Welcome to Lost HEMA Theory!

Myth, Oh Myth? 

To more fully understand and appreciate this deeper purpose, we must first examine what we mean by "mythology" and "myth":

"The word mythology (from the Greek μυϑολογία mythología, from μυϑολογείν mythologein to relate myths, from μύϑος mythos, meaning a narrative, and λόγος logos, meaning speech or argument) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use the supernatural to interpret natural events and to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. In modern usage, "mythology" is either the body of myths from a particular culture or religion (as in Greek mythology, Egyptian mythology or Norse mythology) or the branch of knowledge dealing with the collection, study and interpretation of myths." 

(Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology)

Key elements arising from the origin or roots of these terms include:

1. STRUCTURE-  Myths involve stories told in narrative form/structure.

2. CONTENT-  The story invokes supernatural elements, identifies natural events, and establishes connections among the two.

3. FUNCTION-  Myth contents comprise pre-scientific 'theories' or explanations for events in the natural world.  Accordingly, they provide a range of positive cognitive, behavioral, and emotional benefits:

3.a.  Cognitive benefits of myth-  Myths provide an explanation for what is happening in the world and why it is happening.  Supernatural elements serve positive functions by providing us with a sensible and meaningful basis for acting in a complex and uncertain world.  For example, through rites, rituals, offerings (etc.) focused on 'gods' or other supernatural elements, we embrace a collective sense-making and enact and reinforce a less uncertain perspective on the world around us (See Endnote 1.)

3.b.  Behavioral benefits of myth-  Sense-making through supernatural mythology provides us with a more 'certain' and predictable basis for acting on the world, and shared or collective sense-making goes further by enabling us to generate actions arising from the same 'sheet of music', behaviors that are better coordinated, yielding enhanced probabilities of success and survival value....  For example, witness the myriad myths throughout the ages regarding weather, seasons, and other aspects of the world, associated with the production of food.  Identifying and sharing a set of supernatural elements-- stories, symbols, calendars, etc.-- to 'explain' the world provided pre-scientific cultures with adequate 'working hypotheses' for cognitively apprehending the complex world in which they were embedded, 'hypotheses' enabling them to achieve impressive levels of behavioral coordination (e.g., agriculture, building the pyramids, and beyond....)

3.c.  Emotional benefits of myth-  In addition to providing important cognitive and behavioral effects, myths have helped to reduce fear and uncertainty regarding what was happening in a complex and sometimes frightening and unpredictable world.  Performing rites and rituals, celebrating 'holidays' associated with supernatural elements, reinforcing these elements through dress and make-up.... all of these aspects and more combined to yield a shared sense of greater control, certainty, and agency in the world....

3.d.  Socioeconomic and political effects of myth-  Myths endorsed and enforced by those dominating the social group served as an instrument for exercising control over others, including directing the productive activities of others (agricultural, building projects, mining, etc.) and directing the distribution of material and economic benefits arising from these activities:

"Myths are narratives about divine or heroic beings, arranged in a coherent system, passed down traditionally, and linked to the spiritual or religious life of a community, endorsed by rulers or priests. Once this link to the spiritual leadership of society is broken, they lose their mythological qualities and become folktales or fairy tales. In folkloristics, which is concerned with the study of both secular and sacred narratives, a myth also derives some of its power from being more than a simple "tale", by comprising an archetypical quality of "truth".

(Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology)

The above quote captures some important elements of our vestigial view of myth as a story or narrative, passed from generation to generation, endorsed by the prevailing culture and leadership.

A Mythology-Free Current Era? Myth As 'Otherness'-

Are we really living in an era that is lacking in mythology?  On the surface, the answer to this question is quite simple.... 'Doc' is right since, as a species, we have evolved in our journey from myth to logic and science (Enlightenment), and more recently to the Postmodern wasteland of malaise, ennui, pessimism, disillusionment (etc.)  There is no other answer, if we adopt a strict interpretation of myth as a narrative involving some supernatural element, passed from generation to generation, helping explain the natural world.... 

But is this the only tenable view?  Does this not impose an overly strict interpretation of myth, based primarily on vestigial structural and/or content aspects?  What about "Star Wars" and myriad other stories echoing mythic themes or elements?  Haven't Joseph Campbell and other scholars documented the persistence of myth, even in present times?  (See Endnote 2.) 

