Surely, this idea sounds crazy. I know that it goes against everything I've learned growing up in school. Over the years, I've been taught to separate my imagination from my reality. I've been taught that my dreams might not always come true. In fact, I've learned to stop dreaming and start thinking in reality. Yet, The Matrix completely changed the way I perceive my reality versus my imagination. It's challenging for me to separate the two from each other now.
The Matrix opened the door for a new realm of possibilities. Instead of seeing reality and imagination as two separate ideas, the film led me to explore their relativity. It begs the question "to what degree is our reality actually imagination?" Morpheus makes the point that nothing is real within the Matrix. He states that everything is a figment of our imagination. In which case, our imagination makes us believe everything is reality. Complicated, right? Although I don't completely agree with Morpheus that nothing is real within my life, I can say that I question certain "realities." For example, whenever I have a difficult time telling what color an object like a shirt is, I question whether or not the color is part of my imagination. Although one of my friends may say the shirt is red, another may say it is orange. While writing this blog post, I'm even questioning whether or not I'm actually typing.
Prior to viewing The Matrix, I kept these ideas completely separate within my life. My imagination was only to come out at night, on the pillow case, with my eyes closed. Whereas my reality was for the day, interacting with people and other objects. Never before was my reality in any way false. Well, at least I thought this was the case. However, now I'm beginning to recognize that these ideas coexist. I'm starting to question what is real and what is my imagination during the day, which I previously left only for reality. The Matrix opened these possibilities because it presented a new world, where everything was fiction. Through this idea, I've learned to relate reality and imagination.
Sydney,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that reality and imagination may just be one thing altogether, but we all fail to perceive it due to our being ‘inside’ of the ‘system’. Inside the box, we cannot observe what the box looks like from the outside. Though I might think that the world, or the inside of the box, is bright and beautiful, it is possible that none of this is “real” as you say, and I might just be lying in the box, comatose.
But as Morpheus said, “What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know.” Similar to Morpheus, I want to press a question. What is reality? How can we know when we are living in reality? In a connection to Inception, how could we know that although Neo has escaped one dream, he is not in another? How can we know that there isn’t another system INSIDE of the system?
And yet the even better question that’s being unaddressed here is what difference does it make knowing whether this ‘state’, as I will call it, is real or not? The gate has been sealed from the outside, and we can’t escape no matter what the method without outside influence. Look at us. We are content with our lives now. Certainly, everyone couldn’t go wrong with a couple extra dollars in their pocket, but nothing is blatantly wrong just because this world may not be real.
Another question I would like the raise is, if you were in Neo’s place, would you take the red pill or the blue pill? Truthfully, I would back out and take the blue pill. Though the red pill may be enlightening and all, ignorance is bliss. Outsiders to the ‘system’ disturb the equilibrium of our what-may-be-fake world. If it was impossible to escape the system, and no one was outside it, what would happen to ‘reality’? Would it disappear? Or would it become the imagination?
I believe reality and imagination go hand in hand, and that rather paradoxically, imagination can become a reality.
Sydney, I really enjoyed reading your blog post about reality and imagination. The topic is so thought provoking that it is mind boggling to think of all of the possibilities that Morpheous' statement about nothing in our lives being real brings to the table. I mean, what if all of our perceptions of the world are only imagined and what if I am currently sitting in a pod of pink goo being fed the information that I am typing a blog comment? This all begs the question: What it reality?
ReplyDeleteHowever, there is no possible way that we can reach a conclusion to this question. Maybe nothing is real. Maybe everything is real.
However, if everything is real, we still see it through a lens. I was amazed by Mr. Allen's Disney Animal Kingdom analogy. It is true that no matter where we go, we see the so called real world through a lens. We never see everything for what it truly is, but only a distorted image of reality presented by others.
Therefore, we can never experience a truly real world, even if we do experience reality in the firts place.
Thanks for you post.
Isn't it so amazing how a movie can make us question the whole world around us? It was really interesting to read through your thought process on such a complicated, confusing idea. Your blog made me stop and think as well. Our minds create what we perceive as "the real world", or as "reality", but if we wanted to perceive reality as something different, then couldn't we turn our imagination into our own reality? I guess through imagination, and through these holes in "reality", we could change everything about our lives. We say that certain things are "good" and that certain things are "bad" because that's what "the real world" tells us. But if in our imagination, what is really "bad" could be "good", and vice versa, then everybody would be able to live fulfilling lives, just by convincing themselves and imagining that they are living good lives. What is reality, anyway? The Matrix has now thoroughly screwed up the way that I think about everything. For all we know, the tree outside of my window isn't real. Shoot.
ReplyDelete