Saturday, October 2, 2010

@Loster21's Tweets O' the Week from September 25 - October 1, 2010

Welcome to Tweets O’ the Week!  Many many great tweets this week, so let’s get going!

The standard stuff: THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE ZONE so if you’ve not watched LOST from beginning to end, do so and then come back.  Tweets from LOST cast and production are in red, and a list of their Twitter names along with their positions with LOST and current gigs can be found here.

Starting off this week with a great tweet from a LOST co-creator:

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Just had my first ever MRI. A little disappointed to report that no, I did not time travel. OR DID I?!?!?!? 2:13 PM Sep 27th

Enjoyed the boss’s response:

LOSTBlog Jon LOST_boss - @DamonLindelof oh Damon, I don't think you did, not since President Nixon in his fourth term, outlawed time travel. 2:21 PM Sep 27th in reply to DamonLindelof

ADORED this response:

Mark Goldman mjgoldman - @DamonLindelof When someone you love is having an MRI, there is no time. To put it another way, there is no "now" there. There's just "is". 8:38 PM Sep 27th in reply to DamonLindelof

So, what else is going on with LOST cast and production members these days?

Dylan Minnette dylanminnette - Sorry I haven't tweeted today I was on a plane and at Halloween Horror Nights I had a blast! Hope you were able to catch my Medium episode! 2:40 AM Sep 25th Loved it!

Daniel Dae Kim danieldaekim - wrap at 2:30am to catch a 7:00 am flight. Good times. 6:44 AM Sep 25th

mike schaub mike_schaub - Birthday drinks at Cat N Fiddle. Too many good friends to count... And they all wanna by me a drink. #thiscouldendbad 10:19 PM Sep 25th

We hope you had a terrific birthday, Mike – all the best from LOSTblog :D

Daniel Dae Kim danieldaekim - just woke up to do "The Early Show" on the east coast at the same time "The Late Show" finishes in Hawaii. Now that's some jetlag! #H50 3:31 AM Sep 27th

Kristopher White heykristopher - Check out the final video podcast we did for #NoOrdinaryFamily. All I can say is, Michael Chiklis is a great guy. http://bit.ly/dfICnb 9:50 AM Sep 27th

mike schaub mike_schaub - Hawaii Five-0 tonight! #H50 7:54 PM Sep 27th

mike schaub mike_schaub - YAY! RT moryan Just want @mike_schaub to know that Hawaii Five-0 is my husband's favorite new show. He has a man-crush on all things #H50 7:59 PM Sep 27th

mike schaub mike_schaub - #H50 fans, we've convinced supervising producer Carol Barbee to join twitter! Give her a shout out @Cbarbee1 . 10:52 AM Sep 30th

Apparently, Damon is a great boss:

Josie Kavadoy JOvsZ - wowzers. @DamonLindelof and @THEHITCHFACTORY made me a hero! [[::Kermit Flail::]]!!!!!!! http://yfrog.com/6cem1dbj 9:55 AM Sep 28th

Rebecca Mader bexmader - A BIG thanks to you all for bidding on #Twitchange! And congrats to @EvaLongoria for all your work on this. What (cont) http://tl.gd/68c39o 10:11 AM Sep 28th

Cory Bird Cory_Bird - Watch @NOFonABC tonight at 8pm. #noordinaryfamily 3:16 PM Sep 28th

David Eisenberg davidAKAice - Check out the new episode of #Undercovers tonight on NBC @8pm 6:08 PM Sep 29th

ian somerhalder iansomerhalder - BTWnew episode tonight,it's really good & we are proud of it-so please check it out!Thank you and enjoy- this episode almost killed us all! 6:31 AM Sep 30th

Eric Lange MrEricLange - Here's a clip from "Secretariat" opening October 8th. I'm the one with the binoculars. ;-) http://t.co/xTL0AR8 via @youtube 3:32 PM Sep 29th

Eric Lange MrEricLange - This Friday at 8:30pm another new episode of @Victorious. "The Great Ping Pong Scam." Me and me ping pong peeps. http://twitpic.com/2t6est 3:50 PM Sep 29th

Kristopher White heykristopher - Interviewing Molly Quinn in a bit. Send me some q's! #Castle 8:39 PM Sep 29th

