..not to mention totally ignoring the message. We're not the important thing. We tried to make that very clear. You demanded e-mails from group members for "verification" - and got them. Well-reported, friend. Very well reported. I just lost a lot of respect for this paper.
Neo - now, don't get all uppity yet, alright? He's yet to write an article. All he did was relay some thoughts on the blog. It's quite different than any scrawl he might relay in Wednesday's edition (if he does so).
I think you're reading too much into it. Then again, probably not.
But please also remember than the intern, here, stole the journals from under the bench, which was pretty harsh.
It's just that I've had nearly seven years of the same half-witted mockery that everyone on the blog seems to be delighting in so very much. [Like forgetting the fact that yes, thank you very much, we're not IN the world of the Matrix, so the Zion-rave cracks just make THEM look ridiculous.] It was supposed to be about the message, NOT about us, and then after a three-hour interview in which he promised he'd gotten that point, he then posts this... after asking voraciously for our family and friend's contact info for "verification" when the original offer had been "anonymity". We're not a joke. You're free to think we're nuts, of course... but we ARE for real as in, sincere. See the other comments from some of our folk who saw this.
It gets tiring, that's all. It's SO EASY to just stop with the auto-judging and just LOOK...
I was hoping this would be ALL there was. Now there's going to be an article as well? If it has this same tone, we can do without.
Wouldn't you be a little tired of the same mockery, from a source that you at least thought might be just a little bit neutral, allowing readers to make up their own minds?
Hey does anyone know whatever happened to "White Morpheus?*" My BF and I used to see him walking around downtown and belltown all the time, in particular during the morning commute, but now he's not around? Did he move? Did he take the pill? Did he have a catfight with Neo and Trinity?
*dude dressed identically to the Morpheus character from the Matrix but he's white (and shiny!).
i find the deckard human/replicant issue to be a very interesting one, but i think the issue here is not whether or not deckard is human or replicant, but whether or not we are. bladerunner is brilliant because of this. the movie is sufficently vague enough that you can justify deckard being a replicant or a human being by amassing any amount of arguments for or against. when the replicants keep telling deckard 'painful to live in fear isn't it?' (note: they are not asking as much as telling him), it is more because of the common ground they share with all humans - fear of death. that is the reason for all the christ imagery at the end, because with christ's coming hope came to the human populace in the form of heaven. deckard (humanity) is clinging to the edge knowing he is going to fall to his death (despair), when roy (christ) lifts him up from certain death (despair). the fact that deckard's character is vague on whether or not he is human is part of it's brillance and attraction. if ridley meant deckard to be replicant and ford played him as a human, whether that was done on accident or purpose, it makes a much better movie. after all what does it mean to be human? deckard is our connection to the replicants. he is the character we identify with the most. the other replicants are too childish. if deckard is a replicant, what does that say about us? are we real? either way we notice a lot of pictures of deckard's past, but the movie shows his personal life to be almost non-exsistant (he asks replicants out on dates the things he kills) as we know memories and pictures can be implanted and faked. this leads us to ask the question of the validity of our own memories. there is psychological proof that people convince themselves of remembering things in their past that never really happened. i.e. your parents tell you a story about your childhood and you create the memory of it, but the imagery is wrong like the house you remember isn't the one you lived in at the time for instance. but it is real to you and you think it had existed as that. which brings new meaning to the unicorn dream sequence. deckard could very possibly be just a human that had gotten to close to these people that he would have to 'retire' as one of them had fleed from him and he shot her in the back that he began to question whether or not he was real or human. who am i?
"A bit" doesn't cover it. Really doesn't cover it.
But again, considering the way this was put forth to us as a "cool way" to get people to hear the message["I'm interested in your message and your manifesto", went Jonah's e-mail to me] and what it's turned INTO, people who actually DO want to know, well, there's PLENTY of ways to get in touch. From the horse's mouth, as opposed to its... well. You get the idea.
Hey baby, if you actually want anyone to know what the hell you are talking about you need to edit it down a bit. any 'normal' person isnt going to read 100 pages on your website of boring sci-fi nerd text. It's very self-centered. Maybe you need some bullet points or something. or a video. like the meatrix.
"at least thought might be just a little bit neutral, allowing readers to make up their own minds?"
... Neo, erm, that's not how The Stranger works. It's not your average trying-as-hard-as-we-can-until-our-eyes-bleed-to-be-objective media organization.
They're not neutral here. If you've ever read The Stranger you would know that.
i don't know about their supposedly incoherent nerd website (seen one, seen a million), but i do think i understand the message attached to the heart, and i heartily agree with it, i've even said (approximately)the same thing on the slog in recent memory. does that make ME crazy?
You did this stunt at Seattle Center to call attention to your cause or group. The Stranger seems to be the only paper in town that picked up on it. They ran a photo of your Space Needle display, quoted the police report, linked your website, and the guy interviewed you for 3 hours.
If your chat with him was as unintelligible as your website, you hardly have the right to be complaining about the basic coverage he gave you: A couple of quotes that seem reminiscent of the stuff on your web site.
And during that interview, it seems, you told him you were the characters from the movie the Matrix. That's a little weird.
What do you expect? If anything, I'd say, they gave you a pretty good deal.
