Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

Wee, sleeket, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,...
... But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
For promis'd joy.

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But, och! I backward cast my e'e
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!
-- Poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns

Yet another literary reference (Dante's "Inferno", the collected works of John Locke and something by Stephen King, etc.) but of course, "Lost" made no sense again tonight. Apparently there are two islands, a submarine (which seems to be where Jack is imprisoned), and that awful Ben has a giant spinal tumor. He also has a rabbit, like big, simple minded Lennie in John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." (Actually, I suppose Ben would be George and Sawyer would be Lennie, right? Hell, I'm confused...) "M and M" is also quoted in the episode, adding yet another literary reference to the most complicated, maddening goddamned show on television (and also the best.) I still don't get what is going on, but it's making me want to re-read some Steinbeck.

More on the plot summary of "Of Mice and Men". See if it helps:

Lennie is a large, physically strong man with the mind of a child, and George is a smaller, feeble bodied man with quick wit. The men are wandering ranch workers who travel together in search of any available opportunities to earn money. Lennie depends on George as does George on Lennie for all different times in their travels. The ideal objective of most ranch workers is to amass a sizeable fortune and eventually purchase a small farm, and "live offa the fatta the lan'." Lennie is driven to reach this objective by the prospect of "tending the rabbits". However, this goal appears to be nothing more than a distant dream until Candy, another worker on the farm, offers to contribute his savings for a place on the farm.

While subjected to the loneliness and mediocrity of the life they presently lead, George and Lennie's prospect of their own farm attracts yet another hopeful, Crooks, the Negro stable buck. Despite their best efforts, however, the dream begins to collapse, completely falling apart when Lennie accidentally killed Curley's wife by breaking her neck,he said to himself, "I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing. After Curley's wife, who is a promiscuous woman with a wandering eye, dies in his arms, Lennie escapes to the river where the story had begun, the place where George advised him to hide should he ever get into trouble (Note the circular ending: it suggests that the workers are trapped in the cycle forever).

To spare Lennie from Curley's revenge, which would entail much pain on Lennie's part, George quickly kills Lennie with a Luger pistol which he had stolen from Carlson earlier. He does this by coaxing Lennie with a description of the dream of their own farm, which captivates his attention and allows George to press the pistol to the back of Lennie's unsuspecting head and shoot him. Slim then takes George for a drink to settle his nerves. The last line of the book is delivered by Carlson, the ranch worker who kills Candy's old dog in a fashion similar to Lennie's killing (which foreshadows his death.) He says to Curley, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" reflecting the fact that both characters never learned the value of compassion.

Not that it helps much, but it's more info than the "Lost" writers provide each week! Too tired to do it myself, but Mama has a good summary of tonight's ep. Gnight!

Tags: Lost