Daniel Dae Kim danieldaekim - Overflowing with pride watching my brothas & sistas Jason Scott Lee, Will Yun Lee & Grace Park go at it in the same scene. So proud of #H50. 7:20 PM Sep 30th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - I am going to write a sitcom called "OH NO YOU DIN'T!!!" All I know so far is there's a butler in it. 4:08 PM Sep 30th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Oh snap. Get THIS -- The butler's name is Rupert Dint. 4:10 PM Sep 30th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - RT @Alyssa_Milano I'd watch that show. Milano? You're IN that show. Hold on... my agent is calling me. 4:14 PM Sep 30th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Okay. This is very exciting. I have just sold "OH NO YOU DIN'T" starring @Alyssa_Milano. 4:16 PM Sep 30th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof – ... I have just been fired off of "OH NO YOU DIN'T." The irony. 4:17 PM Sep 30th

javi grillo-marxuach OKBJGM - @DamonLindelof does this mean i won't be doing the ARG? 4:27 PM Sep 30th in reply to DamonLindelof

ROFL - moving on:

Dylan Minnette dylanminnette - Let Me In is out now officially!!! Go check it out this weekend! 12:14 AM Oct 1st

Eric Lange MrEricLange - Had a phenomenal time at the #Secretariat premiere. Here's me with the man I play in the movie... Andy Beyer. http://bit.ly/bas5rk 8:42 AM Oct 1st

Josie Kavadoy JOvsZ - Hello World, I am now declaring today BINARY DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #BINARYDAY 9:47 AM Oct 1st

Josie Kavadoy JOvsZ - OMG, just realized that on the 10th it will be 101010 aka 42 AND Binary Day! #Bestestmonthever

Thanks Mike Trowbridge growlf for explaining to me that “101010” is “42” in binary.  If you don’t know why “42” is one of the numbers, look it up in Lostpedia or ask a friend who is a Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fan like Josie is.

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Jim Rockford's answering machine is silent today. You rocked my childhood, Mr. Cannell. Thanks for that. 1:48 PM Oct 1st Stephen J. Cannell passed away on October 1; he was co-creator of The Rockford Files and The A-Team amongst many other shows, and was a prolific tv writer.



Last week we had the great news that Michael Emerson and Terry O’Quinn have a new JJ Abrams-produced show picked up by NBC.  This week brought us more news about JJ and another LOST alum:

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Okay. They had me at Brad Bird. But now? I am TOTALLY IN. http://bit.ly/duxXzS 1:14 PM Sep 28th

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - Okay. Because you asked. Sawyer nicknames for Tom Cruise in MI:4: "Hoppy," "Prince Charming" and last but not least, "Intenso." 1:34 PM Sep 28th

Eric Lange MrEricLange - @Josh_Holloway Just read about MI-4! Missed hanging with you in the jungle on 6. Hope you're well. The Pain in Your Ass, Radzinsky. 10:43 AM Oct 1st Public Service Announcement: We at LOSTblog are fairly certain that Josh is not on Twitter.  We do, however, wish him all the best on Mission Impossible 4! And Maggie Grace will reportedly be in the new Twilight movie:

Kevin Entrekin KevinAE - What, Maggie Grace joins Twilight cast? See what happens when you let people off the island...they go crazy #Lost 4:01 PM Sep 27th

Rob Gobell DharmaScientist - So if both Maggie Grace and Ian Somerhalder are vampires, are we going to have a vampire season of #Lost instead of a zombie season? 4:32 PM Sep 27th

Now, on to more great fan tweets:

Crossovers:

Alfonso sonikvilla - After seeing how Oceanic flights turnout in both Executive Decision & #LOST, you can bet that I'll never fly on that airline. 4:48 PM Sep 25th

Austin Balke californiacacti - Jacks son from #Lost is on #Medium. This made my day better. 9:02 PM Sep 25th

ObFuSc8 0bFuSc8 - Hahaha! Brief #LOST Weezer Hurley reference on #SNL! @bethanyshady 9:58 PM Sep 25th

Kristi Israel duespayer - Getting my nightly NYPD Blue fix, and see Titus Welliver's name in the opening credits. My dormant #Lost tinglies just woke up. 10:05 PM Sep 25th

AKA Ellis lostvariables - If I were on the Island today I'd sit on the beach & have Sayid fix me a radio to listen for transmissions from Avias 514. #lost #theevent 12:44 PM Sep 26th

P.Morley Loijens pmoreley - if Dr. Jack Shephard, Dr. Derek McDreamy and Dr. Devon Awesome had a break-dance battle...i wonder who'd win. #lost #greysanatomy #chuck 2:30 PM Sep 27th

The New York Times has said that The Event is what would happen if LOST and 24 had a baby.

