So the text book came today, and thank god for that. While I remember most of what was read in class, it was nice to be able to read and digest "Allegory of the cave" on my own and in the comfort of my couch. I think it's funny that the "story" itself is in a chapter that lists "The Matrix" as one of it's examples. Immediately while reading it, I couldn't help but see what parallels that movie was trying to make with this piece of work. I know that on the DVD they talk a lot about philosophies having a huge impact upon the story they were trying to tell, but I just never realized (or, I guess, had an interest in finding out) just how much.
This line: At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him," That line describes almost perfectly Neo's first moments awake in "the real". But that's not all, the rest of the passage is also telling:
"...and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?"
The bolded parts especially sync up to those moments in the movie; Morpheus is the "instructor", walking Neo through The Matrix and pointing out the flaws, he is the one who breaks the illusion and shows him the real. I just find it amazing how much they took but without outright plagiarism or bluntness. It's all so subtle and only there as some sort of "easter egg" for those with the knowledge to know. Is it any wonder why the movie is so loved and considered so influential?
More than the cool gun play, more than the martial arts, and more than the cool slow motion "bullet time", it isn't just a movie.
It's a work of art.
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