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This is just something I've been mulling. I'm not a theorist, and when i think I understand post-modernism, it all crumbles under its own weight. At most, I have a sense of post-modernism, but that does not stop me from writing about it.
Last night I watched Memento, and my first reaction when the credits rolled was, "Now I hate The Matrix even more!" I thought that was a strange reaction, as Memento is not actually in dialogue with The Matrix, and besides Carry Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano, there's not an immediate or obvious connection. But I've been mulling it all day, because while I do have an immediate and possibly irrational hatred of The Matrix, I want to be fair about things.
The reason I made the connection became obvious to me today. Both movies posit a way out of our post-modern nightmare, only The Matrix follows through with the escape plan, while Memento ultimately makes the gesture, but does not offer a real way out. The Matrix reassured us we were right. It said As you've long suspected, you live in a world of representation. People responded this, because they long suspected this was true. More than being true, this felt right somehow. It felt right because that's post-modernism. A world of empty representation and text, where we don't even try to get at the real because the real either never existed or ceased to exist. Except, we're told, there is a real world, and if we take powerful drugs, we can get there. People mock The Matrix because the "humans as batteries" thing is so asinine, and it is, but it doesn't really matter, and I think it's a silly point to get hung up on. I had assumed that The Matrix was a Platonic Manifesto that was about as deep as any Philosophy 101 course, but now I think it's less about the Allegory of the Cave, and about the arrival of personal Savior, and more about a reassurance that there is a world out there that actually does exist. And the promise is that we'll all be allowed to enter it one day.
Memento represents our post-modern existence is a much more, well, post-modern way. We have non-linear time, the literal inscription of text upon flesh, the loss of agency, the loss of the present, and most importantly, the anxiety that the world ceases to exist when you close your eyes. Lenny is convinced at the end of the movie that as long as the world continues to exist when he closes his eyes, everything is going to be okay. But the viewer is never allowed to enter this world independent of Lenny's experiences. We don't actually know that the world continues to exist when he closes his eyes. We don't actually know that what Teddy told him is true, or a lie. Some say that the movie is told backwards, and ends at the beginning. But the final shot isn't the beginning. The beginning would have been sitting behind the wheel in his car, writing the license plate number. The movie is more of a loop. He is damned to repeat this scenario again and again. Unlike Neo, Lenny doesn't get to escape. He doesn't get to experience time. He forgets because he wants to, exactly the way we forget our history in order to function--the way his wife forgets her book and reads it over and over.
So...why do I hate The Matrix? Because, ultimately, it's wrong. It promises a salvation that cannot be delivered, it doesn't actually engage with any of the points it raises, it pretends to be deep, and its conflict and drama is ridiculous. It's not even properly post-modern, as it obliviously relies on movie cliches without irony or self-awareness. The film barely amounts to a gesture, and it's a rather weak, shallow gesture at that.
Last night I watched Memento, and my first reaction when the credits rolled was, "Now I hate The Matrix even more!" I thought that was a strange reaction, as Memento is not actually in dialogue with The Matrix, and besides Carry Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano, there's not an immediate or obvious connection. But I've been mulling it all day, because while I do have an immediate and possibly irrational hatred of The Matrix, I want to be fair about things.
The reason I made the connection became obvious to me today. Both movies posit a way out of our post-modern nightmare, only The Matrix follows through with the escape plan, while Memento ultimately makes the gesture, but does not offer a real way out. The Matrix reassured us we were right. It said As you've long suspected, you live in a world of representation. People responded this, because they long suspected this was true. More than being true, this felt right somehow. It felt right because that's post-modernism. A world of empty representation and text, where we don't even try to get at the real because the real either never existed or ceased to exist. Except, we're told, there is a real world, and if we take powerful drugs, we can get there. People mock The Matrix because the "humans as batteries" thing is so asinine, and it is, but it doesn't really matter, and I think it's a silly point to get hung up on. I had assumed that The Matrix was a Platonic Manifesto that was about as deep as any Philosophy 101 course, but now I think it's less about the Allegory of the Cave, and about the arrival of personal Savior, and more about a reassurance that there is a world out there that actually does exist. And the promise is that we'll all be allowed to enter it one day.
Memento represents our post-modern existence is a much more, well, post-modern way. We have non-linear time, the literal inscription of text upon flesh, the loss of agency, the loss of the present, and most importantly, the anxiety that the world ceases to exist when you close your eyes. Lenny is convinced at the end of the movie that as long as the world continues to exist when he closes his eyes, everything is going to be okay. But the viewer is never allowed to enter this world independent of Lenny's experiences. We don't actually know that the world continues to exist when he closes his eyes. We don't actually know that what Teddy told him is true, or a lie. Some say that the movie is told backwards, and ends at the beginning. But the final shot isn't the beginning. The beginning would have been sitting behind the wheel in his car, writing the license plate number. The movie is more of a loop. He is damned to repeat this scenario again and again. Unlike Neo, Lenny doesn't get to escape. He doesn't get to experience time. He forgets because he wants to, exactly the way we forget our history in order to function--the way his wife forgets her book and reads it over and over.
So...why do I hate The Matrix? Because, ultimately, it's wrong. It promises a salvation that cannot be delivered, it doesn't actually engage with any of the points it raises, it pretends to be deep, and its conflict and drama is ridiculous. It's not even properly post-modern, as it obliviously relies on movie cliches without irony or self-awareness. The film barely amounts to a gesture, and it's a rather weak, shallow gesture at that.
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