In memoriam
Last night, I saw a pretty cool film called "Code 46". Directed by Michael Winterbottom, it stars Tim Robbins as an industrial crime investigator and Samantha Morton as a girl he falls in love with.
Read no further if you want to see the movie spoiler-free.
Nominally, it's a sci-fi movie, but like all good sci-fi movies, it's really about the human condition.
You see, the title of the film, "Code 46" refers to a genetic violation in the futuristic universe the movie establishes. People are cloned and born in vitro, and if they share the same DNA, they are not allowed to reproduce. The Tim Robbins character and the Samantha Morton character, we learn, share approximately 50% of the same DNA and are therefore not allowed to stay together or have children.
Well, to cut the story short, after having broken this law, and after having tried to get away, they are caught and their memory of having met is erased.
This got me thinking.
Are we nothing more than the sum of our experiences? To put it another way, if I loved someone very deeply, and then my memory of that person would be erased, would the feeling disappear as well, or would it persist with no one to direct it towards. Sort of like a "phantom limb", as it is often called when you lose an arm or a leg, but continue to feel sensations in the place where the missing appendage used to be.
Are all our thoughts, feelings and opinions shaped by the invironment, our choices and actions, or are some of them independent from external factors.
I started to think about it as a snowball rolling down a hill. It gets bigger and bigger, collecting more matter unto itself the further downhill it rolls, but there had to be a snowball to begin with to start the collecting.
Maybe that's an apt metaphor for ourselves. The further along into life we are, the more experiences and layers we accumulate, constantly being shaped and molded by what we do and experience. However, we had to have a core to accumulate onto to begin with.
I choose to believe that if you remove the cause of why I love, I would still be able to love. I have to believe that.
Read no further if you want to see the movie spoiler-free.
Nominally, it's a sci-fi movie, but like all good sci-fi movies, it's really about the human condition.
You see, the title of the film, "Code 46" refers to a genetic violation in the futuristic universe the movie establishes. People are cloned and born in vitro, and if they share the same DNA, they are not allowed to reproduce. The Tim Robbins character and the Samantha Morton character, we learn, share approximately 50% of the same DNA and are therefore not allowed to stay together or have children.
Well, to cut the story short, after having broken this law, and after having tried to get away, they are caught and their memory of having met is erased.
This got me thinking.
Are we nothing more than the sum of our experiences? To put it another way, if I loved someone very deeply, and then my memory of that person would be erased, would the feeling disappear as well, or would it persist with no one to direct it towards. Sort of like a "phantom limb", as it is often called when you lose an arm or a leg, but continue to feel sensations in the place where the missing appendage used to be.
Are all our thoughts, feelings and opinions shaped by the invironment, our choices and actions, or are some of them independent from external factors.
I started to think about it as a snowball rolling down a hill. It gets bigger and bigger, collecting more matter unto itself the further downhill it rolls, but there had to be a snowball to begin with to start the collecting.
Maybe that's an apt metaphor for ourselves. The further along into life we are, the more experiences and layers we accumulate, constantly being shaped and molded by what we do and experience. However, we had to have a core to accumulate onto to begin with.
I choose to believe that if you remove the cause of why I love, I would still be able to love. I have to believe that.
posted by Völundur at 1:35 am
2 Comments:
saw the film in May in spain, loved it unfortunatly didnt get a really long release anywhere I know. Shame because it was excellant.
That's true. But then again, it was never destined for any great popularity. It's much too idiosyncratic and unique for that.
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