Here's where I fake it, because I know The Matrix like the back of my hand, but barely glanced past the "thee"s and "thou"s that populate Oedipus. Hey, unless it's Marvel Comics' Thor, i don't like that type of writing. it drives me nuts. But I tried, I swear I did.
Anyway. So I'm going to talk about how the two are similar, or different, right? Sure, Oedipus appears to try and ask the reader, "Is ignorance bliss?". And characters, although not quite actually saying it outloud (mostly), all try to live by that phrase. Weather it's the main character itself running from his foretold future, or his wife/mother killing herself rather than deal with the consequences of the truth. While The Matrix has a character, Cypher, say the phrase and believe in it; does this make them similar? I'm not so sure.
However, as I write this I find myself connecting the dots between the two thematically. The key thing that seems to run through them both is knowledge, and what it does to these characters. Cypher in the movie remarks what a "mind job" it must be to Neo to be told he is the savior of humanity. On the other side of that, the Oracle does NOT tell him he is the one, because that is not what he needed to hear. Because Cypher is right.
Similarly, what happens to all the characters in Oedipus who have incredible knowledge? Knowledge of things they shouldn't, that they may have the power to change? Tragedy. Almost nothing but. In a way it's almost like the flip side to the ideas presented in The Matrix.
No comments:
Post a Comment