Questions and Answers.

I think that Dr. Willis McNelly at the California State University at Fullerton put it best when he said that the true protagonist of an SF story or novel is an idea and not a person. — Philip K. Dick, "My Definition of Science Fiction," 1981

"I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer. You're looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did."
"What is the Matrix?" — The Matrix, 1999

Last week, I got up early to watch The Matrix Reloaded, with my friend wjukknibs and my Dad. With wjukknibs because he enjoys seeing movies on opening night, and with my Dad because I saw The Matrix with him, four years ago. That first movie was fun, more fun for having Dad there. Both of us are science fiction readers, and both of us have a working knowledge of philosophy and world religion. Watching the first movie, we spent a lot of time annotating in our heads, catching references and precedents, and after, we compared notes. He had a stronger focus on the Eastern and mystic philosophies, I had a better grasp of the sci-fi predecessors. We enjoyed the movie. It was better than either of us had expected; we had been shielded from any sort of trailer or review that would have revealed the true arc of the film. But still, as sci-fi movies went, it was just a good sci-fi movie, and I don't think that either of us expected that it would have such a degree of mainstream impact.

Of course, this was 1999. The media was sowing distrust of computers in viruses and the Y2K bug. The populace was being told to brace for terrorist attacks from fringe groups. Many people believed, or at least had the sneaking suspicion, that the world was going to end very shortly. Everyone kept looking to the sky, expecting to find falling footwear.

The Matrix was kind of the philosophical catharsis that many people didn't know they craved. An old idea, certainly, but one that fit the times. Moviegoers left the theaters talking excitedly about artificial intelligence, artificial reality, and the presence or absence of silverware, regardless of how much or how little knowledge they had of these concepts just a few hours earlier.

Nobody really talked about Neo.

If one looks at The Matrix as the story of Neo, it's a pretty lame movie. He spends most of the movie bemused, people talk at him a lot, he says "Whoa," effects are had, and then he stops bullets. There's some sort of a love triangle thing going on, too, except that most of its members aren't aware of it.

But The Matrix is not about Neo, just as Neo's quest is not for Morpheus. It is about the question, "What is The Matrix?" The Matrix itself is the hero of the movie, and Neo, with his deep-seated doubt and his seemingly too-mature mind, is the method of its revelation.

This January, I participated in the MIT Mystery Hunt (and yes, I do intend to finish writing about it.) which gave me a first-hand experience of what The Matrix was like for Neo. I committed myself to finding an answer, and the process of doing so slowly became, not just harder, but more and more and more and more complicated and confusing. (Although we usually said, "Whah?" instead of "Whoa!"). The movie progresses similarly. Each scene stretches the reality of the world farther and farther until it snaps. The veils of reality are slowly peeled away, one by one. In the pivotal scene midway through the picture, Morpheus explains to Neo what The Matrix is, but Neo's journey to understanding continues. As it does, knowledge, very literally, becomes power. The more Neo understands and, consequently, the more we understand, the more that can be done in and to The Matrix. By the end of the movie, the last veil as seemingly been removed, and Neo no longer sees the surface of The Matrix at all, only code, the program that it is, a plaything, almost.

Quite a ride, and deftly done. So how does a sequel stack up?

( Spoilers for The Matrix Reloaded )

Over.

It's been a long week, and I'm tired now. I've still not gotten the hang of keeping the house cool on the days when the Valley gets hot. I think I'm going to need a fan, bceause one of the problems I've been having is with keeping the air circulating, even when it's cooled off outside.

I'm glad to get the Matrix write-up off of my chest. Tonight/Tomorrow, I'm going to finish Savoir Faire (something I ought to have done long ago, by all rights) and write a review of that, too. It will be shorter than the Matrix musings, though.

In other news, where's the June Enigma?

SatNYTX: 14. Freaky fast. SunNYTX: 20. This was a really fun puzzle. The theme had a lot of variety, and some of the clues were fantastically clever. Favorites include 84D & 127A.