Woah. I don't post comments online very much, just not into it much. Now I see why. These personal attacks are some of the most nasty, voyeristic, and cowardly bit of human behavior I've ever beheld. If you passed Neo & Trinity on the street, would you now stop them and give them the courtesy of a face to face conversation? I think not. Whatever you may think of these two, does it justify the bile? Would your life stand up to such scrutiny? Sure, critique their movement, but leave the mocking out. True to form for The Stranger I suppose; I still don't agree with it.
"These personal attacks are some of the most nasty, voyeristic, and cowardly bit of human behavior I've ever beheld. "
Really, this, the most nasty voyeristic(sic) and cowardly bit of human behavior you have ever beheld. You must not get out much huh. Its a comment post for fucks sake, what did you expect.
News Flash Kiddies: It was just a trio of successively dumber movies. Turning it into a lifestyle, regardless of the universality of the inherent "message" (which given the Wachowski Bros. penchant for ripping off the work of established S-F & comic writers - not to mention the major precepts of most organized religions - is debatable at best), isn't going to earn you any "street cred" or anything else from the general public or from Slog/Stranger readers in particular, any more than it did for "Trekkies" in my day, or "Browncoats" today.
My advice, as someone who's circulated on the edges of hardcore fandom for roughly 35 years or so, is: don't take yourselves so frackin' seriously. It's just a movie, it's NOT intended as a blueprint for living, and it's not a "misrepresented presentation" of YOUR life, it's about a completely fictional character, who although it may be one you strongly identify with emotionally, isn't YOU.
Neo and Trinity staged a public protest at Seattle Center to call attention to their cause. It brought out the SPD and the bomb squad.
The Stranger picked up on it, linked the group's website, interviewed them, quoted them, poked some fun (the website and the quotes are certainly a bit odd), and ran some photos—including the pair's big statement at Seattle Center.
If anything, Neo and Trinity should be happy.
If Neo and Trinity are out to change the world, first they need to learn to deal with it. It comes with people who ask questions, make fun, criticize etc.
andy, you're right. neo and trinity should be happy. in fact, i think they are happy, and i think that they are dealing with it. they just need to recognize that bladerunner is the more brilliant film.
Giffy: I've seen and experienced alot in this life; I've worked for years in clinics, hospitals, and with the public in general. Your response illustrates perfectly what I'm talking about. Detached, impersonal, and absurd hostility. Lighten up! Why so hostile? Let people have their folly, and go about your business...
To be fair, I think Neo has an interesting point about human's (read: American's) perception of reality. But, it took too long for me to find in his website which is a turnoff. Plus, it's cheesy. Which ruins the message. If one wants to make the point that people are sheep and all, why use a Hollywood movie to prove that point? That's buying into the system, imo.
I'm sorry, I've read the website (or skimmed it, it's not really what I'd call readable; it's barely English) and I've seen the photo. I saw the picture of the high-school-spirit-rally "artwork". And I'm supposed to be respectful?
Nuh-uh.
They've got nothing to complain about. THEY brought themselves to our attention.
And guys, seriously: The Matrix was a load of shit. Get a fucking clue, huh?
Exactly Fnarf, the right to be a sardonic ass is an important, nigh the most important, right we have as a free people in the greatest nation on the architect's gray earth
I agree with other posters - these women "Neo" and "Trinity" have nothing to complain about. They were out to get a little attention, and that's what they got. If Neo doesn't like the way she is being portrayed in this newspaper, then she should remember the saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity."
For starters, I'm going to have to agree with HACK on this one. Jonah couldn't write himself out of a paper bag, and had either one of us known he was an intern, we would have NEVER spoken to him. After I read through some of the other drivel that this paper has put out, its no wonder the little freak screwed up the message.
#1 We do not use the trilogy to liven up our day to day. Where we come from gives us a VERY unique perspective on true peace and freedom. IF you had read up on the Quantum theory on Tots, some of you might have understood that. Something being to hard to comprehend at first does not make it stupid. You just need to try a little harder. Imagine that you are all back in school, and it's something you have to pass. (No, I am NOT intentionally being a smart ass. I am serious)
#2 Those Seattle Center photos, NEO took those. Jonah didn't 'find' us and try to give us exposure. One of OUR people, who was working on the PR angle, sent 'The Stranger' an e-mail with the pictures and a copy of the memo that was left with "The Great Beating Heart Of Fear" or "The Runner" as Neo calls it.
#3 We spoke to the man for three hours, and the best he could do, even THOUGHT wise, was THAT? Yeah, I did expect better out of a professional publication, even if it is only an intern. We spent most of the time telling the man that it was about the message, not us. We, as bearers of the message are only important because of our unique perspective on it. (The whole 'Matrix' thing...again, not huge fans. Read the site. Pay attention to the quantum physics)
We are not the only people like ourselves. Our beliefs are our own and not open for debate, however, if it's proof of the sincerity of out work you want, as it is the message that matters, as we have both been saying.... Then why don't you ask the aspiring little journalist about the e-mails and testimonials that our people have been sending. Some of them even via audio source.
Oh, and we don't just need to learn to deal with people's bullshit either. I've spent the last three years dealing with it, and Neo ten years before that. IGve me a professional, for God's sake. I grow really tired of the adolescent mud slinging when people just can't (or won't) understand.
And if you have not seen it, this is a letter I have written to send to media profiles.
