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... t a step further and examine the message that is being projected rather than the emotions it creates it is possible to find a new method of maintaining reality. As John Jervis writes in Exploring the Modern: "The pleasure is in a vicarious sense of adventure, linked with a satisfaction gained through decoding, 'reading', the signs of the city. " He suggests we are to embrace the information we are presented with. To examine and appreciate its role in the reality in which we live; that ultimately pleasure lies in interpretation rather than direct experience, as Huxley put it: "the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence" But how, and to what extent, do 'naked existence' and the information we receive and analyse conform to reality? The evidence of reality that exists within our local environment we can interpret ourselves. In constructing our realities we create the codes in which realities communicate.

Difficulties arise however, when in attempting to maintain our reality we are confronted with issues that we cannot directly perceive for ourselves. The most basic of images that we are unable to perceive directly is that of ourselves. "To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves. " It is here that we come across the importance of the mirror in maintaining reality. During the 1960 s and 1970 s Neo-Freudianism was a popular movement in France and with it the philosophies of Jacques Lacan became widely known. Among these was the 'mirror-stage'.

Lacan believed that: "The unified self posited by object relations theory is an illusion. The child begins as fragmented drives, precepts and attachments that eventually congeal into an imaginary identity at the 'mirror stage'" It is at this stage, when the child perceives himself in the mirror and acknowledges himself as a single entity separate from his mother and surroundings. In a more abstract sense, this is the process that Neo himself goes through upon suspecting the existence of The Matrix. His suspicions and dissatisfaction with the world as it appears becomes apparent as he receives a reprimand from his employer, Mr Rhein heart: "You have a problem with authority, Mr Anderson.

You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken. This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are part of a whole. " As a function of The Matrix, Neo's software company is attempting to restrict him. To place him in the 'illusory' world of object relations theory discussed by Lacan.

At this point in the film, the office in which Neo is getting his dressing down is, at the same time, having its mirrored windows cleaned, perhaps echoing Blake's thought that: "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite" This infinity described by Blake may be related to the infinite possibilities open to Neo if he rejects the restrictive world that contains him. Interestingly, the theme of mirrors as a symbol of release is common throughout the film. Indeed, Neo is released from The Matrix through a mirror, much like Alice going through the looking glass; a reference alluded to by Morpheus. Also, it seems that whenever Neo meets those who are entering The Matrix specifically to talk to him (The Agents, Trinity and Morpheus) he is seen frequently as a mirror image, either in the rear view mirror of the motorcycle that Trinity is riding or in the mirrored sunglasses of Morpheus and The Agents. The mirror is used in this context as it presents an image of the world that appears accurate but is not.

It presents a reversed and possibly distorted view of the world. Significantly in terms of the film, it also presents another world, similar to, but very different from, our own. As children, according to Lacan, we learn to identify ourselves in terms of the mirror. Our self-image, that with which we maintain our reality is based upon what we see there and yet the information we are receiving is inaccurate. Our self-image is in fact a reverse copy of the truth and an example of the flawed perceptions with which we maintain our realities.

As technology has evolved, so too have our methods of maintaining reality. Television has provided us with intimate knowledge of the world outside our local environment. While I have discussed the advertising that television brings I have not mentioned the impact of the news reports upon which we depend for maintaining our realities. George Washington once remarked, "We haven't heard from Benjamin Franklin in Paris this year. We should write him a letter. " Nowadays, live communication in both sound and image is possible across the globe. Our horizons have been expanded to the maximum possible extent and we rely upon television to maintain those realities that we have never experienced for ourselves and it is here that we run into complex problems concerning reality.

We assume that the images we are watching are an intrinsic part of the information being presented. This is not always the case as Jean Baudrillard explains in The Gulf War did not take place. In this book Baudrillard discusses how the media representation of the Gulf War was in no way an accurate description of the reality. In his introduction to the book, Patton comments that the first and most basic way in which the media can corrupt reality is in the confusion of past and present. He claims this was achieved unilaterally during the War, the present being portrayed as the past with the whole war as a John Wayne film complete with action-movie language. We also saw the past being represented as the present, video footage of a sea bird, covered in oil from the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989 where used to illustrate the ecological problems in the Gulf.

The problems presented by an image of reality is summed up by Baudrillard: "The same illusion of progress occurred with the appearance of speech and then colour on screen: at each stage of this progress we moved further away from the imaginary intensity of the image. The closer we supposedly approach the real, or the truth, the further we draw away from them both, since neither one nor the other exists. The closer we approach the real time of the event, the more we fall into the illusion of the virtual. " Once war, or any other event is converted from a directly perceived reality to information it enters the realm of communication and subject to the codes that were discussed in the previous chapter. It becomes open to interpretation. Our failing lies with the fact that our technology has succeeded in creating information so apparently accurate we mistake it for reality.

