"Lost" and Yoyodyne

[William Danielson]

Hello all,

I've been struck by the numerous Pynchonesque themes and plotlines on the TV
show "Lost."  There's the debate about faith versus reason, the ongoing
questions about coincidence and free will, the characters' Pavlovian hitting
of a button every 108 minutes, and the magnetic anomalies on the island.
The show's Hanso Foundation was created by an arms dealer to do top-secret
research into the paranormal, and this "Dharma Initiative" bears at least
superficial resemblances to the White Visitation in GR.

Anyway, there's a fake website for Oceanic Air, the airline whose plane
crashed on the island on the show: http://oceanicworldair.com.  It's unclear
whether it was created by some obsessive fan or is in some way affiliated
with the show's producers or ABC.  But a WHOIS search reveals that the
domain name for the website is registered to a (presumably fictional)
company called PB Sales, based in Ontario, Canada.  And if you go to www,
pb-sales.com, the front page states:

"PB-Sales is one of North America's largest management companies
specializing in the acquisition, expansion, operation and sale of companies
in the transportation, service, manufacturing and technology industries.

"PB-Sales is a diversified company with annual consolidated revenues of
approximately $17 billion and consolidated assets of approximately $14
billion.

"Operating companies managed or controlled by PB-Sales include Oceanic World
Airlines, Merrick Biotech., Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems., Geocomtex and
Daystrom Data Concepts."

I don't know whether or not the "Lost" writers are Pynchon fans (again, it's
unclear whether either of these websites are offical show tie-ins), but if
nothing else it's a pretty cool little inside joke.  The Yoyodyne entry on
Wikipedia says there've been allusions to the company on "Star Trek" and
"Angel," too.

Bill
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