I’ve talked to a lot of people who have been disappointed by Revolutions. I think I can understand why; many people seem to feel that the movie is about a war between men and machines set in a dystopian science-fiction future.
It’s not. It’s about the Void.
Everything that has a beginning, has an end
I was about ten years old when the Void first visited me. It was about three o’clock in the morning, and it suddenly hit me that there would come a time when everything that I am and everything I have done would cease to exist.There has not been a day in my life since that moment when I have not been aware of the Void. A person once visited by the Void can never escape it.
It’s more than the fear of death. Death is a part of the Void, but it goes far beyond that; there will come a time when you die, when everything you have accomplished turns to dust, when the memory that you ever existed fades away, when the entire human race is no more, when even the planet you live on ceases to be. There is no escaping it; it is inevitable.
Much of human existance is about the Void. Religion seeks to offer an escape from the Void. This is why people commit atrocities in the name of God; this is what drives men to fly passenger liners into buildings. That which challenges one’s religious belief challenges one’s escape from the Void.
Art is about the Void. The creative impulse is fundamentally an act of defiance against it. That which we create reflects us; every time we create something novel, something that would never have existed save for our will, we create something independent from us that says “I was here; I have done something; this will exist even after I am gone.”
Even the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is about the Void. As human understanding of the physical universe has improved, we have come to realize that we are a very tiny part of a very large universe. We as a species feel alone and fragile and desperately lonely; we need to know that there is someone, anyone, that shares this existance with us.
Love is about the Void. Science is about the Void. Philosophy is about the Void. And The Matrix is about the Void.
You see that? It’s Latin. It means ‘know thyself.’
Many people live out their lives, oblivious to the Void. They may see it out of the corner of their eye from time to time, but they construct edifices to protect themselves from it. Religion in this regard is the Great Comforter; “once I die, I will go to Heaven and live forever.”If you stare the Void directly in the face, it changes you. It leaves a mark on you that can’t be erased. Once you’ve seen it, it is with you for the rest of your life; there is never a moment that goes by that you are not aware of it.
And when this happens, you can see it in other people. Anyone who has been marked by the Void is immediately obvious to you.
The Wachowski brothers have seen the Void, and it shows. The Void is what compels them to create. An artist does not create art because he chooses to; an artist creates art because he must. The Void screams through every frame of all three movies.
Most of the characters in The Matrix have seen the void. Morpheus has seen it; he takes refuge from it in his belief in fate, in the guiding hand of providence that brings purpose and certainty to his life. Neo has seen it; the movie is about his quest to make his peace with it. The Merovingian has seen the Void; his escape is to try to understand the ‘why’ of things. The Oracle has seen it; her escape is to try to understand the ‘why’ of herself.
It is purpose that drives us, purpose that connects us
In a sense, the machines have an advantage over humans. Machines know their purpose. They are specifically created for a specific purpose, and they understand that purpose implicitly.The quest for purpose and meaning is writ throughout human history. The idea of fate offers a promise of purpose, but at a very high cost; if we are ordained by fate to do the things we do, then where is room for free will?
Why? Why do you do it?
The key moment in the entire Matrix trilogy comes near the end of the third movie, as Neo and Agent Smith battle. After Agent Smith has beaten Neo, he speaks to Neo, and in that conversation, he speaks with the voice of the Void.He’s right, of course. Throughout the movie, the machines never lie. Agent Smith is no exception. It is, as he says, inevitable. The Void always wins; there is no escape from it, for any of us.
Neo’s answer is the only answer we have.
Earlier, in the second movie, the Architect tells Neo, “She is going to die, and there is nothing you can do about it.” He, too, is right, though not in the way he thinks; the Architect does not understand the Void, not really.
But the truth is, there is nothing Neo can do about it. All triumph is temporary. The Void always wins in the end.
Neo’s answer to Agent Smith is really the only answer that anyone can give. In the face of the inevitability of the Void, it is the only answer that makes sense; it’s the only thing we have. To anyone who has ever stared the Void in the face, there is no other answer.
The movie does not answer all the questions it raises, which is as it should be; many of the questions it raises have no answer. This is as it should be. Agent Smith is the Void; he will win in the end, and there is no denying it. The only thing that has meaning is the choices we make before then.
This is the most intellegent movie review I have ever read
Much of human existance is about the Void. Religion seeks to offer an escape from the Void. This is why people commit atrocities in the name of God; this is what drives men to fly passenger liners into buildings. That which challenges one’s religious belief challenges one’s escape from the Void.
Art is about the Void. The creative impulse is fundamentally an act of defiance against it. That which we create reflects us; every time we create something novel, something that would never have existed save for our will, we create something independent from us that says “I was here; I have done something; this will exist even after I am gone.”
True true, and true.
However. The Eastern philosophies realized this thousands of years ago and have figured out ways to *minimize* the impact of full Void realization.
We consider the void and no-void one in the same. For in Taoist thought, nothing can exist autonomously; the light only exists because of dark.
