We know the LOST writer's propensity for literary and historical references, I quickly scanned my brain for anything I remember reading about relocatable islands, cities or societies. And then with a little help from Wiki, here's what I came up with.
1) Laputa (the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift) is a fictional flying island or rock with an adamantine base, that can be maneuvered by its inhabitants in any direction using magnetic levitation. The population of the island mainly consists of educated people, who are fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology, but fail to make practical use of their knowledge (the rest are their servants). They had mastered magnetic levitation and discovered the two moons of Mars (which in reality would not be discovered for another 150 years), but couldn't construct well-designed clothing or buildings - reason for this being that measurements are taken with instruments such as quadrants and a compass rather than with tapes. It is a male-dominated society; often, the wives of these men request to leave the island to visit the land below. However, these requests are almost never granted because the women never want to come back voluntarily.
2) Perhaps Blish's most famous works were the "Okies" stories, known collectively as
"Cities in Flight", published in the science-fiction digest magazine Astounding Science Fiction. The framework for these was set in the first of four eventual novels, They Shall Have Stars, which shows two essential features of the series. The first was the invention of the anti-aging drug ascomycin; Blish's employer Pfizer makes a thinly disguised appearance as Pfitzner in a section showing the screening of biological samples for interesting activity. (Pfizer also appears in disguise as one of the sponsors of the polar expedition in a subsequent book, Fallen Star). The second was the development of an antigravity device known as the "spindizzy". Since the device became more efficient as its field of influence was increased, entire cities were lifted from Earth and sent roving amongst the stars.
And my favorite (in regards to a direct connection to LOST)
3) Apollo's birth place. When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma", or the mainland, or any island. In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, and she gave birth there. The island was surrounded by swans. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island later became sacred to Apollo.
With all of the Greek mythological references in LOST, I would would have to cast my vote for number 3. Is our Island the birthplace (or at least the myth behind the myth) of Apollo? It's interesting that Hurley pulled out that Apollo candy bar right before the "move the island" scene.
So, what does "move the island mean? To physically relocate it, move it in time to change the current circumstances or to simply shift it in place so the bearings used to access the Island change?
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there's also roald dahl's james and the giant peach , where a flock of birds picked up the peach and moved it :)
The Hydra station is, in fact, a gigantic outboard motor.
What about Avalon? Doesn't it share the same physical space as Glastonbury and you have to have "magic" to get there?
Thats what I thought of, anyway
i think i heard the word terra firma on the show last night! i know it was some wierd word..can someone find out what it was!
The Island can't be the Greek island of Delos, because the location of Delos is well-known. It's just off the coast of the larger island of Mykonos - I know because I was there in October. Apollo's birthplace is called "the Sacred Lake" and there's a palm tree marking it. There are also a plethora of Greek and Roman ruins dating to later eras (the Romans in particular set Delos up as a free trade zone, which encouraged the merchant class to build nice homes there). For photos, scroll down quite a bit here: http://www.edholden.com/photos/2007-greece/mykonos.php.
Lost Island is way bigger than Delos. 25 minutes of walking would get you across Delos. In contrast, you'd need well over a day to get from South Beach to New Otherton.
Probably meant move the island in time, rather than pyshically move the island, I would be very dissapointed if it were a floating island...
In the book The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle (which is a great children's book, Eddie Murphy's slandering not withstanding), Dr. Doolittle lives on an island that floats. As I remember, it simply does not connect to the bottom of the ocean. And he has odd encounters not only with the animals of the place but, as I recall, the natives. .
In D&D there is a creature that is basicaly a very very large turtle. It can sleep and stay in one place so long that ecosystems can devlop on its shell and become an island. when awoken the creature can move the entire island somewhere else and be a dangerous foe. Not that I think the writers made the island on a big turtle
Great stuff WLN. Surrounded by swans?! What if all that magnetic energy in the swan station, and number entering was built by DHARMA to make sure the island stayed in one central location. Maybe Ben's work to do before gassing the DI was to move the island to make sure more pesky hippies/Hanso/Widmore could no longer find it. I wouldn't think the island is literally the birth place of Apollo, but the metaphors here certainly work almost perfectly. Great stuff...
I bet the strap the Zodiac to the beach and off they go!
I think they'll change the bearing used for reaching the island, like poke a new hole in the force field / snowglobe that is surrounding the island and close up the one Widmore found. Or maybe not.
Nice point about Apollo. Definitely didn't catch that. I don't think it's meant to be the birthplace of the Greek god, but possibly the birthplace of a god over that land -- Jacob?
Anyone remember the move "Dark City" from 1998?
It had these beings that controlled the upper city though this clock like device underneath. Everyone's memories got erased at midnight and everything would get mixed around. People would get differend jobs, buildings would change. In the end of the movie, the hero rebuilds the city into whatever he "thinks" . Which brings me back to walt reading the comic with the icebear, and the icebear coming into reality.
Also kinda like "Sphere" the movie with the alien orb at the bottom of the ocean that made dreams into reality - trouble is it also made your nightmares real!
I bet the strap the Zodiac to the beach and off they go!