Customer Reviews

Matrix Warrior: Being the One (Gollancz Sf S.)

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is more than simple sugar candies for die hard fans of the movie though obviously MATRIX WARRIOR provides a reference tool for the film's cult lovers. However, there is a more powerful philosophical bent to this book that takes readers to the deeper meaning of what is reality. Jake Horsley makes a case that the movie could be real (are we someone else's dream/nightmare?) yet even more brilliantly interprets a metaphysical meaning of realistic pragmatism. Like The Matrix, he pleads with his audience to unplug themselves in search of the real inner person by discarding the masks of society and to stop being the source of energy for someone else.

MATRIX WARRIOR is a one sitting easy to read work that is also a thought-provoking analysis of the movie yet is more at least in the reality of this reviewer. Mr. Horsley provides an interesting strongly supported theory that the underlying theme to The Matrix is to unplug oneself from the machines of society. There is no doubt that Mr. Horsley has done just that with this intriguing look at society through the spectrum of The Matrix movies. Editorial asides: (1) reality to this sixties lost soul of going unplugged is if this is all I received by being plugged I was cheated; (2) the middle picture was filler that needed more confrontation/debate between the Architect and the hero; and (3) Mr. Horsley owes a follow-up guide book once the third movie is unplugged. Readers who appreciate a theoretical look at reality (interesting phrasing) through a microcosmic analysis of The Matrix will enjoy this well written cerebral work.

Harriet Klausner

What is the Matrix?

You've asked yourself this, time and time again. You know there's something wrong with the world that you're living in- something doesn't work. You feel like an alien. You know there has to be something more than this.

In this daring little book, Jake Horsley suggests that your intuitions might just be correct. "Matrix Warrior" is a manual for living the life of a seeker- someone not looking for little spiritual thrills, but radical liberation. Disguised as a pop culture tome, Horsley uses analogies from The Matrix and the literary works of Phillip K. Dick (a significant influence on the mythology of The Matrix) and the metaphysical storytelling of Carlos Castaneda to spin a battle plan for those who would wage war against the apparent world. The author suggests that people can be divided into four categories- "humatons", or those who are asleep, "matrix warriors", those who know that there is more to life than they've been offered, "matrix sorcerers", those who are no longer under the control of the matrix and able to manipulate it to some extent, and "lucids"- people, like Neo, who are totally liberated from the matrix. This book is about the first step- becoming a "matrix warrior", and preparing to take advantage of opportunities to "unplug"- those rare events in life when we are offered a way to radically change our circumstances and embrace a more authentic mode of being. Along the way, there are digressions on ethics, metaphysics, futurism, and many other topics. While the Castanedan influence is apparent, one uncredited (though obvious) influence is the work of Aleister Crowley, especially regarding the way of the will.

There are some slight deficiencies- the author didn't seem to entirely "get" the later Matrix films- in fact, he doesn't seem to understand them at all (for a better grasp, listen to the commentary tracks on the DVDs themselves, where Cornel West and Ken Wilber spin an interesting glimpse at the deeper implications of the movies). But other than that quibble, "Matrix Warrior" is an excellent little book, and well worth your time... if you want to take the red pill, and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes...

(...)

Finished this book about two months ago, but just now catching up on reviews. Since I loved the basic thesis behind The Matrix that what we know as reality is just a computer program, I wanted to understand about the history behind this thesis. The Matrix Warrior does a good job at that. Horsley draws connections between the world of the movie and our own world and shows how the characters in the movie transcend the false reality the matrix imposes on humanity. Combining an in-depth examination of the film with philosophical inquiry and the teachings of Castandeda, Jake Horsley has produced in Matrix Warrior a profound yet witty analysis-and all readers need to get "unplugged." It is a VERY entertaining read if you are at all interested in the idea that there may be alternate realities.

