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Upon the System and Human Comprehension in "The Matrix Trilogy": Trilogy of Knowledge, Change and Reality

Year 2017, Volume: 2 Issue: 3, 56 - 78, 23.06.2017

Abstract

“The Matrix Trilogy”, which was scripted and directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, is one of the most important science fiction films. “The problem of reality”, which has been present, in various forms, ever since Plato’s “allegory of the cave”, is once again being evaluated in “The Matrix Trilogy” through the medium of cinema. Moreover, there are various opinions regarding exactly what the main natures of human are in “The Matrix Trilogy”. Furthermore, “The Matrix Trilogy” provides a striking view on the relationship between the “basic natures of human” and the “system” in which humans live. The system explored, and the human insights examined in “The Matrix Trilogy” have a distinctly philosophical feel. As such, this article analyses “The Matrix Trilogy”, viewing it as a work of art which presents philosophical problems. Therefore, the dialogues in “The Matrix Trilogy” and the context of the dialogues shall be taken as the basic reference resource for the analysis. This article studies the nature of the understanding of system and human in the “The Matrix Trilogy”, with particular
emphasis on analysing the content of dialogues. The article concludes that the basic human characteristics which distinguish “Neo” from other living beings in “The Matrix Trilogy” are “the ability to know” and “the will of change.”
  

