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| Beyond Godly |
Posts: 4855
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 12:58 pm
Location: In my room listening to Hardcore Metal Christian music.
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I read the book Bad Twin. I took notes while reading and submitted them to a popular podcast. It's rather long, so I doubt they'd read it on-air. 
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Gary Troup:
He loved Oceanic Air flight attendant Cindy Chandler and gave her a cameo in his book.
Christine DeVries, Senior Editor of Walkabout Publishing in Sydney (the Walkabout part caught my eye), invited Gary to come to Australia in September 2004 for a publicity campaign.
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Widmores:
The Widmore family is rich. They started as a midtown real estate company, and they proceeded to the financial district and then to everywhere on Earth. They also do "construction and engineering projects, investments in scientific enterprises," and there are rumours of them doing "illegal offshore projects, classified defence contracting, and private security work of questionable ethics." The main character, Paul, does a Google search and gets this information among other things: office tower construction in Singapore, joint ventures with the Hanso Foundation, and new techniques for reinforcing concrete. There were also articles about alleged environmental violations in obscure places. We learn later in the book that they went into a partnership with Paik Heavy Industry in South Korea (maybe there are ties with Sun's father?).
Arthur Widmore:
Arthur is the father of Cliff Widmore and Zander Widmore, the twins in the book. He heads Widmore Corporation, and in the book, he is in failing health (he's in his mid-70s). His first wife died in a car accident when Cliff and Zander were three. He married twice more, his third wife being Vivian. Arthur is very proud of his Scottish heritage.
Vivian Widmore:
Vivian is in her late 50s. She's very... flirty. Her first husband, Monty Allen, was involved with the mob, and was presumed to be dead. Spoiler: she had an affair with him in the book and was caught.
Cliff Widmore:
The supposedly "good" twin. He hires Paul to search for his twin Zander. He is about 35 with brown hair and blue eyes. His wife, Shannon Rogers, abused drugs and ended up committing suicide three months before the book occurs. (Interestingly enough, her funeral was on April 15... 4-15.) Spoiler: He dies near the end of the book.
Alexander "Zander" Widmore:
The "bad" twin. He squandered much of his inheritence on "projects" around the world. Then, a year before the book takes place, he came back much like the prodigal son did and is welcomed home the same way. Suddenly, he runs off (that's why Paul must track him down). Spoiler: It's revealed later in the book that what he was doing was getting rid of his fortune; he believed that it only caused misfortune.
An interesting note about the twins' birthdays: they are on August 15 and 16--8-15/8-16. More numbers...
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Now, the fun stuff! We get a trip to the Hanso Foundation in this book. I'll type out the page of information for you:
"... [H]e hadn't listened hard enough when Cliff Widmore told him where his office was. He was pretty sure he'd said the forty-second floor. He pushed the button.
The car ascended swiftly and then when the doors opened the detective stepped out. Almost at once he realized something was wrong. In the hallway and in the cubicles behind a glass partition, there were some dozns of busy people milling, but they weren't wearing business suits; they were wearing lab coats. Some of the lab coats were white, some were mint green. Men and women both had neat short hair.
Artisan approached a receptionist who sat behind a chrome desk so bare and clean that it might have been a dissecting table. "Excuse me," he said. "Is this the Widmore Corporation?"
She gave him a smile that was entirely pleasant yet somewhat robotic. "No. This is the Hanso Foundation. Widmore's on forty-seven."
"Ah," said Artisan. "Sorry to bother you." ... "What is it you *do* here?"
She flashed that pert, mechanical smile again and pointed to the plaque mounted on the wall. The plaque read:
The Hanso Foundation stands at the vanguard of social and scientific research for the advancement of the human race. For forty years, the foundation has offered grants to worthy experiments designed to further the evolution of the human race and provide the technological solutions to the most pressing problems of our time. The Hanso Foundation: a commitment to encouraging excellence in science and technology and furthering the cause of human development."
I found it interesting that they were located on floor 42 of the Widmore Building.
Also, Hanso is also brought up as Cliff Widmore and Arthur Widmore are leaving a board meeting. I thought this passage was interesting also:
""And that new fellow from Hanso--Mudworm or whatever his name is--"
"Mittelwerk," his son corrected him.
"Whatever. I don't trust him. I think he's sneaky. I much preferred having Alar on the board. Alvar is a gentleman."
"Really?" said Cliff. "What makes him a gentleman? The fact that you made a ton of money together? If that's the definition, I think Mittelwerk's a gentleman. He's got ideas, ambition--"
"Everything but morals," the old man interrupted. "Everything except a conscience."
"And who's Alvar?" said Cliff. "Jiminy Cricket?...""
The conversation was interrupted at that point.
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Finally, there were some fun Lost references in the book. Of course, they fly Oceanic Air and have Cindy serve them. Also, Paul eats at Mr. Cluck's and they talk about John Locke (the philosopher) and Lord of the Flies. And, I believe I found an error. In the book, they talk about the Scotland feudal system ending on 28 November 2004. However, the plane crashed in September 2004, correct? How would Gary Troup be able to put this in his novel if he apparently died then?
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And please don't kill off Eko! Kill Locke; I hate him!
The House finale was more confusing than any episode of Lost ever.