Damon Lindelof DamonLindelof - I think THE EVENT is swell, but if 24 and LOST really had a baby it would hate both its parents and regularly engage in torture. 6:02 PM Sep 27th

Daniel Solzman dsolzman - Watching #TheEvent right now. I'm waiting for Spock and Kirk to come in with the Smoke Monster from #Lost 6:30 PM Sep 27th

jimDec21 - It's a whole prison full of Richard Alperts. #TheEvent 6:40 PM Sep 27th

Terry cr8dv8 - Hey, D'Lenn (DeLenn?)/the crazy lady from #LOST is on #LawAndOrderLA 4:48 PM Sep 30th

mike schaub mike_schaub - Tonight's Fringe was co-written by a friend from my last gig. Hope it does well. 5:40 PM Sep 30th That would be Graham Roland, who was story editor for LOST season 6, and yes, the Fringe episode was GREAT.

ObFuSc8 0bFuSc8 - Well Namaste there, Mr. Friendly! #TheMentalist #LOST 7:13 PM Sep 30th

Blythe Ann Johnson roobadoo87 - The fact that Patsy Cline is playing on this episode of #Fringe makes my heart both happy and a tad bit sad....#LOST 8:19 PM Sep 30th

Courtney OnlyInterject - Well hello, Mr. Abadon. #Lost #TheWire

LOST in Real Life:

Keeping_Awake Keeping_Awake - Met some really great #lost fans at Michael Emerson's #NYTVF talk today! #lost fans are always just so nice! And smart! 5:22 PM Sep 25th

It was a great panel!  If you missed it, you can see it here and it’s FANTASTIC.

Matt Houston BallUHouston - Just spotted my fav hot sauce on a table in a scene of #Lost... I think there is something wrong with me 5:28 PM Sep 26th

bottle o henny!! hennybottle - <hurley voice> hey failwhale, libby says hi. #LOST 10:44 AM Sep 27th

pandamegan pandamegan - Today in Ethics class my professor discussed John Locke and Jeremy Bentham. Doesn't he realize THEY'RE THE SAME MAN?!?! #LOST 12:47 PM Sep 27th

Jennifer Doyon newenglandjenn - #LOST ..I think Mr. Eko works in the deli at Stop n Shop. Just sayin. (Cue Lost horn) #iseelostpeople 2:12 PM Sep 27th

AKA, QuoteGirl AwesomeAuror - I can finally justify "watching #LOST" as part of my homework: I need a Scottish accent for a history project on (Desmond) David Hume. 4:24 PM Sep 27th

Kyle LaMere IshootRockstars - I see what you did there dharma initiative. The Chicago Board of Trade is not to be trusted. #LOST http://twitpic.com/2ssyot 7:45 AM Sep 28th

Sandy Parkinson dangergirl70 - Getting ready for 100+ degree temperatures again. I think Ben turned the wheel and moved L.A. to Arizona. #bloodyhot #LOST 8:04 AM Sep 28th

Walter Katz TheEventLog - Three weeks ago I saw Naveen Andrews in Disneyland. Just now - Dominic Monahan sighting at Silver Lake Gelsons (grocery) #Lost 4:45 PM Sep 29th

Kate Conboy KConsBoys - Brunk was asked to explain the meaning of life. He immediately began describing the last season of #LOST. Love him. 9:12 AM Sep 30th

Thomas Cincotta tcinc5 - @KConsBoys He is the Man! he always plays the #LOST theme for chord progressions. 9:14 AM Sep 30th in reply to KConsBoys

Megan Boley MeganBoley - If I cover the baby in dryer lint, can he be the smoke monster for Halloween? #Lost #lazy 12:02 PM Sep 30th

Dano Manion DanoManion - I just named my server "hurley" #LOST 8:12 PM Sep 30th

Joya supjoya - On the bus, and my bus driver is a bald white guy, and his name is John Locke!!! Ahh! #lost 10:21 AM Oct 1st

