Blog 6

eXistenZ relates to Plato’s level concept of reality because the constant shift in realities in between the virtual world and real world.

At the 1st level of reality, ideas and concept, the game is meant to be an alternate reality for users to live out another life as a different character archetype rather than their real life counter part. But this idea of having more than one reality is only good on paper. 

In the 2nd level, the physical world, while the virtual reality is effective at simulating reality, there’s still consistent flaws with it seen throughout the movie. One of them is  the conversation loops that Pikul and Allegra have with the NPCs, where if they say something out line from their game personality, the conversation with the NPC won’t progress. This exemplifies Plato’s concept of the physical world because it tries to bring idea/concepts to the real world, but the overall conversion from concept to physical is partly flawed.  

At the 3rd level, Art, where art only shows a certain view of the painted subject but the viewers and artists still don’t know full practical use of the subject. This can be applied to eXistenZ because a virtual reality is an art form. The game already explains its purpose, but since the game is only viewed at as the same perception of reality. This art form negatively affects its users to the point that they cannot discern  between the virtual and the real. Which can be seen at the end of the movie. Again, this exemplifies the 3rd level because of Plato’s disdain of art, saying you cannot gain true knowledge from it and ultimately you’ve gained false knowledge. 

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