Dear Sir/Madam
Right now at this very moment, an underground Revolution for freedom, choice and peace is building; people from all over the world, from all walks of life are gathering to fight the biggest and hardest war the human race will ever face, a war of the mind. The things we are fighting agenised, you see every day, wars between religions, countries and gangs, the teasing and mocking that goes on in playground’s at schools, and in the streets. It is fear of the unknown, fear of someone that is different from you because they don’t fit with your construct of collective preconceptions. People fear that which is different, that which does not “fit” with what they have been taught since birth. To break this perpetuating cycle and bring on a “New World Order” were fear of the unknown is no longer the root of human reality is what we are trying to do.
What makes the Zero-Six Contingent so unique and different to any other group is that it has nothing to do with religion, worship, gods and conforming to another set of collective rules, another system – if it were the mission would be just like every other, another system. A path that promotes freedom, peace and freedom of choice, were people don’t need to change there beliefs, don’t have to conform to a set of rules to be accepted and are encouraged to make there own choices, to follow there own path and to take what they want from the message which is freely available at no cost to anyone, this is not about any sort of financial gain: its about love. Does it sound cultish yet? I don’t think so. No one pushed Alice down the rabbit hole
“The sense is out there. The choice is waiting. Choosing it, letting go of fear, is the hard part. Because as a species we’ve come to value other’s opinions of us. Rather than our own. We’ve come to fear being cast out, rather than being an individual. We’ve come to fear the unique Path, rather than the safety and null zero of the System” quoted from the introduction to Logos: Veritas Ex Machina book.
Who sees this, who would have the courage to break away and fight for us all? This is what is hard for most people to conceive. Through some unique metaphysical “crossing over” that we believe the science of quantum physics is behind, people from a world which most see as fictional due to a mega hit film spaning over three parts, the world you know as “The Matrix” in popular culture (PC). Neo, Trinity and a few others are now existing in this world, by now you are probably thinking, how can this be true, I ask, can you prove its not? And not all that happened in the PC was true, they remember everything and much was not portrayed in the PC, also the PC got one big thing wrong, it was not bad Vs good, it was Us Vs Us: humanity. Neo gains nothing from doing this, he does it for all of us out of love, because he believes every mind is worth it. He has spent the last 5 years working towards this every hour of his life, often he can not even sleep or eat because he physically can’t stop, its his gift to us. In the years before that he was struggling to come to terms with it, all on his own, and it was a close friend of his that encouraged him to speak out, so he built Truth of the Spoon.net
So many people who have read Neo’s writings and had conversations with him have written in and said “this stuff has changed my life” that it is so different to what everyone else does and it makes so much sense to people when they actually take the time to find out why he is here; to show people the door to freedom, peace and freedom of choice, to choose your own path, that your reality, your meaning of life can only be defined by you by your subjective perception of the world around you. He can not heal, its simply a new way to see.
I am one of many people who felt there was more, that something was missing, and found it through Neo. This has changed my life in a great way, a way which is hard to explain. I have always had an open mind, but now I am awake and aware of things and can see clear as day why humanity is suffering. People who know Neo, are friends with him, some spanning over nine years, and many who had not seen the PC truly believe out of there own findings that they are who they are, when people take the time to get to know them and listen to what Neo has to say, they see he is not some crazy guy wanting to get attention or forcing any thing on anyone, that what he says is true and genuine and the message is the truth in the rawest form. But it comes down to this: you either believe it, or you don’t. And belief can come in degrees.
I have been personally acquainted with the mission Neo and Trinity for almost a year, and in that time I have seen much change, I always new that if I ever discovered a group that I thought was actually doing something that might actually be able to bring peace, bring a change, and was not relying on donations that make people feel like they are saving the world, and money will never solve the worlds problems, I would help them. But I found more, more than I ever expected. A sentient being who cares more about every single one of us then he does of himself. I have heard Neo weep because it breaks him physically when he can not reach people, when one more spark is lost because they can’t make what they believe or what they are fit. Neo also suffers from a debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis, and he still keeps going.
Because of the connotations in the message, because it is so different to anything the human race has ever heard, and I can tell you that Neo is extremely unconfutable with this… some people including myself in recent times, believe Neo to be some kind of Prophet, and if people needed a word to give some kind of definition of what he is, that is the term I would use after what I have read in reference books during research at the library.
I have tried to keep this letter short, so as maybe someone will take a closer look and see it for what it is. There is so much more I want to say and so much more to say, I hope this is a start, that maybe you want to find out more. But that I leave up to you, that’s the good thing about free will, the choice is yours.
If it takes you more than say, 50 words to explain it, you haven't thought it through sufficiently to boil it down to its salient points. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY will read 1,200 words worth of self-absorbed teen-angst-couched-in-pseudo-sci-fi-jargon ramblings (aside from fellow self-absorbed dissaffected adolescents), and think it's either original, poignant or terribly insightful, because frankly, it's not.
It's been all been said before, more succinctly, and by better writers than you, and when you grow out of this phase, perhaps you'll take the time to read some of thom, and take both their philosophical and stylistic lessons to heart.
Y'all keep on talking about your message on this website, explain it succinctly! Three sentences would be great. Perhaps it will pique my interest enough to wade through the rest. I'm not going to study it as if it were for school. I'm going to this website because I'm procrastinating studying/working! This debate has been keeping my attention for a few days, but it's not going to last.
