Alright, back to the Matrix for a bit. First off, my favorite Oligarch has a very interesting bit of exegesis on the Oracle and the nature of the will, having seen the movie a second time (the metaphor is quite good, by the way). I'm not sure if I totally agree with O.O. about the Oracle, as I have a feeling that her comments on choice and understanding are a reflection of the layered effect of reality, the Matrices built upon Matrices.

As for his comments on my posts about the movie, point taken that his thoughts were still forming and incomplete. Also, I guess I didn't make my original disagreement with him clear. I really liked where the movie ended (craving more, while still satisfied by a good movie), I think the Matrix is still in existence (in fact, I think there are several layers to it), and I don't think the Architect was lying to Neo (I'm of the opinion that Neo's freedom allowed him to break free of the dichotomy the Architect posed, that he can save Zion and Trinity at once). But I wrote about all this earlier, so I won't get into it too deeply again.

Here's a very interesting take on the relationship between men and machines in the Matrix, drawing on a bit of Asimov (the link's from Zorak, and the part I'm referring to is in the middle of the piece).

By the way, I've played and completed the video game Enter the Matrix for the Playstation 2. There were a lot of interesting scenes one doesn't find in the movie (the Brothers Wachowski wrote 2 hours of extra footage for the game). No crumbs thrown out to help us make sense of the movie, though, as I recall. a new actress played the part of the Oracle, though (the original actress apparently died during the filming of the final part of the trilogy, which will be released in November); when asked why she looks different, the Oracle said she had a new shell program written up, or something like that. I was having too much fun playing the game and didn't quite listen too attentively.

Back to work (having to be at the office at nine every morning is brutal; there wasn't a day during this past academic year when I woke up earlier than 10). Perhaps I'll return lunchtime.