Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Not Your Parent’s Island

I am certainly not the first to make comparisons of the current hit ABC drama LOST to Gilligan’s Island, the hit sitcom of a generation ago. But as I was watching the final series premier of LOST last night and trying to follow the discombobulated plot lines that have intrigued loyal viewers for several seasons now, it dawned on me that comparing Gilligan’s Island and LOST is like comparing modernity and postmodernity.

The basic plot lines of both shows are the same – a group of people stranded on a deserted island looking to get back home. Gilligan’s Island was mainly light hearted, slapstick comedy in which the stranded crew had to tolerate each other’s idiosyncrasies so as to not drive each other bonkers. It was a show at the height of modernity in American history reflective of the attitude that basically things will take care of itself in the end. The attitude of the cast of Gilligan’s Island was, “If we just do the best we can with what we’ve got, we will be rescued,” and it was nearly that cut and dry. Sure unexpected things would happen, but the cast worked together, and in a half hour show, the situation was completely resolved.

LOST is so much more reflective of the postmodern era we are living in today because so much has changed in forty years. No longer are things as cut and dry as they used to be. Not only do things NOT get resolved after an hour episode of LOST, or even after an entire season, but we are left with huge cliff hangers after every scene. There are continually not only unexpected circumstances that arise in LOST, but the circumstances are increasingly complex and convoluted, often involving the supernatural and the mysterious.

The postmodern period of history that we are currently living in does not promise what modernity did, that if we just do the best we can with what we’ve got that everything will turn out to be fine in the end. It’s one of the reasons why modernity is fading (even though there are still strong pockets of modernist wishful thinking throughout the country) because what modernity promises falls way short.

We are living in a postmodern period of history. Comparing Gilligan’s Island to LOST is like comparing what WAS to what IS. Life is not as black and white as people used to believe it was. There are no more simplistic answers or neatly categorized formulas that will ensure that things will turn out right in the end. We are all, in a sense, stranded on an island that is so much more like the LOST island than Gilligan’s. But our Rescuer and greatest hope is in Jesus Christ who conquered the crucibles of hatred, betrayal, injustice, sin, and death. There’s no simple formula or prayer that will see us through, but it’s in the daily grind and twists and turns of life that we continually trust Him to see us through all the heart wrenching disappointments and surprises we face.

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