Love, poetry, goodness, sin, freedom, real danger, God, dirt, earth, pizza plants, life. What would you risk in order to have all these things that we are entitled to in our society and we take for granted? I believe that Aldous Huxley would risk anything for it, and i would like to believe that I would too. In Huxley's Brave New World, Society and civilization as we know it had been changed into a hideous world where babies are manufactured and conditioned to be "happy" and have no other feelings and be drug-happy and promiscuous. John could not take this "happiness" and so he renounced it all to live a simple, free life. It's satirical to think that he was called "savage". Through this book, Huxley was trying to warn us about where we were heading with our constantly changing morals and laws, but especially our perception of what is right and what is wrong.
There have been many similar warnings through literature and even film. One such film is the Disney Original Movie: WALL-E. WALL-E is a film that can touch your heart, make you laugh, and teach you many lessons all in 98 minutes of nonstop fun. It is the story of a robot named Wall-E whose directive is to pick up trash off the earth and then compact it. While doing so, a star ship lands on the earth and releases EVE, who eventually falls "in love" (I put this in quotes because we must remember that they are both robots and are technically incapable of human emotion, so we must assume that they are artificial intelligence) with Wall-E, while Wall-E falls in love with her. They are launched back into space after EVE finds what she is looking for on Earth (a plant with active photosynthesis) and they arrive on an even bigger star ship which holds all remaining human life. What is left of the human race, however, is a pathetic bunch of obese, "happy" people who can't walk or do anything because they are attached to their "hover chairs" due to laziness. EVE and Wall-E take the plant life to the captain of the ship, who is at first skeptical and doesn't want to return to Earth due to the fact that he is so used to life as it is now. When at last he agrees, EVE opens her compartment to find that the plant had been stolen, and the captain is relieved and sends EVE down to repairs. With Wall-E's help, EVE finds out that the Autopilot had stolen and tried to destroy the plant life in order to prevent the humans from returning to Earth. EVE and Wall-E get the plant back and take it back up to the newly encouraged Captain (due to his research on everything Earth once was) who is overjoyed to see it and follows by attempting to use it to return to Earth. Autopilot stops him, however, and then they begin to have their finale showdown fight while EVE and Wall-E attempt to take the plant to the beacon that it needs to be placed in order for them to return to Earth. It is during this sequence that the captain says the most powerful line of the entire movie and is a major reason why I believe Huxley would love this movie:
"Captain: That's all I've ever done! That's all anyone on this blasted ship has ever done. Nothing!
AUTO: On the Axiom, you will survive.
Captain: I don't want to survive. I want to live!" (WALL-E)
The Captain realized that something was missing in their "perfect" lives. And that something is exactly what you wouldn't expect it to be. The fact that their lives are "perfect" is the reason that it is so imperfect. Dictionary.com defines living as " to experience or enjoy life to the full". How can one enjoy life to the full if they are trapped on a star ship and forced to live the way they are told to by artificial intelligence. In short, they can't. In order to live, you must have danger, and stress, and love, and joy, and hurt, and anxieties, and all those little emotions or pangs of pain you hate dealing with during the day. They all contribute to your own life and experiences. Huxley wanted us to realize all of this, and he would say that this movie, WALL-E, portrays the man's struggle to live very well and that it in itself could teach to a broader audience of all ages what he tried to teach with his Brave New World.
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3 comments:
Interesting comments on the themes in the film, but there is one quote from this post that stands out as utterly and remarkably missing the point of the film:
"EVE, who eventually falls "in love" (I put this in quotes because we must remember that they are both robots and are technically incapable of human emotion, so we must assume that they are artificial intelligence)"
The tagline for the film thought by Andrew Stanton (director) is "True love defeats life's programming." One of the major themes of the film is that, in fact, these robots DO fall in love. Against all odds and the fact that they are mere "machines" they actually manage to find "love". Regardless of anything else in the film, which contains many themes which you touch on quite well, the MAIN point of the film was this.
Thank you very much for the feedback! Personally, I do believe that they fall in love but for the paper's sake, I wanted to keep it unbiased and think logically. And in reality, it is impossible for robots to have human emotions, I did neglect the fact that this was in the distant future however, and my ignorance showed in my statement. Maybe human emotion in robots will be possible in the distant future as shown in this film. Thank you very much for the comment though.
Interesting...it seems as though love can conquer all, and even cause machines to become human! Human emotion will never be stripped from us. I love how you added the tagline to your blog title. I was surprised at your parenthetical comment as well!
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