Blog Prompt 6 (Due after the movie)
How does Existenz, the film, fit into Plato’s hierarchical scheme of reality? How does the game, Trancendenz fit? (Due Saturday after class)
The film itself is an image of the real world. Since it’s a movie, an art form, we can say that Plato would not like the idea of this movie. Movies are art and to Plato that is far removed from his idea of reality.
In the movie we discover at the end that the there are four layers, possibly more, of realities. We have outside the game Trancendenz, then the reality of Allegra, and Pikul escaping the focus group, then inside existenze, and finally inside the gamer within existnez. The “real” reality being outside of the game Trancendenz, where most of the movie takes place. Trancendez is so deep in that cave no living being would tread there.
There was a particular scene where Allegra was wandering around outside the gas station as if she was appreciating the world around her almost as if she was thinking to her self “wow this looks and feels so real!”. I got a bit excited when I first saw that, because I initially thought she entered her games a bit too much so her mind couldn’t really distinguish what was real or not, especially when that weird creature came up. This scene however gives a hint to the ending twist that everything was a game form the start. You can see that the names of the establishments were very generic,such as the motel was called motel, and the old country gas station was called old country gas station. That one made me laugh. I think the movie itself actually conveys how Plato feels of copying from the ideal a bit. As the two protagonists Allegra and Pikul, entered existenz for the first time the world became a bit more gloomy. The area felt dirty, with the lighting making it feel that it had a more artificial touch to it. Then when they put in the miniature game pods, we were immediately introduced to a disgusting looking barn with Pikul gutting a frog like creature and showing the organs spewed out. The practical effects of this movie were great. As the movie progressed it got more ridiculous. Pretty much everyone was a double agent and began backstabbing each other. We can see that the movie has a theme of: nothing is ever as it really seems. We can see that the movie became such a joke at the end, it’s feels like it did it on purpose to show that if you stray too far from reality everything gets convoluted and confusing.
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Monkeys are sick 