The Void is real, and for many people coming to grips with it is a profoundly scary experience. However, as the Void cannot exist alone, what is no-Void we are a part of. That no-void I call “The Is” contitutes all that is from the beginning of time to the end of all time. Our physical presence here in the no-void is forever as well. The scary part is not realizing that being “human” within the endless no-void existence is not exclusive to being a part of the larger IS. In other words, using your religion outlet, I myself will exist in the no-void forever either in human form or in no-human form.
The void as is depicted in the movies and art is really a creation of the mind when it comes right down to it.
This is the most intellegent movie review I have ever read
Much of human existance is about the Void. Religion seeks to offer an escape from the Void. This is why people commit atrocities in the name of God; this is what drives men to fly passenger liners into buildings. That which challenges one’s religious belief challenges one’s escape from the Void.
Art is about the Void. The creative impulse is fundamentally an act of defiance against it. That which we create reflects us; every time we create something novel, something that would never have existed save for our will, we create something independent from us that says “I was here; I have done something; this will exist even after I am gone.”
True true, and true.
However. The Eastern philosophies realized this thousands of years ago and have figured out ways to *minimize* the impact of full Void realization.
We consider the void and no-void one in the same. For in Taoist thought, nothing can exist autonomously; the light only exists because of dark.
The Void is real, and for many people coming to grips with it is a profoundly scary experience. However, as the Void cannot exist alone, what is no-Void we are a part of. That no-void I call “The Is” contitutes all that is from the beginning of time to the end of all time. Our physical presence here in the no-void is forever as well. The scary part is not realizing that being “human” within the endless no-void existence is not exclusive to being a part of the larger IS. In other words, using your religion outlet, I myself will exist in the no-void forever either in human form or in no-human form.
The void as is depicted in the movies and art is really a creation of the mind when it comes right down to it.
The Void
I wrote a paper about The Void in college. A rather nifty (for a term paper) little synthesis of Plato’s Cave Allegory, Judeo-Christian mythology, and Moby Dick, which is sort of the quintessential novel about The Void. Read it again, if you don’t believe me. It’s all about the journey out being the journey in; about an everyman who pushes himself further and further into The Void, till at the end he is peeling the mask off the face of God to find the nothing behind everything.
I get that about The Matrix too (it’s just Agent Smith instead of a really big fish). I just wish the Brothers Wachowski were a bit more literary in circumscribing their mythology. I may have been the only one in the audience tonight wishing they’d move on past the battle scenes and get on with the *real* story. They did eventually, of course, otherwise they would not have closed the circle with the ending. I can just see how much more they could have done with the story.
Re: The Void
Funny, that–most people were wishing for less story and more fighting. Which is, I suppose, what happens when you release a mainstream movie.
Moby Dick is absolutely an awesome story. In fact, I introduced Shelly to it last week; she hasn’t read it, so I made her see the made-for-TV version (which features Patrick Stewart as Ahab and is really quite good).
The Void
I wrote a paper about The Void in college. A rather nifty (for a term paper) little synthesis of Plato’s Cave Allegory, Judeo-Christian mythology, and Moby Dick, which is sort of the quintessential novel about The Void. Read it again, if you don’t believe me. It’s all about the journey out being the journey in; about an everyman who pushes himself further and further into The Void, till at the end he is peeling the mask off the face of God to find the nothing behind everything.
I get that about The Matrix too (it’s just Agent Smith instead of a really big fish). I just wish the Brothers Wachowski were a bit more literary in circumscribing their mythology. I may have been the only one in the audience tonight wishing they’d move on past the battle scenes and get on with the *real* story. They did eventually, of course, otherwise they would not have closed the circle with the ending. I can just see how much more they could have done with the story.
Your post reminds me of this poem I read about 15 years ago.
The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Vijay
Your post reminds me of this poem I read about 15 years ago.
The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Vijay
Interesting. I was visited by the Void at the same age as you were – possibly slightly younger. Except that I didn’t come to realise that one day I would cease to exist, but that there had *already* been a time when I didn’t exist. Before I was born, the consciousness I see as ‘me’ did not exist. There was nothing. And yet here I am. And since I am not everyone else, and they are not me, I start wondering by what mechanism only a few I’s are ever born, and how I had the great fortune to be one of them? If my parents hadn’t met, would I have occurred elsewhen, or would this ‘I’ have never left the Void?
When I lay awake at night thinking this when I was little, I’d end up almost spiralling down into an abyss. That’s literally how it felt, like my mind was being sucked away into nothingness. I remember lying my mind get as close as I dared to the precipice and at the last subject thinking about something else as I began to fall into the black. A most peculiar experience which has somewhat left me as I got older, though on occasion I deliberately go back. And on occasion I try to write about it, to see if I understand yet.
“And since I am not everyone else, and they are not me, I start wondering by what mechanism only a few I’s are ever born, and how I had the great fortune to be one of them? If my parents hadn’t met, would I have occurred elsewhen, or would this ‘I’ have never left the Void?”
I came to those same questions by a completely different route. At first, I tried to take comfort from the Void in the notion that the universe may be cyclic, continually exploding and re-imploding again and again, so the universe might continue to exist again and again. (This was before physicists had determined that there almost certainly isn’t enough mass in the universe to pull it back together.)