CBarrows CBarrows - Worked with a guy at work today who looks almost exactly like Benjamin Linus...down to the way he wears his glasses. #Lost 10:40 AM Oct 1st

Josh Highland JoshHighland - My friends just named their baby Benjamin Linus. #noJoke #LOST 12:40 PM Oct 1st

Walter Katz TheEventLog - @Loster21 @JoshHighland I guess Benjamin Linus is better than That Guy Who Is Jacob's Brother. I'd go with Hurley. 12:58 PM Oct 1st

Dylan Delaney drummerdelaney - @Loster21 really? I was thinking Sawyer is a good name. But Emj just gave me a dirty look when I said that. 1:01 PM Oct 1st in reply to Loster21



Yes, Twitter is “real life” – how can you even ask?

Michael Peters mpeters742 - What's cooler than following 108 people? How about using exactly 108 characters to tweet you about it. #LOST 8:45 AM Sep 27th

Brendan Conlon brencon - Ooh, 108 unread tweets #LOST 2:26 PM Sep 27th

Charles Ferdinand CharFerd - Paulo has come back from the grave and is now trending. #RodrigoSantoro Now, hopefully, Nikki will come back and film more Expose. #lost 9:22 PM Sep 26th

Caleb Woods CalebIsLost - why is rodrigo santoro (paulo from #lost) trending? Did someone finally uncover their corpses? 9:25 PM Sep 26th

It looks like a big interview with him was broadcast on the 26th, and as he is a major star in Brazil, many Brazilian fangirls had a lot to say about it.

LOST Love:

Jennifer Connelly TrekJen - So I'm watching #Lost again and even though I know how it all ends & comes together, it's still a very moving TV series. 12:07 AM Sep 25th

AKA Ellis lostvariables - Darn. I thought they were talking about Frank Lapidus. RT @TMGLost 10 greatest TV pilots ever via Salon.com http://bit.ly/bheRl7 #lost 7:26 AM Sep 25th

AKA Ellis lostvariables - #Lost was not just a tv show, it was - and is - a state of mind. A destination for all those who yearn in life for something *more*. 7:55 AM Sep 25th

Ashlie aVmarenco - watching #lost season 1 episode 1.. ahhhhhhhh the #goodoldays 10:49 AM Sep 25th

Joseph Jopp josephsrjopp - Watching season 3 of #Lost. Now I remember why I fell in love with this show! 2:44 PM Sep 25th

Anthony Marro VisualVector - My friend just got into #LOST per my suggestion, I'm envious of the emotional ride she just started. 3:15 PM Sep 25th

Anthony Marro VisualVector - I have finally gotten the Final Soundtrack to #LOST. The finality of the show is fully sinking in. God I miss it. 3:39 PM Sep 25th

Steve Cwikla SteveCwk - #netflix on the iPad has turned me into a #lost fanatic. 4:01 PM Sep 25th

Nikki Varney NikayV - Charlie just remembered. And I am crying like a baby. Best moment of all of #lost. 9:02 PM Sep 25th

Spike Gralewski mggralew - Ah you guys have an inside joke. How absolutely wonderful for you both. - Charlie #Lost 8:55 PM Sep 26th

Aaron Scott ascott457 - I miss #LOST so much... That's pathetic. 9:18 PM Sep 26th You’re amongst friends here.

Anne Todd bktoddy - So I have the #Lost full series.dvds, and don't know whether to watch them or worship them. Thanks again @damonlindelof and @carltoncuse. 7:54 AM Sep 27thI loved this sequence from someone who was watching the end of The End:

Jessica jessicaRo - Even after everything he's done I still felt bad for Benjamin Linus...glad Hugo used him. #LOST 10:47 AM Sep 27th

Jessica jessicaRo - Oh Christian Shepard...you sneaky guy... #LOST 10:51 AM Sep 27th

Jessica jessicaRo - WHAT????? OH SNAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #LOST 10:52 AM Sep 27th

Jessica jessicaRo - Unanswered questions? Yes. Awesomely perfect finale? Yes. :) #LOST 11:02 AM Sep 27th

Mike Mattera MikeMattera - #Lost is on...therefore, sweatpants are on as well. 11:20 AM Sep 27th