Well, if we use a really strict test of myth as providing an 'official' worldview held by an entire group of people, offering an accepted and legitimized perspective on what is really happening in the natural world, then no, "Star Wars" is not really a modern-day myth.  And, of course, the more recent "Star Wars" movies have rendered it even less viable as a candidate for mythic status, since we have now found out that the Force is not some supernatural or "Otherness" in the universe, but is instead an explanable element within the Enlightenment paradigm, namely 'midi-chlorians." Still, following the lead of Joseph Campbell, we might try to claim that Luke Skywalker and other characters make it a mythic story, providing us with a sense of 'heroic' Otherness....

So there are at least two senses of "Otherness" that may be involved in a myth: (1) a supernatural/god/God element that enables us to stand outside of, apprehend, and explain an unpredictable and complex world; and (2) a hero that provides us with an exemplar for how to aspire for and reach some 'idealized' attributes (courage, etc.)  (Note: The former is what one might call "big M" myth, offering a perspective explaining the natural world, while the latter might be termed "small m" myth, invoking a 'mythic', heroic character modeling some desired traits....)

Hmmmm.... If we expand our senses of "Otherness" to consider additional bases that we as a species have used to stand outside of, apprehend, and explain the world, what other forms of 'myths' have arisen throughout our history?  From a functional perspective, one might argue that the Enlightenment provided us with a new set of myths, only this time with science taking the pedestal in place of supernatural elements, with science as the new source of "Otherness" enabling us to stand outside the world, apprehend it, and engage it. 

Infused with new contents, our secular/scientific myth-making served much the same cognitive, behavioral, emotional functions, and socioeconomic/political functions as before.... The new 'Enlightenment' mythologies replaced supernatural or divine 'Otherness' with the benefits of relying on the 'deities' of systematic METHODs (scientific method, logic, etc.)   Logic and science were placed on secular, privileged pedestals and provided us with powerful worldviews and tools, enabling us to reduce uncertainty and to increase predictability and control over the world.  Scientific method.... The Industrial Revolution.... And, like the priests of old presiding over and working to preseve the power of supernatural myths, the broad expanse of scientists, scholars, politicians and industrialists worked to develop, protect, and exploit the fruits of an Enlightenment worldview....

How interesting it is, that the more we try to push the 'magic' out of our worldview, it finds ways to creep back into the picture...  As the history of techonological innovation shows, the more we are able to amplify and extend our sensory powers in our attempts to find answers to the nature of the universe, the more we find we are confronted with additional questions and senses of 'Otherness'.... For example, witness the weird findings (and questions) still emerging from the field of quantum physics....

As any student of the history of science will tell you, as the species has probed to make more finely-grained and precise 'maps of the territory'-- new and improved explanations of the natural world-- we invariably find that the territory has shifted... the world itself is no longer as we have presumed....  Sounds an awful lot like Lost, doesn't it, especially after the 5/9 episode?

Moreover, it is not surprising to find that postmodernism has arisen in part from the 'ashes' of our inability to leverage the Enlightenment 'gods' of Otherness-- science and logic-- to fully map the territory of the world with a resounding certainty and finality; we seem to be caught in an infinite regress of mapping territory that shifts as soon as we refine our mapping abilities, and so on....   Again, if this sounds a bit familiar in describing some inherent challenges in understanding Lost on a week-to-week basis, with each newly-aired episode, that will be part of the point we will see, below....

Myths, Meaning, and Map-Making in Lost and Beyond-

So what's my point?  Where are we now?  And how does this all relate to Lost?  Simply this... If we take a deep breath and take a step back, to observe the broader patterns, we find that the good 'ol Doc is right on the money in his 5/11/07 article, and more.... Indeed, we find that we are not simply in a postmodern world populated with ironic Enlightenment characters...  No, the island of the Lost is even more interesting and complex than that.... for we are in PPM territory.... a Post-Postmodern world....

Here is a brief map to chart the historical progression we have undergone as a species, in terms of Myth/Otherness in our attempts to apprehend and engage the world:

1. SUPERNATURAL Myth/Otherness= animals, divine beings, heroes, gods, God...

2. ENLIGHTENMENT Myth/Otherness= scientific method, logic, mathematics, reason, objectivity, progress, creation through construction....

3. POSTMODERN Myth/Otherness= deconstruction, subjectivity, relativism, with SELF as Other/god, creation through destruction....

4. POST-POSTMODERN Myth/Otherness= all of the above, but embedded within and arising from a COMMUNITY of intersubjective truth- and meaning-seekers, creation through mutually-reinforcing/informing processes of construction, deconstruction, destruction, and transcendence....