But then, I thought, what would be the point of living exactly the same life over and over again? Except that it couldn’t be exactly the same life; the rules of quantum physics forbid it, and in any event, even if they didn’t, there’s always that pesky matter of free will–if the world were re-created from the beginning inthe same way, there’s no guarantee that it would have the same people in it, or that they would make the same choices. And if that is true, then it would certainly be possible to re-create the world, only in such a way that my parents chose not to have children, or my great-great-grandparents chose not to have children…
…and if that was possible in a theoretical world, wasn’t it also possible in the real world? My parents certainly could have chosen to hold off having children, or chosen to have children later, and then I wouldn’t exist. Someone else may exist in my place, but I wouldn’t exist.
From there, it’s the same thing as what you’re talking about.
I certainly know the feeling of spiralling down the abyss; it’s visited me often. I’m always slightly surprised when I meet people who haven’t felt these things; and I wonder if it would be better never to have seen the Void. On the one hand, never seeing the Void means never being tortured by it; but on the other, I think I’d be less compelled to do the things I do, and I’d certainly be less compelled to seek happiness and value all the experiences I have, without it.
the Void
I had a similar pre-existence kind of thing happen when I was very small and asked my mother how long is forever?after Sunday school.
I still dont understand the answer the minister gave my mom to give to me….I guess they thought a story about a kitten would distract me…my mother didnt know what to do with my outraged demand that they give me a real answer…. and I too have been compelled to understand the Void ever since….for me its a weird amalgam of Chaos theory, creativity and the void of the Mother womb out of which all is created…perhaps the Void is that invisible substance the physicists tell us is back of all things. I dont know, and yes, I have sought comfort in many ways. maybe the Void is choice…
Interesting. I was visited by the Void at the same age as you were – possibly slightly younger. Except that I didn’t come to realise that one day I would cease to exist, but that there had *already* been a time when I didn’t exist. Before I was born, the consciousness I see as ‘me’ did not exist. There was nothing. And yet here I am. And since I am not everyone else, and they are not me, I start wondering by what mechanism only a few I’s are ever born, and how I had the great fortune to be one of them? If my parents hadn’t met, would I have occurred elsewhen, or would this ‘I’ have never left the Void?
When I lay awake at night thinking this when I was little, I’d end up almost spiralling down into an abyss. That’s literally how it felt, like my mind was being sucked away into nothingness. I remember lying my mind get as close as I dared to the precipice and at the last subject thinking about something else as I began to fall into the black. A most peculiar experience which has somewhat left me as I got older, though on occasion I deliberately go back. And on occasion I try to write about it, to see if I understand yet.
Re: The Void
Funny, that–most people were wishing for less story and more fighting. Which is, I suppose, what happens when you release a mainstream movie.
Moby Dick is absolutely an awesome story. In fact, I introduced Shelly to it last week; she hasn’t read it, so I made her see the made-for-TV version (which features Patrick Stewart as Ahab and is really quite good).
“And since I am not everyone else, and they are not me, I start wondering by what mechanism only a few I’s are ever born, and how I had the great fortune to be one of them? If my parents hadn’t met, would I have occurred elsewhen, or would this ‘I’ have never left the Void?”
I came to those same questions by a completely different route. At first, I tried to take comfort from the Void in the notion that the universe may be cyclic, continually exploding and re-imploding again and again, so the universe might continue to exist again and again. (This was before physicists had determined that there almost certainly isn’t enough mass in the universe to pull it back together.)
But then, I thought, what would be the point of living exactly the same life over and over again? Except that it couldn’t be exactly the same life; the rules of quantum physics forbid it, and in any event, even if they didn’t, there’s always that pesky matter of free will–if the world were re-created from the beginning inthe same way, there’s no guarantee that it would have the same people in it, or that they would make the same choices. And if that is true, then it would certainly be possible to re-create the world, only in such a way that my parents chose not to have children, or my great-great-grandparents chose not to have children…
…and if that was possible in a theoretical world, wasn’t it also possible in the real world? My parents certainly could have chosen to hold off having children, or chosen to have children later, and then I wouldn’t exist. Someone else may exist in my place, but I wouldn’t exist.
From there, it’s the same thing as what you’re talking about.
I certainly know the feeling of spiralling down the abyss; it’s visited me often. I’m always slightly surprised when I meet people who haven’t felt these things; and I wonder if it would be better never to have seen the Void. On the one hand, never seeing the Void means never being tortured by it; but on the other, I think I’d be less compelled to do the things I do, and I’d certainly be less compelled to seek happiness and value all the experiences I have, without it.
the Void
I had a similar pre-existence kind of thing happen when I was very small and asked my mother how long is forever?after Sunday school.
I still dont understand the answer the minister gave my mom to give to me….I guess they thought a story about a kitten would distract me…my mother didnt know what to do with my outraged demand that they give me a real answer…. and I too have been compelled to understand the Void ever since….for me its a weird amalgam of Chaos theory, creativity and the void of the Mother womb out of which all is created…perhaps the Void is that invisible substance the physicists tell us is back of all things. I dont know, and yes, I have sought comfort in many ways. maybe the Void is choice…