Katabasis in Myth and Film

In Baudrillard’s essay of simulations he specifically mentions the fact that maps have made people believe that other continents, countries, deserts and mountains in different parts of the world exist although they have never actually been there themselves.  This then leads to the problem that is part of the simulation of the world because people do not see the need to travel the world to see for themselves what is outside of their experiences and close surroundings.  People just accept what they are told, and choose to stay where they are instead of exploring and discovering new places and cultures on their own.  In a sense, Cypher from the Matrix, chooses to do the same thing.  He chooses to live in the fake world although he knows the truth.  He would rather live comfortably in the illusion than rise against the false truth that is around him.

In Baudrillard’s Article, ‘Simulacra and Simulation’, a direct relation from capitalism to technology is discussed.  Baudrillard states that a capitalistic, or capital driven society has a tendency to desire and therefore create more technology to enhance capitalistic gains.  With this increase and as science progresses, Baudrillard infers that there will be an increase of importance of technology in society, and people will come to rely on it more for their needs and simulations created by this technology start to become what we see as reality, first as a mere imitation of what reality truly is, such as a tv show or Artificial Intelligence.  Eventually, these simulations of reality created by technology become what is truly viewed to be the reality because of the technology.  It becomes impossible to discern what is truly real from a simulation.  Baudrillard states that because of this inability to discern reality from simulation causes people to be melancholy.

The movie the Matrix enforces this idea of simulations and reality because of the importance of technology.  Morpheus explains to Neo after he leaves the technology based matrix that it was the need and reliance on technology that brought humans to create artificial intelligence, or a simulation of what they knew was real.  Before long, the AI overran the human society, and created a technology based world where what humans thought was reality was merely a simualtion of what the AI assumed reality would be like.  Therefore, the simulation became the reality in matrix, and no one saught to question it because that was all they knew.  The ‘real’ world around Neo, while he was still placed in the matrix crumbled into Ruin (as morpheus does indeed call it “the Desert” and it is rock, and shattered and crumbled buildings).  Interestingly, Baudrillard states that when a society accepts a simulation as what is truly real, that the would around them, actual reality will crumble and fall to ruin.  Therefore, because of the importance of technology and the disintigration of reality due to simulation, the the Movie the Matrix bears considerable similarities to Baudrillards Article.

“When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality; of second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity. There is an escalation of the true, of the lived experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have disappeared,” – Baudrillard

When reading Baudrillard’s essay on Simulacra and Simulations, one of the passages that struck me the most, particularly in relation to the Matrix, was when the essay talked about how there is a prevalence of half-truths about what would be considered ‘the real’ floating around a simulation. In essence, it could be argued that humans are not capable of completely sever all ties with the ‘real’, so, to create the best simulation, reality must be masked and manipulated into appearing to be other than it is, or the simulation will not be believable. It reminded me of when Morpheus was explaining reality to Neo, after they’d taken him out of his harvesting shell and rebuilt his muscles. Morpheus talks about how the simulation in which Neo has spent his whole life is actually a reproduction of an actual time and place – the year 1999. And, in case more proof was needed, the idea that ‘the real’ and simulations cannot be separated is reinforced in a later scene of the movie, when Agent Smith is talking to Morpheus – Agent Smith says that when the robots first began harvesting humans, they plugged them into a Utopia, a perfect world where there was no pain, no suffering, no worry, where they could have an angelic existence until death. But almost every single person that was plugged into the reality rejected it, could not except it as real. It was too dissimilar to what we know, inherently, human nature to be – Utopias cannot exist, it does not fit with ‘the real’. So they had to create a world more acceptable to human minds, one in which bits of ‘the real’, half-truths, floated around, missing with the simulation, making it believable.

While Agent Smith uses it to say that humans are inherently flawed creatures, I cannot help but think that could easily be read as a sign of hope – humans, however flawed we may be, at least can recognize something of what is real and what is not, even in our consumer, image-based world.