In The Gulf War did not take place Baudrillard has updated Benjamin's theory on reproducibility negotiating the aura of experience. Much of Baudrillard's writing has commented on 'Simulacra', a scenario in which reality and a simulation have been combined and become unidentifiable from each other. This third order of reality is referred to as 'Hyper reality' Through the media, a simulacra of the real has been created and we ourselves enter a hyper reality where the boundaries between what is real and what is a representation of the real become blurred. This is an area explored almost constantly in The Matrix. In the film The Matrix is the ultimate hyper reality. Inside The Matrix, reality is coded into information so effectively that those to whom it is fed cannot even perceive the reality on which their world is based.

Neo acts as a disciple of Baudrillard, attempting to separate the information from the real. In real life, this is harder than it seems. In Simulations Baudrillard refers to hyper reality as a Miss strip in that: "All the hypotheses of manipulation are reversible in an endless whirligig" A condition of the hyper reality is that the two contributing realities are so interdependent that a manipulation in one of the realities causes a reaction in the other which will in turn manipulate the first. It is inside a hyper reality that Neo himself resides. On the one hand there is perceived reality, on the other there is The Matrix code that constructs it. Neo's quest throughout the film is to mentally separate the two, yet at the same time acknowledge their interdependence.

At the end of the film he succeeds and becomes 'The One'. In a wonderful piece of cinematography we see The Matrix from Neo's point of view. We see the corridor he is standing in and The Agents at the end of it, yet the entire image is composed of the constantly changing green code that The Matrix uses to construct reality. It is here that we realise the news reports that we perceive to be separate from ourselves become, in our own minds, united with our own perceptions of reality and will be used in the future to process and evaluate information.

However, in doing so we become part of a hyper reality not too dissimilar from The Matrix, where the information we receive as a media defined code must, in order to maintain reality, be separated from our own perceptions. We must see the media for what it is, not only a flawed representation of reality but also the concealment of the fact that reality is questionable. To this extent at least television and the media can be seen as our own Matrix. We turn on our televisions and at once become, "hostages of media intoxication. " It is up to us to maintain our realities by separating the realities we perceive ourselves from those that are presented to us. Chapter Three: Undermining Reality Weapons of Mass Distraction.

The popularity of television as entertainment has gone from strength to strength. While we must be aware of its dubious capabilities of maintaining our realities, it provides us with information and stimulation without conscious effort, yet keeps the entire production at a comfortable distance. This nature is explained by Baudrillard. Television has created the cult of 'the real' we have developed a need for live broadcasts in Technicolor from around the world.

However, at the same time as television has built our need for stimulation, it has cultivated our preference for simulation rather than direct immersion in the reality portrayed: "We prefer the exile of the virtual, of which television is the universal mirror, to the catastrophe of the real. " Television simulates an alternate reality it stimulates our senses providing information from realities outside our own. We are intoxicated by it and instinctively absorb its information as truth, much as Native Americans believed their peyote induced hallucinations to be spiritual visions of prophecy. Just as Marx described religion as the opium of the people, television has become a narcotic for the digital age. But why should removing oneself from reality be such an important part of the human condition? Perhaps one significance lies in the fact that while conscious we are experiencing whatever we perceive to be reality and in our unconscious state, the dreams that we experience allow us to make sense of our waking experiences.

Freud himself explored the intricacies of analysing dreams to provide insights into the individual. This practice of maintaining or enhancing reality perception through the undermining of the reality is echoed by shaman around the world who enter a trance in order to gain a greater understanding of their realities. Fantasy is necessary as it reinforces our belief in 'the real'. This is a premise that Baudrillard sees as a threat to reality. He cites the example of Disneyland as a fantasy that dupes the observer into a distorted view of reality: "Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyper real and of simulation. " In accepting Disneyland as fantasy, we subconsciously affirm our faith in reality.

This issue is confronted by Morpheus in The Matrix. He says to Neo: "You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he's expecting to wake up. Ironically this is not far from the truth. " When we visit Disneyland, we allow ourselves, and our perceptions of the outside reality, to be placed in limbo. This is because we know that at some point in the future we will leave wonderland and take up our lives in reality once more. This is a concept explored in The Matrix that refers to Baudrillard. In the film, Neo must leave behind the false world of The Matrix in order to perceive the truth.

