Good one, Bryan.
Perhaps, through the layers of reality, reloaded is also a cultural artefact, where we despite all our modern elaborateness, walks around in Mindgames, possibly even longing for a modern, yet original experience of the re-ligio ?

To further the Gothic theme, in the videogame Enter the Matrix, the segment inside the Merovingian's house involves battling vampires (complete with wooden stakes & crossbows) - Niobe as Buffy!

One issue: Bryan suggests that the reload of Zion/Matrix functions as "a program, which must be running in something.  Its housing can only be external, since it includes the robot and Matrix worlds." I don't see this logic as necessary - why must a program be embedded in another system? Can a system stand on its own without a metalevel?

My theory is that Revolutions will take the Baudrillardism to a radical level to suggest that while "reality" (Zion/robots) is a program (which Neo is learning to hack like the Matrix), it is self-standing - there is no outer level of reality outside of simulation. So Matrix is both as real and simulated as Zion, but nothing else is more real - there is nothing outside of the two sides of the looking glass.

Egypt bans the movie for religious reasons, and for violence: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...matrix_030612000126

Good question, Jason. I came to that position for two reasons. First, thinking the history and science of computing, which the movies (especially the first) explicitly evoke, recalls the concept of programs running in *something*, which is how they interact with the world. Second, the line between the coppertop/robot world and Zion is unclear, underpictured, and hazily conceived - which suggests laziness, editing, or intention. The latter is my charitable guess, based on the brothers' fine work to date, and opens the possibility for a hidden framing structure.

a minor correction, where you say "when “TO BE CONTINUED” starts the final credits? ", i believe the Reloaded movie ends with 'TO BE CONCLUDED'.

a bigger correction, where you say "by the Architect, who presents himself as father and the Oracle as mother." In fact, the Architect speaks of "she" and it is Neo who says "The Oracle". The Architect's response to this is a distainful "Please," as if to say the notion is simply ridiculous. For a thought-provoking essay on the notion that Persephone is the real Mother of the refined Matrix, read 'The Architect's Speech Analyzed' posted here:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=matrix+r...=/groups%3Fnum%3D50

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