The secret of Lost finally revealed?

By Steve Wollaston on May 28, 09 09:52 AM

Internet speculation is rife that the creators of lost have taken the idea for the show from Francis Bacon's Utopian novel - The New Atlantis.

The novel as stated on wikipedia is his creation of an ideal land where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" were the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of Bensalem.

Perhaps the most interesting paragraph on the wiki entry is this;

The novel depicts a mythical land, Bensalem, which is discovered by the crew of a European ship after they are lost in the Pacific Ocean somewhere west of Peru. The European narrator recounts some of the island's customs and, most importantly, its state-sponsored scientific institution, Solomon's House.

The best and brightest of Bensalem's citizens attend a college called Solomon's House, in which scientific experiments are conducted in Baconian method in order to understand and conquer nature, and to apply the collected knowledge to the betterment of society.

European ship - the Black Rock? Bensalem? Solomon's House = Dharma Initiative?

Surely the paralells are more than a coincidence... I'm off to find out more about this book!