The Matrix—Pluggin’ in....

[I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely the delusions of dreams, which he has devised to ensnare my judgment.
-Rene Descartes]

Anyone who has watched a "behind the scenes" coverage of the Matrix will know that the Wachowski brothers pretty much stay off the stage--- on either side of the backdrop. While I appreciate their insistence to leave the interpretation of their phenomenal film to viewers, I must say it has had some outrageous consequences---not the most insignificant of which is the fact that the movie sits in the "sci-fi" section of the video store, alongside AI and space oddyssey.

Spelling facets of mysticism, philosophy, action, surrealism, religion and society, to me, science fiction is just one aspect of the Matrix, albeit over-hyped, because of society's inability to grasp at its deeper connotations.

Despite the fact that The Revolutions left far to be desired, I await the release of the concluding sequel tomorrow, with anticipation akin to the delerium of pre-world-cup bangalore or the fervor that grips americans a week prior to superbowl and decide it's time to credit my fascination for the movie with a little blog.

Let us, for now, leave aside the mundane story of the cyber hacker who is made to believe that the entire world is an elaborate computer program and do the Wachowski brothers’ unparalleled innovation some justice.

The idea that what we take to be the real world could all be just a dream is not alien to the philosophical world. Rene Descartes of Renaissance fame set the stage for the movie ages ago by questioning if that feeling we experience is not just an electric impulse being sent to our brain by a computer we are wired to. By doubting all that could be doubted, he took 17th century renaissance to a new level.

He might not exactly have been flabbergasted at the matrician idea of every individual within the matrix seemingly living out a normal life on 20th century earth, while in reality spending it in a wire-entangled pod.

Let’s now turn from the profundity of pre-renaissance- philosophy to 21st century biology and the power of the human mind.
Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.

When you delve deep into the neural circuitry of the human brain and learn that it is the all-controller, that it is impulses from the brain that make you feel, touch, hear and smell, how much harder is it to believe that Neo can will his brain to fly across skyscrapers and dodge bullets or the little girl can cause a metal spoon to bend to her whim?


And if you look a little closer (literally), you realize that Neo doesn't just happen to hollow out a book of such depth (pun intended) as Simulacra and Simulations to stash his blackmarket software. The French sociologist contributes more to the movie than camouflage for contraband, thus giving the movie its “sociological” angle. Baudrillard’s advocation of a “simulacram” or “a copy without the original” quite neatly describes the Wachowskis’ computer-generated dream world, where the “imitation” eventually gains more vitality than the original, with man becoming a slave of the “system”.

Agent Smith might well say, “The Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy.”

To me the answer is simpler: the inexplicably “real” post-matrix feeling of walking through walls, bouncing off cars and flying home from the theatre.

[The most powerful instinct of man is to be in conflict with truth, and with the real-- Jean Baudrillard].
For fellow Matrix-die-hards:
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And while I'm in movie-mode, here are my must-watch movies of all time:

The Matrix
The Shawshank Redemption
A Few Good Men
Jurassic Park
Rainman
Bend it like Bekham
Memento
All the President's Men
The American President
My Fair Lady
The Life of David Gale
Double Jeopardy