Rena Marie MsRenaBaby - damn it I miss watching #Lost :-( 11:52 AM Sep 27th

Lauren Arnone Dodge Jokerscuckoo - Oh. Finished #Lost the other day, I cried like a baby through the whole thing. Rivers of snot ran down my face. 12:54 PM Sep 27th

becky lindsay bexlins - Oh no it's the hanging Charlie episode! Oh no! #lost #lostagain 1:11 PM Sep 27th

BKzChief BKzChief - I see why #Lost is one of the best #TVShows out there. Excellent plot, story, character development and the ability to keep u guessing 1:26 PM Sep 27th

Javier Mendonça MrJavo - May I join you?... want some fish? #lost #awesome #jacob 3:00 PM Sep 27th

bottle o henny!! hennybottle - lets see how long i can refrain from having a #LOST tweet now that i've rewatched all the episodes. 5:26 PM Sep 27th

eMan emanaydin - finished rewatching season1 of #lost last night, its just as exciting as the 1st time; and wow so many things make sense + link mysteriously 5:53 AM Sep 28th

Danielle bluedani01 - Love watching the pilot of #LOST & saying "Don't worry guys! It's not a dinosaur. It's just Sam!" 7:15 AM Sep 28th

Aron Green Azalama - Now on disc 2 of Season 2 of the Epic #LOST I love watching the whole series all over again. <3 7:26 AM Sep 28th

The Lost Boy! TeamJacob815 - #lost Season 3 finale - Through the looking glass. The flash forward "We have to go back Kate... We have to go back!!" Goosebumps!!!! 8:18 AM Sep 28th

Sara Kotchenreuther mustangsara - All I wanna do is go home and watch #Lost. 9:13 AM Sep 28th

Kyle Bolum kylebolum - If you think LOST is a waste of life, then you obviously don't know Jack. Or Hurley, or Kate, or Sawyer, or Ben. #LOST 7:45 AM Sep 29th

Steven Baker Baker1000 - "Crime scene? There a forensics hatch I don't know about?" - Sawyer, Exposé #Lostquotes #Lostrewatch #Lost 5:10 PM Sep 29th

Rob Gobell DharmaScientist - Whoa. I left my itunes playing when I left, and as I logged on the theme of the hatch played. It was cool. #Lost 5:21 PM Sep 29th

Brittany Foster Britfost642 - #Lafleur is one of those episodes of #LOST that you never want to end. 5:23 PM Sep 29th

Micah Newton micahdl - I was just told that #LOST is the gateway drug to sci-fi television. I'm gonna 180* after #LOST and start a #gLee marathon. 7:46 PM Sep 29th

Kevin Humphrey TheKevo23 - watching season 2 of #LOST. I wish i had anger management classes with John Locke... 7:51 PM Sep 29th

Justin Keyes justinkeyes - #1: The Oceanic 6 Theme ("There's No Place Like Home" from S4) #LOST - Breathtakingly beautiful, melancholy yet ... ♫ http://blip.fm/~wtvs4 8:57 PM Sep 29th

Travis Cook t_cook_3 - My #LOST re-watch continues tonight with episode 1x03 & maybe 1x04. Really enjoying watching the show with a new insight. #LOSTrewatch 9:00 PM Sep 29th

Lisa Phillips GrimSilver36 - Late night laundry :/ ... any excuse to stay up and re-watch more episodes of #LOST! I'm such an addict. :D 9:29 PM Sep 29th

Katie K. kkgradstudent - I want coffee and jammies and a #Lost marathon. 8:41 AM Sep 30th Who doesn’t?

Jessica Walsh Jesswob - I finished LOST last night it was so amazing! #LOST 11:03 AM Sep 30th

lauren grimes xloz_je - was ill, so i spent the entire day on the sofa with #LOST season five :) it's the only joy of being ill! 11:05 AM Sep 30th

Cindy Peter DrummerCindy - 10.15 p.m. German TV #LOST 6/03 & 6/04 Happy LOST-day for me :-) 11:31 AM Sep 30th Many happy Returns of the day…

Karen Mauro KarensLostNotes - Just had a nice long multi-layered talked about the multi-layers of LOST. I feel ALIVE! 2:54 PM Sep 30th

Marissa tishalulle1 - When Hurley tells Claire that Charlie is dead I cry and cryyyyy every time. #lost 4:13 PM Sep 30th

Rob Gobell DharmaScientist - I am a lostaholic. And apparently a twitterholic, because I'm following 900 people.. 7:15 PM Sep 30th

