Inception and Ariadne's Labyrinth
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 11:48PM A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but only his Ariadne. - Nietzsche
Three hours pass by in a wrinkle of time when a film is visually rich, fast-paced, blended well with arresting music, and, most of all, presents a meticulously structured montage that keeps the storyline intact within omnibus subplots and syncopates the general unnecessary. After seven years of writing and another three in the making, Christopher Nolan's Inception turns out to be a well-built labyrinth that takes the audience through different levels of the "subconscious" represented by action-packed worlds of dreams. Since its opening, the film has received a variety of mixed reviews and a good load of possible assumptions and reader-response theories regarding its rather deceitful ending. The film is open to many interpretations, as its tagline boasts, "Ideas define a person and his world." The audience's demand for a definitive, if not entirely positive, ending, has indeed made possible so many ideas about "what really happened" that continue to live and haunt so many minds after the movie ends and the real world reels back.
Inception does not call for an elaborate, scientific decoding of its seeming mystery; the previsioning part has already been finished by Nolan himself, and, as much as the film seems to scream out for an all-prevailing interpretation, the audience should always be reminded that the primary role of cinema is to deceive, lure, and therefore, to entertain, not to plant philosophical meanderings and other mind-games that far exceeds what it originally offers. In the end, every film is an "inception" as this particular film defines the term, or rather, Dom Cobb defines the term. Through two-thirds of the film, a keen viewer should realize that everything that happens on the reel happens from Cobb's perspective, insight, mind and thought. It is Cobb that takes the crew into the world of dreams, into dreams within dreams, and into the "limbo" which, in the strictest sense, is only his generic creation in itself. If the cinema could manipulate the audience within its given time, in this case which is three hours, Inception uses it admirably well; even after the movie ends the audience stumbles back into reality with lingering thoughts that question how the end is the beginning is the end.
All in all, the role of women in the film calls for attention. Ariadne is the designer and the weaver of the labyrinthine dreams the crew risk their lives to jump in for action, in the middle of whose labyrinth is the Minotaur, Mal Cobb. Ariadne, whose identity is hardly revealed throughout the entire journey, is the "architect" of an infrastructure that proves to be out of her control, as it is ruled by the ghost of a much more feminine monstrosity of Mal. Not far apart from the feminine-beastly themes, one fundamental question rolls into the picture; does the weaver come first, or does the monster? It is not easy to answer when each defines one another. Whether Mal Cobb exists in reality does not matter in the film, as is the case with Dom Cobb and all characters, all happenings, all dreams. The only truth to be reminded is that visual and auditory sensations that the cinematic device presents is real, that this reality continues on for a good three hours, and that when they are over, they linger in fragmented visions and sounds.
Dreams are not supposed to be allegorical or premeditated-structuralist, or are they? Either way, if Inception gave a good pleasurable three hours, it has accomplished its objectives; we cannot regret having nightmares and dreams, we can only blame ourselves having fallen asleep.
So-Rim Lee
The Labyrinth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth (Greek λαβύρινθος labyrinthos) was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had made the Labyrinth so cunningly that he himself could barely escape it after he built it. Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a skein of thread, literally the "clew", or "clue", so he could find his way out again.
Theseus and Ariadne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus
King Minos of Crete had waged war with the Athenians and was successful. He then demanded that, at nine-year intervals, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls were to be sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster that lived in the Labyrinth created by Daedalus. On the third occasion, Theseus volunteered to slay the monster. On his arrival in Crete, King Minos' daughter Ariadne, out of love for Theseus, gave him a ball of string so he could find his way out. That night, Ariadne escorted Theseus to the Labyrinth, and Theseus promised that if he returned from the Labyrinth he would take Ariadne with him. As soon as Theseus entered the Labyrinth, he tied one end of the ball of string to the door post. Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne; go forwards, always down and never left or right. Theseus came to the heart of the Labyrinth and also upon the sleeping Minotaur. The beast awoke and a tremendous fight then occurred. Theseus overpowered the Minotaur with his strength and used his sword to stab the beast in the throat. After decapitating the beast, Theseus used the string to escape the Labyrinth and managed to escape with all of the young Athenians and Ariadne. On the return journey Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. Another story tells that Ariadne was already married to Dionysus before she met Theseus.
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