Horsley shows how "the One" is a concept in many faiths around the world. Anyone can be "the One" with enough enlightenment. The more important thing though, is to take the path of the matrix warrior. To search for reality. To be conscious of what you are "plugged" into and consciously "unplug" from the things you don't like. Too many of coast through life taking what comes. Being "the One" in large part involves asking the right questions, seeking answers, and deciding for yourself what your reality should be. Good advice for all of us, not just fanatics of the movie series.

I purchased Matrix Warrior last week and have to say that is a a hugely interesting, humorous, and above all thought-provoking read. Despite coming off as a little egotistical at times, Horsley gets his points across in an entertaining and intelligent manner. Maybe he has simply jumped on the Matrix bandwagon, but he deserves tremendous credit in his research on this book.

I would recommend it to any die-hard Matrix fan.

This book is so closely linked to the film "The Matrix" that, before recommending it, I would want to know what the potential reader's standing with regard to the film.

Firstly, for the out-and-out Matrix fan or "Neo-phyte"- and that includes both those who loved the original film and hated the sequels and those who loved the whole series - I'd say this book is a must-read. Jake Horsley takes the film's virtual reality concept and provides a whole set of philosophical and practical tools for exploring onwards. The intellectual challenge presented by the film becomes a life-challenge for self- and universe-exploration and growth. If no more Matrix films are ever made - or if future sequels sink so low as to be not worth viewing - there is still enough in the original movie plus Horsley's handbook to last a lifetime. For these readers, of course, being the "unofficial Handbook" would make it the only handbook worth considering - for any "official" handbook could be no more than a mouthpiece for the system itself.

Then there is the readership that sees the book and ignores it - because it is clearly all about a film they have not seen and may not want to see. Particularly in the case of a Pagan/Magick/New Age reader I say this is unfortunate, because the book is about much more than The Matrix. It is also a very neat re-interpretation of shamanic and martial arts "warrior" principles for the twenty-first century. Taking the works of Carlos Castenada in particular, Horsley has synthesised the teachings with the language of cyberspace to define "The Way of the CyberWarrior". Despite frequent allusions to the movie, the effect is not confusing to the uninitiated - if anything it makes one want to get the DVD and watch it.

The third class of reader is someone, like myself, who enjoyed and was stimulated by the original movie but did not bother much with the subsequent cash-in sequels. An admirer, but not an all-out fan. Such a reader might be put off by the subtitle "The Unofficial Handbook", preferring the real thing, wanting to know what the Wachowski brothers themselves put into the movie rather than the opinions of some outsider who clearly failed to win official recognition for his book. Ironically, such a reader has most of all to gain from it.

What could any "official" handbook do but tell you more of what the film was meant to convey but failed to do? Like the extras added to the DVD of a classic film, do they really add to the original artistic experience of the film, or do they simply `explain away' by contextualising the magic? Instead of that we have an exploration by someone who is clearly a fan of the film, but outside of its circle of creators. As he explains at the end of the book "When I started this exegesis I was willing to entertain the possibility that the Neo-phytes were right and everything in the movie was true. Now that I've completed the work, there seems no way back, no way to tell myself that, after all, the Matrix is just a highly ingenious movie..." So he begins with entertaining an idea, and ends up in a whole new place with no turning back - writing the book has become his own demonstration of taking the movie's red pill.

As he goes on "The Matrix is simply the latest artefact in a timeless process of myth-making by which humanity is shown to be ensconced in a truly diabolic situation, the nature of which entails our complete ignorance of the fact." In this Horsley is mistaken, for the Matrix is not the latest artefact in this process, for his own book has arrived after it. Here indeed we have the most challenging and fundamental role of all: the book need not even be a course of instruction for the warrior of the twenty-first century but a demonstration of anyone's power to transform reality by thinking about and around it. As such this book does not need the film any more, or any less, than an adult human needs its mother. The myth evolves.

What's the worse that can happen to a philosophy book about The Matrix? Have it be written by a pop-culture hack who clearly doesn't understand the movie. Most reviews of this book are very good ones. This one will not.

