... no wonder I'm tired ...
April 17, 1999
7:40 p.m.
Very good progress in the past couple days. Both "A Field Barren in Springtime," and a rewrite of an earlier story are now sitting on Lisa's desk. For their final pass. This means I'm actually a few days ahead of my plans--which I need to say now because of how rarely it actually happens! On top of that, I managed to do some work on a contractual matter, put together the bookshelf that's been waiting for me the last few days, pick Brigid up at her friend's, and catch up on reading some of the newsgroups I occasionally check into.   Congrats to Kurt on his sale. And congrats to Linda on hers, too! Brigid slept over at a friend's house yesterday, so Lisa and I took advantage of the free night to go up to Indy and see The Matrix. Yeah, it's playing in Columbus, but we wanted to see it in a high-tech theater--something with a good sound system. So we went. Most of you have already seen it, so I won't gush all over the special effects--which were, of course great. What I liked most about the thing, though, was the story. It's a real, honest to goodness SF story. One that actually plays effectively with themes rather than just whitewash a tired idea and focus on entertainment, as so many action/SF movies seem to do. Lisa and I discussed it all the way home, and agreed on a lot of our thoughts. But I had an issue with the story that I just could not manage to state well enough to be understood. So we had an almost-fight over it, because Lisa really liked it, and I think she interpreted my struggles with this subject to mean I didn't like it as much. At this point, I'll put in the obligatory spoiler alert. I am going to talk a little about the movie here. I'll put a lot of extra space between here and the rest of my entry so that those of you who haven't seen the movie won't have to see me blaber anything they don't want to see. I mean it . . . Turn back if you don't want to read about the movie. It's obvious to me that my problem is with Theme, which immediately puts this discussion into the realm of the subjective. I think the movie put forward three basic themes, and I think they got two and a half of them pretty well hit. Theme 1: What is reality?" The movie did a marvelous job of covering this one. Digital, physical, emotional? Who could ask for more? Theme 2: What is life? This is, of course, what the question "What is the Matrix?" is all about. Score another direct hit. Theme 3: What is God? Since I am not a highly religious person myself, this may seem strange. But this is the area that I felt was left out of the movie. Well, maybe not really left out, but not explored as far as I wanted it to be. Yes, there is a solid element of religion, or at least mythic spirituality, woven through the piece. Morpheus is looking for the savior, Neo, is "The One". There's an oracle, with Godlike powers of foresight. There is a cast member named Trinity (which, Lisa is particularly interested in thinking about!) But . . . There's always a but, eh? I think this would have been a classic movie if an additional minute or two could have been added to the thing that tied up what the belief structure of these rag-tag human scavengers was, and given us a viewpoint of Neo's spiritual beliefs by story end. Obviously, Neo is the one. His feelings about this, I think, would drive a thematic answer to the story's question. Note, I'm NOT asking to be told the "truth"--only to have an understanding of whether Neo believes in God, and if so, what does form does he think God takes? Does he think God is an essence, or a block of digital code? Does he question, and if so, how? I think adding this element to the movie would lift it from being a great SF tale, to being just a flat-out classic in any genre. My opinion, only, of course. So, the movie raised three questions, and addressed two of them directly. But to have so many spiritual connotations woven through the story, and not come away from it with an understanding of how Neo views his spirituality, and how he feels about his position within it, left a little hollow spot inside what, for me, was an outstanding experience. Of course, maybe they're just leaving room for the sequel. :) Have a good one.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"To Lisa Collins, for a superb and sympathetic job of copy editing." Orson Scott Card Acknowledgment in Enchantment |
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