So just on the screen (U.S. airing) Jacob reading "Everything that Rises Must Converge"

Any thoughts? :)

Did you catch the author? They certainly held the camera on the book for quite a long time. Is it a real book? (as usual - so many questions with Lost)

Yes! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21865...

There's the book, it's a collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor. I don't know anything about the book, but was certainly intrigued by the fact that they held the camera on it for so long...

And the fact that he was reading it right after Locke's fall. Especially due to the ending of the finale (won't spoil it for anyone here) but it seems to all tie in together, yeah?

I think the title itself is intriguing, but is especially meaningful with the final episode! It seems that quite a few things came together for the multiple plotlines and I'm happy to finally see who Jacob is.
Can I just say that I love Rose and Bernard? I think they have the right idea about the island.

The title itself is definitely intriguing! That was primarily what interested me in the book. (Look at that, judging a book by it's title instead of its cover!) That having been said, from what I can surmise from a few summaries of the book itself it seems to deal heavily in the way of grace and consequences of actions; a lot like Lost itself, hm?

It was wonderful to finally catch a good sight of Jacob and what he's about. Much talk has begun about the nature of Jacob and Anti-Jacob (Esau?) already, so I think it should be interesting to see what the more literary of Lost fans come up with during the next (much too many) few months before the final season begins.

Also, I love Rose and Bernard, too. I think they really do have the right idea about the Island and one that the rest of the Losties should follow. Remember! the writer's have said that Vincent survives the show, I'm wondering now if Rose and Bernard might do the same. :)

Also, Rose's "What is with you people?" line really did have me laughing. "It's always one thing or another!"

What a fantastic finale!

I have been meaning to get this book for a long while, and kept putting it off. A writer I love once recommended it to me. I plan on picking it up soon.

I wondered why they spent such a long time shooting that cover ... until the end of the finale...!! Great set up, that was. Makes me hope they didnt just pick the book for its cover in this case (foreshadowing never hurt anyone, really)... But you are right, there are some Lost-ish links towards the writing from what I gather.

Count me in as a Rose and Bernard lover as well. I always thought, even tho they chose to separate from the group and rise above the pettiness, that they were such a cute, loving couple. I like the wild man look.. hee hee

And yay for seeing Vincent again too. I was wondering what that dog was up to! Rose and Bernard must be feeding him well...

It's like in Marley and Me - Vincent must subsist on mangoes.

I'll be heading off to the library on Monday so I'll check and see if they carry the book :)

for me....i got the title of the book matched with the fall of john luke ,, but in the end of the episode , i think the match is bigger than I was thinking :))

I really want to read this book, I'm picking it up from the library soon. =)

I read two stories from this book. The two I read were about sons disobeying mothers with the backdrop of Southern prejudices. But the interesting thing is that it sympathizes with the sons and the old women get it in the end. Kind of rushing in a new era, a melting pot of sorts.

This is off topic, but someone made a comment about Rose and Bernard. I've been wondering since the finale if they aren't the skeletons that Jack and Kate find in the cave when they first find it during season 1...

Good question Amanda. You should post that on the "Theories" thread @ 815ers Unite as well.

Hey Philip.. thanks for stomping my group :)
Hee hee

Yeah, that seems to be the thought of many of my members. They are 50 years in the past currently.... so it would make sense, in a way....

Yeah, no problem. We're all on the same team here.

I love the idea of the "Adam and Eve" skeletons being Bernard and Rose!
Either way though, I really really hope that they do answer where those skeletons came from. It has been a mystery left hanging from the very beginning. Not to mention, one I obsess over frequently. ;o)

I like the "Adam and Eve are Bernard and Rose" as well, but being skeptical, I have to pose the question: how did they die and decompose that quickly in 30 years?

But I'd like to get back to Jacob's book. As soon as I saw him reading the book, I went and bought and read it. As mentioned by Hilary in message 5, the stories do have a lot to do with actions (and the actions are always of good intention) and the consequences after the action (which normally ends up with someone dieing in some way).

But what I really picked up on was that the themes in most of the stories had to do with progress (mainly the progress of the southern US in the early 1900s where most people were stuck in their old ways and wanted no change) but showing progress as a good thing. This goes against what Ben said when he took Locke "Jacob's Cabin" and told him Jacob didn't like technology or any sort of progress (and I do have to go back to that episode to get an exact quote, but I know Ben did at least mention technology).

So with that piece of info, I propose that that was Anti-Jacob (I don't want to say Esau because I'm hoping that they don't end this on a huge Biblical message or something) in the cabin and not Jacob. So Anti-Jacob seems to be against progress.

I know this should have been partly in the "Theories" section, but most of the books I have read that have been featured in the series gives some sort of clue. This book was definitely a clue to Jacob's character.

i saw this book on the episode and seriously tracked it down. I bought the Complete Works. read the first two stories and i was completely thrown by them. haha. they didnt have (according to me anyway) a proper ending. kind of like the ending of the bell jar, where it just ended. now its sitting on my shelf staring at me.

It seems O'Connor like that kind of literary device; ending a story out of no where. I think she did it to drive the point of the story home.

She is similar to Salinger and Bolano in this regard. Writers of such transcendent capability often feel unconstrained by the basic tenets of good story-telling, i.e. having a point. They are probably right but it can be frustrating.