This book should have been an essay at best. Not over 200 pages of his imagined view of The Matrix. I agree with the writer that the Matrix is much more than a simple movie but that's where our agreement ends. Like a trekker, the would be red-pills of this world, like me, will protect The Matrix' integrity and vision. Having it applied to other philosophies that are not part of its own universe will not pass. This would be like having the Enterprise show up in Battlestar Galactica. And it's worth pointing out that this book contains very little philosophy and is more of a social critique seen through the lens of The Matrix story line and then it is not that either.

The first chapter begins with just that, a critique of the blue-pills that inhabit the Matrix. But it's critiquing every day folk, not the players in the movies themselves. At the first read, I thought maybe this is more a sociology book from a geek's point of view, this could be ok. That we are all in a Matrix ourselves and this is what can be expected for your life if you never take the red pill.

But after a few chapters the reader quickly realizes that Jake Horsley is off his rocker. He quickly moves away from the movie's philosophy and starts renaming the character's archetypal roles. Blue-pills become humatons, Blue-pills who realize what's going on become Matrix Warriors, Agents become Gatekeepers red-pills become Matrix Sorcerers and The One becomes a Lucid. He then starts talking about 1st and 2nd attentions, eschatons and stalking.

This is his entire ploy to change the lens focus to another optic entirely, that of Castaneda and Phillip K Dick. He's an obvious fan of both as they keep coming to the surface of the discussion throughout his work. And he then goes on to discredit Beaudrillard as being unimportant to the movie. Despite the fact that the Wachowsky brothers had the major players in their movie read Beaudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation (along with Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World by Kevin Kelly and Introducing Evolutionary Psychology by Dylan Evans) and despite the fact that the book can been seen in the first scene of the movie, when Thomas opens the book to get diskettes for Choi and the luscious Dujour.

Yeah that's the ticket; let's just throw out the very foundation of the story so I can replace it with my own point of view of how it should be. The book soon turns into a "Warrior of Shambala" type guide book for the aspiring red-pill, I mean aspiring Matrix Warrior. The Matrix For Dummies Who will Never Understand It could have been a better title. Horsley also purports that his book his humorous. It must be that dry British humor because it wasn't funny at all. It mostly read like all those British pseudo-scientific documentaries on Stone Henge that can be seen on TLC or Discovery. Then he drives the last nails in by adding appendixes on Castaneda and Dick.

It was more rank-amateur low-end fanfic from a geek than it was sociology or philosophy. Though fanfic writes seem to have more respect for continuity in the story line than does Horsley. Why I found this book in the Philosophy section is beyond me, but after all the books I've read on the philosophy of The Matrix, this has to be the worse one yet. I'll be less tempted to purchase more books on the subject in the future because of this book.

It gets to choke on 1 red pill outta 5. Jake you are not The One.

If you wish to read great books on the philosophy of the Matrix I strongly recommend The Matrix and Philosophy and More Matrix and Philosophy edited by William Irwin.

I can agree on some point by the author of unplugging from the social rules, materialism, yada yada... but this book has something in common with the bible: CONTRADICTION!

He speaks of letting go of all the human emotions to allow ourselves to unplug because all these emotions don't exist since it's in the matrix and such. "They (warriors) reject everything they encounter on their path, knowing that their path is through the matrix, not into it, that they have a limited amount of time to make it out, and that any delay may prove fatal." (Page 54) He even mentions love as being one of the emotions (can't remember the page). Yet, he goes to explain on page 64 that love will "set us free"-- so to speak-- because the Matrix only feeds off of low frequency emotions such as rage, depression, grief (page 65)... So he explains that we shouldn't feel these low emotions (being matrix warriors), but he says that Matrix Warriors express all their FEELINGS with passion. "If sad, they weep. When angry, they rage, bark, and occasionally bite." (page 56) I thought Warriors weren't supposed to feel these things in order to unplug??

