what books Ben reads/ would read you think?

Alright, we know by now that the island accommodates quite a few book-warms. James, Juliette and her book club.. but most particularly Ben Linus. Strange that even in times when they camp out of emergency or for a few nights, Ben is never without the company of a good deal of books.

Seeing his shelves all packed again in this episode, I froze to catch what he might be reading. The only two things I was able to discern, are
1) the big book with red hard cover, a novel by John Lescroart (it was a detail in a close-up and the title of the book was off-screen, but I got a feeling it's "The Guilt", and 2) the book right next to it, which has only its publishing company visually discernable within the same shot- it's shelved upside down actually, and reads "Farrar, Strauss, Giroux" the publishing company known as FSG. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Award-winning Authors

I'm wondering if anyone caught titles etc of other books Ben keeps around...and if so, what are they? If books are food for the mind and if "you are what you eat", it'd be interesting to learn, or even guess about Ben's reading taste.

OK, my guess for a few books that Benjamin Linus must have read (aside from what we know from his Bunny nb.8 conversations with Sawyer, Stephen King and probably the Testaments Old & New)-

- Bhagavad-gita
- Tibetan Book of the Dead
- Sun-Tzu: 'the Art of War'
- Hobbes: 'Leviathan'
- Machievelli: 'the Prince'
- Ram Dass- 'Be Here Now' - or maybe 'Doing your Own Being'

What do you think this guys reads/ might be reading?

Title Factors only:

Dante's Inferno
Milton's Paradise Lost
Golding's Lord of the Flies
Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury -AND- As I Lay Dying
Austen's Pride and Prejudice - AND- Persuasion
Twain's Roughing It
Huxley's Brave New World
Stevenson's Treasure Island
London's Call of the Wild
Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea
Steinbeck's The Pearl
Sinclair's The Jungle
Alcott's Little Women - AND - Little Men
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
( I only wrote books I had read so that I could be as good as Ben)

what is a book-warm?

Quote:

Originally Posted by folie a deux

what is a book-warm?

Like someone who can't camp for a few days without shelves set up and full with lots of books (watching the scene where Locke comes to Ben's tent, I'd say he's got 40-60 books around, mostly likely a couple of more in the boxes..)

Let's not forget Thomas More's Utopia.

I'd like to think that Ben is also familiar with philosophies of Spinoza, Nietzsche and well.. of course Mikhail Bakunin... The latter would be especially important given 1) the overall popularity of Bakunin's writings among social utopians of the 70s 2) the necessity of studying collective anarchism in all its good and bad, for better management and control of an island community like Dharma, or later like Others.

I suggest Spinoza and Nietzsche not because they are my fav philosophers (well, they truly are) but because of 1) their critique of categorical moral judgements (good/bad, good/evil) 2) their unique understanding of power and will that brings together Nature, individual and the element of necessity in an immanent fashion.

Well, even if Ben wasn't all into philosophy, I think the writers/producers have done quite a bit of reading in that department, next to the literary classics..And I just love them for it!!

Sorry - I was doing the book list for Title/Fun Value Only. If you are looking for serious discussion on philosophy, Ben might consider the works of these philosophers:
*Bertrand Russell - "Philosophy is the no-man's land between science and theology, exposed to attack from both sides."
*Pythagoras, basically thought 1) The soul is immortal and is tranformed into other living things - whatever comes into existance is born from the revolutions of a certain cycle - or in otherwords, nothing is absolutely new 2) All things are numbers
*Plato's simile of The Cave would be in there on the shelf.
*Aristotle's works on Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics, Biology, and Poetics
*Descartes' idea of "Cogito Ergo Sum"
*Locke's ideas of "Tabla Rasa" and individual liberty
*Voltaire's "Noble Savage" thinking
Kant's Thinking Cap
Hegel's Famous "The Real is Rational & the Rational is Real"

What do you think? Not that Ben would agree with all of these, but read them for perspective....

05:12 PM

btw - Spinoza's pretty cool (if you like math hahaha!) since he tried to demonstrate how to lead a good, moral life mathematically, but Nietzsche, although he was VERY smart, basically said "God is dead" and hated Christians (Nihilist?), aided in the invention of Nazism and loved Wagner until Wagner became a Christian (who was anti-semetic until then), was a misogynist,and had very antidemocratic leanings.
Nietsche thought there was no universal morality. His Ubermensch was judged differently because virtue is only for an elite few, mass morality was folly.It is true that his elite few would be strong, but a result could also be cruelness. Nietsche even once wrote, "Man shall be trained for war and women for the recreation of the warrior. All else is folly." Not an easy idea to swallow in real life, but I can see how it could be applicable to a dastardly man like Ben.

I think we should definitely keep a list for Title/ Fun value as well. So keep those titles coming

And even 'further reading' suggestions for Ben- the guy's been distressed lately, huh? Some light-reading to cheer him up, or to remind him of the 'bigger reasons' for Others' presence on the island... Like.. George Carlin's "When will Jesus bring the lamb chops"? :P

I thought of Descartes' Meditations (where he argues subject as rational being, as in cogito ergo sum) and Plato's Republic (which includes the infamous allegory of the cave) as well

I think the implicit suggestion on the necessity for God (for cogito to exist, according to Descartes) and some other problematic sides to his 'rationalist' thinking would not be in agreement with the overall island mythology or feel or spirit...and consequently not all too influential on Ben's thought... Plato's Republic is an another key text, in so far as being about a political utopia, but Plato's vision is quite anti-free will and definitely anti-democratic- I can see both Alpert and Dharma guys being quite critical of it. Still, can't see how Ben would miss reading it... among the classics for all the book-warms, especially for those with leadership skills

Aristotle works would probably take about 1200-1500 pages of total (Metaphysics is about some 400 pages, on its own). Having read quite a decent portion of that for my grad studies, I am only hoping Ben haven't gone through all of it- if he did, then we have a perfectly reasonable explanation for his talking to an 'empty' rocking chair. Add the Kant and Hegel mentioned, I wonder why he didn't figure the dynamites before Rousseau.. A few years back, I wished I had some

07:38 PM

LOL! Absolutely! I was in the same boat for Poli-sci studies - read an awful lot of those philosophers with a heaping helping of political essayists, as well! You are so right - that might be the TRUE explanation for Ben rocking chair friend. LOL!
Let me ask you your opinion on this: Ben states to Locke at the end of the show (speaking of the Dharma In. people in the pit),"These are my people, The Dharma Initiative....They came here seeking harmony, but couldn't even co-exist with the island's original inhabitants." Is Ben a product of his environment (Skinner box), since those are his people (who he is) and the only way he could see out of the violence against the Island people was to act violently against the violent people; or is it Monty Python's Holy Grail quote, "Now we see the violence inherent in the system?" [and the Ben-Others cry out, "Help! Help! we're bein' oppressed!" ] LOL!

Really I just think Lost is a Post-Modern kind of show. It's all relative.