it helps if I make notes

[beccaelizabeth]

I just looked up Keanu Reeves because one of the books I read made a whole page about how he's a white guy at the center of an action movie, or in the Matrix being the white guy that saves the black guy and the woman, and I was puzzled about 'white'. I can find interviews that confirm what I thought (English+Chinese+Hawaiian) but also pages that say it's a lot more complicated than that and other quotes that have him say he's white. So then it turns into an argue about if he's a white guy in the movie, and which if any interviews are relevant.

But, I'm not studying The Matrix.

And I just realised I can't remember which of these half a dozen books I was reading when it said that thing about Neo the White Saviour. Nor did I mark it. So even if I get lots of answers from the internet I can't get in an argue with a book because I can't remember which one it was.

Really I should just let it go.

... but it bugs me, because how can we have argues about race and what it means in movies if people are seeing white people when they aren't strictly speaking there?

(I know I've done the same thing on my first set of notes, missing the Asian person while I watch and count, but then I looked everyone up and went oops. But is that part of the meaning, or is it only me being an idiot?)

Comments

[baronjanus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_%28racial_identity%29

Found it

[beccaelizabeth]

Warrior Women of Television, p34

This framework is apparent in recent action films like The Matrix which features a hero whose body is penetrated by technology, tied to a machine. Despite the apparent vulnerability of his penetrated body, however, the film, like much cyberpunk, reiterates "mythologies of the invading male, entering and conquering a virgin territory" and by doing so follows traditional subject/object relations between male/female, mind/body, and white/black. Neo, the hard-bodied white male, enters the feminized (and monstrous) space of the Matrix. It is he, not his black male or white female helpers, who has the power to bend the realm of the Matrix to his will. His will (mind) has the power to shape the physical environment (body) according to his every whim. Within the space of the Matrix, his omniscience is reflected by his physical superpowers.

Once again, Neo's ultimate transcendence as a hero is dependent upon his rejection of connection, particularly the 'feminine' and the mastery of the mind over the material realm. The machine that runs the Matrix is depicted as a sort of monstrous mother to whom Neo is tied through the umbilical cords of wires. In a process that is clearly meant to reflect birth, Neo is shunted from a womb-like chamber, down a tunnel, covered in fluid. It is implied that he is unable to see reality at the start of the film because he still exists in an infantilized relationship with the mother/machine. In other words, Neo achieves his power only after separation from the feminine.

Re: Found it

[beccaelizabeth]

And yes, it is still odd, because as far as I can tell he's still not in fact white.

Also, since when is 'after being born' the same as 'after separation from the feminine'?
He's still plugged in to the Matrix with cables when he's in a less gooey place.