An episode of the TV mystery drama Lost featuring a Flann O'Brien book has fans searching its pages for clues, writes Brian Boyd
Does a book by cult Irish writer Flann O'Brien hold the key to an understanding of the hit US television drama series Lost? O'Brien's novel, The Third Policeman, which was first published in 1967, makes an appearance in the third episode of the second series of the TV show. One of Lost's scriptwriters, Craig Wright, has told a US newspaper that the book "was chosen very specifically for a reason". Wright explained that "whoever goes out and buys the book will have a lot more ammunition in their back pocket as they theorise about the show".
Lost is a drama-adventure series about the survivors of an aircraft crash on a remote South Pacific island. Mystery surrounds the survivors and the island. In the US, the second series is half way through its run and sales of O'Brien's book have increased substantially on the back of the exposure on the show.
The Dalkey Archive publishing house in Illinois reported that immediately after the relevant episode was screened, it sold 14,000 copies of The Third Policeman - as many as it has sold over the past six years combined.
Following the scriptwriter's comments, fans of the show are scanning the text of The Third Policeman, desperate for clues.
The second series of Lost begins on RTÉ on February 6th - the episode featuring the book is scheduled to be broadcast on February 20th. When the first series of the show finished here late last year, viewers were left with many unanswered questions. The only real clue to emerge so far is a series of apparently random numbers.
Such is the interest in the show, fans go on to internet bulletin boards immediately after each episode is broadcast and talk excitedly about new leads and possible new solutions to the drama.
ALREADY, SOME VIEWERS have noted that in The Third Policeman, the character de Selby refers to black smoke - in the TV series the appearance of black smoke is a significant event. Some of the speculation, though, seems strained and fanciful: one viewer notes that the narrator of The Third Policeman discusses boxes at one stage in the book - one of the characters in Lost used to work for a box company.
Another publication which has featured in the show, a Spanish language comic book of the cartoon superheroes Flash and The Green Lantern, has already been forensically examined by fans of the show. It has transpired that events in the comic - such as the appearance of a polar bear - also occur in the TV show.
However an executive producer on the show has recently stated that only three people (none of them the scriptwriters) know the full mythology/storyline of Lost. It is possible that Craig Wright's insinuation about The Third Policeman was innocent mischief-making, or just another red herring. Either way, the Flann O'Brien estate is due increased royalty payments thanks to Lost-related sales.
Aware of the huge impact the show is having on viewers, ABC, the television station behind the series, decided (in a televisual first) to make each episode available on Apple's iTunes music service. The full episodes are available for download a day after their television transmission for $2 a show. For Irish audiences this means that instead of waiting for RTÉ to screen the second series next month, they can watch all the second series episodes that have already been transmitted in the US on their iPod screens or, more commonly, on their computers. What viewers enjoy about downloading the show to their computer is that they can operate "screen-grabs" which allow them to notice small, perhaps, overlooked details from previous episodes.
One US Lost fan set up his own website just so he could keep track of the show's chronology. In one month alone, his site, www.lost.cubit.net, had almost one million hits.
LOST IS NOW more than a widely talked about drama series - it has become the model for a new media age where a television show can take on a new life independent of the television set. ABC is developing an interactive web site which will delve into aspects of the show's mythology that will never be explored on air.
Soon there will be two-minute episodes of the show available on your mobile phone which will detail the stories of other passengers aboard the flight who didn't make it on to the island. Again, these mini-episodes will not feature on the television show. All of this is in addition to the traditional tie-ins the show has prompted: books, magazines, calendars and a board game.
What all this means is, uniquely in television history, Lost is not circumscribed by the actual show itself. For example, ABC's parent company, Disney, is to publish a book written by one of the passengers who got sucked into the engine in the pilot episode of the show. The passenger had already e-mailed his manuscript to his publisher. This is a character who appeared in Lost for all of two seconds.
This all explains why the novel by Flann O'Brien (also known as Myles na gCopaleen in his Irish Times column) is attracting a bizarre new audience.
Ironically, when O'Brien submitted the manuscript of The Third Policeman to his publishers in 1940, it was turned down. O'Brien shelved the manuscript, telling everyone who asked about its whereabouts that it had been (wait for it) lost. It was published posthumously in 1967 to critical acclaim.
A surreal comic tale about the nature of time and existence, the book was once described as "like watching Monty Python perform the works of Albert Einstein".
The book is featured briefly in the Orientation episode. It is discovered by a new character, Desmond, down in the hatch on the island and he packs it into his carrier bag before fleeing.
Not wanting to spoil anything, it's enough to tell puzzled Lost viewers that The Third Policeman is narrated by someone who is already dead.
The second series of Lost begins on RTÉ on Feb 6