Note to the website creators: If you want to emphasize the message, don't write in the first person so much. Your intro thing has "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," everywhere.
Also, I second other comments I tried, but your message was not clear. Consider a mission statement or short paragraph summarizing what you are about. And don't use the words I or we. Or me or us.
AMEN. The whole thing just looks like someone's self-centered, self-absorbed bid for attention. One hastily-thrown-together monstrosity in the Seattle City Center is not going to bring all of the injustices of the world to a screeching halt. They might try getting involved in actual activist causes, for example, instead of just trying to attract attention to themselves.
Don't give me any bullshit about quantum physics. The only people who really have an understanding of the subject are people with PhDs in theoretical physics. Further, quantum physics doesn't apply to the human scale. Newtonian physics does a fine job of explaning the human scale, relativistic physics is fantasatic for the macro-scale, and quantum physics was devised to explain things on the atomic and subatomic scale. Yes, on the order of 1.6 × 10 −35 metres (1.6 with the decimal moved 35 places to the left), weird shit happens, things that if they happend on a human scale would be considered magic, but anyone other than a physicist doing a shitload of math that talks about quantum physics is full of shit.
Despite what happened to Don Imus, the fact is that everyone and everything everywhere "deserves" to get mocked.
And, the Flying Spaghetti Monster as my witness, they will.
They all will.
Sometimes, it's the messenger. Sometimes, it's the message.
Sometimes, the whole thing is a crock of shit.
In any event, if you put yourself in the public eye...you will be mocked and you will be challenged and you will have to make some sort of account of yourself.
Or you can go hide and play with your friends.
Just don't dress up like characters from a movie, spout gibberish and then get all up in arms when someone points out how ludicrous it all is...
...considering the intro page isn't about the message, it's about where Neo CAME from... truthofthespoon began originally as simply a place for him and later Trinity to describe their experiences, a friend of theirs suggested they build a site separately for it... the 'I,I,I' debate is kind of twattishly silly. Of course he's gonna say "I" talking about his own memories.
Sheepers.
And tots ain't a distraction or a procrastinaion. If you don't have the time to take to try, it isn't for you. The message maybe.... when it gets to you. When it's time. Or not, that;s your choice. He's not forcing it on anyone, different from a lot of religions I know, ay?
They're doing something, like it, believe it or not: every person who writes in and says that they found courage to deal with their shitty marriage to their wife or had wanted to kill themselves and wound up re-thinking those decisions because they can "define their reality".... ie, define themselves, not be defined by the box everyone else puts them in or by fear.... it's worth it. Waving badly-lettered cardboard protest signs aint gonna change the world. The display wasn't meant to, either. I suggest you get the whole story first, ayyy?
Comments (49)
God, they look even worse than I imagined.
Posted by Gitai | April 13, 2007 11:55 PMwhich one's supposed to be the "one"?
Posted by dirge | April 13, 2007 11:56 PMAwww, they're _adorable_. =)
Posted by wench | April 14, 2007 12:16 AMUh, #1:
The website's not down. It's fully functional.
#2: My hair's not "dyed" blue. *laughs.* It's black with weird blue highlights under artificial light. *shakes head.*
#3: Three hours talking, and what, seven pages of notes, and you manage to make us sound LIKE a couple of loons. Thank you.
Posted by Neo | April 14, 2007 12:25 AM..not to mention totally ignoring the message. We're not the important thing. We tried to make that very clear. You demanded e-mails from group members for "verification" - and got them. Well-reported, friend. Very well reported. I just lost a lot of respect for this paper.
Posted by Neo | April 14, 2007 12:28 AMOh ho Stranger! You just lost some serious Zion Street Cred.
Now you won't be invited to the giant chubby rave.
Posted by PDXRitchie | April 14, 2007 12:50 AMNeo - now, don't get all uppity yet, alright? He's yet to write an article. All he did was relay some thoughts on the blog. It's quite different than any scrawl he might relay in Wednesday's edition (if he does so).
I think you're reading too much into it. Then again, probably not.
But please also remember than the intern, here, stole the journals from under the bench, which was pretty harsh.
Posted by Sam | April 14, 2007 2:05 AMIt's just that I've had nearly seven years of the same half-witted mockery that everyone on the blog seems to be delighting in so very much. [Like forgetting the fact that yes, thank you very much, we're not IN the world of the Matrix, so the Zion-rave cracks just make THEM look ridiculous.] It was supposed to be about the message, NOT about us, and then after a three-hour interview in which he promised he'd gotten that point, he then posts this... after asking voraciously for our family and friend's contact info for "verification" when the original offer had been "anonymity". We're not a joke. You're free to think we're nuts, of course... but we ARE for real as in, sincere. See the other comments from some of our folk who saw this.
It gets tiring, that's all. It's SO EASY to just stop with the auto-judging and just LOOK...
Posted by Neo | April 14, 2007 3:31 AMI was hoping this would be ALL there was. Now there's going to be an article as well? If it has this same tone, we can do without.
...what journals? Eh? I think I missed the joke.
Wouldn't you be a little tired of the same mockery, from a source that you at least thought might be just a little bit neutral, allowing readers to make up their own minds?
Posted by Neo | April 14, 2007 3:35 AMHey does anyone know whatever happened to "White Morpheus?*" My BF and I used to see him walking around downtown and belltown all the time, in particular during the morning commute, but now he's not around? Did he move? Did he take the pill? Did he have a catfight with Neo and Trinity?
