Potentially Gnostic Robots.
Sep. 9th, 2009 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonionayJust got back from 9. Definitely see it--it's a beautiful movie that doesn't pull any punches.
Just don't think about it too much. There's a whole lotta metaphysics that are hinted at and ignored. Nature of the soul in relation to the body, anyone? On the one hand, I understand, because there's no time to explain stuff and anyone who could explain is dead. On the other hand, I strongly suspect they just grabbed some genuine alchemical imagery, polished it with visual cues contextlessly yanked from Dali's Secrets of Master Craftsmanship, and threw it onscreen knowing 99% of people wouldn't care.
I'll rant behind a spoiler cut, which will totally give away the ending.
So it's revealed that the golems each contain a fragment of their scientist/creator's soul. That's cool. Most of the characters are rather stereotypical, and the idea that they're soul fragments explains that.
However, during the story, a bunch of the golems get their souls yanked out and trapped in a machine. (Why, btw? The machine doesn't seem to eat them. It just compulsively removes golem souls. Personally, I like to think the scientist initially designed the thing to yank out people's souls to be implanted in golems. It's not evil, it's the Singularity!) At the end, the hero frees the souls which go into heaven ("They're free!" To do what? Are you depressed that you're trapped in your sad Catharist world?) and make it rain, leaving 9 and the surviving golems to...do stuff with the now empty world. "What will we do?" They ask. "Whatever we want!" they answer. Well...what are you going to do? I presume the rain is symbolic of fertility or something coming back, but why do the golems care? It's not like they need to grow crops or anything. They're just four ninths of an entire soul wrapped in little burlap sacks. (At one point, one of them runs and gets out of breath. Is that because he has a human soul and believes that running=out of breath? HE DOESN'T HAVE LUNGS!!)
True, they can grow into their own individuals, happy little complexes that they are. Being soul fragments is no hindrance to them, in Jungian terms. But if they're supposed to preserve the future, shouldn't they worry about reproducing and stuff? This is something they have the power to do--break off parts of their newly developed souls and implant them in little burlap dolls of their own. They have the glowing green doodad to do that with. I wondered why they didn't reanimate their friends. Keffy said he was glad they didn't pull any punches and just let death be. I probably would have been fine with it if they'd addressed the reproductive issue.
Humans can't be brought back from the dead, but 9 and company aren't human. The message the movie explicitly tries to get across is, "machine without souls=bad. Machines with souls=good." They also seem to be saying that having a human soul makes you human, which I can't really agree with. The society these guys build is going to be nothing like ours, so why treat them like that at the end?
Dude, their creator basically told them, "don't make machines without souls." If these guys can animate anything, they will. There is no sexual reproduction. Your toaster is also your son.
I guess what I'm saying is, I wish this was a book that could actually get into stuff. Some reviews have complained that there's not enough plot for a feature length film. I say there's enough plot, just not enough stuffing.
blah blah blah
Just don't think about it too much. There's a whole lotta metaphysics that are hinted at and ignored. Nature of the soul in relation to the body, anyone? On the one hand, I understand, because there's no time to explain stuff and anyone who could explain is dead. On the other hand, I strongly suspect they just grabbed some genuine alchemical imagery, polished it with visual cues contextlessly yanked from Dali's Secrets of Master Craftsmanship, and threw it onscreen knowing 99% of people wouldn't care.
I'll rant behind a spoiler cut, which will totally give away the ending.
So it's revealed that the golems each contain a fragment of their scientist/creator's soul. That's cool. Most of the characters are rather stereotypical, and the idea that they're soul fragments explains that.
However, during the story, a bunch of the golems get their souls yanked out and trapped in a machine. (Why, btw? The machine doesn't seem to eat them. It just compulsively removes golem souls. Personally, I like to think the scientist initially designed the thing to yank out people's souls to be implanted in golems. It's not evil, it's the Singularity!) At the end, the hero frees the souls which go into heaven ("They're free!" To do what? Are you depressed that you're trapped in your sad Catharist world?) and make it rain, leaving 9 and the surviving golems to...do stuff with the now empty world. "What will we do?" They ask. "Whatever we want!" they answer. Well...what are you going to do? I presume the rain is symbolic of fertility or something coming back, but why do the golems care? It's not like they need to grow crops or anything. They're just four ninths of an entire soul wrapped in little burlap sacks. (At one point, one of them runs and gets out of breath. Is that because he has a human soul and believes that running=out of breath? HE DOESN'T HAVE LUNGS!!)
True, they can grow into their own individuals, happy little complexes that they are. Being soul fragments is no hindrance to them, in Jungian terms. But if they're supposed to preserve the future, shouldn't they worry about reproducing and stuff? This is something they have the power to do--break off parts of their newly developed souls and implant them in little burlap dolls of their own. They have the glowing green doodad to do that with. I wondered why they didn't reanimate their friends. Keffy said he was glad they didn't pull any punches and just let death be. I probably would have been fine with it if they'd addressed the reproductive issue.
Humans can't be brought back from the dead, but 9 and company aren't human. The message the movie explicitly tries to get across is, "machine without souls=bad. Machines with souls=good." They also seem to be saying that having a human soul makes you human, which I can't really agree with. The society these guys build is going to be nothing like ours, so why treat them like that at the end?
Dude, their creator basically told them, "don't make machines without souls." If these guys can animate anything, they will. There is no sexual reproduction. Your toaster is also your son.
I guess what I'm saying is, I wish this was a book that could actually get into stuff. Some reviews have complained that there's not enough plot for a feature length film. I say there's enough plot, just not enough stuffing.
blah blah blah