Christa Andrews christaandrews - #Lost... What a great show! 7:22 PM Sep 30th

Mary Fugitt mary_fugitt - #LOST all the way baby 8:26 PM Sep 30th

karen anne marie emilystayedhere - i had a dream last night i was on the island traveling thru time in the flashes & trying to save baby aaron. also, i made-out w jack #lost 7:56 AM Oct 1st

Bill Kava billkava - love the details when u know to look for them,tabula rasa, after crash locke picks up his shoe,the soles have never touched the ground #LOST 7:59 AM Oct 1st

leanna jackson iamlowercase - 4 8 15 16 23 42. #lost (i miss this.) (lots.) (whyyy do i still remember these numbers?!) 9:53 AM Oct 1st

Tanner Osborn tannerluke - My complete LOST series rewatch is coming soon. I can feel it. And when I start... boy do I feel sorry for my followers who aren't LOSTies! 10:08 AM Oct 1st

becky lindsay bexlins - And with that Desmond was back in my life! #lostagain #lost 11:24 AM Oct 1st

Antonio Vargas AntonioUV - Has successfully kicked my #Lost habit. Three days clean. Now if I could only do something about this twitch... 11:26 AM Oct 1st

Zainab Al-Asadi zainabjonas_x - After doing what felt like 3499349384 pieces of homework, I think I deserve some Lost time. #lost 12:34 PM Oct 1st

Devon Kors dutchvon - I recently started rewatching #LOST (4th time), I feel like I'm reunited with old friends! (Also enjoying @jayandjack 's rewatch podcasts) 12:58 PM Oct 1st

Bruna Alpert brunablack - What They Died For. I HATE it for making me cry so much. Also, I like calling it "The Reason For Which They Died". #grammarnazi #Lost

Henry Parker djhenryparker - Happy & proud: Locke's season 6 backpack & Miles' costume are on the way to Austria from the big #Lost auction :)

K ♥ krissy_- I miss Michael Emerson on my television.

✓ Verified LOSTie✈ LizPrietti - You #Lost fans are the reason I tweet! #Liz10000LOSTtweets

Congrats on the 10,000 tweets, Liz, and thanks on behalf of all tweeting LOSTies for your great tweets!  In fact, thanks to all of you who have tweeted and/or will tweet about LOST, you make Twitter so fun!  Special thanks to Amy (@aohora) for upgrading the site so the Tweets O' the Week has its own tab - so special!  Everyone please keep those LOST tweets coming, enjoy your week, and Namaste!

WRLB – Introduction to The Third Policeman (1967) by Flann O’Brien


Original Book Cover


Amy has a new favorite literature website: Bookslut (www.bookslut.com)


[Isn't that a great name?]


Bookslut is a monthly web magazine and daily blog dedicated to those who love to read. We provide a constant supply of news, reviews, commentary, insight, and more than occasional opinions.


I highly recommend it. Also, check out Bookslut’s ComicbookSlut Column!


After poking all over the web, it was Bookslut that finally shed some light on this month’s WRLB/Bookclub selection: The Third Policeman (1967) by Flann O’Brien. Well, kinda.


O’Brien, an Irish “humorist,” actually finished writing The Third Policeman somewhere around 1940.  It was turned down by publishers, and O’Brien claimed he lost the manuscript. [Truth is, it sat on a table in his house for 20 years without him noticing it.]  It was finally published a year after his death.


I’ve only ever read O’Brien’s first novel, At-Swim-Two-Birds.  The only thing I can remember about it is that it was completely confusing when it was supposed to be funny.


Keep that in mind as you’re reading this month: The Third Policeman is supposed to be FUNNY.


From “The Third Policeman” – Review by Randy Schaub


“In The Third Policeman, our hero and narrator, a nameless young man with a wooden leg, assists in a money-motivated killing, and, after trying to retrieve the stashed goods some time later, passes into a strange otherness — a place that superficially resembles the Irish countryside, but which casually disobeys the normal laws of How Things Work. He encounters a small building of impermanent and shifting geometry which turns out to be the local barracks — it is here that he meets the policemen. The novel has that special quality — the fantastic made believable, yet retaining its power to amaze — that is the hallmark of authors like Borges, Kafka, or Barthelme. The events are alternately frightening, baffling, and hilarious, and are brought into three dimensions by perfect, musical prose.”


