I think it would be far more interesting to say "They're in a mystical space between living and death" than to say "they're dead". If they're dead, then everything they do has meaning only if you buy into that version of the afterlife. If they're hanging in the balance, then every effort may make the difference whether they wake up in the rescue helicopter, or not.

(Also, it would explain the dead bodies. Those people are dead-dead, while the people walking around are only mostly-dead.)

In Dante's poems, the pains and punisments people suffered were (as I understand it, more knowledgable people please correct me if I'm wrong) specific to their sins, and very much not real world problems, even though there was (I think) actual physical suffering involved.

The punishments in Hell are classified punishments, but not specific to the circumstances of each sin. All the adulturers suffer one way; all the homosexuals another; all the traitors a third (frozen in ice!). The only people whose punishments are specific to the crime are Ugolino's betrayer (Ugolino, also a traitor, sits in the ice right next to him and gets to gnaw on his head), and Judas, Cassius and Brutus, who are so bad Satan is personally chomping on them this very minute (and every minute into eternity).

The idea is that it is indeed actual physical suffering, if that can be said of a soul, but Ugolino's betrayer never dies of being gnawed on.

Thanks, justkim. I think that goes a long way to support my position, though it may only be convincing to just me, who was already convinced).

Inferno/Purgatorio and Beetlejuice != living people problems.

Lost has living people problems (in addition to epileptic tree problems, but those easily fall into the same category of supernatural living people problems as found on such shows as Buffy, Farscape, and all the other shows we like, which feature living people).

No, that's not just in my mind, Cindy, I was very specifically refering to in those stories (Dante's afterlife stories, and Beetlejuice). In Dante's poems, the pains and punisments people suffered were (as I understand it, more knowledgable people please correct me if I'm wrong) specific to their sins, and very much not real world problems, even though there was (I think) actual physical suffering involved.

Yes, but if this is a purgatory story, why ever would the purgatory have to be tied into Dante's anyone's (other than J.J.'s) vision of it? That's the importing I'm talking about. I am ill prepared to say that if the characters are in some sort of purgatory, it is a lame story or a cheat, because I don't know how their world works, and wouldn't assume a Lost 'verse purgatory was anything like Dante's. But again, I really don't think this will end up being a purgatory.

JustKim, that makes sense. The exchange between Jack and his mom was bugging me.

why ever would the purgatory have to be tied into Dante's anyone's (other than J.J.'s) vision of it?

I'm worried that this is getting combative, but I do want to respond to this.

Here's why it's a cheat if they're just dead dead (not hovering as in Nutty's scenario)...

I don't need it to follow Dante's rules, but I do need dead dead people to have dead dead people problems, and not problems that mimic those of living people.

Otherwise, I feel cheated, curse JJ Abrahms' name, and never watch annoying show again.

I am sorry you feel it is combative. I didn't feel that way, and didn't mean to come off that way. I am sorry if/that I have. I was going to respond to your worry about being snippy, but I hadn't read you as snippy in the first place, just animated, so I wanted to continue.

but I do need dead dead people to have dead dead people problems, and not problems that mimic those of living people.

Okay. I don't know what the problems of dead people would be in this Lost 'verse. As I understand what you're saying above, for you, you need the dead's problems to be different, than they would be for living people, who were stranded on an island, in order to enjoy it. If I'm reiterating your point correctly, then that, I understand. I just don't share that need (provided I get a mythology somewhere along the way).

I am sorry you feel it is combative. I didn't feel that way, and didn't mean to come off that way. I am sorry if/that I have.

No, no! I was worried *I* was being combative! Not you, me! (Just because I can so often rub people the wrong way)

If I'm reiterating your point correctly, then that, I understand.

Yeah, that's my problem. I don't know what dead people problems would be in the Lost 'verse either, but I'm definitely the type to feel cheated, and react poorly, if they've been dealing primarily with living people problems, even if I get some mythology about it later.

I don't especially want a Lostverse mythology. I like that there's been a lot of weird unexplainable shit happening, but...I don't know. I want it to be real people dealing with real things that are really happening in the real world. I don't want it to be fantasy/horror universe. I would find that incredibly disappointing.

Maybe purgatory isn't the proper analogy. It could be more like Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld.

In that scenario, everybody who ever lived - upon their death - gets cast up into a new world with exciting physical world problems.

But I don't think they're actually going for a post-life scenario with the show.

I don't especially want a Lostverse mythology. I like that there's been a lot of weird unexplainable shit happening, but...I don't know. I want it to be real people dealing with real things that are really happening in the real world. I don't want it to be fantasy/horror universe. I would find that incredibly disappointing.

Over the long haul, though, the lack of coherent world-building will lead to narrative inconsistencies that will look like nothing so much as random asspulls and narrative jerkarounds. See, Chris Carter.