Where are we now?  Not inconsistent with the Doc's 5/11/07 musings, we are in a Post-Postmodern (PPM) era in which we simultaneously confront the power and pitfalls of the Enlightenment (science, logic, reason) and the threats and opportunities afforded by Postmodernism (deconstruction, subjectivity, relativism, a lack of absolute certainty and knowledge).  (See Endnote 3.)

On a deeper level, then, what Lindelof, Cuse, and crew have done and are doing is not simply figuring Enlightenment ideas and people in an ironic manner against the backdrop of a postmodern stage, but instead are dragging us, kicking and screaming, into an even more challenging world of Post-Postmodernism (PPM).

In a PPM world, we cannot simply take the easier (and more fun!) Postmodern route of deconstructing the show, the characters, the ideas the characters represent, ourselves, and our world...  There is an admittedly exhilarating joy, and pronounced feeling of power, when we wield the deconstructive hammer and lay waste to the inherently constrained/limited constructions of others, hammering away until we expose the inexorably flawed assumptative ground on which our cherished theories are founded....

Moreover, in a PPM world we cannot simply take the easier Enlightenment route of considering how the ideas the characters represent (Enlightenment philosophers, reason, logic, science) can inform what the show means for ourselves, others, and the broader world....  For all the admittedly powerful insights and marvelous technology we have received through the wonders of science, logic, and reason, we can feel the cold sterility of a life lived primarily in this realm, and catch glimpses and of the fundamental inability of this approach to fully, precisely, and accurately map reality with resounding finality and certainty....

No, the purpose of the Lost producers/writers is actually a deeper agenda of forcing us to acknowledge, confront, and engage our lives in an inherently PPM world....  What does this world look like?  It is not simply engaging one view as an ironic position, figured against the background of the other view (for example, Enlightenment ironically figured against a Postmodern stage...)  Rather, it is the more challenging task of engaging both combinations of figure/ground relationships, and considering the meaning and map-ful insights arising when we look at the terrain or territory of Lost and our everyday lives, through this approach:

* Enlightenment figured against the background of Postmodernism, AND

* Postmodernism figured against the background of Enlightenment....

[AND, even more complexly, God figured and grounded against this, as well as magic/supernaturalism....!  I said it would not be easy, but this is what they are doing...]

What results is an intriguing melange of map-making tensions arising from the juxtaposition of paradigm-bound tools, rules, contents (etc.)   For example, simultaneously considering the pedagogical and creative tensions which flow from:

* The Science of Magic and the Magic of Science

* The Science of Faith and the Faith of Science

* The Imagination of Reason and the Reason of Imagination

* The Uncertainty of Certainty and the Certainty of Uncertainty

* The Incompleteness of Completeness and the Completeness of Incompleteness

* The Joy of Pain and the Pain of Joy

* The Love of Hate and the Hate of Love

* The Isolation of Togetherness and the Togetherness of Isolation

* The Hope of Despair and the Despair of Hope

* The Narcissism of Self-Loathing and the Self-Loathing of Narcissism

* The Ambiguity of Accuracy and the Accuracy of Ambiguity

* Etc.....

These fundamental TENSIONS are not merely intellectual or imaginative exercises in a purely academic sense.... No, these tensions help us better stand outside/inside of, apprehend, and engage our lives in a PPM world, straddling all of the above and more, including Faith, Science, Doubt, Malaise, etc.  (Please see Endnote 4.)

Life In A PPM World-

For proof of this ongoing enterprise, reread and reconsider the considerable Lost commentaries that Doc Jensen, J. Woods, and others have generated, to date.  Take a step back from the page a bit, and consider not just the words on the screen or page.... Pay close attention to the broader patterns, within and across these commentaries, backing up further to see still larger patterns, across the weeks....

The deeper agenda of the show is to show us bits and pieces of the 'territory', in order to help us to learn more about the nature of our attempts to discern what is going on-- our 'map-making' efforts-- and to open up new vistas of insight into how we as a species can learn to 'map' new futures, through leveraging new technologies to achieve truly collective sense-making, not the least of which is using the internet to connect with others and share and develop an ongoing body of meaningful maps....  (See Endnote 5.)

Like our lives in a PPM world, the incrementally emerging 'territory' that is Lost-- the bits and pieces of terrain shown to us through flashbacks and through 'present-day' events in 2004-- is a bit uncertain and can shift, when we least expect it....  Our shared 'mental maps' of Lost, like those we construct in our everyday lives, require periodic adjusting as we gain new knowledge of the territory, as we find out new things about the past and present, as we consider new paths and possibilities associated with the future...

