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Invitation vs. The Matrix (fwd)
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From: Icrywolf@aol.com
I thought I'd try to jog up a new thread by mentioning that I was struck by
the similarities between >Invitation to a Beheading< and the new blockbuster
"The Matrix". The similarities aren't obvious enough to claim that VN's '38
novel had any influence on the script, but the numerous references in the
movie to >Alice in Wonderland< do make me wonder about shared source
material. To be particular, though, to what extent is Neo, the wooden main
character portrayed by a wooden Keanu Reeves, a modern-day Cinncinatus C?
Before his absorption into the special effects universe he is unsatisfied
with reality, spending so much time on his computer (presumably) that his
skin has turned pasty, a feature that draws comment from some punks in an
early scene. He has, by nature (again presumably), been isolated from the
rest of the human race by an indescribable yearning, one that eventually
leads to the collapse of his world and a rebirth. I ask if this comparison
is valid because I have always been puzzled by Cincy C, and felt that there
was more to his life than the incarceration could tell. In the one dinner
party episode where he is accepted into the outside world, N gets so giddily
involved in depicting the social scene that Cincy's view point is almost
entirely eclipsed -- he ceases to matter. I suppose that's the point, but N
was usually shrewd enough to make his main characters more complex than that,
wasn't he? I've been hard-pressed to imagine Cincy's existence after the
collapse of the world, and I wonder if that was intended, irrelevant, or a
symptom of a flaw in the novel. I certainly don't see him coming back to the
prison, armed to the teeth in a black leather trenchcoat, but who knows?
Chris Magyar
The Colorado College
I thought I'd try to jog up a new thread by mentioning that I was struck by
the similarities between >Invitation to a Beheading< and the new blockbuster
"The Matrix". The similarities aren't obvious enough to claim that VN's '38
novel had any influence on the script, but the numerous references in the
movie to >Alice in Wonderland< do make me wonder about shared source
material. To be particular, though, to what extent is Neo, the wooden main
character portrayed by a wooden Keanu Reeves, a modern-day Cinncinatus C?
Before his absorption into the special effects universe he is unsatisfied
with reality, spending so much time on his computer (presumably) that his
skin has turned pasty, a feature that draws comment from some punks in an
early scene. He has, by nature (again presumably), been isolated from the
rest of the human race by an indescribable yearning, one that eventually
leads to the collapse of his world and a rebirth. I ask if this comparison
is valid because I have always been puzzled by Cincy C, and felt that there
was more to his life than the incarceration could tell. In the one dinner
party episode where he is accepted into the outside world, N gets so giddily
involved in depicting the social scene that Cincy's view point is almost
entirely eclipsed -- he ceases to matter. I suppose that's the point, but N
was usually shrewd enough to make his main characters more complex than that,
wasn't he? I've been hard-pressed to imagine Cincy's existence after the
collapse of the world, and I wonder if that was intended, irrelevant, or a
symptom of a flaw in the novel. I certainly don't see him coming back to the
prison, armed to the teeth in a black leather trenchcoat, but who knows?
Chris Magyar
The Colorado College