The Matrix Reconsidered

I used to think that "The Matrix" films were using pretty eye-candy to sell radical philosophy. Now I think that they use radical philosophy to sell pretty eye-candy.

Intellectuals (real and pseudo- ) can smile knowingly to each other at references to Baudrillard, Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus, and all the brain-teasers from our freshman philosophy classes -- but the transmission of affect, as Theresa Brennan would put it, is the spectacle of Carrie Anne-Moss and Keanu Reeves in tight leather suits.