References

  • References
  • Abbott, Stacey, (2006). “Final Frontiers: Computer-Generated Imagery and the Science Fiction Film”, Science Fiction Studies, 33 (1), pp. 89-108.
  • Aristotle, ([350 B.C.] 1857). Metaphysics (J. H. M’Mahon, Trans.), London: H.G. Bohn.
  • Balot, Ryan Krieger, (2006). Greek Political Thought, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Barham, Jeremy, (2008). “Scoring Incredible Futures: Science-Fiction Screen Music, and “Postmodernism” as Romantic Epiphany”, The Musical Quarterly, 91(3/4), pp. 240-274.
  • Baudrillard, Jean, (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S. Glaser, Trans.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
  • Bergerac, Cyrano De, ([1657] 1965). Other Worlds; the Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun, (Geoffrey Strachan, Trans.), London & New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Bergson, Henri. ([1889]1960). Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, ( F. L Pogson, Trans.), New York: Harper & Brothers.
  • Bergson, Henri. ([1907] 1944). Creative Evolution, (A. Mitchell, Trans.), New York: The Modern Library.
  • Booker, M. Keith, (2006). Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture, CA: Praeger Publishers.
  • Carroll, Lewis, (1865). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan.
  • Cheyne, Ria, (2008). “Created Languages in Science Fiction”, Science Fiction Studies, 35 (3), pp. 386-403.
  • Dick, Philip K., (1968). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, New York: Doubleday Publishing.
  • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, ([1871-72] 2008). Demons (R. Maguire, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Fisch, Michael, (2000). “Nation, War, and Japan's Future in the Science Fiction “Anime” Film “Patlabor II”“, Science Fiction Studies, 27(1), pp. 49-68.
  • Giddens, Anthony, (1991). The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Godwin, Francis, (1638). The Man in the Moone, London: John Norton.
  • Grady, Frank, (2003). “Arnoldian Humanism, or Amnesia and Autobiography in the Schwarzenegger Action Film”, Cinema Journal, 42(2), pp. 41-56.
  • Grewell, Greg, (2001). “Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future”, Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 55(2), pp. 25-47.
  • Griffith, George, (1893). The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror, London: Tower Publishing Company Limıted.
  • Heidegger, Martin, ([1927] 1996). Being and Time (J. Stambaugh, Trans.), Albany: State University of New York Press.
  • Heidegger, Martin, ([1927-64] 1993). Basic Writings from Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964) (D. F. Krell, Trans.), New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
  • Holsti, O.R. (1969). Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Hunter, Ian Q., (2001). “The Far Side of “Moon Zero Two”“, Science Fiction Studies, 28(3), pp. 355-364.
  • Kalat, David, (2005). The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse: A Study of the Twelve Films and Five Novels, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
  • Khaldun, Ibn, ([1377] 1958). Muqaddimah- Volume 2 (F. Rosenthal, Trans.), New York: Bollingen Foundation Inc.
  • Kozlovic, Anton Karl, (2004). “The Cinematic Christ-Figure”, The Furrow, 55(1), pp. 26-30.
  • Krippendorff, Klaus. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology-2nd ed., London: Sage Publications.
  • Kuhn, Annette, (1990). Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, New York: Verso.
  • Landon, Brooks, (1992). The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re) Production (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction & Fantasy), Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.
  • Machiavelli, Niccolò, ([1517] 2008). Discourses on Livy (J.C. Bondanella & P. Bondanella, Trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Machiavelli, Niccolò, ([1532] 2005). The Prince (P. Bondanella, Trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich, ([1878] 1994). Human, All Too Human (M. Faber & S. Lehmann, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich, ([1886] 2003). Beyond Good and Evil (M. Tanner & R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Orwell, George, (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lodon: Secker & Warburg.
  • Plato, ([308 BC.] 2003). The Republic (T. Griffith, Trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rea, Jennifer A., (2010). “From Plato to Philip K. Dick: Teaching Classics Through Science Fiction”, The Classical Journal, 105(3), pp. 265-275.
  • Rumi, Jalal Al-Din, ([1258-1273] 2004). The Masnavi-Book One (J. Mojaddedi, Trans.), New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Rumi, Jalal Al-Din, ([1258-1273] 2007). The Masnavi-Book Two (J. Mojaddedi, Trans.), New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Shakespeare, William, ([1589-1614] 2008). The Complete Works (J. Bate & E. Rasmussen, Edits.), London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Spinoza, Benedictus de, ([1632-1677]2002). Complete Works (S. Shirley, Trans.), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
  • Swift, Jonathan, ([1726] 1992). Gulliver's Travels, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
  • Telotte, Jay P., (1999). A Distant Technology: Science Fiction Film in the Machine Age, Hanover, NY.: Wesleyan University Press.
  • Telotte, Jay P., (2003). “Doing Science in Machine Age Horror: “The Mummy'“s Case”, Science Fiction Studies, 30(2), pp. 217-230.
  • Travis, Mitchell, (2011). “Making Space: Law and Science Fiction”, Law and Literature, 23(2), pp. 241-261.
  • Verne, Jules, ([1870] 1995). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (L. Mercier, Trans.), Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
  • Verne, Jules, ([1901] 1998). The Chase of the Golden Meteor, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Wells, Herbert George, ([2013] 1906). In the Days of the Comet, New York: Bibliotech Press.
  • Wells, Herbert George, (1904). The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, London: Macmillan.
  • Whissel, Kristen, (2006). “Tales of Upward Mobility The New Verticality and Digital Special Effects”, Film Quarterly, 59(4), pp. 23-34.
  • Filmography
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Georges Méliès, France, 1907)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Michael Anderson, US,1997a)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, US, 1954)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Rod Hardy, US & Australia, 1997b)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Stuart Paton, US, 1916)
  • 2081 (Chandler Tuttle, 2009)
  • Alien (Ridley Scott, UK & US, 1979)
  • Alien 3 (David Fincher, US, 1992)
  • Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, US, 1997)
  • Aliens (James Cameron, US,1986)
  • Alraune (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, West Germany, 1952)
  • April 1. 2000 (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Austria, 1952)
  • Atlas Shrugged: Part I (Paul Johansson, 2011)
  • Babylon A.D. (Mathieu Kassovitz, 2008)
  • Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1985)
  • Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1989)
  • Back to the Future Part III (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1990)
  • Battle for the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, US, 1973)
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, US,1970)
  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, US, 1972)
  • Daybreakers (Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, 2010)
  • Destination Moon (Irving Pichel, US, 1950)
  • Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922)
  • Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013)
  • Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Don Taylor, US, 1971)
  • Man In The White Suit, The (Alexander Mackendrick, UK, 1951)
  • Matrix Reloaded, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 2003a)
  • Matrix Revolutions, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 2003b)
  • Matrix, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 1999)
  • Mummy, The (Karl Freund, 1932)
  • Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, US, 1968)
  • Red Planet Mars (Harry Horner, US, 1952)
  • Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
  • Rocketship X-M (Kurt Neumann, US, 1950)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Robert Wise, US, 1979)
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, US, 1982)
  • Star Wars (George, Lucas, US, 1977)
  • Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (George Lucas, US, 2002)
  • Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, US, 1997)
  • Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, US, 1991)
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, US, 2003)
  • Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, US, 2015)
  • Terminator Salvation (Joseph McGinty Nichol, US, 2009)
  • Terminator, The (James Cameron, US, 1984)
  • Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
  • Unknown World (Terry O. Morse, US, 1951)

Upon the System and Human Comprehension in "The Matrix Trilogy": Trilogy of Knowledge, Change and Reality