Go back and reread Doc Jensen's richly creative and insightful theories....  How devastatingly Postmodern, to observe how often the most finely crafted theories (including my own!) can crash and burn in the wake of new material shown to us in the latest Lost episode!  Now you can see the Enlightenment<---->Postmodern double-bind, in operation with arrows pointed both ways....

Even the most clever, thoughtful, creative, logical, scientific, and/or well-reasoned Lost theories are grist for the mill of the 'shifting territory' phenomenon, with each new episode....  This set of relationships, while frustrating on some levels for dedicated Lost commentators, mirrors what scientists find when they attempt to map the world...  The more finely-grained the map/theory, the more the territory has shifted, prompting more questions than answers, and prodding further map-making efforts....  But the frustration felt from thwarted Enlightenment-driven activity (accurate mapping of the territory) can be offset through simultaneously considering the Postmodern aspects of the world.  (More on this, below...) 

What a challenge for Lost commentators, week-in and week-out, especially during the television season!  Let's be honest.... even those of us who do not have official columns in print or on the web like and want to have it both ways.... Our "Enlightenment" side cannot resist going into analytic overdrive, striving to solve the Lost who/what/where/when/how/why-dunit as best as we can see it at present, intently poring over the bits and pieces of 'territory' they have show us to date, the grist for the mill or our 'map-making' efforts.... And our "Postmodern" side delights in ripping old maps up, especially those of others, but including our own, and wallowing in the mire of 'how-futile-this-map-making-is', at times engaging in self-deprecating comments and humor.  Like it or not, we're having it both ways, since we're living in an inherently PPM world....

To further 'riff' on the Doc's great 5/11/07 column, it's more than just 'Enlightenment' irony... We're vicariously living the lives of a schizophrenically functional/dysfunctional family, writ large on the island and through its inhabitants....  And isn't that just what we're going through in our everyday lives?!  On the one (Enlightenment) hand, we are surrounded by the wonders of technology, medicine, and other products of centuries of human effort channeled through scientific, logical, map-making....  On the other (Postmodern) hand, we live in a fundamentally fractured, alienated, uncertain, angst-ful state of affairs, ironically accentuated by the daily, hourly, even constant reminders of how good we have it but how bad we still feel.  But we should not forget that the Postmodern paradigm has its benefits too.  For with the lack of absolute certainty comes a pronounced freedom of expression and creative possibility..... 

The trick is to find ways, in a PPM world, to have your cake and eat it to.... How can I leverage my Enlightenment skills in analysis, logic, etc. to craft an efficient and effective map of the world, at this moment in place and time, all while fully aware that the territory I'm mapping may be pulled out from under me at a moment's notice?  And how can I leverage my Postmodern skills, seeing new creative possibilities in the limits or gaps in my 'maps', especially as I attempt to make them more precise and finely-grained representations of reality?  How can I more fully embrace and rejoice in the pleasures and pitfalls of a map-maker trapped in a PPM world? 

Some possibilities for all of us Lost commentators and aficionados to consider include:

1.  Embrace your natural drive to analyze and solve, while simultaneously realizing that your analysis will not likely produce the end-all, be-all solution, since you are mapping an incomplete and moving terrain....

2.  Embrace your natural drive to compete with others, to prove you can solve the mystery faster than others, coming up with a better map of the territory, while simultaneously embracing the inherent limits in your ability to achieve these results, since important aspects of the task are outside your control (the territory you're mapping is moving and incomplete; this is the metaphorical equivalent to the lack of certain/absolute knowledge characterizing the postmodern era.)

3. Be mindful of the natural life cycle of map-making emotions in a PPM world:

3.a.  The balloon-busting "Oh Shit!" stage, as you see the territory has shifted and your finely-crafted map is no longer fully accurate.

3.b.  The exciting "Agatha Christie" stage, as you see how the territory has shifted and begin to ponder the creative possibilities for revising your map, to capture where the territory has moved, and the vistas you envision opening up in future episodes (in Lost and in your life).

3.c.  The intoxicating "Master Architect" stage, as the pieces of your map begin to come together, disclosing the answer to the puzzle.

3.d.  The gratifying "Posted To The Internet" stage, as your cherished revised map is shared with others in the online community of Lost aficionados.  You're confident this latest version has nailed the solution.  (Isn't it funny how we keep recycling through these stages?!)

3.e.  The defensive "What About This And That" stage, as fellow online community members react to your latest revised map (theory) of what is REALLY happening on Lost.  Invariably, others will see things you missed, BOTH in terms of what could be on the map AND where the territory really lies, especially those pesky future paths! 

