How does Existenz, the film, fit into Plato’s hierarchical scheme of reality? How does the game, Trancendenz fit? (Due Saturday after class)

Existenz portrays Plato’s hierarchical scheme of reality through the different layers of what is real (the ideal concepts), and what is false (the misrepresentations of art and imitation). The film is wrapped around a series of games. A game within a game, within a game. The further the characters dive into the game, the less in touch they become with reality, and this is exactly Plato’s analogy with real objects versus art.

The film strays away from Plato’s definition of what he considers to be the top tier of his scheme, of this “perfect” notion of objects, ideas, forms, and truth; what we call reality. The movie itself is already a misrepresentation of reality on it’s own, as movies are forms of art and imagination. Therefore, reality is level number one, the film is level number two (copy of reality), and then the storyline of the film is level number three (a copy of the copy of reality).

Within the film, the reality for the characters is the real world outside of the game. Once they are in the game, this level of reality becomes very faint. Transcendez is the actual game, real life copy. But within the game, Existenz is the second copy which portrays Transcendez. As the move progresses you can see the characters of the game starting to confuse reality with the made-up world. Existenz ends on a questionable note of whether or not the characters actually came out of the game or have they only fallen deeper into it?

Existenz supports Plato’s belief that art is this deceiving conception of reality, because games are artistic creations of imaginary worlds, and the people who play these games become so entranced by these fictitious characters, it begins to bleed into their actual reality. Allegra and Pikul, as they progressed into their game of Existenz, display these exact emotions of confusion of which world they are in. Pikul in the beginning, sort of appalled by this new, strange world he is in within the game, doesn’t have a problem realizing what is real and what is not, however, after being in and out of the game a few times, when Allegra supposedly “dies” in the game from being infected, and the two supposedly have been pushed back out to reality, this is where things take a turn. Pikul is very sure that they are back to reality, and everything is okay, until, a man breaks in and starts telling them they gotta get out of there. War suddenly breaks out, and now Allegra and Pikul have no idea whether they are still in the game or not. This is why games can be deceptive.

Any form of art in the inference of Plato is misleading and throws reality out of proportion. The film sets this example as reality bleeds into the game of Transcendez into the game of Existenz. How do we decipher what is real and what is not when we have fallen in too deep into misconceptions?

500 words