Assimilation of the Matrix Thread

I’ve just finished a very long thread on kottke.org about The Matrix Reloaded. Many people have opined aplenty about this film. I’m not going to do that, but I’ve synthesized and collected a number of the interesting tidbits I’ve read. (Do read Corporate Mofo’s article on the subject. None of the ideas that follow are entirely my own, but come from sources too varied to attribute.

The first film is about choice. Morpheus says so, and allows Neo to choose either the red pill or the blue pill. The second film asks, “what is choice?”

The Oracle offers Neo candy, which he declines. I’m pretty sure they were Hot Tomales, which look like red pills.

There are two meanings to the word “revolution,” the title of the third film. One means “to revolt,” as in to oppose authority. The other means “to revolve” as in to come full circle.

The Oracle tells Neo that he has already made his choice, he just has to understand why. Think of a calculator. If you ask it for the solution to “2+2,” if will think that it has “chosen” the answer “4.” But it hasn’t, it was programmed to choose that response.

The operator can upload a helicopter flight program into Trinity’s brain, and knowledge of every martial art into Neo’s. This means that people’s minds can be altered via their jacks. If you carry this far enough, it doesn’t seem out of belief that Agent Smith could upload himself into Bane, who is plugged into the Matrix. Similarly, this may be how Neo can be both a program and a person. The Matrix intelligence loaded The One program into him. He could also be a clone designed to lend himself to this purpose, fusing the biology with the mechanics.

The Architect is not God. If for no other reason because he is a program, and so had to be programmed. God is the only being who was no created but has always been, as most religions think, and since we know that the machines were created by man and evolved consciousness and intelligence over time, the Architect hasn’t always existed. This is important because it means that even he may not know the whole story. Something may have created him and know more than he. This I think is also why he speaks in over-intellectualized babbling. Though he never says anything false or necessarily incorrect, the film-makers want you to doubt him and think that he may be trying to decieve us/Neo via words. He may even be the Devil, who is the great deciever in most religions. Full text of The Architect’s speech is here.

I think Josh pointed this one out. If you re-watch the first film, there’s a very good shot right after Neo gets captured by the agents. You see a bunch of screens that all show Neo in his interrogation room. Without the second film, this seems to be just the securty/monitor room of the jail. Instead, this is undoubtedly The Architect watching Neo.

Someone on Kottke’s thread claims that if you watch the multiple Neos in the scene at the end, there are only 6 variants repeated over and over. If so, we are seeing each version of Neo plus ours. If that’s wrong, then we’re just seeing every choice Neo could make. I’m not so sure on this one…

This article is pretty good, especially down toward the bottom. It brings claims that a computer screen at the end of the film displays the text “Wake up Neo…” which is like the screen we see at the beginning of the first film.

Finally, the number 101 appears throughout each film. 101 is the room number in 1984 that Smith is taken to and eventually forced to believe that two and two equal five. Themes of deception abound. In addition, 101 is binary for the number “5.” Note that Reloaded opened on 5/15 and the Revolutions opens on 10/5, which is also Guy Fawkes’ Day, the anniversery of a major historical revolution. I don’t buy this one too much, but if Neo were the sixth One, then we could count the first One as v1.0, making our Neo v1.5.

Satisfying Women

Andru quoted the following review of X2 on his page. I think it’s worth reprinting here.

XMen 2 seemed to take for granted that people were content to go along for any ride it wanted to take. As to hardcore fans, this assumption was probably right. As to the curious rest of us, it was a horrible miscalculation and an insult. Slow, boring, uninspired, meaningless, and shallow. I gladly walked out before the climax, after sitting through a pointless hour and a half. If we are supposed to feel so sorry for mutants, develop their characters. Give us a reason to like them. Tell a story, at least. Do not assume that we have seen the first movie or that we have read the comic book. I am a man, and I played sports and read about sports when I was a kid. I did not read silly, nerdy comic books. That is why I can satisfy women. This movie can’t satisfy anyone with a brain and guts.

Nail on the head, huh?

I Wonder if I'm Making a Terrible Mistake

After a good deal of personal debate, I’ve decided to go with cable internet instead of DSL. For one, I already use my cell phone for all of my calling needs. Two, since I primarily use my cell, $20+ extra a month for a landline, even if split with a roommate, seems like a lot of money. Three, I understand that TiVo can now work over ethernet, so if I get it I won’t have to have a phone line for it. Four, even if digital cable is a requirement for cable internet, the added cost will be lower than or just about the same as that of a landline which would be required for DSL, plus I’ll get extra chanels and another fun box to stack up with a DVD player, a VCR, my stereo, and potentially a TiVo box and a video game system. Five, I’m reasonably sure that my Airport Base Station can dole out IP addresses so that multiple computers will be able to share the connection.

These all seem like good reasons, but it still seams strange not to have a phone.

What Does It All Mean?

Here’s an interesting analysis of the sets of myth that The Matrix is based on. I like reading these things because no one reviewer can quite commit to one particular myth-cycle or set of themes. Most are happy to jump between Old Testament mysticism, Christianity, Buddhism, and in this case Gnosticism. I’m sure really that the Wachowskis just weaved it all together however they felt like and when it’s all over we’re going to get a superbly postmodern (and yes, I’m using the term correctly) story.

Mother's Day

I went home this weekend. Katherine came with me and we had a very nice time. I met my Uncle Jerry’s mother who’s 92 years old. 92. Scary.

Every time I go home I rummage through the house and see what I can find. Today I was looking for the comics I read in my youth. I didn’t have many, but I did have the first bunch of issues of X-Men (now called New X-Men, which I still read). No luck finding them this trip though. My mom says that she never threw any of our stuff out (rightly thinking that we’d want it some day). I’m sure that they’re just buried somewhere in my room.

We also took a trip through the school pictures drawer, giving me the oppurtunity to scan a new copy of the best picture I’ve ever taken. I also uncovered this one. Katherine was quite pleased with them both.