3.f.  The 'pins-and-needles' "Here Comes The Show...." stage, minutes and seconds before the curtain lifts to reveal.... Gosh, I hope they don't show anything that makes me look like an idiot... After all, I posted it for everyone to see on the internet, and what if Locke really does die from that gunshot wound....? 

3.g.  The hyper-scrutinizing 'don't bother me now' "Core Dump" stage, a mad scramble to organize and express one's reactions, once the show is over. 

3.h.  Cycle back to 3.b. (if you're lucky that week!), or back to 3.a. (embrace yourself in a Postmodern hug, for optimum health!)

4.  Recognize that your map-making efforts, while not likely to precisely and accurately capture the territory, are not in vain, since while it may not be possible to get everything exactly right, that does not mean we should abandon our critical/logical/analytical faculties and flop on the ground like an amoeba.... We do have fairly advanced brains, after all.... 

5.  Embrace occasions for revising and improving our maps, even those situations in which our maps have proven to contain big holes or are even in need of near-complete overhauls.... Mapping helps us engage the territory in our analytical and imaginative faculties, opening new insights, paths, and possibilities....  This includes considering and adopting new Points Of View (POVs), not in a haphazard manner, but as needed in order to produce the best possible map to fit the available terrain....  This also includes the ability to set aside 2,200-word essays (and more) if need be (kudos to Doc!), given a present lack of fit with the revealed/exposed 'territory'.... (Indeed, one consolation from a PPM perspective is that it is rare to find little or no future use for any creative output, since the ideas will typically resurface in a new and better form, later on....)

6.  Welcome chances to dialogue and multilogue with others.... One all-too-familiar phenomenon in the Postmodern world was a focus on the disconnected SELF as Other, distanced from works, wielding a deconstructive hammer, laying the productive efforts (maps) of others to waste.... While the SELF functioned in some key ways as Other/God/Supernatural in the Postmodern world, in the PPM world the focus is on the Other as COMMUNITY of discourse, leveraging the internet and other communicative technologies. i.e., in the PPM world, social interaction among Community members serves as a means of beneficial distancing from the territory, to understand the terrain through BOTH analysis and imagination, producing a SHARED map of the terrain as we know it....

Understanding The Deeper Purpose of Lost: Nurturing Skills In Collective Map-Making in a PPM World-

Yes, we are gaining a greater understanding of the nature and limits of science, logic, and Enlightenment ideas through Lost.  And yes, we are gaining exposure to new ideas including Postmodernism, non-local causation, non-linear relations, Karma, and other ideas too numerous to catalog here.  The excellent and thoughtful works by Doc Jensen, J. Woods, and others are a great testament to the power of Lost as a catalyst for insight.

Building on ideas expressed by Doc in his 5/11/07 column, my purpose in this commentary is to discuss (and hopefully to exemplify) how the Lost producers/writers are engaged in what I believe is a monumentally important collective learning endeavor.... On a deeper level, I believe that Lindelof, Cuse, and crew are demonstrating how it is possible to leverage a combination of techologies, including the internet, to stimulate the establishment, growth, and widespread diffusion of a GLOBAL LEARNING INITIATIVE....

We are the figurative members of the DHARMA Initiative, and it is through our global and local efforts to map what is happening on the show that we are being opened up to new ideas and levels of thought....  More specifically, we are being exposed to bits and pieces of Lost 'territory' all in a manner designed to help us move along a personal and collective journey of discovery, with lasting learning effects.   In particular, we are being exposed to ideas, themes, tensions, and conflicts that are fundamental characteristics of our everyday lives in a PPM world. 

So Doc is right to focus attention on mythology.... And the genius of the approach that Lost's producers/writers have taken is that they understand that we, the viewers, are coauthoring the new mythologies through our shared map-making efforts, enabled in and through that wondrous global communication network known as the internet....

We are indeed living in an exciting and ground-breaking age.... We are witnessing a vibrant and engaging expression of the latest evolutionary paradigm in myth-making.... The channeling of universal and archetypal themes, layered with bits and pieces of clashing world views (Enlightenment vs. Postmodernism), manifest in and through the personalities and actions of a vibrant repertoire of characters, set against the intriguing backdrop of an engaging mystery, beamed to millions of people one a weekly basis, hashed and rehashed in critical, analytical, heuristic, and improvisational modes, and most importantly, shared and collectively built through a web-enabled global community.... 

