This Column Sent from my iPhone: For A New Generation, Life Begins with “Inception”

Opinion by Peter McDonald
July 29, 2010, 8:35 a.m.

This Column Sent from my iPhone: For A New Generation, Life Begins with “Inception”Of all the complaints old people level at newfangled technology and its impending destruction of society, one that seems actually based in reality is the complaint that the Internet, DVDs and iPods have ruined the communal aspect of entertainment, of the entire country sharing a cultural experience. Precious then, is the movie that truly succeeds at captivating the public’s attention, like “Inception” has done in the past two weeks. Just search “Inception” in the “Posts By Friends” tab on Facebook and you’ll see what I mean. And though I’m quite sure that “Inception 2: The Undreaming” is only a few years away, for now we can actually sit back and appreciate a movie-going experience that doesn’t involve titles with colons nor the name Spielberg or Cameron. Debates about the meaning of “Inception” have sprung up all over the Interwebs, even though most critics seem dedicated to keeping it in summer blockbuster territory. However, considering how little that we actually know about each other, endless analysis of summer Hollywood blockbusters is a necessary intellectual exercise because at least we can all agree on having seen the same movie. Warning: intertextuality approaching.

Released right at the crystallization of the Digital Revolution, and also right at the moment to be a lot our generation’s first R-rated movie, “The Matrix” was the first film my friends and I would talk about for hours just for the sake of understanding. Ten years later, it has come to define how my generation views technology and its relation to reality. The popularity of a movie dedicated to the danger of machines knowing too much about our personal lives undoubtedly feeds into our current paranoia about social media. Also, for a generation raised on D.A.R.E. and metaphorical frying eggs, the framing of true discovery through the taking of a pill provided a strong counterpoint to all those gratuitously fear-inducing anti-drug PSAs. The interpolation of existential questions between kick-ass CGI action (or the other way around) has let these ideas marinate into the chicken breast that is our cultural subconscious to the point that if you ask anyone our age to peel off the skin of our superficial understandings of the world and take a bite, the subtle tang of the Wachowski brothers is unmistakable.

Chris Nolan stands on the verge of accomplishing the same feat with “Inception,” leaving a whole bevy of nuggets for this cultural prognosticator to explore. I guess what follows next is the obligatory spoiler alert, though since I’m not a film critic I won’t be devoting three paragraphs solely to plot summary. Even so, be forewarned. “Inception” stands to do to neuroscience just what “The Matrix” did to electronic connectivity. Dreams are perhaps the last part of the human experience out of the reach of technology, but with biochemistry researchers exploring the rabbit hole that is the “cognitive neuroscience of dreams” (thanks Wikipedia) with increasing fervor, it’s only a matter of time until the development potential of dreams manifests itself in the private sector or the Department of Defense. In fact, Leo’s character learned all he knew ’bout dreams from Professor Michael Caine. The Army probably already has a Delta Force: Somno Division, and you can bet Mark Zuckerberg is already looking into how we can upload our dreams to Facebook. Dreams stand to get so much coverage in the next decade that Neil Gaiman may end up on the editorial board of the New York Times.

And with this all in mind, Chris Nolan actually finds a narrative function for the line “What if your world isn’t real?” as well as the legitimate use of action movie slow-mo and Siberian fortress set pieces. It speaks to his craftsmanship that most of the debate about this movie is happening only on the ideological level, and this debate will continue in some form or another for the rest of the decade.

That’s because everyone likes having reality questioned, trumped only by having reality questioned and then answered as plot device in an action movie. Movies like “The Matrix” and “Inception” provide fun little diversions into the world of uncertain perceptions but still leave you with a happy ending (that top was about to fall, dammit). They won’t really alter your thinking for life, or make you reconsider the world in any meaningful way. Most of the dialogue, if someone were to actually say it to you, sounds like a person tripping on mushrooms, which, by the way, made people question reality in much more profound ways thousands of years before “The Matrix” came out. Even so, in the right context, “Inception” could leave a huge mark on the psyche of our nation’s adolescents. After all, it would be way weird if we were dreaming this whole time, wouldn’t it?

Is “Inception” really worth this much talk? Prove Peter’s point at [email protected].

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