Why limit yourself?

It’s hard for me to choose a favorite song. I prefer to listen to music without lyrics and for music with lyrics I’d rather listen to a whole album. I’m not the person that listens to one track over and over again; I feel I’m limiting myself that way. New music comes in, making it even harder to decide. I grew up with old staples like the Beatles who have such a versatile sound that I’ve only begun to appreciate ones that have existed long before I was born. There’s new stuff from the likes of Anamanaguchi who use old sound chips to compose their music. There are always more things to like. To have a single favorite song seems preposterous. Music itself can be changed to better fit a mood, and humans have many moods. Also, as one grows older, music that sounds like junk might be better appreciated and might throw your old opinions down the toilet.

Music is actually one of the last forms of media I have learned to appreciate. I usually feel I could be doing something else while listening to music but now I feel it detracts from the experience. It’s something I find ironic because my original reason for disliking music is that it’s distracting to every day life. I like to listen to music now by itself and seal the other activities away for some time. Hopefully music can eventually merge with my life, as sometimes I feel music can motivate me instead of distract.

Being John Malkovich brief review with no spoilers

I chose Being John Malkovich for the required movie included in the upcoming essay. I didn’t just choose it because it’s a movie I have seen before and wanted to make the essay either; rather, I think it’s one of the most unique movies out there and deserves to be covered in some sort of way. It’s a rare take on fantastical experiences in modern society. Magic is usually relegated in movies to high fantasy and such fantastic experiences in the modern world are the products of a child’s imagination. Being John Malkovich brings in the fantasy theme in a modern world at an adult level yet it’s not a horror film; well for the ending your mileage may vary.


For those who haven’t watched the film, a puppeteer discovers a portal in his new workplace that allows him to experience whatever actor John Malkovich sees for fifteen minutes. After that he gets dropped on the New Jersey turnpike and more weirdness ensues. Out of school I’d recommend the film just for sheer originality. How it relates to the Platonic theme of the class so far: I’d say the whole concept of mind control concerns the self and consciousness. A big question is what is John Malkovich’s character in the end? He’s definitely not himself any more but is he a singular entity, or a colony of minds? What’s to become of the next vessel? It’s a hard connection to make because of the high concept nature of the film; it’s not exactly Snakes on a Plane but from what it looks like they took the title of Being John Malkovich and then explore the results. Proof lies in the script, which went under multiple revisions before being released. You can use Plato’s theories and apply them to what concepts Being John Malkovich brings up. Plato’s theories apply to so many facets of social phenomena that even a random idea like this movie can’t escape it.

Groundhog Day loop and its relationship to the Allegory of the Cave

The Groundhog Day loop is possibly one of the most benevolent personal hell literary tropes out there. It’s been used before in Star Trek (before the Groundhog Day movie actually), Stargate SG1, and a series of Todd Strasser novels. Although it’s certainly possible to go mad within this time trap it’s seen by the majority as an opportunity for self-improvement albeit forced. Groundhog Day’s connection with the Allegory of the Cave can only be alluded to topically. In Groundhog Day the movie, Phil is the only individual trapped in time and so is in a very different environment from the original Cave. The original cave has a return, possible consequences; the Cave escapee is vulnerable and can die in some circumstances. In the case of Phil, the only outcomes were to find self-improvement or go insane. If Groundhog Day has any connection with the Cave, it’s very heavily modified, being focused on the individual. The Allegory of the Cave was very large in scope and had implications for society, Groundhog Day is more introverted. It’s also a huge modification to the scenario because eternity is thrown into the equation. In Groundhog’s day a permanent solution to Phil’s dilemma would have to end sooner or later. It’s similar to the theorem that if you put together an infinite amount of monkeys and sit them on typewriters, one of them will eventually punch out Hamlet. Concerning Phil’s time spent in his limbo, he was in there for about ten years, according to Ramis, the director. The original draft script mentioned possible 30,000+ years. The Groundhog Day loop is so unique that it deserves to be a thought experiment in its own right.

Cave Story

There is a story of an immortal army where none of their soldiers can ever die. Very curiously however, there is no victory to their name. Every other army always had one up on them; the mortal armies destroyed their roads, their buildings. The immortal army could never gain victory because they were disarmed in infrastructure. The weakness of the immortals lied in the idea of wholesale slaughter of other mortal nations. The immortals could not die, so why not try to kill every last one of the puny mortals? There’s nothing to be afraid of besides the fact that wounds slow them down. It was a reasonable idea but at every battle they mysteriously lacked the capacity to fight. “Sabotage!” the immortal army cried. There was trouble among the ranks.

One immortal soldier observed the tactics of the mortal armies. He came to this conclusion: We cannot fight, for their spies destroy our weapons. We cannot move, because the enemy destroys our roads. Our morale is low, and we cannot sleep because our buildings lack the capacity to shield us from the rain. The next day of battle he decided to go ahead of his mindlessly stubborn brethren. He noticed a tower. The tower rained arrows on the immortals, who only saw the taunting enemies behind it. The lone enlightened immortal did what one else ever thought of doing and charged for the tower on the side instead. He died, many times, with arrows in his chest he managed to find the strength to chop the tower down. The immortals, believing their eternal persistence has paid off, had actually won the battle! The lone immortal soldier told of his efforts on the tower. This reminded the immortals of the sabotage that they believe has been holding them back the whole time so they put him to death, though when immortals kill their own, they don’t come back. Many years later the immortals were pushed back further and further into a cave and sealed up. They still struggle to this day, never realizing that it takes more than killing a man to defeat him.

The concept of taking the initiative is relevant to the Allegory of the Cave. It is one exceptional event that allows one to leave the cave. It is vague and uncertain how the one free man was able to escape from the cave. Likewise the one immortal soldier received the unexplainable spark that allowed him to change the tide of battle. It is not uncertain how the soldier escaped from his rut compared to the man from the cave. It was all from his effort alone, but even then how did it manifest in him? The aspect of one individual becoming exceptional and possibly championing the rest of his or her people disturbs me a bit. One special person among the muddled masses sounds like an argument for dictatorship if you ask me.

The return to the cave intrigues me even more. Besides being so hard to convince the prisoners of the cave to also find the light (in more ways than one), there are the chances of the enlightened one being silenced for his efforts. Is the illusion in the cave so convincing that they are willing to destroy their own to continue a cycle of self-perpetuation? I just do not understand the narrative’s lack of faith in the common people.