Saturday, January 31, 2009

"So Time Is Like A Street"

Wayne Allen Sallee and I have been emailing about Season 5 discussing quite a bit about the Time "thing" of course. So I thought of this: I, and my 9 yr old nephew Ian, have been getting confused about why they keep saying that they can't change the past or future, but they still keep trying to change "something". But what if TPTB are getting really clinical with the details of that, and the characters are really only changing the "present" and that's somehow allowed? Because Dan really kind of changed Desmond's "present" by giving him a memory at that moment of their Swan encounter in the "past" when the island moved there (two minutes after Dan said that they couldn't change things!).

If you use Dan's analogy of walking up or down a street and not being able to change it, perhaps you can't change the buildings or permanent aspects, but maybe you can do something like put some flowers in a window, or paint a building (or, place a memory in someone's mind like Dan did), to change how the street will look (or how the mind will remember) in the present/future from then on since the alteration? I don't know how that could be viable in relation to everything else. I'm just trying to understand why some things can be "altered" or colored if you will, when we kept being told that it can't be done. There seems to be some detail of this that I just can't define yet.

12 comments:

lost2010 said...

Likewise, time is like a river. It flows along in one direction. And it may sometimes overflow it's banks or get dammed up, but it's ever striving to get to the ocean.

You can try to dam it up, or divert it's flow, and that may exert a temporary change, but eventually the dam breaks or the flooding dissipates and the river is back in it's banks flowing toward the ocean.

Now suppose the T.V.A. (Dharma), decides they can harness that power that is the river. So, they divert it, build a dam, harness the energy, but even though it passes through man-made lakes here and there, it's still flowing through a diverted path toward that will end up in the ocean.

And there's a guy that sits in a control room at the dams and he opens the spillways now and again - to make sure the lakes stay where they're meant to be - to keep the water regulated. . . A nice little guy whose job it is to maintain the flow of the river. . . essentially, he pushes a button. . .

Now, you can float your boat on that river - you can drop your line in and pull out a fish here and there - you can waterski and build docks along the edges - you can jump in and out - but ultimately - you can't change the end destination. . .if you stay with it long enough. . . don't run aground on the shoals. . .you're headed for the ocean eventually.

(Says the girl raised along the banks of the Tennessee River)

But streets work too. :)

Capcom said...

Wow, great analogy, I like it! You've got everything covered there. Oh wait, and if the river is polluted and you swim in it, you get nosebleeds, nyuknyuk.

Hey, too bad I can't send you a note in a bottle down the TN river from my end. :o)

lost2010 said...

I started to go there, but I thought my river was getting a little full of well, pollution already. :)

Do we have any idea why Charlotte's nose bleeds and the rest of them seem alright?

Capcom said...

LOL.

I don't think that anyone has a clue about Charlotte yet, as far as I've read. I'm really ticked off that TPTB have Dan hedging about what's going on, as if she was one of the Losties and didn't know boo about Dharma science and wouldn't understand. Charlotte was helping him with his little memory problem before, so what's the big deal?! I dunno.

lost2010 said...

If it turns out to just be "because it happened that way before", I will not be happy.

Capcom said...

Yeah, me too. :-p

maven said...

Lost2010: Great analogy with the river. I guess the end result if predestined and, even if something rule is changed or someone does something they're not supposed to, things will unfold according to some overall plan. As I posted over at Memphish's blog, I was wondering if there are guardian's of the one true time line...like Hawkings, Widmore,Alpert, Abaddon, and maybe even Paik and Hanso. They all someone made sure that all our Losties were on Flight 815 or on the island when they were supposed to me.

I'm still confused about Charlotte, too!

Capcom said...

Wow Maven, wouldn't that be something if they were ALL Timelords?! :-o

Miss Scarlett said...

Yeah. And they are explaining it by using the word 'special'.
Not.enough.info!

Wayne Allen Sallee said...

I KEEP forgetting to come over here, too. When Faraday was talking with Sawyer I thought he at first said string, not street. Then I realized he was talking to Sawyer. This show, to me, has always been about predestination, the street may end up longer or shorter, as the river can be dammed up or diverted, but I'm at one one of the street and my fate is at the other. Not being all mystic, I just stick with the S1 tagline, "Everything Happens For A Reason."

That said, the street in 2004 was straight (Des, Faraday, Hatch), but were these new time jumps meant to be past history? No way of knowing, I suppose, at least for now.

Nosebleeds? Time for Faraday to tell people they need a Constant. I suppose I can see him keeping stuff from the others, if only because he's insanely smart, but Juliet knows a lot more about this Island than she has ever told anyone.

Capcom said...

Hi Wayne! I thought that Dan said string when I first heard it too, mostly I suppose because of having the Quantum Leap theory in my head for so long, the way that Al explained time-travel to Sam. :o)

Yes, I agree! It's time for Faraday to be honest about what's going on with them! And I get very frustrated during the show when someone asks Juliet what she knows, the camera lingers on her scowl, and then comes the jump to another scene befoe she gets to answer. Time for TPTB to have her come clean as well. Even though she's only been there for 3 years, TPTB have let on that she's been privy to a heck of a lot more than some of the Others. Or so it seems.

Capcom said...

Oops I missed your post Miss Scarlett! Yes I agree, using "special" as a euphemism for explaining their time condition at this poitnt rubs my patience the wrong way! :-o