I really enjoyed “Liar” because of how it illustrated the
complexity of human emotional cognition. At the heart of this complexity is
‘conflict.’ In class, we discussed how conflict is necessary to every story.
This makes perfect sense considering how important of role it plays in our
existence. Without conflict, would imperfection exist in our reality? Would we
have any concept of emotion? Maybe happiness, if when you stop to think about
it, most, if not all happiness results from some sort of resolved conflict.
Whether as big as an international crises, dispute, etc., or as minuscule as
the frustration accompanied with learning how to tie a fishing knot for the
first time, conflict is what stimulates our emotions, and thus, is what makes
us human.
Again, as we discussed in class there are two types of
conflicts: external (man vs. man or man vs. nature) and internal (man vs.
himself). “Liar” does an exceptional job exposing the symbiotic relationship
between the two, specifically through the characters, Peter Bogert and Susan
Calvin. Bogert’s internal conflict is his nagging desire to succeed Alfred
Lanning as the head of U.S. Robot & Mechanical Men, Inc, while Calvin’s is
her love for a fellow employee, Milton Ashe. Their external conflicts are revealed
as a result of their confiding in a mind-reading robot named Herbie. With
respect to Bogert, Herbie informs him that he will soon become head of U.S.
Robot & Mechanical Men; for Calvin, that Ashe feels the same way about her
as she does for him. What both characters (Bogert and Calvin) foolishly forget
is that Herbie is bound to the Three Laws of Robotics: “(1) a robot may not
injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm;
(2) a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except whre such
orders would conflict with the First Law; and (3) a robot must protect its own
existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second
Laws” (282). As it turns out, Herbie was forced to lie to them in order to obey
these three laws, resulting in possible disastrous consequences for Bogert’s
career, as well as Calvin’s anger for having fooled herself into believing that
human beings had finally created something that could solve a mystery as great
as that of their own emotional cognition. In essence, she lied to herself.
To me, this all illustrates how conflict is a central aspect
of our existence as human beings. Without conflict, emotion cannot exist, and
without emotion, we would not be human, but something completely different,
like Herbie. The point is that human beings may be able to create things such
as fire, the wheel, printing press, washing machine, car, computer, etc. to
make our lives easier and more convenient, but we will never be able to create
anything that will completely correct an imperfect reality. Conflict is the
root of that perfection, and so it will always remain.
This movie (Equilibrium) relates well to the story and
everything I’ve just written; it’s also one of my favorites. The song
(Archetype by Fear Factory) is also a personal favorite of mine. Chances are
some, if not most of you get will get a headache (either real or imagined) from
listening to a heavy metal so here’s a link to the lyrics in case you want to
watch the movie, but mute the sound (there’s no dialogue anyway).
Good. Remember that for the purposes of this class, conflict is desire blocked; you're classifying it by the blocking element, but I think the accurate identification of the desire is more important in understanding why the plot goes than what the block is--so that's why I choose to emphasize desire.
ReplyDeleteInteresting song; I almost want the lead singer to sound a bit more like the guy from In Flames--it seems like it'd be well served by that really throaty death growl.