As the new information technologies enable faster change, and more frequent social interaction, we are privileged to serve witness to a fundamental historical shift in the very nature of mythmaking....  From 'old school' narratives handed to us by authoritative superiors, with an emphasis on preserving the 'map' with precision and accuracy... to 'internet-enabled' multilogues among a diverse, decentralized community of learners, with an emphasis on adherence to the ongoing shared PROCESS of generating improved 'maps', revising them as the 'territory' inevitably and inexorably shifts....

In brief, we are witnessing an ongoing shift, on a global scale, from myth as CONTENT to myth as a shared collective learning PROCESS, enabled by new technologies, including the internet....

The future of transcendent Otherness is us, passed on from person to person, changed in the process, electronically-mediated....  Myth is shifting from (1) static transmission and receipt of archetypal mythic themes packaged in a fixed story form (CONTENT) to (2) dynamic, interactive, recursive, karmic sharing and transformation of electronically-mediated messages (theories, etc.) easily transformed through ongoing collective sense-making, meaning-making, map-making PROCESSES....

Of course, this new paradigm of myth-making in a PPM world will require additional tools for achieving an effective coordinated social outcome, and lessons learned from jazz musicians is one source of insight into these new skills, as well as insights available from Chomskyan generative grammar.  (More on this, later....)

And it is my hope that Lost producers/writers follow the lead of The Prisoner by leaving some key questions unanswered, thereby preserving sufficient unexplored 'territory' for future Lost mythologizing.....

Copyright 5/11/07 and 5/14/07

by Dr. Todd J. Hostager

E-mail:  thostager@losthematheory.com

-------------------------------------

ENDNOTES:

1.  For more information on the fascinating topic of sense-making, please see the work of Karl Weick:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Weick

Weick, K.E.  (1979)  The Social Psychology of Organizing (2nd ed.)  Reading, MA:

            Addison-Wesley.

Weick, K.E.  (1995).  Sense Making In Organizations.  San Francisco, CA:  Sage.

Weick, K.E.  (2000).  Making Sense of the Organization.  London: Blackwell.

2.  Joseph Campbell's work on myth is legendary.  One of his classics is:

Campbell, J.  (1949).  The Hero With a Thousand Faces.  New York: MJF Books.

3.  I've been involved in mapping out a theory of the Post-Postmodern world, building on some of the following ideas:

"In a book on City as landscape: a post-postmodern view of design and planning (E&F Spon, 1986], Tom Turner argues that:  The modernist age, of "one way, one truth, one city", is dead and gone. The postmodernist age of "anything goes" is on the way out. Reason can take us a long way, but it has limits. Let us embrace post-postmodernism—and pray for a better name....
"Performatism" was coined by Raoul Eshelman, as a term to describe or replace the term "Post-Postmodernism". He goes on to describe it as "a new epoch in which subject, sign, and thing come together in ways that create an aesthetic experience of transcendency"...a place where meaning is created.... Mikhail Epstein also argues that "Post-postmodernism witnesses the re-birth of utopia after its own death, after its subjection to postmodernism's severe scepticism, relativism and its anti-utopian consciousness".... Post-postmodernism has also been described as renewed faith."  (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-postmodern)

4.  For example, I've been doggedly pursuing a HEMA scientific Point Of View (POV) in part because it is personally interesting to me, but also in part because no one else was doing it..... So my commentaries are constrained and limited by the fact that they are primarily Enlightenment-driven: understanding the scientific bases of seemingly magical occurrences on the island, including 'magic', the paranormal, and faith....  But they are simultaneously freeing in an imaginative/creative sense, since they attempt to push the limits of what science can tell us as a mode of "Otherness" in bridging to, and expanding our understanding of, phenomena seemingly beyond the reach of current scientific understanding....

There, I've said it.... What most intrigues me about Lost are the creative/pedagogical tensions involved in attempting to bridge science and faith/magic/paranormal.... Per my prior commentary "Lost: What It's About", if you go back and study the history of science and innovation, you'll find there is a mutually beneficial dynamic operating between various POVs, including science, philosophy, faith/religion. For example, our philosophical understanding of the world-- even underlying notions of epistemology and ontology-- informs and is informed by our growing, changing scientific understanding of the world....   Others may choose to work in the opposite direction, but the underlying notion is that the arrows work both ways, not just one way....

5.  As a species, we are wired as efficient and effective 'mental map-makers'.  Please see the following source for information on important work by Alfred Korzybski, the person who coined the famous phrase "The map is not the territory":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map-territory_relation