Year 2017, Volume: 2 Issue: 3, 56 - 78, 23.06.2017

Abstract

Senaristliğini ve yönetmenliğini Lana Wachowski ve Lilly Wachowski’nin gerçekleştirdikleri “The
Matrix Trilogy”, bilim kurgu sinemasının en önemli eserlerinden biridir. “The Matrix Trilogy”de,
Plato’nun “mağara metaforu”ndan beri çeşitli şekillerde ele alınan “gerçeklik problemi”, sinema
teknolojisinin sağladığı olanaklarla yeniden değerlendirilir. Ayrıca, “The Matrix Trilogy”de insanın
asli niteliklerinin neler olduklarına dair kavrayışlar da mevcuttur. Bunun yanı sıra, “The Matrix
Trilogy”, insanın içinde yaşamını sürdürdüğü “sistem” ile “insanın temel nitelikleri” arasında mevcut
olan ilişkiye dair dikkat çekici bir kavrayış sunar “The Matrix Trilogy”deki sistem ve insan kavrayışları
felsefi niteliklidir. Bu nedenle, makale, “The Matrix Trilogy”yi, felsefi problemler ortaya koyan bir
“sanat eser”i olarak kavrayarak, analiz eder. Bunun için, analizde “The Matrix Trilogy”deki diyaloglar
ve diyalogların gerçekleştiği kontekst temel referans kaynağı olarak kullanılır. Makale, diyalogların
içerik analizlerini gerçekleştirerek, “The Matrix Trilogy”deki sistem ve insan kavrayışlarının neler
olduğu inceler. Bu makale, “The Matrix Trilogy”de “insan”ı diğer canlılardan ayırt eden temel
niteliklerinin “bilme becerisi” ve “değişim arzusu” olduğu sonucuna ulaşır.
  