Posted by Ann | April 14, 2007 8:13 AM*dude dressed identically to the Morpheus character from the Matrix but he's white (and shiny!).
i find the deckard human/replicant issue to be a very interesting one, but i think the issue here is not whether or not deckard is human or replicant, but whether or not we are. bladerunner is brilliant because of this. the movie is sufficently vague enough that you can justify deckard being a replicant or a human being by amassing any amount of arguments for or against. when the replicants keep telling deckard 'painful to live in fear isn't it?' (note: they are not asking as much as telling him), it is more because of the common ground they share with all humans - fear of death. that is the reason for all the christ imagery at the end, because with christ's coming hope came to the human populace in the form of heaven. deckard (humanity) is clinging to the edge knowing he is going to fall to his death (despair), when roy (christ) lifts him up from certain death (despair). the fact that deckard's character is vague on whether or not he is human is part of it's brillance and attraction. if ridley meant deckard to be replicant and ford played him as a human, whether that was done on accident or purpose, it makes a much better movie. after all what does it mean to be human? deckard is our connection to the replicants. he is the character we identify with the most. the other replicants are too childish. if deckard is a replicant, what does that say about us? are we real? either way we notice a lot of pictures of deckard's past, but the movie shows his personal life to be almost non-exsistant (he asks replicants out on dates the things he kills) as we know memories and pictures can be implanted and faked. this leads us to ask the question of the validity of our own memories. there is psychological proof that people convince themselves of remembering things in their past that never really happened. i.e. your parents tell you a story about your childhood and you create the memory of it, but the imagery is wrong like the house you remember isn't the one you lived in at the time for instance. but it is real to you and you think it had existed as that. which brings new meaning to the unicorn dream sequence. deckard could very possibly be just a human that had gotten to close to these people that he would have to 'retire' as one of them had fleed from him and he shot her in the back that he began to question whether or not he was real or human. who am i?
Posted by jordan | April 14, 2007 8:47 AMWow. This is the weirdest thread ever.
Fav moments so far:
"I think you're reading too much into it. Then again, probably not."
"...a source that you at least thought might be just a little bit neutral..."
Keep 'em coming!
Posted by Tone | April 14, 2007 8:56 AMI looked at that site a bit this morning and I still don't get their "very clear" message.
Are they just for tolerance of different lifestyles?
Where does the movie come in?
Posted by confused | April 14, 2007 9:01 AM"A bit" doesn't cover it. Really doesn't cover it.
But again, considering the way this was put forth to us as a "cool way" to get people to hear the message["I'm interested in your message and your manifesto", went Jonah's e-mail to me] and what it's turned INTO, people who actually DO want to know, well, there's PLENTY of ways to get in touch. From the horse's mouth, as opposed to its... well. You get the idea.
Posted by Neo | April 14, 2007 9:13 AMWhere's The Morning News? Can't ya slip a twenty to Jen, Charles, Brendan, whoever else to post some meaningless weblinks?
Posted by darren | April 14, 2007 10:03 AMHey baby, if you actually want anyone to know what the hell you are talking about you need to edit it down a bit. any 'normal' person isnt going to read 100 pages on your website of boring sci-fi nerd text. It's very self-centered. Maybe you need some bullet points or something. or a video. like the meatrix.
Posted by Oracle | April 14, 2007 10:05 AM"at least thought might be just a little bit neutral, allowing readers to make up their own minds?"
... Neo, erm, that's not how The Stranger works. It's not your average trying-as-hard-as-we-can-until-our-eyes-bleed-to-be-objective media organization.
They're not neutral here. If you've ever read The Stranger you would know that.
Posted by Sam | April 14, 2007 10:14 AMi don't know about their supposedly incoherent nerd website (seen one, seen a million), but i do think i understand the message attached to the heart, and i heartily agree with it, i've even said (approximately)the same thing on the slog in recent memory. does that make ME crazy?
Posted by ellarosa | April 14, 2007 10:18 AMNeo,
Stop complaining. It's unbecoming.
You did this stunt at Seattle Center to call attention to your cause or group. The Stranger seems to be the only paper in town that picked up on it. They ran a photo of your Space Needle display, quoted the police report, linked your website, and the guy interviewed you for 3 hours.
If your chat with him was as unintelligible as your website, you hardly have the right to be complaining about the basic coverage he gave you: A couple of quotes that seem reminiscent of the stuff on your web site.
And during that interview, it seems, you told him you were the characters from the movie the Matrix. That's a little weird.
What do you expect? If anything, I'd say, they gave you a pretty good deal.
Posted by Andy Fiscella | April 14, 2007 10:37 AMWoah. I don't post comments online very much, just not into it much. Now I see why. These personal attacks are some of the most nasty, voyeristic, and cowardly bit of human behavior I've ever beheld. If you passed Neo & Trinity on the street, would you now stop them and give them the courtesy of a face to face conversation? I think not. Whatever you may think of these two, does it justify the bile? Would your life stand up to such scrutiny? Sure, critique their movement, but leave the mocking out. True to form for The Stranger I suppose; I still don't agree with it.
