Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present

by Karen Haber (editor)

We live on the cusp of change. Reality has already spawned one alternate state. Virtual reality is where some are most at home. But what happens when virtual worlds become indistinguishable from the real? Waking from a dream, how do you know you aren't still dreaming? If the reality we're in is virtual, who's doing the programming? These kinds of questions spin effortlessly out of the box-office megahit The Matrix. More than just a computer-aided shoot-'em-up, more than just another expression of cyberpunk angst, it presents layers of explorations of what the nature of reality might be & why this should or shouldn't be important. Exploring the Matrix presents 18 provoking essays on what the film had to say & how it was said. You'll discover the history of some themes set forth in the Wachowski Brothers' film, why they're important, how they've been explored & their implications for the future. The true nature of reality in our current cyber-age isn't a rhetorical question, but one that must be answered as approach seamless virtual scenarios, accessible online, in video games & perhaps as the result of uploading software to an implanted chip in the brain. Take the blue pill & stay in the dream or take the red & see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Introduction/ Pat Cadigan
Every other movie is the blue pill/ Bruce Sterling
The real matrix/ Stephen Baxter
The matrix: know thyself/ John Shirley
Art imitates life (yes, it's news)/ Darrel Anderson
Literary influences on the matrix/ Paul Di Filippo
More than you'll ever know: down the rabbit hole of the matrix/ Kathleen Ann Goonan
The matrix & the star maker/ Mike Resnick
Yuen Woo-Ping & the art of flying/ Walter Jon Williams
Alice in metropolis or it's all done with mirrors/ Dean Motter The matrix as simulcrum/ Ian Watson
The matrix as sci-fi/ Joe Haldeman
Tomorrow may be different/ David Brin
Revenge of the nerds, part X/ Alan Dean Foster
Reflections in a cyber eye/ Karen Haber
Meditations on the singular matrix/ James Patrick Kelly
The matrix made me do it/ Kevin J. Anderson
Dreaming real/ Rick Berry
About the Authors

Genres: Philosophy, Film, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Fiction, Essays, Technology

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Karen Haber is the author of nine novels including Star Trek Voyager: Bless the Beasts, and co-author of Science of the X-Men. In 2001 she was nominated for a Hugo for Meditations on Middle Earth, an essay collection celebrating J.R.R. Tolkien. With her husband, Robert Silverberg, she co-edited Best Science Fiction of 2001, 2002, and the Best Fantasy of 2001 and 2002 for ibooks and later, co-edited the series with Jonathan Strahan through 2004.

Her recent work includes Crossing Infinity, a science fiction novel of gender identity and confusions. Other publications include Exploring the Matrix: Visions of the Cyber Present, a collection of essays by leading science fiction writers and artists, Kong Unbound: an original anthology, an essay in The Unauthorized X-Men edited by Len Wein, and Transitions: Todd Lockwood, a retrospective of the artist's work.

Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many anthologies. She reviews art books for LOCUS magazine and profiles artists for various publications including Realms of Fantasy. She is currently at work on a major survey of fantasy and science fiction artists to be published in 2011.

Reviews

[Kyran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great compilation of philosophical and metaphorical takes on The Matrix.

[Adriano Barone]

Una raccolta di saggi di scrittori di fantascienza che analizzano Matrix.
Le letture sono le più disparate. Tra le più interessanti, quella pop di Sterling (che riconosce le ingenuità, ma che trova comunque esaltante il prodotto) a quella di Stephen Baxter (che si mette a calcolare l'inefficienza di Matrix e calcola che per mantenere il "sistema di coltivazione degli esseri umani" e la realtà virtuale di Matrix servirebbe l'energia prodotta da UNA STELLA, e poi si lancia ad analizzare alcune serissime ipotesi scientifiche per cui noi potremmo davvero vivere in una simulazione), quella di Paul Di Filippo (che trova i precedenti letterari, principalmente fantascientifici, ovviamente, della saga), la lettura della fantasia adolescenziale di potenza di Alan Dean Foster e quella di Karen Haber che la butta tutta sull'importanza dello stile.
Analisi interessanti, che dimostrano che nel proprio furore citazionistico postmoderno (e nelle proprie ingenuità), Matrix è un film che contiene una stratificazione di significati forse anche più profonda di quanto ne fossero consapevoli gli (allora) autori (adesso autrici).