About the Book
Few media franchises can match The Matrix for enthusiasm of reception and subsequent proliferation. Who in 1999 could have imagined that the momentum of a single film would sustain two more major theatrical releases in a single year, a collection of nine anime cartoons, a best-selling computer game, and more websites than can be counted? Jacking In To The Matrix Trilogy will be the first academic study to take an in-depth look at all of these products, a coherent overview of the franchise as a whole. The Matrix films are rich with mythological and religious references, as well as drawing upon futuristic fiction. Such richness demands a variety of decoding interpreting skills, and the array of talent in this volume will lay bare many of the strand that have given the Matrix creations such a sense of magic. The book gathers original articles that comment on the cultural and religious implications of The Matrix trilogy, its place within the cyberworlds of contemporary literature and philosophy, and its portrayal of gender and race. The volume also makes conjectures about the ethical and social consequences of taking either the red of the blue pill. Jacking In To The Matrix Trilogy wil
Table of Contents:
Introduction: William G. Doty, The University of Alabama, "The Deeper You Go, the More Complex It Seems, and the Dizzier I Feel"; Section 1: Cultural And Religious Implications; Chapter 1: Richard R. Jones, Lee University, "American Religion, Community, and Revitalization: Why The Matrix Resonates"; Chapter 2: John Shelton Lawrence, Morningside College, "Gimme that Bullet Time Religion, or The Dream of Spiritually Perfect Violence"; Chapter 3: Rachel Wagner, Southwestern University, and Frances Flannery-Dailey, Hendrix College, "Ultimate Reality: Buddhist and Gnostic Constructions of Bliss"; Section 2: Theorizing Cyberworlds; Chapter 4: Matthew Kapell, The University of Michigan-Dearborn and Wayne State University, "Do Empty Books and Empty Ammunition Clips Mean the Ideas are Empty As Well?"; Chapter 5: Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University, "Highly Technical Boys and Girls in the Digital Wonderland of Pop Culture"; Chapter 6: Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Central Michigan University, "Biomorph: The Posthuman Living Thing"; Section 3: Jacking In To Issues Of Gender And Race; Chapter 7: Isis I.M.O. Leslie, "Romantic Subjectivity of the Self-made Ideal"; Chapter 8: C. Richard King and David Leonard, Washington State University, "Is Neo White? Reading Race, Watching the Trilogy"; Section 4: The Games And Ethics Of Simulation; Chapter 9: Tim Mizelle, Duke, "Parallel Realities: Enter the Matrix via 'Strange Loops' "; Chapter 10: Russell Blackford, Professional Science Fiction Novelist and Critic, "What Might Be Wrong with Living in a Matrix?"; Conclusion: At the Edge of the World, Again
About the Author :
Matthew Kapell is Visiting Lecturer of Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. William G. Doty is a retired Professor of Humanities and Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He has published 16 books and over 70 essays in a wide range of academic journals.
Review :
"Jacking into the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation [is] a collection of meaty essays on The Matrix's cultural meaning. Hailing from a range of scholarly disciplines, the contributors speak to the innumerable interpretations the films have inspired. This collection's strength is that it doesn't try to tell you that the Matrix films are good or bad movies. The writers are as interested in the films' failures as in their innovations, and in the opportunities they offer to take the measure of the American mind. They ask intriguing questions. I came away from Jacking convinced that the Matrix films are more than action flicks. By provoking such passionate and thoughtful responses, from academics and water-cooler philosophers alike, the series has embodied the cyborg dreams, the fears and desires, of Americans at the turn of the millennium. And that's something worth reading about." - The Boston Phoenix, 9/11/04
"Any book under the editorial leadership of Professor William Doty is an event. His authority insures that the articles have intellectual density and academic weight. Yet, what is much rarer in this kind of publication, is a style that will captivate anybody interested in understanding how we experience and interpret films. The discussion is fascinating, the ideas fresh, the bibliographies precious. The title: Jacking into the Matrix Franchise: Cultural Reception and Interpretation, is too restrictive as it may appear like it is only addressed to fans of the Matrix films (of which I am not). But the collection of articles offers much more: it is a grand tour of all the subjects that matter in film studies: gender and degenderization, race and multiraciality, evolving and contradictory definitions of male and female heroism, religious symbolism in an entertainment culture, hidden agendas and embedded political values, postmodern deconstruction and reconstruction of hope, archetypal characters showing up unannounced, the opposition of an old in the new market of spiritual values and more I am one of those who, twenty some years ago, immensely enjoyed Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation (1981). Doty and Kapell's collection of articles are the best update on the subject I have read since. I am ready to bet my copy of Bound (another Wachowski brother's movie), that Doty and Kapell's collection of articles will become a classic in film studies. I think of Bound as the best film ever made about trust (as well as a superb thriller); it did not attract the fame of the Matrix, and reading Jacking into the matrix Franchise help me understand why." - Ginette Paris, PhD. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Spring Journal 2004
"Two things distinguish this useful mapping of the Wachowski brothers' Matrix film trilogy... First, its range of contributors... second, the editors' insistence on conversational writing makes for an uncommon accessibility.... Recommended." -Choice, January 2005