Posted by Special K | April 14, 2007 10:43 AM"These personal attacks are some of the most nasty, voyeristic, and cowardly bit of human behavior I've ever beheld. "
Really, this, the most nasty voyeristic(sic) and cowardly bit of human behavior you have ever beheld. You must not get out much huh. Its a comment post for fucks sake, what did you expect.
Posted by Giffy | April 14, 2007 10:50 AMVery true, Special K. Thanks. Because of this, @1 - all of Gitai's comments are even more worse than I imagined.
Posted by michelle | April 14, 2007 10:50 AMNews Flash Kiddies: It was just a trio of successively dumber movies. Turning it into a lifestyle, regardless of the universality of the inherent "message" (which given the Wachowski Bros. penchant for ripping off the work of established S-F & comic writers - not to mention the major precepts of most organized religions - is debatable at best), isn't going to earn you any "street cred" or anything else from the general public or from Slog/Stranger readers in particular, any more than it did for "Trekkies" in my day, or "Browncoats" today.
My advice, as someone who's circulated on the edges of hardcore fandom for roughly 35 years or so, is: don't take yourselves so frackin' seriously. It's just a movie, it's NOT intended as a blueprint for living, and it's not a "misrepresented presentation" of YOUR life, it's about a completely fictional character, who although it may be one you strongly identify with emotionally, isn't YOU.
Posted by COMTE | April 14, 2007 10:56 AMSpecial K,
Neo and Trinity staged a public protest at Seattle Center to call attention to their cause. It brought out the SPD and the bomb squad.
The Stranger picked up on it, linked the group's website, interviewed them, quoted them, poked some fun (the website and the quotes are certainly a bit odd), and ran some photos—including the pair's big statement at Seattle Center.
If anything, Neo and Trinity should be happy.
If Neo and Trinity are out to change the world, first they need to learn to deal with it. It comes with people who ask questions, make fun, criticize etc.
Posted by Andy Fiscella | April 14, 2007 10:57 AMandy, you're right. neo and trinity should be happy. in fact, i think they are happy, and i think that they are dealing with it. they just need to recognize that bladerunner is the more brilliant film.
Posted by jordan | April 14, 2007 11:07 AMGiffy: I've seen and experienced alot in this life; I've worked for years in clinics, hospitals, and with the public in general. Your response illustrates perfectly what I'm talking about. Detached, impersonal, and absurd hostility. Lighten up! Why so hostile? Let people have their folly, and go about your business...
Posted by Special K | April 14, 2007 11:09 AMTo be fair, I think Neo has an interesting point about human's (read: American's) perception of reality. But, it took too long for me to find in his website which is a turnoff. Plus, it's cheesy. Which ruins the message. If one wants to make the point that people are sheep and all, why use a Hollywood movie to prove that point? That's buying into the system, imo.
Posted by Tiz | April 14, 2007 11:17 AMI'm sorry, I've read the website (or skimmed it, it's not really what I'd call readable; it's barely English) and I've seen the photo. I saw the picture of the high-school-spirit-rally "artwork". And I'm supposed to be respectful?
Posted by Fnarf | April 14, 2007 11:19 AMNuh-uh.
They've got nothing to complain about. THEY brought themselves to our attention.
And guys, seriously: The Matrix was a load of shit. Get a fucking clue, huh?
Exactly Fnarf, the right to be a sardonic ass is an important, nigh the most important, right we have as a free people in the greatest nation on the architect's gray earth
Posted by Giffy | April 14, 2007 11:48 AM"the greatest nation on the architect's gray earth"
i'm exaggerating, but never were a more disillusioned statement made
Posted by more like the greatest mistake | April 14, 2007 12:33 PMI agree with other posters - these women "Neo" and "Trinity" have nothing to complain about. They were out to get a little attention, and that's what they got. If Neo doesn't like the way she is being portrayed in this newspaper, then she should remember the saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity."
Posted by L. | April 14, 2007 12:47 PMJonah is an unpaid intern for christ sake... what did you expect...he couldn't write himself out of a paper bag...he's a HAAAACCCKKKKK.
Posted by HACK | April 14, 2007 4:37 PMNeo, sweetie, the last place on earth you want to take your otakukin ramblings is this newspaper. Are you really that naive?
Posted by stresskitten | April 14, 2007 7:10 PMOh. Dear.
Posted by Mark Mitchell | April 14, 2007 7:32 PMFor starters, I'm going to have to agree with HACK on this one. Jonah couldn't write himself out of a paper bag, and had either one of us known he was an intern, we would have NEVER spoken to him. After I read through some of the other drivel that this paper has put out, its no wonder the little freak screwed up the message.
#1 We do not use the trilogy to liven up our day to day. Where we come from gives us a VERY unique perspective on true peace and freedom. IF you had read up on the Quantum theory on Tots, some of you might have understood that. Something being to hard to comprehend at first does not make it stupid. You just need to try a little harder. Imagine that you are all back in school, and it's something you have to pass. (No, I am NOT intentionally being a smart ass. I am serious)
#2 Those Seattle Center photos, NEO took those. Jonah didn't 'find' us and try to give us exposure. One of OUR people, who was working on the PR angle, sent 'The Stranger' an e-mail with the pictures and a copy of the memo that was left with "The Great Beating Heart Of Fear" or "The Runner" as Neo calls it.
