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I came across the Invisibles a couple of years ago and have slowly follwed the threads of it's influences and influenced. Perhaps it's just because I'm not as well-read as I'd like to be, but all of these ideas and influences seemed to me to be distant from the mainstream that I'd encountered.
But then I got to thinking.
The 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman has seen a big resurgence in the British media recentley. While it's worldview is rather different to Morrisons, there is a similar theme:
The Dark Side is the Church- the all-seeing Magisterium who control the flow of science and make everything nice and orderly. (N.B. The outer Church)
The Church is doing experiments which part people from their 'souls' (which in Pullman's world take physical form) in order to save them from sin. This process of 'intercision' has surgical overtones, and leaves the patient zombie-like and controllable. It recalls strongly the atrocities of harmony house.
The idea of somehow physically removing somebody's soulstuff.
Does anybody remember Jim Henson's "The Dark Crystal?" (i think it has his). Set on an alien world, there were two ancient diametrically opposed races: one evil and one good (perhaps overly simplisitic: as Six refers to the ectoplasm in vol.3). Both were dying as they got older and time went on. Each was connected to one on the other side so when a good guy died, his corresponding bad guy died.
Anyway, the point was, at the end, this big dark crystal was made whole again after being shattered, and the two sides fused in to shining entities- combinations of the good and evil.
At the time (I was about 10) it made no sense- whouldn't it be better annihilate the bad half and let the good half live, but it begins to become clear when I recall the double-headed (baphomet) nature of the conflict in the Invisibles and the annihilation of opposites, or whatever it is that is going on.
More obscurely, I've been reading an amazing mammoth book called 'Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas R Hoffstader. The premise of the book is (very crudely) that conciousness arises from strong self-reference. For example, as concious entities we can reason about our own process of reasoning (meta-reasoning) and about the universe, of which we are a part.
Some systems of reasoning are powerful enough to allow reasoning about their own workings. However, in order to fully reason about reasoning (to be 'complete') one needs an extension of the reasoning system, a meta-reasoning framework, a supercontext. (this is because of Godel's theorem. If you haven't studied university maths for a few years it's a bit tricky...).
Recall Robin writing herself into the story Writing herself into the story writing herself into the story.
Also I am reminded of the invisibles game in a can- the way I read it is that you in some way live some variation of the narrative taht we are presented with in the comics. Which at some point involves Jack recieving the game can. Self-reference. Infinite regress.
Try connecting a video camera at your TV screen and pointing it at the centre of the screen so it shows what it sees.
Now try zooming and twisting the image.
Emergent behaviour.
I know the Matrix was directly influenced by the invisibles, but recall in 'reloaded' the diving through monitor screens in his interview with the architect.
It should be hardly surprising that all these things are evoked, since the Invisibles is about everything.
Nonetheless, I was surprised. |
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