Embedded Files
A science fiction zine focused primarily on in-depth media analysis.
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FEATURED ARTICLES
Smith and the Digital Whale: Ahab in The Matrix
A rigorous, scholarly examination of the character similarities and shared thematic elements in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and the Wachowskis' The Matrix Trilogy
EXCERPT
Smith picks up a pole, preparing to connect it with Neo’s fragile, human head. He swings but hits nothing, as Neo ducks and counters. “I can see you,” Neo says. Neo’s physical blindness has allowed him a second sight, giving him the ability to see Smith’s true form: hellfire, the basis of which can be found in Ahab’s address to the flames in Chapter 119, which reads:
“Oh, thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee, that to this hour I bear the scar; I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now know that thy right worship is defiance…I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me…Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee” (Melville 550).
In this passage, Ahab indicates he once worshipped the flames, but then was scarred and now believes the only way to honor the flame is through defiance. This passion is what drives him; the fiery anger within him gives him purpose. The “scar” he speaks of can be interpreted as his physical violation at the “hands” of the whale.
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Fate or Human Misconception? – The Façade of Free Will in The Terminator
An analysis of character-driven narrative process and endpoints in James Cameron's The Terminator.
EXCERPT
Only through assuming the cold, efficient qualities of the Terminators themselves are humans able to achieve victory, and the humans’ failure to do so is a foreshadowing of the inevitability of Judgment Day, because in order to kill a Terminator, one must be a Terminator.
This concept is manifested most clearly in the characterization of John Connor, the leader of the human resistance and savior of mankind. While his resolve, determination, and cunning battle strategy enable the resistance to rise up against the machines and “smash those metal mother-fuckers into junk,” his mannerisms, movements, and facial expressions mimic those of a Terminator, and not those of a human.
We first see John behind a pair of binoculars, which give an initial impression of a mechanical soldier. As he lowers the binoculars with arms locked in a rigid 90-degree angle, however, it becomes clear that the binoculars are not the only thing inhuman.
John's head turns on a fixed, rigid axis, and only after his eyes have moved first along the same fixed, rigid axis, a physical trait of the Terminator in T1, and a trait we will see in the two Terminators later in this film. John's eyes are cold and distant; there is no life to them. His face is locked in an impassive gaze. John is not a human surveying the battlefield; he is a Terminator scanning the battlefield. The humans win because they are being led by a Terminator.
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