References

  • References
  • Abbott, Stacey, (2006). “Final Frontiers: Computer-Generated Imagery and the Science Fiction Film”, Science Fiction Studies, 33 (1), pp. 89-108.
  • Aristotle, ([350 B.C.] 1857). Metaphysics (J. H. M’Mahon, Trans.), London: H.G. Bohn.
  • Balot, Ryan Krieger, (2006). Greek Political Thought, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
  • Barham, Jeremy, (2008). “Scoring Incredible Futures: Science-Fiction Screen Music, and “Postmodernism” as Romantic Epiphany”, The Musical Quarterly, 91(3/4), pp. 240-274.
  • Baudrillard, Jean, (1994). Simulacra and Simulation (S. Glaser, Trans.). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
  • Bergerac, Cyrano De, ([1657] 1965). Other Worlds; the Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun, (Geoffrey Strachan, Trans.), London & New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Bergson, Henri. ([1889]1960). Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, ( F. L Pogson, Trans.), New York: Harper & Brothers.
  • Bergson, Henri. ([1907] 1944). Creative Evolution, (A. Mitchell, Trans.), New York: The Modern Library.
  • Booker, M. Keith, (2006). Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture, CA: Praeger Publishers.
  • Carroll, Lewis, (1865). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan.
  • Cheyne, Ria, (2008). “Created Languages in Science Fiction”, Science Fiction Studies, 35 (3), pp. 386-403.
  • Dick, Philip K., (1968). Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, New York: Doubleday Publishing.
  • Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, ([1871-72] 2008). Demons (R. Maguire, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Fisch, Michael, (2000). “Nation, War, and Japan's Future in the Science Fiction “Anime” Film “Patlabor II”“, Science Fiction Studies, 27(1), pp. 49-68.
  • Giddens, Anthony, (1991). The Consequences of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.
  • Godwin, Francis, (1638). The Man in the Moone, London: John Norton.
  • Grady, Frank, (2003). “Arnoldian Humanism, or Amnesia and Autobiography in the Schwarzenegger Action Film”, Cinema Journal, 42(2), pp. 41-56.
  • Grewell, Greg, (2001). “Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future”, Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 55(2), pp. 25-47.
  • Griffith, George, (1893). The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror, London: Tower Publishing Company Limıted.
  • Heidegger, Martin, ([1927] 1996). Being and Time (J. Stambaugh, Trans.), Albany: State University of New York Press.
  • Heidegger, Martin, ([1927-64] 1993). Basic Writings from Being and Time (1927) to The Task of Thinking (1964) (D. F. Krell, Trans.), New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
  • Holsti, O.R. (1969). Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • Hunter, Ian Q., (2001). “The Far Side of “Moon Zero Two”“, Science Fiction Studies, 28(3), pp. 355-364.
  • Kalat, David, (2005). The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse: A Study of the Twelve Films and Five Novels, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
  • Khaldun, Ibn, ([1377] 1958). Muqaddimah- Volume 2 (F. Rosenthal, Trans.), New York: Bollingen Foundation Inc.
  • Kozlovic, Anton Karl, (2004). “The Cinematic Christ-Figure”, The Furrow, 55(1), pp. 26-30.
  • Krippendorff, Klaus. (2004). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology-2nd ed., London: Sage Publications.
  • Kuhn, Annette, (1990). Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema, New York: Verso.
  • Landon, Brooks, (1992). The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re) Production (Contributions to the Study of Science Fiction & Fantasy), Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.
  • Machiavelli, Niccolò, ([1517] 2008). Discourses on Livy (J.C. Bondanella & P. Bondanella, Trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Machiavelli, Niccolò, ([1532] 2005). The Prince (P. Bondanella, Trans.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich, ([1878] 1994). Human, All Too Human (M. Faber & S. Lehmann, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich, ([1886] 2003). Beyond Good and Evil (M. Tanner & R. J. Hollingdale, Trans.), London: Penguin Classics.
  • Orwell, George, (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lodon: Secker & Warburg.
  • Plato, ([308 BC.] 2003). The Republic (T. Griffith, Trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Rea, Jennifer A., (2010). “From Plato to Philip K. Dick: Teaching Classics Through Science Fiction”, The Classical Journal, 105(3), pp. 265-275.
  • Rumi, Jalal Al-Din, ([1258-1273] 2004). The Masnavi-Book One (J. Mojaddedi, Trans.), New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Rumi, Jalal Al-Din, ([1258-1273] 2007). The Masnavi-Book Two (J. Mojaddedi, Trans.), New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Shakespeare, William, ([1589-1614] 2008). The Complete Works (J. Bate & E. Rasmussen, Edits.), London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Spinoza, Benedictus de, ([1632-1677]2002). Complete Works (S. Shirley, Trans.), Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
  • Swift, Jonathan, ([1726] 1992). Gulliver's Travels, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
  • Telotte, Jay P., (1999). A Distant Technology: Science Fiction Film in the Machine Age, Hanover, NY.: Wesleyan University Press.
  • Telotte, Jay P., (2003). “Doing Science in Machine Age Horror: “The Mummy'“s Case”, Science Fiction Studies, 30(2), pp. 217-230.
  • Travis, Mitchell, (2011). “Making Space: Law and Science Fiction”, Law and Literature, 23(2), pp. 241-261.
  • Verne, Jules, ([1870] 1995). Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (L. Mercier, Trans.), Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
  • Verne, Jules, ([1901] 1998). The Chase of the Golden Meteor, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
  • Wells, Herbert George, ([2013] 1906). In the Days of the Comet, New York: Bibliotech Press.
  • Wells, Herbert George, (1904). The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, London: Macmillan.
  • Whissel, Kristen, (2006). “Tales of Upward Mobility The New Verticality and Digital Special Effects”, Film Quarterly, 59(4), pp. 23-34.
  • Filmography
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Georges Méliès, France, 1907)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Michael Anderson, US,1997a)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer, US, 1954)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Rod Hardy, US & Australia, 1997b)
  • 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Stuart Paton, US, 1916)
  • 2081 (Chandler Tuttle, 2009)
  • Alien (Ridley Scott, UK & US, 1979)
  • Alien 3 (David Fincher, US, 1992)
  • Alien: Resurrection (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, US, 1997)
  • Aliens (James Cameron, US,1986)
  • Alraune (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, West Germany, 1952)
  • April 1. 2000 (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Austria, 1952)
  • Atlas Shrugged: Part I (Paul Johansson, 2011)
  • Babylon A.D. (Mathieu Kassovitz, 2008)
  • Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1985)
  • Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1989)
  • Back to the Future Part III (Robert Zemeckis, US, 1990)
  • Battle for the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, US, 1973)
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Ted Post, US,1970)
  • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (J. Lee Thompson, US, 1972)
  • Daybreakers (Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, 2010)
  • Destination Moon (Irving Pichel, US, 1950)
  • Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Fritz Lang, 1922)
  • Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013)
  • Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Don Taylor, US, 1971)
  • Man In The White Suit, The (Alexander Mackendrick, UK, 1951)
  • Matrix Reloaded, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 2003a)
  • Matrix Revolutions, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 2003b)
  • Matrix, The (Andy and Larry Wachowski, US, 1999)
  • Mummy, The (Karl Freund, 1932)
  • Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, US, 1968)
  • Red Planet Mars (Harry Horner, US, 1952)
  • Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
  • Rocketship X-M (Kurt Neumann, US, 1950)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Robert Wise, US, 1979)
  • Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, US, 1982)
  • Star Wars (George, Lucas, US, 1977)
  • Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (George Lucas, US, 2002)
  • Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, US, 1997)
  • Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, US, 1991)
  • Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Jonathan Mostow, US, 2003)
  • Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, US, 2015)
  • Terminator Salvation (Joseph McGinty Nichol, US, 2009)
  • Terminator, The (James Cameron, US, 1984)
  • Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
  • Unknown World (Terry O. Morse, US, 1951)
There are 97 citations in total.

Details

Journal Section Articles
Authors

Devrim Özkan

Publication Date June 23, 2017
Published in Issue Year 2017 Volume: 2 Issue: 3

Cite

APA Özkan, D. (2017). Upon the System and Human Comprehension in "The Matrix Trilogy": Trilogy of Knowledge, Change and Reality. SineFilozofi, 2(3), 56-78.