lighten up `Matrix2': Dumb, Dumber & Descartes

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Wim Lockefeer <wim.lockefeer () expandedmedia com>
Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 11:09:32 +0200
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] `Matrix2': Dumb, Dumber & Descartes

Dave - 

I normally wouldn't react to this, but I simply have to.

<soapbox>

The Matrix II opens on friday in my country.  I have a choice.  Either I
simply don't read any of the (interesting) posts about the movie that
pop up all over the web, or I spoil my most basic enjoyment of the movie
: the ride.  I don't want to know just yet what happens in the movie.
In my opinion, The Matrix is a most enjoyable series of entertainment
movies first and foremost. It may be more, an important cultural
phenomenon even, but only in the sense that it brings "the masses" in
contact with ideas and concepts that have simmered in several
subcultures for a long time.  Beyond that, it can be applauded as a
technical breakthrough, as a fashion statement or even, as is most often
the case in the good old entertainment press, "a very promising
property".  But before all that, it's a ride.

This phenomenon of people who have had an academic education in very
diverse fields, feeling obliged to analyse and overanalyse a product of
popular culture, reminds me of the endless discussions between
"trekkies" and "warsies".  For Star Trek fans, their series of choice is
far superior to the "commercial drek" that Lucasfilms churns out because
it has a scientific basis and because it tackles "ideas".  To quote that
other great cultural icon, well doh !  If I want scientfic information
or "ideas" in a larger dose than merely simmering in the background and
putting everything in context, I'll read a paper or a textbook.

Dear fellow geeks - lighten up !  OK, so midichloreans and death stars
are a bit far fetched, but so (admit it) are transporter beams,
computers that fabricate food out of thin air and warp cores !  But that
doesn't mean that either of them is essentially less entertaining and
enjoyable !

Apart from that, I think that the fast show is much better than Monty
Python, that George Lazenby was a better Bond, that the Original
Avengers were the best, that... (dragged off to his cell, kicking and
screaming)

</soapbox>

There, I said it.

w/
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com]On Behalf
Of Dave Farber
Sent: May 13, 2003 14:43
To: ip
Subject: [IP] CAUTION the original mailing is a SPOILER -- `Matrix2':
Dumb, Dumber & Descartes



------ Forwarded Message
From: Matt Clark <mbclark () ucsd edu>
Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 03:04:18 -0700
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] `Matrix2': Dumb, Dumber & Descartes

Dave,

It seems that some of your readers have apparently forgotten how to have
fun.  At some point one has to stop hyper-analyzing everything to death,
and
just enjoy things for what they are.

"The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to
understand." -- George Moore

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