#3 We spoke to the man for three hours, and the best he could do, even THOUGHT wise, was THAT? Yeah, I did expect better out of a professional publication, even if it is only an intern. We spent most of the time telling the man that it was about the message, not us. We, as bearers of the message are only important because of our unique perspective on it. (The whole 'Matrix' thing...again, not huge fans. Read the site. Pay attention to the quantum physics)
We are not the only people like ourselves. Our beliefs are our own and not open for debate, however, if it's proof of the sincerity of out work you want, as it is the message that matters, as we have both been saying.... Then why don't you ask the aspiring little journalist about the e-mails and testimonials that our people have been sending. Some of them even via audio source.
Posted by Trinity | April 14, 2007 8:50 PMOh, and we don't just need to learn to deal with people's bullshit either. I've spent the last three years dealing with it, and Neo ten years before that. IGve me a professional, for God's sake. I grow really tired of the adolescent mud slinging when people just can't (or won't) understand.
Jonah is no longer the unpaid intern. We hired him. He's now a full-time staff writer, and we're happy to have him.
Carry on.
Posted by Dan Savage | April 14, 2007 9:44 PMI can see that this has gotten way out of hand, I KNOW Neo and Trin very well. They ARE who they ARE.
It's the MESSAGE that is importaint, not who they are. This is there life and its all they do, for you.
And I DON"T like to see them been mocked.
Posted by Zeal | April 14, 2007 10:16 PMAnd if you have not seen it, this is a letter I have written to send to media profiles.
Dear Sir/Madam
Right now at this very moment, an underground Revolution for freedom, choice and peace is building; people from all over the world, from all walks of life are gathering to fight the biggest and hardest war the human race will ever face, a war of the mind. The things we are fighting agenised, you see every day, wars between religions, countries and gangs, the teasing and mocking that goes on in playground’s at schools, and in the streets. It is fear of the unknown, fear of someone that is different from you because they don’t fit with your construct of collective preconceptions. People fear that which is different, that which does not “fit” with what they have been taught since birth. To break this perpetuating cycle and bring on a “New World Order” were fear of the unknown is no longer the root of human reality is what we are trying to do.
What makes the Zero-Six Contingent so unique and different to any other group is that it has nothing to do with religion, worship, gods and conforming to another set of collective rules, another system – if it were the mission would be just like every other, another system. A path that promotes freedom, peace and freedom of choice, were people don’t need to change there beliefs, don’t have to conform to a set of rules to be accepted and are encouraged to make there own choices, to follow there own path and to take what they want from the message which is freely available at no cost to anyone, this is not about any sort of financial gain: its about love. Does it sound cultish yet? I don’t think so. No one pushed Alice down the rabbit hole
“The sense is out there. The choice is waiting. Choosing it, letting go of fear, is the hard part. Because as a species we’ve come to value other’s opinions of us. Rather than our own. We’ve come to fear being cast out, rather than being an individual. We’ve come to fear the unique Path, rather than the safety and null zero of the System” quoted from the introduction to Logos: Veritas Ex Machina book.
Who sees this, who would have the courage to break away and fight for us all? This is what is hard for most people to conceive. Through some unique metaphysical “crossing over” that we believe the science of quantum physics is behind, people from a world which most see as fictional due to a mega hit film spaning over three parts, the world you know as “The Matrix” in popular culture (PC). Neo, Trinity and a few others are now existing in this world, by now you are probably thinking, how can this be true, I ask, can you prove its not? And not all that happened in the PC was true, they remember everything and much was not portrayed in the PC, also the PC got one big thing wrong, it was not bad Vs good, it was Us Vs Us: humanity. Neo gains nothing from doing this, he does it for all of us out of love, because he believes every mind is worth it. He has spent the last 5 years working towards this every hour of his life, often he can not even sleep or eat because he physically can’t stop, its his gift to us. In the years before that he was struggling to come to terms with it, all on his own, and it was a close friend of his that encouraged him to speak out, so he built Truth of the Spoon.net
So many people who have read Neo’s writings and had conversations with him have written in and said “this stuff has changed my life” that it is so different to what everyone else does and it makes so much sense to people when they actually take the time to find out why he is here; to show people the door to freedom, peace and freedom of choice, to choose your own path, that your reality, your meaning of life can only be defined by you by your subjective perception of the world around you. He can not heal, its simply a new way to see.
I am one of many people who felt there was more, that something was missing, and found it through Neo. This has changed my life in a great way, a way which is hard to explain. I have always had an open mind, but now I am awake and aware of things and can see clear as day why humanity is suffering. People who know Neo, are friends with him, some spanning over nine years, and many who had not seen the PC truly believe out of there own findings that they are who they are, when people take the time to get to know them and listen to what Neo has to say, they see he is not some crazy guy wanting to get attention or forcing any thing on anyone, that what he says is true and genuine and the message is the truth in the rawest form. But it comes down to this: you either believe it, or you don’t. And belief can come in degrees.
I have been personally acquainted with the mission Neo and Trinity for almost a year, and in that time I have seen much change, I always new that if I ever discovered a group that I thought was actually doing something that might actually be able to bring peace, bring a change, and was not relying on donations that make people feel like they are saving the world, and money will never solve the worlds problems, I would help them. But I found more, more than I ever expected. A sentient being who cares more about every single one of us then he does of himself. I have heard Neo weep because it breaks him physically when he can not reach people, when one more spark is lost because they can’t make what they believe or what they are fit. Neo also suffers from a debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis, and he still keeps going.
