[lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 22:15:05 EDT
Shakespear in Love plays a good deal with the dialogue between artist and  
art, between author, text and reader.  It's a study in literary criticism  
which 
I think is sometimes thought of as a branch of philosophy (never mind some  
delicious jokes planted in it which are quite missable).  Truman Show is  
another, to me, study in ontology -- and references quite nicely Greek Myth  
symbolism and religious doctrinal issues, as well as a study of good/evil.   I 
think 
it and Pleasantville (which I never saw) came out about the same  time.  I 
highly recommend Truman Show.  Another popular film I think  rife with 
philosophical-discussion-topics is the old City of Angels.  It  can be watched 
superficially.  But it also cannot.  It also alludes to  ancient Greek 
philosophers' 
themes.
 
Julie Krueger
========Original  Message========     Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, 
decisions  Date: 10/23/04 9:05:29 PM Central Daylight Time  From: 
_Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)   To: 
_lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)   Sent on:    
Btw, whatever  happened to The Truman Show as  a philo-teaching film?  Or
Shakespeare in  Love?
--------------------------------------
I haven't seen Shakespeare in  Love and I keep confusing The Truman Show with
Pleasantville, but it does  seem to me that to be of any philosophical 
interest a
film has to pose a  question to which the film itself provides no answer. 

The Matrix shows  the banks of human material that fuel the Matrix and it also
says that the  Matrix is responsible for the sustained ilusions of life
experienced by  'ordinary people.' In other words, at that level, it's of no 
more
real  philosophical interest than the question of whether one can discover if 
 the
woman is actually sawn in half, for there's an answer to the question 'is  it
real?' in the work.

So, if the question is, How can one tell?  Descartes' challenge is of much 
more
philosophical interest because there is  no 'empirical' fact of the matter.

The Matrix may be of philosophical  interest with respect to why one would 
choose
the red pill or the blue pill.  Neo chooses one, Cypher the other. But 
Cypher's
reasons for his choice aren't  especially interesting, and Neo's are never
clearly articulated, although it  might be a challenge to imagine what they 
might
be.

Robert Paul
The  Reed  Institute




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[lit-ideas] Re: Decisions, decisions

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