Xn3cTs

reposting… november, 2003.

best regards,

ian

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Nietzsche, Hume and the Buddha

When I first heard of Nietzsche, it was in association with Hitler and the Nazis. I simply dismissed him as a rabid, power-hungry maniac who probably had an unhappy childhood. A classmate in college wrote a paper on this Nietzsche guy and I was silently chuckling on the thought that a comic book idea (“superman”) can be the subject of a scholarly paper.

But when I did get to read him (years later), I was simply won over by this crazy guy! He says provocative things that, when thought about, actually make sense. He’s probably among the few philosophers who doesn’t come across as an insipid intellectual. He’s got style, lots of it. He doesn’t say things just for effect (although sometimes it feels like that). He’s an artist, an artist-philosopher. He’s very passionate and his sincerity comes across. He also has a weird sense of humor. Indeed, he writes with his blood. Indeed, he’s a dynamite.

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Tags: Art, Buddha, Buddhism, Hume, Love, Nietzsche, Philosophy, Power, religion, spirituality, Writing
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Good thing I posted the whole thing in a forum… powtah. Eto, re-posting…

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The Prom(ethean) Knight: Thoughts on the “Dark Knight”
By Michael Ian Lomongo

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In Greek Mythology, Prometheus is the Titan who stole fire from the Gods and was then punished by being chained to the mountains of Caucasus, where a vulture came every knight to feed on his liver. He is cast by different authors either as the benefactor of mankind or as the one responsible for the evils besetting mankind.

Yes, since childhood, we have known Batman as a comic superhero. Perhaps the most plausible among the superheroes, since he has no known superpowers. He’s just an extremely wealthy guy with superb fighting skills. Plus the machinery and gadgets to supplement those skills.

But he is, in fact, a masked vigilante. A “freak.” Even if his intentions are noble, in essence, he operates outside, or at least within the fringes, of society’s laws.

Bruce Wayne himself recognizes this. He too dreams of a Gotham City without Batman. A time when superheroes and masked vigilantes would be unnecessary. A world wherein justice truly works. Where he would simply be Bruce Wayne.

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Tags: Batman, Ethics, Freedom, Movies, Philosophy, Power, Responsibility, The Dark Knight, truth
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Will keep posting old articles until they are all archived here. Will post something new every now and then.

best regards,

ian

Writing in Tongues

By Michael Ian Lomongo, April 29, 2001

(Thoughts on Actors’ Actors Inc.’s production of Paul Stephen Lim’s “Mother Tongue” — with Bart Guingona, Nieves Campa, Miren Alvarez, Ed Feist, Richard Cunanan, Bobbie Greenwood, Kate Fernandez; directed by Chris Millado)

The day I watched AAI’s production of Stephen Paul Lim’s “Mother Tongue,” I had just finished reading Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.” I’ve long wanted to read the novel after seeing the movie years ago. Some of the people I’ve talked with, who have both read the novel and seen the movie, preferred the novel. As they say, much is lost in any translation (whether it be from one medium to another or from one language to another). For me though, much of the narrative’s visceral impact in the watching wasn’t there in the reading (probably because I was no longer encountering it for the first time).

Anyway, I mentioned “The Joy Luck Club,” because like it, “Mother Tongue” is about finding and defining one’s identity and home in the Land of Promise. The former is about immigrant Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters, and how they try to bridge the breach in understanding caused by two disparate cultures; the latter, about a Chinese mother who’s an immigrant to the Philippines and her writer-son who migrates to America, and how this son seeks her mother’s understanding in his freely causing (and embracing) the breach.

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Tags: Desire, Filipinos, Gender Issues, identities, Languages, Power, Writing
Posted in Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Movies, Philosophy, Theater, Writing | 1 Comment »

My review of the Matrix Trilogy.

best regards,

ian

P.S. By the way, saw a portion of “Dark City” last Saturday on Studio 23. Years ago, I received a forwarded email which compared several scene shots from “Dark City” with “The Matrix.” Homage or (unconscious) plagiarism?

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Within the Matrix of Love
by Michael Ian Lomongo, December 12, 2003

I know. Many are disappointed with the Matrix Revolutions and the trilogy as a whole. The last two installments didn’t live up to the promise of the original Matrix. And of course, pundits would always say that the whole thing was just a veritable chopsuey: “love story“-cum-”sci-fi”-cum-”martial arts”-cum-”watered-down pop-philosophy.”

Watered-down pop-philosophy? Maybe. But the trilogy can really serve as a stimulating introduction to philosophy for the general public.

Among the major themes we find in the films are questions regarding illusion and reality, freedom and determinism, power and love.

The first installment focuses on the metaphysical and epistemological questions. What is the Matrix? What is the nature of reality? How do we know for sure whether “our reality” is “really real”?

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Tags: Determinism, Epistemology, Ethics, Freedom, Illusion, Love, Matrix, Metaphysics, Power, Reality
Posted in Love, Movies, Philosophy | 1 Comment »

Posting my review of the first two installations of “The Matrix Trilogy.”

best regards,

ian

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The Matrix, Overloaded
by Michael Ian Lomongo, May 26, 2003

I

Why isn’t “The Matrix: Reloaded” as captivating as “The Matrix”?

I don’t think it’s because the novelty of the original movie’s winning combination of stunning visual effects and intriguing philosophical premise has faded. (We know now what “the Matrix” is. We no longer are as curious when we first watched “The Matrix.”) Neither is it simply because most sequels really do fail to come up to expectations. (Consider the “X-men 2″ which is, to me, infinitely better than the first “X-men” movie.)

I loved “The Matrix” mainly because I thought it was pop-philosophy (metaphysics) in film. The only other sci-fi/superhero film that approximates this achievement in recent times was “Spiderman,” a sort of pop-ethics with Kantian/Dostoyevskian/Nietzschean overtones. (Intrigued by a friend’s blurb that “Existenz” was the thinking man’s “Matrix,” I went out of my way to see it. I didn’t like it.)

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Tags: Ethics, Gender Issues, Illusion, Love, Maternity, Matrix, Metaphysics, Power, Reality
Posted in Art, Love, Movies, Philosophy, Theater | 2 Comments »