Because of the connotations in the message, because it is so different to anything the human race has ever heard, and I can tell you that Neo is extremely unconfutable with this… some people including myself in recent times, believe Neo to be some kind of Prophet, and if people needed a word to give some kind of definition of what he is, that is the term I would use after what I have read in reference books during research at the library.
I have tried to keep this letter short, so as maybe someone will take a closer look and see it for what it is. There is so much more I want to say and so much more to say, I hope this is a start, that maybe you want to find out more. But that I leave up to you, that’s the good thing about free will, the choice is yours.
Think it over.
Yours faithfully
Posted by Zeal | April 14, 2007 10:21 PMAnother word of advice kids:
If it takes you more than say, 50 words to explain it, you haven't thought it through sufficiently to boil it down to its salient points. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY will read 1,200 words worth of self-absorbed teen-angst-couched-in-pseudo-sci-fi-jargon ramblings (aside from fellow self-absorbed dissaffected adolescents), and think it's either original, poignant or terribly insightful, because frankly, it's not.
It's been all been said before, more succinctly, and by better writers than you, and when you grow out of this phase, perhaps you'll take the time to read some of thom, and take both their philosophical and stylistic lessons to heart.
Good luck with that.
Posted by COMTE | April 14, 2007 11:04 PMY'all keep on talking about your message on this website, explain it succinctly! Three sentences would be great. Perhaps it will pique my interest enough to wade through the rest. I'm not going to study it as if it were for school. I'm going to this website because I'm procrastinating studying/working! This debate has been keeping my attention for a few days, but it's not going to last.
Posted by confused | April 15, 2007 5:07 AMAhem: "agenised"? "Unconfutable? Truth of the spoon? "The Matrix"? What the fuck? Not even Keanu Reeves is this stupid.
Posted by Fnarf | April 15, 2007 8:42 AMNote to the website creators: If you want to emphasize the message, don't write in the first person so much. Your intro thing has "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," "I," everywhere.
Also, I second other comments I tried, but your message was not clear. Consider a mission statement or short paragraph summarizing what you are about. And don't use the words I or we. Or me or us.
Posted by Jude Fawley | April 15, 2007 11:01 AMAMEN. The whole thing just looks like someone's self-centered, self-absorbed bid for attention. One hastily-thrown-together monstrosity in the Seattle City Center is not going to bring all of the injustices of the world to a screeching halt. They might try getting involved in actual activist causes, for example, instead of just trying to attract attention to themselves.
Posted by Shigeru | April 15, 2007 2:56 PMDon't give me any bullshit about quantum physics. The only people who really have an understanding of the subject are people with PhDs in theoretical physics. Further, quantum physics doesn't apply to the human scale. Newtonian physics does a fine job of explaning the human scale, relativistic physics is fantasatic for the macro-scale, and quantum physics was devised to explain things on the atomic and subatomic scale. Yes, on the order of 1.6 × 10 −35 metres (1.6 with the decimal moved 35 places to the left), weird shit happens, things that if they happend on a human scale would be considered magic, but anyone other than a physicist doing a shitload of math that talks about quantum physics is full of shit.
Posted by Gitai | April 15, 2007 5:28 PMDespite what happened to Don Imus, the fact is that everyone and everything everywhere "deserves" to get mocked.
And, the Flying Spaghetti Monster as my witness, they will.
They all will.
Sometimes, it's the messenger. Sometimes, it's the message.
Sometimes, the whole thing is a crock of shit.
In any event, if you put yourself in the public eye...you will be mocked and you will be challenged and you will have to make some sort of account of yourself.
Or you can go hide and play with your friends.
Just don't dress up like characters from a movie, spout gibberish and then get all up in arms when someone points out how ludicrous it all is...
All right. Step up. Who's next?
Posted by pgreyy | April 15, 2007 7:09 PMHow do we explain insanity and debate the same? People, please get some sleep.
Posted by lawrence clark | April 16, 2007 1:35 AM...considering the intro page isn't about the message, it's about where Neo CAME from... truthofthespoon began originally as simply a place for him and later Trinity to describe their experiences, a friend of theirs suggested they build a site separately for it... the 'I,I,I' debate is kind of twattishly silly. Of course he's gonna say "I" talking about his own memories.
Sheepers.
And tots ain't a distraction or a procrastinaion. If you don't have the time to take to try, it isn't for you. The message maybe.... when it gets to you. When it's time. Or not, that;s your choice. He's not forcing it on anyone, different from a lot of religions I know, ay?
They're doing something, like it, believe it or not: every person who writes in and says that they found courage to deal with their shitty marriage to their wife or had wanted to kill themselves and wound up re-thinking those decisions because they can "define their reality".... ie, define themselves, not be defined by the box everyone else puts them in or by fear.... it's worth it. Waving badly-lettered cardboard protest signs aint gonna change the world. The display wasn't meant to, either. I suggest you get the whole story first, ayyy?
Posted by dK | April 19, 2007 3:59 AM"For starters, I'm going to have to agree with HACK on this one. Jonah couldn't write himself out of a paper bag"
Yet you and Neo have shown yourselves to be poet laureates? Your Esperanto-tinged ramblings on that website give people brain cancer...
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Posted by penis patches | April 30, 2007 12:19 PMComments Closed
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