The Myth of the Eternal Return

After watching the Matrix in class i had been bitten by the bug. I had to scrounge through my roommates movie collections and find the others. A small matrix session ensued and thus many hours were wasted in front of the tv. However one particular quote i found interesting was when the Architect is speaking with Neo and says, "Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed, and the Anomaly revealed as both beginning... and end" It brought to mind the first theme of the class, The myth of the eternal return. The flaw the architect is speaking of is simply Love. Which then brought to mind a quote spoken by Dr. Sexon today in class, ( something along the lines of) "Marriage is rape". Does this mean love is consensual rape, or that love doesn't necessarily exist in a perfect world, only in the created realm of the matrix?

Some Notable Matrix Magic

- When Smith pulls up in an Audi at the beginning of the film, his license plate is IS 5416. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 54:16 says, "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy."

- The idea of all programs being born from The Source, an entity of pure light, and returning there after their purpose is fulfilled is a philosophy borrowed from the Hindu belief in Brahma, who in Hindu mythology, is a god composed of pure life energy. This god created all things, and it is man's destiny to return to Brahmand after his/her destiny is fulfilled.

- "Know thyself", the phrase in the kitchen of the "oracle", was the inscription above the entrance of the Delphic Oracle.

- Neo's room number is 101. Room 101 was the place in George Orwell's book "1984" where people were sent to be tortured and would end up believing something that wasn't true.

- The book Neo hides his computer discs in is called "Simulacra and Simulation". The chapter where they're hidden called Nihilism. Nihilism often involves a sense of despair coupled with the belief that life is devoid of meaning.

- The blocking moves Neo uses against Agent Smith upon his realization of being "the One", are the exact same techniques Daniel LaRusso uses against Mr. Miyagi upon his realization that he has in fact been karate training in The Karate Kid (1984). Sand the floor, paint the fence, wax on, wax off...

- Before his character's final speech at the end, Keanu Reeves never has more than five sentences in a row to speak.

- When Morpheus is explaining "What the Matrix is" to Neo, he uses the phrase, "Welcome, to the desert of the real." This is a paraphrase from Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation", the hollowed-out book where Neo keeps his illegal software. The quote can be found in Chapter One - The Precession of Simulacra, Page one, Paragraph 2, "It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges persist here and there in the deserts that are no longer those of the Empire, but ours. The desert of the real itself." * The directors made every member of the cast and crew read this book.