Harry Potter with Guns

kauff writes "Slate has recently released a somewhat-inspired article about what the Matrix was. You have to read it for yourself. Good way to hype yourself up before Reloaded on May 15th."

Comments

Re:I disagree completely.

[efflux]

I wish people would watch movies to watch movies instead of reading into them so much.

I'm speechless. I really don't know what to say to this, and I wonder what you are trying to say. Are you saying that movies shouldn't have anything to say and that people shouldn't look for what the movie says? Do we just sit a watch a movie mindlessly, without thinking about what it is doing?

This is a very, very odd thing to say.

Re:yup (was: I disagree completely)

[efflux]

"what is reality ? Is it waht your senses tell it is to your brain ?"- this is a very "budhist question" (not only Tibettan, but accross the differnt form of budhism), and definitely a very valid question !!

It probably was inspired by Plato or Descartes. It's the *Western* philosophy of rationalism.

See here
and
here .

Re:Is this really that supprising?

[tempest303]

most nerds are just as they appear: losers.

Depends on your definition of "loser" and "nerd" I suppose.

For that matter, what makes the nerds so apart from the rest of the world? When the non-nerd male population watches Die Hard, of course they idolize Bruce Willis, seeing themselves in his shoes, thinking to themselves, "Yeah, I could do that! I am much man!". It's the same thing. Everyone loves fantasy, especially one in which one's self is made brave, important, powerful, etc. It's not just the "nerds" or the "them" as you put it, as though to distinguish yourself from those techno-untouchables. (Well, to be wholly fair, I guess I sort of think of myself as being above the furries, but I'm not sure that's quite the same. ;)

Another pop culture expert...

[benzapp]

A grow tired of these astoundingly ignorant reviews of the matrix. Is it entirely possible that some people, especially hipster professional pop culture critics, are so ignorant of life and philosophy they truly have no idea what the fuck they are talking about?

The matrix is a great movie beacuse it is the first and only movie to really focus on the use of illusion as a tool of social control. From Plato and the allegory of the cave to Nietzsche and is exploration of slave morality, this has been a dominant theme amongst the greatest philosophers.

This movie did well because the people know in their hearts they are not free. They are enslaved by school, learning nothing but conformity and submission, then they work at a company contributing nothing of substance, wasting their lives away until its time to retire.

People know that their lives are impotent, that their hopes and dreams are completely disconnected from the reality in which they live.

This is the story of the 20th century, of people lost without the fiction of religion imposed on their minds, with governments scrambling to impose all sorts of substitutes to give life meaning to a nihilistic population, as well as find new ways to raise a worker class now that physical slavery no longer exists.

The entire social structure of the modern world is a fiction, just as the matrix is a fiction. Both serve the same purpose: to enslave the mind of free men.

Sadly, pop culture experts never read philosophy they look at everything as a fashion, a fad. "The Matrix is a mixture of kung-fu and sci-fi". The Matrix is no more "about" those things than Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is about sex or Plato's Republic is about unemployed Greek guys dressed in Togas. There is a difference between the medium and the message, and this review gets it all wrong.

The Matrix simply uses pop culture theatrical tools as a means to an end, to open the eyes of a people doomed to a life of slavery. It is a noble effort, and one that should be applauded.

Nothing will blow your mind like reading Nietzsche however especially Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy for the Future.

There is also a whole book out discussing the philosophy of the matrix, but IMHO it is weak.