He must 'wake up' to the fact that what he saw as the real world is, as Baudrillard suggests, a false hyper reality that generates chimaeras to maintain its own status. Interestingly, within the film, The Matrix literally uses dreams in two different ways in order to preserve itself. I take as my example the scene where Neo is interrogated by The Agents. In this part of the film he is exposed to very disturbing experiences. First his mouth is sealed making him unable to scream, followed by the insertion of a semi-organic 'bug' that burrows into his navel. Immediately following this the scene cuts to Ne waking up in his apartment screaming, presuming it was all a nightmare.

In this context, The Matrix has used the concept of the dream as a Baudrillardian alibi that enhances the plausibility of 'the real'. In addition, the 'non real' nature of the dream has been exploited in order to implant in Neo a very real tracking bug that The Agents hope will lead them to Morpheus, who they perceive to be the prime threat to The Matrix. The importance of dreams to humanity is well documented. Aside from the Biblical tale of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh and the Australian Aboriginal legends of the dreamtime, the ancient Greeks themselves had a god of dreams interestingly named Morpheus. It is therefore important to note that there is some 981645948 UF aspect of the dream world that is of specific importance to humans. I believe there is a significant link between the attachment we have to television and the historical importance of dreams in that both share active and passive elements.

So much so in fact that it is impossible to determine either dreams or TV as active or passive distractions. In everyday life we make active choices. As Berger says, even the images that we see every day are perceived actively: "We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice" Television and dreams take us away from a world where constant choices are made. We can experience, for better or worse, a vicarious reality that is fed to us almost intravenously. It is in this aspect that both Baudrillard and Neo see a danger.

In the world of the media and dreams, overt choice is removed from reality and as a result leads to an undermining of the real. In The Matrix, Morpheus asks Neo if he believes in Fate. Neo says that he does not and when asked why replies: "Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life" In much the same way that dreams offer access to a passive reality, the concept of Fate provides a reality that has no bearing on our individual choices. While we are free to make choices, the outcome is pre-determined. Neo does not believe in Fate just as he believes there is something wrong with The Matrix world.

Whereas Leibniz saw a knowable, monad-based world as harmonious, Neo, a Baudrillard disciple, sees the knowable as restrictive. It is on this premise that Neo's suspicion of The Matrix is based. He does not believe in Fate, yet senses that because of the digital nature of The Matrix x will equal y. Indeed, Baudrillard himself could have been talking about the uncomfortable oppression of The Matrix when he wrote: "It is by the simulation of a conventional, restricted perspective field, where the premises and consequences of any act or event are calculable, that a political reality can be maintained. " It is in undermining the calculable, that Neo becomes in control of The Matrix and from there can begin to attack its political reality.

This is the ability that Morpheus sees in Neo. In an attempt to instruct his pupil to "free his mind" Morpheus refers to The Agents as gatekeepers: "They are guarding all the doors. They are holding all the keys, which means sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them. " He goes on to point out that The Agents's trent and speed, "are still based in a world that is built on rules. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be. " Morpheus points Neo down the path towards defeating The Matrix by freeing his mind from all the realities formerly imposed upon it. He believes Neo must centre on the fluid, organic nature of his mind that, if focussed will overcome the world of proscribed rules on which The Matrix is based.

However, as Morpheus says, this is a state that must be achieved alone: "I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it. " It is in an attempt to explore these doors that Aldous Huxley wrote The Doors of Perception. In a spirit of scientific discovery, Huxley offered himself as a guinea pig. To take four-tenths of a gramme of mescaline and have his intoxicated thoughts and perceptions recorded on tape and documented by an observer. The Doors of Perception consists of Huxley's own insights into the hallucinogenic condition in relation to reality. The significance in Huxley's writing lies in how the mind of the individual can be altered under the influence of drugs and how the perceptions of reality experienced while intoxicated undermine the individual's reality.

One of Huxley's first realisation's is that the manner in which we perceive reality from day to day has, along with our physiology, been through a process of Darwinian natural selection. The perceptions of reality that allow us best to survive in our surroundings are those that exist in our minds today. He comments on the mind as a 'reducing valve', that exterior stimulation is reduced by the mind and nervous system so that: "What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet. " Through hallucinogenic drugs Huxley believes that one can perceive reality purely, as it actually exists. The mind under mescaline: "does its perceiving in terms of intensity of existence" rather than, "Where? How far? How situated in relation to what?" Mescaline negates the codes with which we construct our realities.

It enables us to perceive things as they are, standing alone. It allows us to appreciate what Meister Eckhart meant by Is tigkeit or Is-ness. The idea of existence purely on its own terms, without the signs that have been attached to reality by ages of human experience. In other words, to see things as they are. Unfortunately, the truth remains that although hallucinogenics may offer an untainted perception of reality, that reality is only something that can be experienced, never communicated. The addict who spends hours sitting staring at his hand is to be pitied no matter how intense his experience.

