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Re: escapism

Ysobelle wrote:
> Sigh. I adore you, Don. I really do.

[blush]  Oh, thtop it.  ;-)

> Anyway, in response to the above, I'm not sure I follow your point. 

Hm... I guess I was a little oblique.  I think I was trying to get *too*
specific, in case there's someone on the planet who hasn't seen this yet.  :-)
But, as long as we're in it (in the immortal words of Marty DiBergi), let's
boogie!

> How do you define impulse?

Well, let's see if we can figure out how the film is defining impulse.  Mouse
tells Neo he can arrange a "more personal" interaction with the woman in red,
nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more.  Switch and Apoc react with scorn, and one
of them says "the digital pimp, hard at work".  Mouse says "Pay no attention to
these hypocrites, Neo.  To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing
which makes us human."  In that context, impulse seems to mean (at least)
sexual desire, although Mouse seems to be making a generalization out of the
specific instance of the woman in red.  (It does seem to me ironic in the
extreme that he's talking about gratifying that desire, i.e. being "human",
within a simulated environment, with no other actual human being involved.)  If
that generalization of "impulse" can be extended beyond the merely sexual
(satisfying our sexual urges is the "very thing" that makes us human?  Is that
really what the film is trying to say?), the natural interpretation seems to me
to be other drives like the sexual.  Which, of course, are satisfied through
sensory input, which is the very thing the Matrix is calling into question.
Which brings us to Cypher.

But before I get to Cypher, let me wonder about "impulse".  He definitely says
*impulse*, and not "drives", or "hungers" or some other word.  An "impulse" is
usually something spontaneous and forceful (hence, "impulsive").  Usually it is
not associated with reflection and rational thought (rationality being what is
often suggested as that which makes us human); one has an impulse to do
something, and then one must choose to do it or not.  Usually, I think, it is
more common to think about other animals acting impulsively, but *humans* have
the capacity to think about whether following the impulse is the "right" thing
to do (by whatever criteria one uses to decide such things).  Whole religions
(buddhism in particular) are based in *precisely* the idea that to deny our
impulses is the way to enlightenment, the purpose of being human.  Mouse is
turning all this on its head.  In what seems to be a throwaway line, no less.
Is he implying that to try to achieve enlightenment is actually *denying* our
humanity rather than fulfilling it?

So, Cypher.  He has the impulse to want to eat steak and live more comfortably.
He makes the point that he's not "free" outside the Matrix, because he just
follows orders.  He chooses to follow those impulses to ask to get re-plugged
back into the Matrix.  However, it seems to me that the rest of the film is
implying that the people *outside* the Matrix are more human than those inside.
Switch calls Neo "coppertop" (a reference to the duracell battery, I assume)
while he's still plugged in.  Tank refers to himself as 100% human, born and
raised in Zion.  All the outsiders seem to feel that they are more "human" than
the people still trapped in the system.  So I was saying Cypher seemed to
undercut Mouse's statement because by following his impulses, he was trying to
get put *back* in the Matrix, which would make him, in the context of the film,
*less* human.  Alternatively, since following his impulses leads Cypher to
betrayal, which the film certainly seems to present as contemptable (or am I
projecting?), the film seems to be implying that Cypher should have denied
those impulses and accepted the harsh realities of life on the Nebuchadnezzar,
in contrast to Mouse's implication that denying impulses was bad.

Any ideas?
-- 
Don Smith                          Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd" - Miguel de Unamuno
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