Vat-language
Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece on the movie Matrix Reloaded has already been referenced on the tree. I don't mean to steal a link here and have yet to see the movie -- but Gopnik's essay isn't really a movie review and has little to say about the sequel. (Anyway, isn't the middle third of any trilogy likely to have inherent weaknesses?)
His subject is the metaphor of the Matrix as a political and cultural motif of this wired age. He mentions Zizek, Baudrillard and Phillip K. Dick. (I read Phillip Dick's novels voraciously as a college student and loved his prophetic vision, the dark humor, which hasn't really been touched on in any of the movie versions. Later I found out that Dick's amphetamine-fueled writing binges severely aggravated a tendency to acute paranoia. Back then I would have found that very cool.)
Others, including the philosophers Hilary Putnam and James Pryor, have also been fascinated by the "who-controls-reality" question -- though Gopnik ignores the Situationist Guy Debord, who coined the notion of the "society of the spectacle," which surprised me.
For Gopnik the Matrix is an image of our current powerlessness to change our society, of constraint on human agency on the outside world. He quotes James Pryor: "If your ambitions...are relatively small-scale, like opening a restaurant or becoming a famous actor, you may very well be able to achieve them. But if your ambitions are larger -- e.g. introducing some long-term social change -- then whatever progress you make toward that goal will be wiped out when the simulation gets reset..."
Matrix-like social control is evident in the "vat-language" (the term is Putnam's) exhibited by our monopolized media (especially TV), of corporate public relations-speak and advertising. It subverts language, makes us feel unable to feel that we can act upon the world, to change reality.
The other matrix is the one we are linked to right now, through code. The Web (a synonym for matrix after all) does have a liberating/exploratory potential, and enables us to stay remotely linked. But it does have a more malign aspect -- the "enforced" passivity of being consumers, viewers, watchers of the spectacle, the way it makes us fear being "unplugged", "out of the loop" if we leave.
To me The Matrix (the movie) was a wry vision of the entertainment industry itself, its ability to create shock and awe out of makeup and cardboard and plywood and computer graphics, all with the goal of getting the customers not to care very much about anything other than "what's on next?" or "where can I buy that?" Nothing illustrated this better than all the discussion of The Matrix's "ground-breaking" stop-motion special effects, which were almost instantly integrated into a series of TV ads for the Gap clothing stores, showing the seamless interface of entertainment and retailing.
Maybe local actions are the only ones which can be undertaken today. As I write, I hear that the 33% fare increase on New York's network of subways and buses -- which had been pushed through against public opposition by bureaucrats using fixed budget numbers -- has been overturned in the courts. Small victory, but a step in the right direction.
stealing my thoughts too. sure, you have to read into my post but its all there. next youre going to tell me you have a problem with wiley willis and my affectation for the lower case. havent you done enough by banishing "snark" from the lexicon?
Not banishing, just hunting the snark like the great white whale.......btw is this near-simultaneous reappearance of don marquis a coincidence? villanelles in our future?
villanelles? is that one of the flavors of rice pudding at Rice To Riches?
Previous examples of being plugged in are Farenheit 451 and Brave New World. TV viewer in 451 experiences immersion into the plot of a serial drama, with interactive scripted roles, and surround vision. BNW used full immersion of the senses in feelies.
Let's see, if one were to converge broadband access technology, high definition displays, with the PC for programmability, and Tivo for customized infotainment content push, and X-box for VR interactivity, this will be a machine that will never let them leave their couches! Bwaa haaa haaa ... cough.
Retail at Walmart, $495 circa 2015
"But is there love?" --overheard by a friend at a video store in Texas; woman is asking about a tape hubby is trying to get her to rent (the accent is key).
..and Videodrome.
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Adam Gopnik's New Yorker piece on the movie Matrix Reloaded has already been referenced on the tree. I don't mean to steal a link here and have yet to see the movie -- but Gopnik's essay isn't really a movie review and has little to say about the sequel. (Anyway, isn't the middle third of any trilogy likely to have inherent weaknesses?)
His subject is the metaphor of the Matrix as a political and cultural motif of this wired age. He mentions Zizek, Baudrillard and Phillip K. Dick. (I read Phillip Dick's novels voraciously as a college student and loved his prophetic vision, the dark humor, which hasn't really been touched on in any of the movie versions. Later I found out that Dick's amphetamine-fueled writing binges severely aggravated a tendency to acute paranoia. Back then I would have found that very cool.)
Others, including the philosophers Hilary Putnam and James Pryor, have also been fascinated by the "who-controls-reality" question -- though Gopnik ignores the Situationist Guy Debord, who coined the notion of the "society of the spectacle," which surprised me.
For Gopnik the Matrix is an image of our current powerlessness to change our society, of constraint on human agency on the outside world. He quotes James Pryor: Matrix-like social control is evident in the "vat-language" (the term is Putnam's) exhibited by our monopolized media (especially TV), of corporate public relations-speak and advertising. It subverts language, makes us feel unable to feel that we can act upon the world, to change reality.
The other matrix is the one we are linked to right now, through code. The Web (a synonym for matrix after all) does have a liberating/exploratory potential, and enables us to stay remotely linked. But it does have a more malign aspect -- the "enforced" passivity of being consumers, viewers, watchers of the spectacle, the way it makes us fear being "unplugged", "out of the loop" if we leave.
To me The Matrix (the movie) was a wry vision of the entertainment industry itself, its ability to create shock and awe out of makeup and cardboard and plywood and computer graphics, all with the goal of getting the customers not to care very much about anything other than "what's on next?" or "where can I buy that?" Nothing illustrated this better than all the discussion of The Matrix's "ground-breaking" stop-motion special effects, which were almost instantly integrated into a series of TV ads for the Gap clothing stores, showing the seamless interface of entertainment and retailing.
Maybe local actions are the only ones which can be undertaken today. As I write, I hear that the 33% fare increase on New York's network of subways and buses -- which had been pushed through against public opposition by bureaucrats using fixed budget numbers -- has been overturned in the courts. Small victory, but a step in the right direction.
- bruno 5-15-2003 9:31 pm
stealing my thoughts too. sure, you have to read into my post but its all there. next youre going to tell me you have a problem with wiley willis and my affectation for the lower case. havent you done enough by banishing "snark" from the lexicon?
- dave 5-15-2003 10:39 pm
Not banishing, just hunting the snark like the great white whale.......btw is this near-simultaneous reappearance of don marquis a coincidence? villanelles in our future?
- bruno 5-15-2003 10:52 pm
villanelles? is that one of the flavors of rice pudding at Rice To Riches?
- dave 5-15-2003 11:03 pm
Previous examples of being plugged in are Farenheit 451 and Brave New World. TV viewer in 451 experiences immersion into the plot of a serial drama, with interactive scripted roles, and surround vision. BNW used full immersion of the senses in feelies.
Let's see, if one were to converge broadband access technology, high definition displays, with the PC for programmability, and Tivo for customized infotainment content push, and X-box for VR interactivity, this will be a machine that will never let them leave their couches! Bwaa haaa haaa ... cough.
Retail at Walmart, $495 circa 2015
- mark 5-16-2003 3:28 am
"But is there love?" --overheard by a friend at a video store in Texas; woman is asking about a tape hubby is trying to get her to rent (the accent is key).
- tom moody 5-16-2003 3:36 am
..and Videodrome.
- steve 5-16-2003 7:04 pm