Only realities that are communicable are appreciable, and it is there the problem lies. In order to make sense of our realities it is necessary to undermine them, to test their limits. This is the message communicated by The Matrix. Do not take the world for granted, ask questions of it and seek the truth but at the same time remember the Oracle's motto, Time Note: Know Thyself. In providing a concept of a world in which reality is constructed entirely from computer code, The Matrix has enabled me to examine how these codes affect our own realities. In a positive sense they have contributed hugely to the development of mankind.

The coded manner in which we construct our realities not only enables us to be comfortable with our existence and organise experience into a manageable format, but also to communicate our perceptions with others. It is during this stage of communication that we need to be aware that our realities are fragile and communication itself may alter the true nature of the reality presented. Ultimately in order to appreciate reality fully we must step outside our everyday world and appreciate that reality is negotiable. In writing this dissertation I was hoping to discover whether reality could be accurately presented in code form.

In terms of technology the possibilities are limitless, computing power is ever increasing and the concept of virtual reality can only increase in its accurate portrayal of the world. However when experiencing VR there is always the knowledge that it will be turned off and reality will return. This has the effect of making reality more secure as the production of a counterfeit has made it genuine. Therefore in relying on a coded representative n of reality our perceptions of the real are dulled. We become less inclined to question reality. As Baudrillard says: "Everything which is turned into information becomes the object of endless speculation, the site of total uncertainty. " The duplication of the real creates its own questions, deflecting us from questioning reality.

Ultimately, I believe that reality is infinitely elusive and unobtainable. As our perceptions change, so do our identities. In The Matrix, Thomas Anderson becomes Neo and finally The One as his perceptions of The Matrix reality become more elaborate. Reality can be experienced and observed in different ways but never in one true manner. At the end of The Matrix Neo finds the correct way to see The Matrix and becomes The One. This, however, is not reality.

All he does is perceive an alternate version of reality and separate that from his own reality. As Morpheus promises all along this is achieved through freeing the mind, being open to experience and not necessarily believing the senses. While my opening quotation remains true, the importance of Housman's sentiment must be recognised: "Oh many a peer of England brews Livelier liquor than the Muse, And malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man. " Bibliography Primary Texts: Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. London: Semiotext (e), 1983. Baudrillard, Jean.

The Gulf War did not take place. Edited and translated by Paul Patton. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995. Berger, John.

Ways of Seeing. London: BBC / Penguin Books, 1972. Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. London: Flamingo, 1994. Wachowski Brothers.

The Matrix. Warner Bros, 1999. Secondary Texts: Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. London: Vintage, 1993. Benjamin, Walter.

Illuminations. London: Fontana Press, 1992. Blake, William. 'A Memorable Fancy', The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790 - 3. Forster, E. M. 'The Machine Stops'. Twentieth Century Short Stories Ed.

D. R. Barnes & R. F. Oxford.

London: Harry, 1959. Gombrich, E. H. Art, Perception and Reality. London: John Hopkins University Press, 1972. Genesis, Authorised King James Version.

Edinburgh: Canongate, 1998. Housman, A. E. A Shropshire Lad. London: Ashford Press Publishing, 1988. Jervis, John.

Exploring The Modern. Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1998. Leibniz, G. W. The Monadology. 1714 Marx, Karl. Intro.

A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (18434) Cit. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Fourth Edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1983. 981645948 UF McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects. Watford: Taylor Garnett Evans, 1967. Milton, John.

Paradise Lost, Books I and II. Ed. F. T. Prince. London: Oxford University Press, 1995.

McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium is the Massage. London: Penguin Books, 1967. Proof, Ira. Jung, Synchronicity and Human Destiny. New York: Julian Press, 1973.

Lacan, J. Soft City. London: Collins Harvill, 1988. Rivkin, J and Ryan, M. Eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1998.

Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. London: Oxford University Press, 1993. Segal, Robert, A. Jung on Mythology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998. Simmel, Georg. 'The Metropolis and Mental Life', On Individuality and Social Forms, 1903.

Encarta Multimedia Encyclopaedia. CD-ROM format, Microsoft Corporation, 1995. Websites. web < web > A centre for movie clips, chat rooms, questions and fans' message board.

web < web > An analysis of the film focusing on themes, religious references, motifs and analysis of characters' names. Provides the ability to download the film transcript for which I am grateful. web < web > Again, a focus on themes within the film, appears to have plagiarized the above link but interesting thoughts on the use of colour within the film. web < web > Centre for fan queries about the film. web < web > Official Warner Bros. site concerning all aspects of the film.

Regularly updated giving current information and news on the upcoming sequels.


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Research essay sample on London Oxford University Order To Make

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