Analysis of “Lost” by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Kenneth Rexroth has said of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s works that they seem to illustrate a specific view of the world. He described this theory on life saying that “life itself is haunted…We all live in the shadowy frivolous world of a spiritualistic séance… The point is that somewhere at the heart of reality something is running down.” At first this seems to be just an eloquent masterpiece of a sentence but is it backed by truth? In my modest opinion I think that everything we live and every day we live is somewhat supernatural. It just doesn’t seem that way because it’s been happening for so long that it has all become natural to us. The way the world keeps turning and people keep moving. The way the race perpetuates itself and that the food supply isn’t as bad as it technically could be.

These things are crazy if you think about them and even though modern technology has discovered a lot of the “whys” it all still can’t cease to amaze me. We know the laws of nature and of attraction and the theories of evolution and psychology. Yet we don’t know why things always work out, not necessarily well, but nevertheless for every means there is an end. We don’t know why bad things happen to good people or really why anything ever happens at all. We are indeed living in a “shadowy” world where we think we know what is going on but where we can’t even attach a meaning to our existence. Too many of us think that we have got it all figured out only to realize in the final days that we had been living blind.

Despite my opinion that life in itself is supernatural I recognize the possibility that there are degrees of paranormal. For example, to quote Singer from Lost “hidden powers that no one can explain exist everywhere.” There is the supernatural that we see but don’t recognize and then there is the supernatural that hovers about us without our knowledge. Finally, there is the inexplicable supernatural which we mostly avoid because as humans we reject that which we cannot define. I agree with Rexroth’s opinion of Singer’s work and with the philosophy behind it. The supernatural does exist in some form and should be acknowledged even if we can’t explain it.

In Lost the protagonist spent his entire life after the literal loss of his wife trying to solve the enigma. Did he ever find real peace? He succumbed to the supernatural and accepted the fact that he will not always have the answers. In summation, I think that we should all remember that when something is not a “no” and not a “yes” that it is definitely a “maybe.” Maybe the supernatural is out there or maybe it is right here or maybe it is nowhere to be found at all but the point folks is that an open mind is a learning mind. I beseech you to consciously open your minds because only in this way can a slice of the supernatural wedge itself inside.