The Book of Ashes

It seems simple now... 9:21AM

It seems simple now, when we see it laid before us. A situation, previous inducing fear, does so again. This is a conditioned response where one has experienced fear here before and has associated this situation with fear. It may be entirely irrational but it still tiggers fear. Now is the point where that trigger can be overwritten or fueled. Fear in the body causes a number of symptoms, increased heart rate, tension, hypersensitivity, etc. These can be misinterpreted. If the person concentrates on these signals from the body they can freak the person out further inducing more fear and building upon the original trigger. In this respect an irrational fear can grow into something worse. The person must realise what is causing the fear and face this fear so that they no longer are controlled by it. Enough on this already. I want to talk about the Matrix next...

The Matrix

So I finally saw the movie. I read Kate&Kates; reviews (yes I had the patience to wait). I agree mostly, although some points are a little harsh. To put it in my own words, The Matrix was an excellent movie, special effects-wise and story line. It had some wicked ideas. Reloaded was also hot on the special effects with some more excellent fight scenes. It introduced a few out-there ideas, like the Oracle being an intuitive program, that Neo could fly and was almost unbeatable, that there were other programs, struggles and ideals going on behind the scenes. Some scenes and plots seemed unnecessary such as the huge dancing scene in Zion and the soppy love aspect between Neo and Trinity (I reckon this would have been much better done taken from another angle, eg Trinity in love with Neo but him ignoring her for his ""duty to save humanity"", you would then feel the love but not have to see it). Some people read into this massively and I read one guys review who seemed to have written a thesis on it (it had that much detail).

In the end I think he read a little too much into it, as did we all. The third one, for me, was a let down. All these wicked ideas were not tied up satisfactorily. All these little subtle lines and hints did not lead to anything in the end. What can I say but ask more questions. Why could Neo stop the machines in the real world just by thinking? Was there a psychic link between his brain and some transmitter in the machine that could pick up his thoughts? No thats dumb but it still doesn't make sense. Also what was this firey world he could see in the real world? The spirit world? Why was this introduced to a very scientificly explained story line (up till then). The matrix beautifully explains how people can defy the laws of gravity and run round walls and dodge bullets. The real world does not. It should not have had any ""magical"" stuff happening in it yet it did. Suck. Next I thought it was a little sad about the real life Oracle dying. Having to replace her added an unnessesary complication to the story line, although covered over, it is a shame it had to be there. Having said this I can't fault anyone for this being there. It was the best anyone could do in such a situation. If I am to quote the movie ""As you so aptly put it, it is a matter of choice."" I had thought this was fundamental. When it came down to the final fight between Neo and Smith (which by the way reminded me of a good superman vs bad superman fight), at the end I was sure that Neo would realise that they were equally balanced, neither could win by fighting and come up with a brillant realisation about the matrix...

""Neo: But if you already know, how can I make a choice?

The Oracle: Because you didn't come here to make a choice, you've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it. ""

More on the matrix 10:45AM

What does this say? That all choices are already made. That you just have to understand them. Obviously one can understand how the Oracle can predict programs but how does the Oracle predict humans? She does not have access to their brains... yet she seems to know what everyone will do, Neo included. One would say that truely she is an intuitive program. That simply by observing input and output she can ""predict"" how any entity will operate. Can you predict humans that well? Why did the Oracle give herself up to Agent Smith? She foresore it as enevitable. Only with her powers could Smith equal and cancel Neo. Was she part of the balancing of the equation of Neo? Who knows. It is interesting to note the above quote. You've come here to try to understand why you've made it. Smith had already made his choice. To destory Neo. To destroy everything. He just didn't understand why he'd made that choice. Maybe a choice doesn't come about to be if you don't understand it? In the end Neo understood what he and Smith were. What his choice was. To cancel out the unequal parts of the program. Once balances the other. I still don't like it. I still think it could have been better. I much prefer the idea that Zion was part of a control program. A second matrix that kept minds that wouldn't accept the matrix happy. That so long as they struggled in the second matrix (the world of Zion) then they were kept occupied and didn't realise that they were still trapped and then Neo when he came back at the end of the second one and said, somethings different and stopped the sentinals, that he was the first One to realise that the ""real world"" was not so real.

""It is the purpose of The One to enter the source and disemeniate its code from the rest of the program.""

I thought that might have gone somewhere