![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rj_andersonHaving noticed that Sawyer is reading Watership Down when Shannon comes up to him whining about the sand fleas or whatever it was, I am of the opinion that this is not just a random bit of rabbit association to play into the title of the episode, but that WD may have actually been a serious influence on JJ in the creation of the show. In which case Sawyer is totally Bigwig, and I claim my ten pounds.
Actually, Sawyer is not so much Bigwig, because Bigwig was genuinely tough. And what I am getting from Sawyer is that this guy is all hat and no cattle -- lots of bluster and swagger and superficial machismo (albeit including nerves of steel and legitimate skill with a gun, as his shooting of the polar bear in the pilot would suggest), but all that apparent self-confidence is really a blind, and beneath the surface he's profoundly insecure and makes a lot of noise to hide it. Kate, who appears to have Sawyer's number, has routinely reacted to him as an annoying weed, rather than a serious threat. I think she knows that he's basically just a mouth on legs. Plus, he is far from being as totally indifferent to the feelings of others as he pretends, as giving of the identification papers to Claire and his obvious distress after failing to kill the marshal would suggest.
My theory is that if anybody is likely to pose a legitimate threat to Jack & co. on the island it may be Boone, who looks pretty and sincere and has a reputation for doing heroic, altruistic-type things, but has shown a nasty temper and is working on some deep-rooted envy and resentment of Jack. I expect he's going to end up doing something dangerously stupid soon, in an effort to prove himself Jack's equal. And if that backfires, as it no doubt will, Boone will only hate Jack twice as much as before. Sawyer, on the other hand -- I suspect he might end up playing Bigwig to Jack's Hazel in the end, especially if Kate ends up driving a wedge between Jack and Sayid (which is one of JJ's famous triangles in the making, IMO).
And Locke (whom I love like whoah) is Fiver, I think: the physically disadvantaged character who was underestimated by everybody (before they allleft the warren landed on the island, anyway) but actually possesses a formidable inner strength and dispenses wisdom to the hero.
Which is not to say the correspondence between Watership Down and Lost is direct, or meant to be. That would be pretty boring. Obviously there's been some shaking up of roles and attributes, not to mention that there are no doubt any number of other influences on Lost as well. But I do think WD may well have been somewhere in the back of JJ's mind as he and the other writers were laying the groundwork for this show. I am intrigued to see how this may play out.
On another note, I just finished Jasper Fforde's latest Thursday Next book, Something Rotten, and although I still find the series a bit gimmicky and the characters thinly developed, I got some good laughs out of this one. Especially when I came across this bit of conversation between Thursday and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle about recent developments in the BookWorld, which instantly made me think of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lydaclunas:
Actually, Sawyer is not so much Bigwig, because Bigwig was genuinely tough. And what I am getting from Sawyer is that this guy is all hat and no cattle -- lots of bluster and swagger and superficial machismo (albeit including nerves of steel and legitimate skill with a gun, as his shooting of the polar bear in the pilot would suggest), but all that apparent self-confidence is really a blind, and beneath the surface he's profoundly insecure and makes a lot of noise to hide it. Kate, who appears to have Sawyer's number, has routinely reacted to him as an annoying weed, rather than a serious threat. I think she knows that he's basically just a mouth on legs. Plus, he is far from being as totally indifferent to the feelings of others as he pretends, as giving of the identification papers to Claire and his obvious distress after failing to kill the marshal would suggest.
My theory is that if anybody is likely to pose a legitimate threat to Jack & co. on the island it may be Boone, who looks pretty and sincere and has a reputation for doing heroic, altruistic-type things, but has shown a nasty temper and is working on some deep-rooted envy and resentment of Jack. I expect he's going to end up doing something dangerously stupid soon, in an effort to prove himself Jack's equal. And if that backfires, as it no doubt will, Boone will only hate Jack twice as much as before. Sawyer, on the other hand -- I suspect he might end up playing Bigwig to Jack's Hazel in the end, especially if Kate ends up driving a wedge between Jack and Sayid (which is one of JJ's famous triangles in the making, IMO).
And Locke (whom I love like whoah) is Fiver, I think: the physically disadvantaged character who was underestimated by everybody (before they all
Which is not to say the correspondence between Watership Down and Lost is direct, or meant to be. That would be pretty boring. Obviously there's been some shaking up of roles and attributes, not to mention that there are no doubt any number of other influences on Lost as well. But I do think WD may well have been somewhere in the back of JJ's mind as he and the other writers were laying the groundwork for this show. I am intrigued to see how this may play out.
On another note, I just finished Jasper Fforde's latest Thursday Next book, Something Rotten, and although I still find the series a bit gimmicky and the characters thinly developed, I got some good laughs out of this one. Especially when I came across this bit of conversation between Thursday and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle about recent developments in the BookWorld, which instantly made me think of
lydaclunas:'Starbucks want to open another coffee shop in the Hardy Boys series.'Hee!
'Another one?' I asked with some surprise. 'There's already sixteen. How much coffee do they think they can drink? Tell them they can open another in Mrs Dalloway and two more in The Age of Reason. After that, no more.'