“The main of the book is devoted to the solution of our young hero’s mystery, and to the further mystery of the bizarre policemen which populate the world he has wandered into. The policemen speak in an infectious, over-wrought dialogue that you’ll have to take care not to pick up yourself. They invent devices that turn noise into electricity. They take gauge readings in a subterranean, industrial version of eternity. I don’t want to delve too far into this storyline, rather I urge you to discover it for yourself. You’ll never ride a bicycle again.”


INTERESTING TO NOTE: This book FITS into the trippy psychedelic world of experimentation even though it was written in 1940 — an entirely different world from that discussed in our recent WRLB selections, Lord of the Flies and Slaughterhouse-Five, where post WWII horror and despair dominate even the silliest of moments.


Instead, O’Brien sticks to satire or dark humor to portray the human condition. A nameless man meets his fate, and guess what? It doesn’t make much sense to him [or us].


The very best discussion I could find online comes from an interview NPR did with Charles Baxter [A professor of creative writing at the University of Minnesota].


[This interview, btw, is a PERFECT example of Why Amy Did Not Try To Become A Professor Of Creative Writing Reason #2.]


Excerpt from “The Funniest, and Scariest Book Ever Written,” August 22, 2006 at www.npr.org.


Q. Donoghue [another critic] also makes the case that O’Brien is a “nihilist” writer, another claim that strikes me as overblown [uh, another critic these guys don't like very much]. Isn’t the narrator actually being punished — albeit in hilariously [hilariously?] roundabout fashion — for his misdeeds?


No, it’s not nihilism. What confuses some readers is that the tone of this novel is not moralistic, or earnest, but slippery and weirdly offhanded. In it, language is like a fish you’ve caught that has slipped out of your hands and is flopping around in the boat. We’re plunged into a comic nightmare, where language, like that fish I mentioned, keeps going out of control or manages to flop out of the boat back into its native element. (English was the second language that O’Brien acquired, and it must have felt slightly alien to him, as it did to many Irish writers, because he loves to mock its technical vocabulary and its rumbling blowhard sentences.) [Raise yer hand if you think O'Brien might have been making fun of some OTHER type of blowhard.]


The narrator — who is a murderer — ends up confronting his victim in the afterlife in a funny but also terrifying scene, and he watches as, slowly but surely, a scaffold is built for his own hanging — or his “stretching,” as the policemen call it. The narrator meets his soul, and as the novel advances, he feels a growing sense of disorientation and “brain-shrinking” fright. He learns that in the world of eternity, you can see treasures but can’t enrich yourself with them. This is nihilism? It’s the opposite — a world supersaturated with meanings and consequences.


Q. [I'm] Right — and isn’t there at least some significance in O’Brien making such sport of the hilariously mechanistic philosophy of de Selby? It does, after all, furnish the narrator’s motive for the murder.


I think the narrator is in love with the wisdom of de Selby the way the man on the American street might love the wisdom of, oh, say, L. Ron Hubbard [HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!]. The narrator’s obsession with de Selby’s “writings” starts to seem almost sensible after a while. De Selby believes, for instance, that the darkness of “night” is created by an accumulation of soot produced by industrial effluvia, and that “sleep” is actually a form of hysterical fainting required by the body because of the lack of oxygen caused by all this soot. This explanation sounds relatively sensible to me, particularly in cities like Cleveland [Awwww --- come on! What you got against Cleveland?].


And why isn’t it true, as the novel claims, that, when you hit a piece of steel with a hammer, some of the atoms of the hammer go into the piece of steel? Why shouldn’t people turn into the bicycles they ride? Anyway, no institutionalized form of wisdom or knowledge is left unscathed by this book. I don’t think the mechanism of the cracked world view helps to cause the murder; it’s not the world view, I mean: it’s the obsession. Show me an obsessive, and I’ll show you a potential criminal — or so says this novel [Ahhhh -- the swallow the river water -- er -- Koolaid syndrome]


Q. Any idea of what role Fox [!?!], the actual third policeman, is doing in the book named for him? Is he some sort of gatekeeper for O’Brien’s cracked moral cosmos? Or is he yet another wrong variation on the book’s seemingly endless collection of wrong themes? [????]


I feel as if I have a very loose grip on who this Fox is, a very loose grip indeed. He is apparently a gatekeeper of some kind, or perhaps yet another one of the semi-human objects that the narrator must get around, or over, in his post-mortal confrontation with himself.


