Does Ben Even Know The Truth Anymore?
What is with this "I've lived on this island all my life" crap Ben peddles over and over in Season 3? I think Ben may have lost his grip on the truth. He plays so many games with so many people, he's doesn't know what is and isn't true anymore. Seriously Ben, you show Jack the World Series and say :
That's home, Jack. Right there, on the other side of that glass. And if you listen to me, if you trust me, if you do what I tell you when the time comes, I'll take you there. I will take you home.
Yes, you can argue that home is where Ben's house is, but this is more truthiness* than truth. I guess Ben watches the Colbert Report as well as baseball.
* Truthiness - The quality of stating concepts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than the facts.
Friday, December 21, 2007
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6 comments:
Ya know, Ben's lying is a very sad state of affairs. Like the old saying goes about weaving tangled webs with lies, Ben seems to have so many lies going at once that he must be sweating bullets trying to keep everything straight, with everyone that he's told the lies to.
It didn't seem in Ben's FB that he was a liar as a child. Li'l Ben just seemed resigned to roll with the punches. Then Bigger Ben decided not to take those punches anymore and (by necessity?) reinvented himself into Ben the Leader/Liar, which got him to where he is now.
On to your second paragraph, I've always wondered if in this quote Ben meant that he plans to get off this stinking island as well, and when he does he'll take Jack with him. Maybe Ben is actually tired of keeping all the lies straight and wants to live the rest of his life some place where he won't have to tell anymore lies. But, I really don't think that's the way TPTB will do it, it just kind of sounded like that to me when he said it.
One lie leads to another, and Ben is definitely paying the price. He seems almost desperate as he grabs for straws (more lies) to keep manipulating everyone to do what he wants. But Locke and company are spoiling the best laid plans of mice and men (this month's book tie-in), only egging Ben on to continue lying. Definitely an act of a desperate man.
Thanks for your use of "truthiness", Memphis. Gosh, I miss "The Colbert Report". (I hear they're coming back Jan. 7th, but without the writers...how's that gonna work??)
Considering our introduction to Ben was as one Henry Gale, i think its fair to say that his relationship with the truth is tenuous.
What's interesting is that we all know not to trust him, to figure that he's parcing his words very carefully, but we also still believe that somewhere buried beneath the subterfuge he believes he's being cleverly honest. Since Juliet & Jack both seem unable to turn their backs on him completely, holding out hope that he's a man of his word, he seems to have that effect on everyone.
It's still going to take a few flashbacks to figure out what buttons he did and didn't push in the Swan station.
I miss the Colbert Report too. I don't understand how people like Conan O'Brian, Letterman, John Stewert or Stephen Colbert doing their shows without writers could be seen as anything but scabs.
I guess if they have permission from the WGA to do their shows without written jokes, pure improve, then it isn't being a scab.
Technically. I feel sorry for the below the line people, and Ihope all the fund raising being done can be shared by them too. But I support the strike--the future is at stake. Now more than ever...
Ben is like the AMPTP. Do they really believe their own press? If so they are as delusional as Ben Linus--they have believed their own version of the truth, and it will bite them in the end.
Ben has always talked a good game.But, now I think he is just another passenger on this Wild, Rollercoaster Ride Of Death.
Merry Christmas Memphish!!!!!
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