My first response was to Kathryn’s post, “Dialectics: Self
and Truth”. In it, she had explored the rationale and justifications for Neo’s
pursuit of the truth in The Matrix.
Along the way, she made some very interesting points about the intrinsic desire
of humans and the conscience to
discover the reality behind everyday illusions and whether Neo’s choice in the
movie was really the right one at all.
My response:
Great post, Kathryn! Your thoughts on the reasons Neo
pursued understanding and destroying the Matrix really got me thinking… what is
it about the “truth” that attracts us so much? Now that I wrote that, I feel a
little foolish, because it seems like it has such an obvious answer. But whenever
I try to scope out that answer, it always slips out of my grasp. As you brought
up, seeking the truth about the way
things are seems like the right thing to do for many reasons, including the
fact that it provides the capability to actually fix problems that an ignorant
person would simple overlook. I agree: this seems like a justifiable cause.
But, it was your second point which fascinated me… the idea that it was an
intrinsic and nagging desire of Neo’s
to discover the truth. Are we to believe, therefore, that the human race is
inherently noble and for the greater good? This leads to bigger, more difficult
questions like “What is the real goal in life?”. There are many people who tend
to take the macro-level approach and theorize that as long as a person makes a
difference in the world as a whole, or helps out the larger community, they did
their job. Then there are those who turn to the micro-level and suggest that as
long as a person achieves their own personal goals, or remains happy throughout their life, they should
be satisfied. With these two camps, the premise of your post is highlighted:
the dialectic between the “self” and “truth”. But, perhaps, as you say, these
two are more intertwined than I am making them out to be. Perhaps one can find
happiness and achieve one’s goals by helping
out the greater population… or maybe it takes really heroic people like Neo to
achieve that.
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My second response was to Atticus’s post, “Metacognition” in
which he described the dragging and, at times, painful process of writing his
short story. In the end, he came to the realization that in many situations,
the “method of forgetting detail and working more freely” is extremely valuable
in the creative process.
My response:
Firstly, I would like to say that I highly enjoyed both
installments of "2 kittens, 1 cat, lots of meowing". Now, to address
the real business, the story of the writing process of your story actually
managed to wring more ideas out of a subject area I had previously thought to
be exhausted. I had always given the concept of anti-perfectionism a great deal
of credit, mainly because perfection is never a possibility and abandoning that
notion usually leads to gladly-accepted more sleep. But, I had never really
considered the possibility that not
focusing on the perfection or details of a piece could actually make it closer
to perfect. As counter-intuitive as that is, it does seem to make sense
psychologically. We can get so caught up in the nitty-gritty intricacies of
what we’re doing that we forget the big picture, and more often than not, our subconscious
has the intricacies covered. Thank you, Atticus, for giving me one more reason
to let go of my painfully perfectionist ways. This was a very comforting and
eye-opening experience.
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