The Matrix, eucatastrophe and redemption.
Nov. 6th, 2003 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlMy housemates went to see Matrix Revolutions last night.
So there I am sitting doing (read trying to do) my Quantum assignment as they come back.
Me: Good film?
Lizzy: Yeah, better than the second one.
Gill: I found it unsatisfying.
Me(jokingly): So, did the good guys win?
Lizzy: No, they didn't.
Me: Guh...that could be kind of why you found it unsatisfying, then.
WHAT?! The machines won? It was all for nothing? Where's the eucatastrophe? I was brought up on Tolkien; all fantasies--all stories--should have one! This is what they hype over Star Wars? Give me the moment when Vader/Anakin looks from his son to his master, and then throws the OWB down the pit!
Note: eucatastrophe is not to be confused with EU-catastrophe, which is what happened to Star Wars when Zahn and co got hold of it. (Ironic that eu means good in Greek, isn't it?) Eucatastrophe is the 'turn' in the tale, when things are at their worst, but suddenly the glorious change happens and makes it all worthwhile. Luke is dying under the Emperor's lightning, but his father saves him; Frodo has succumbed to the ring at last, but Gollum destroys it through his own lust for it. Though I always regret poor Gollum. Tolkien was right though; if he had been redeemed it would have been his story and not Frodo's. Tolkien understood the value of redemption; that's why Star Wars is ultimately Anakin's story not Luke's (much as I love him). That's why the Jaded Wonder is so unsatisfying as a character; I can't see she was redeemed, all I can see is retconning to make it look like she wasn't so bad after all. Grrr.
If SW and LotR are modern myths, the the Matrix is a post-modern myth. We crave a happy ending, the eucatastrophe. I suppose it's because the story has its eucatastrophe: a flogged and tortured man, nailed naked and dying to a stake of wood, saying 'It is finished', and the barrier between us and the Holy Place torn from top to bottom.
I don't understand this scorn for happy endings. For example, why cannot Harry grow up to marry Ginny and form the family of his own he's always needed? Because it's 'a sappy happy ending'. Harry must fall for Hermione, causing a love triangle and estranging him from Ron, his brother, Ginny, his friend, and to some degree Molly and Arthur, his surrogate parents. Either that or he dies. Bleh. (No offense to any H/H shippers on my list, I just hate the Triangle of Doom.) 'It's too happy.' How can anything be 'too happy', considering what everyone has already suffered? There's been death and enough already to put bitter in the sweet.
So there I am sitting doing (read trying to do) my Quantum assignment as they come back.
Me: Good film?
Lizzy: Yeah, better than the second one.
Gill: I found it unsatisfying.
Me(jokingly): So, did the good guys win?
Lizzy: No, they didn't.
Me: Guh...that could be kind of why you found it unsatisfying, then.
WHAT?! The machines won? It was all for nothing? Where's the eucatastrophe? I was brought up on Tolkien; all fantasies--all stories--should have one! This is what they hype over Star Wars? Give me the moment when Vader/Anakin looks from his son to his master, and then throws the OWB down the pit!
Note: eucatastrophe is not to be confused with EU-catastrophe, which is what happened to Star Wars when Zahn and co got hold of it. (Ironic that eu means good in Greek, isn't it?) Eucatastrophe is the 'turn' in the tale, when things are at their worst, but suddenly the glorious change happens and makes it all worthwhile. Luke is dying under the Emperor's lightning, but his father saves him; Frodo has succumbed to the ring at last, but Gollum destroys it through his own lust for it. Though I always regret poor Gollum. Tolkien was right though; if he had been redeemed it would have been his story and not Frodo's. Tolkien understood the value of redemption; that's why Star Wars is ultimately Anakin's story not Luke's (much as I love him). That's why the Jaded Wonder is so unsatisfying as a character; I can't see she was redeemed, all I can see is retconning to make it look like she wasn't so bad after all. Grrr.
If SW and LotR are modern myths, the the Matrix is a post-modern myth. We crave a happy ending, the eucatastrophe. I suppose it's because the story has its eucatastrophe: a flogged and tortured man, nailed naked and dying to a stake of wood, saying 'It is finished', and the barrier between us and the Holy Place torn from top to bottom.
I don't understand this scorn for happy endings. For example, why cannot Harry grow up to marry Ginny and form the family of his own he's always needed? Because it's 'a sappy happy ending'. Harry must fall for Hermione, causing a love triangle and estranging him from Ron, his brother, Ginny, his friend, and to some degree Molly and Arthur, his surrogate parents. Either that or he dies. Bleh. (No offense to any H/H shippers on my list, I just hate the Triangle of Doom.) 'It's too happy.' How can anything be 'too happy', considering what everyone has already suffered? There's been death and enough already to put bitter in the sweet.
