos' involving the strange and apparently supernatural (or science-fictional) happenings on the island. Independent scholar Amelia Beamer writes that the series works as an example of a recent cultural creation: that of the hypertext narrative. 'In Lost, the connections between characters form the essential hypertext content, which is emphasized by the structure of flashbacks that give the viewer privileged information about characters,' writes Beamer. 'Paramount are the connections unfolding between characters, ranging from mundane, apparently coincidental meetings in the airport, to more unlikely and in-depth meetings, reaching back through their entire lives and the lives of their families.' Beamer writes that the series also pays tribute to video games, another relatively recent interactive means of storytelling."
Re:I'd rather attribute it to poor writing... (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think Lost would be possible to follow at all without the Lostpedia. I do the same thing as you - watch the episodes then go back and read the Lostpedia entries to figure out what I missed (there's always something). Understanding everything in Lost requires you to store an incredibly complicated story with dozens of characters (or are we up to hundreds by now?) over a period of around 6 years and minimal if any helpful repetitions of what happened previously. The fact that the story requires a fricking encylopedia tells you what sort of show Lost is.
That said, I've watched every episode and can't wait for the last few. I'll miss it when it's gone. Truly, the writers are unusual in knowing how to build an engaging and dramatic mystery story on a never before seen scale.
BTW isn't Lost a "maxi series" by your definition? They've known when and how they'd end it since around the start of season 2 I think. It's almost always had a definite end point.
The novelty of 'Lost' is the *unlabled* flashback (Score:4, Interesting)
'Lost' requires the viewers to *infer* what is a flashback, flashforward, or alternative universe. Typically, these things are labeled in other movies or fiction. For example, they'll say "Twenty Years ago..." or in a movie, making the screen go all wavy or something similar. 'Lost' just jumps in and hopes the fans figure it out. About the only earlier example that I can think of is Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" , which obviously the scriptwriters of 'Lost' have read
Lost Story Telling (Score:2, Interesting)
Take it from a Semiotician... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A loss, not a gain (Score:3, Interesting)
Hypertext-like writing is a convenient crutch for writers who cannot integrate ideas into the normal flow of their work.
You are right, but not for the reason you thought...
In fact, the recent movies and series are written with story writing software, like Dramatica Pro.
This allows to build complex stories, and most importantly, the story remains consistent even if the writers change !
You might have heard about the Writers Guild of America strike, or strikes before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hollywood_strikes [wikipedia.org]
The idea of the studios is to have writers being disposable, or at least they could be changed during the life of the serie. This was impossible 20 years ago.
BTW, using flashbacks in a serie makes it easier to write, since as a writer, you can add whatever you want at any point.