If I possessed a symbolizing mentality, which (the gods be praised) I do not [gods be praised, indeed], I would notice that there are three policemen in the story, figures of omnivorous authority [authority that eats veggies and meat?] available here and there to the narrator in the afterlife in which he finds himself. In the Catholicism in which the author, Flann O’Brien, grew up, there is the doctrinal mystery of the Trinity — but fortunately I am not a symbol-making fellow, just a plain reader [HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, RIGHT!], so there is no possible way that Fox could be a symbol for really much of anything, least of all any entity human or divine that I can think of right now. Of the making of symbols there is no end. Perhaps, after all, the process of symbol-making is like the creation of smaller and smaller chests, treasure chests that are filled, unfortunately, with nothing but smaller treasure chests, which themselves are filled with other chests — did I mention that one of the policemen is making such chests, the smallest one so small that it cannot, apparently, be seen? I didn’t? Good. Such is the logic of this book. [I don't even know where to begin to make fun of this last bit.]


Q. You’ve probably heard that the book made a cameo appearance on the ABC castaway melodrama Lost [Castaway melodrama?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!]. Any theories about the supersaturated meaning of that?


I myself have never seen Lost. However, when Tony Soprano had his near-death experience and, on the other side, found himself in a sort of afterlife standing outside a large multi-roomed house wherein his murder victims lived (with a lighthouse in the distance), I fully expected him to find, somewhere on the doorstep, a copy of The Third Policeman. I can’t imagine why David Chase didn’t think of it. If he didn’t, he should have. That scene felt like something out of O’Brien’s novel. As did that old Patrick McGoohan series The Prisoner, which has probably been ripped off for Lost [OMFG].


[Don't you love that? "Shame, SHAME on David Chase for missing a perfectly good sub-reference opportunity! Bad postmodernist! Very bad postmodernist!" This guy basically said: Maybe David Chase was just getting "lazy" at that point and just didn't care. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!! Also "ripped off" is slang for "transformed" or "translated," which seems pretty applicable in both cases -- without the snooty connotation as it were.]


End excerpt [gods be praised!].


So, lovely LOST readers, what are we to think?  If “a writer” included this book for “a specific reason,” what on Earth could it be? [Besides a rip off, I mean, of course. snerk].


No matter how effed up the writing or storyline might be, this novel presents us with several promising elements: atonement, fate, DREAM WORLD, circular logic, farcical physicists, obsession and journey to “self.” My advice: Have FUN with it! Take your time and post comments often.


Good luck!


[And don't forget about the bicycle.]

WRLB/Bookclub Selection October 2010: The Third Policeman (1967) by Flann O’Brien


Original Book Cover


Hopefully you saw the PSA, and you’ve started reading. Consider last month a slight cake walk, to this month’s chess game. I’ve finished it already and plan to reread. I’ve been well documented on the twitter citing this book’s confusing storyline.


Maybe I’m over exaggerating, maybe I’m going easy on it. Your feedback is not only WELCOME it may be of huge necessity.


Thirteen chapters of reading over four weeks averages about 3 and a half chapters a week.


Good luck to this month’s leader, @LOST_boss, may your bicycle ride true.


The following post by aohora, pretty much sums up my feelings.

WRLB Carrie Podcast is Up!


I had a great time talking to Erin (@erinava) of the WTAL podcast. You can subscribe to all the WTAL podcasts (on which the book club piggy backs) on iTunes. Search LOSTblog.


Anyway here’s the download for our discussion about Carrie by Stephen King, a great (and quick) read if you haven’t checked it out already.


As always, we’d love your feedback. Head to LOSTblog.com/bookclub and click on the Books and Contact tab. Check the bottom of the page for all our contact info.

Friday, October 1, 2010

LIVE Chat Rewatch SATURDAY returns!


Wonderful news, lovely LOST readers! @AMonsterAteMe is taking over SATURDAY LIVE CHAT REWATCH!! TIME: 11a.m. Eastern/4pm GMT PLACE: LIVE CHAT ROOM REWATCH SCHEDULE HERE Each week during rewatch, LOSTblog.com offers TWO opportunities for any and all LOST fans to join in our LIVE CHAT and rewatch LOST episodes together [Tuesdays 9pm Eastern & Saturdays]. You [...]