He goes on to say "Hence, it is mandatory that plugged-in humans continue to allow themselves to be distracted by constant stimuli, those of external goals, desires, problems, fears, and so forth (be they related to food, shelter, sex money, fame or power). In this way, plugged-in humans continue to neglect utterly their inner needs and remain in a state or constant stagnation." (Page 25) Really? Inner needs are what exactly? Forget food and pay attention to your inner needs? You don't need to eat! He's acting as if this is the Matrix depicted in the movie, yet he starts to show different thoughts a few pages later... Page 66 explains how life (the matrix) is a game and if humans know the rules and how to bend and break them, they can enjoy life more. I thought we were supposed to not enjoy the matrix because it isn't real ("They reject everything they encounter on their path, knowing that their path is through the matrix, not into it...").

"There is a matrix that was created, by a higher matrix beyond even the power of imagination to conceive. This second matrix created the matrix of the manifest universe as we know it, out of our own thoughts." He explains how since this came from our own thoughts that the earth was created for us to ferment. Then says "The art of becoming a Lucid, of creating new matrices at will, is available to all, from the lowest of beings to the highest. It depends upon learning to produce a pure and perfect substance known as love." Okay, so all this time he's talking about the big bad matrix we must unplug from, yet now he says we all have to power to create "matrices" at will. Why would we do that if we're trying to get away from the matrix. AND there's a higher matrix? OH C'MON! This guy sounds like he started getting tired of writing so he jumbled stuff and made the rest up because he forgot what he started writing about.

What's so bad about this matrix anyways? If we get out of it, like in the movie, we'll just be controlled by the constant fighting of the Gatekeepers in the Matrix to unplug humanity from the matrix. Okay... why is that so important? The unplugged humans will have rules, have to do the same things, but in different ways such as working, etc. What is so different about being unplugged than plugged? Same crap, different shape. Hmm

Still reading the Matrix Warrrior, I found it to be a contemporary re-write of all the zen and other philosophical books on enlightenment. This is a good thing as I didn't have the energy to read all the zen/buddha stuff to begin with. It used my interest in the matrix movie to hook me into tapping into a fuller version of what the matrix was trying to say. In addition, it used other favorite movies of mine, fight club and wall street, as metaphors to explain points or point of views.

There is an error on P97 where he specifies Troy when it is spelled as CHOI in the matrix script. If there are other errors, then I have not found them it. Overall, I am enjoying the read of the book.

I am only giving it 4 stars as it is using the matrix to hook readers. Lack of originality is deduction of 1 star but if it did not use the matrix motif, I would not have read it. But I wanted to say that the wachowskis went through the trouble to create the matrix myth and Jake horsley is riding the wave.

Since the movies were not only action-oriented but highly philosophical (sort of Zen-like), so, too, is this very good book. But I believe one should also get some great science fiction books and delve into their philosophical depths, below the high-tech, the action, and, yes, even the cyberpunk tales: "Foundation" trilogy, "Childhood's End", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Neuromancer", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", and other such bodies of work. All present an undertone of philosophical views, usually through the protagonists' eyes, of the workings of the world and society.

A friend gave me this book on his return from London, hadn't read it but knew I liked the movie. Don't mistake me I thought the Matrix movie was great.

However, this book isn't.

The author is patronising and dismissive of most of humanity, which he calls "humatons". Of course, he positions himself above everyone else and allows the reader of the book also to be superior to humatons. The author is patronising and egotisical, and suggests that the end of the world "Eschaton" is coming and that not all of us are going to make it through! (and to exactly where wasn't quite clear either). Only the select few special people are good enough (chosen by the author and a select few no doubt). P>This author lacks compassion and if there really was such as sub-class of human beings called Humatons, the author has described himself perfectly. This man thinks he is clever, but it's easy to see that this book was written to ride the wave of hype surrounding The Matrix movie, swell the author's ego and make the author a few fast bucks. After all it only took two weeks to write and it definately shows!

If you want to know about the Buddhist or Gnostic philosphy/beliefs behind the movie do a search on the web, or start with the Official matrix site. Whatever you do, don't start with this book!

Enjoy yourself go see the movie(s) (again) or buy them on DVD or video instead!

Don't spend hard earned cash on this book it's not worth it.