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"A.I.", the mystery of Gigolo Joe, and Fan Fiction
(originally posted on Diaryland.com, 2003-08-19 - 11:44 p.m.)
SETTING: Holy Hannah! 36 degrees Celcius, with 45% humidity -- the cats are furry puddles, and my husband and I aren't doing much better. Thank the Gods for cold running water and solidly frozen Breyers chocolate ice cream! The government weather service says that there's supposed to be a thunderstorm tonight; I can only pray that for once, for a miracle, they've got it right.
GIGOLO JOE AND ALL THAT: To distract myself from the sweltering heat, I saw "A.I." for the 15th time tonight (watched on a DVD that I received direct from Universal Studios as a gift for running an A.I.-related contest on my website, "Clear and Haunting Visions"), and was amazed all over again by its dreamlike quality, its haunting luminosity, and its sheer physical beauty. As an artist, and a colorist in particular, I see craftsmanship lovingly rendered in every frame, in perfect configurations of setting, symbol, and emotional dynamic.
Haley Joel Osment is breathtaking as the child-Mecha David, whose tragic existence and relentless love for his "Mommy" spans the 2000-year arc of the story. As Monica, the mother David is imprinted upon, Frances O'Connor is tortured by grief for her lost son Martin, a pain that David's presence in her life helps to ease -- until Martin returns, and she finds herself torn between the needs of her real son and her love for David; the scene where she decides to abandon David in the forest rather than return him to Cybertronics for destruction is the most distressing few minutes I've ever witnessed in a movie, full of agonizing betrayal and naked, helpless anguish. Fifteen viewings later, I still find it difficult to watch.
The very next scene introduces Jude Law as the lover-robot Gigolo Joe. Following David and assisting him in his quest to become a "real boy" so that Monica will love him, Joe undergoes a similar arc of transformation and ultimately, a transcendence of his function that not even David can claim. Joe has always been my favorite character in the film, a trait I share with Matrix Refugee, another denizen here at Diaryland.com -- not just because he's gorgeous and agile and seductive, although of course he is all that, but because of his essential mystery.
David was designed to be "a Mecha of a qualitatively different order", to achieve "consciousness" through his programmed ability to love, and to desire things not because he is programmed to do so, but because his self-motivated reasoning guides him in that direction. Joe, designed to do none of this, nevertheless achieves it all in the course of his single night with David. His discourse in the hallway of the Dr. Know franchise on Mecha-Orga relations reveals a suprisingly sophisticated (and cynical) understanding of the nature of the world he inhabits, and where does his suggestion that David should remain with him in Rouge City rather than pursuing the Blue Fairy come from? There is something more at work behind his shining eyes when he tells David that "(Monica) does not love you, she cannot love you..." The subtext, partially expressed in speech, is "... but I, as a fellow Mecha, can keep you safe here -- with me." This is not the programmed behavior of a sex-Mecha, a Supertoy for adult human beings. This is something quite new, and beyond a robotic gigolo's supposed limitations.
Joe's final act in the film is one of self-sacrifice. His enigmatic coda as he is taken (presumably) to his destruction ("I am... I was!") is the statement of a self-aware being acknowledging both his existence and the fact that he is not going to exist much longer. Taken with the opening words of his third line in the film ("I think") it forms a Descartian triangle of "I think, therefore I am, therefore I was" -- and suddenly the whole becomes much more than the sum of its parts. Joe goes to his death transcendent, accepting it as the end result of his self-motivated actions in service to the child-Mecha responsible for his ascent to a higher state of being. In that respect, the mystery of Joe is a tragedy as well.
In my fan fiction tale "One Degree Of Separation" (NC-17), Joe ends up being owned by Professor Allen Hobby, the visionary who conceived the David project in the first place, precisely because the good Professor perceives that mystery and finds himself unable to let it go. Matrix Refugee also explores Joe's further development in "Fathering the Fatherless" (PG-13). (I do hope you'll check both stories out, and remember -- feedback is gold to fanfic writers! If you like them let us know by leaving a quick review!)
For more "A.I." fanfic, check out the page at the "Clear and Haunting Visions" website. The "A.I." catagory at Fanfiction.net has new stories added periodically, so it's a good place to keep an eye on. Careful, though! It only automatically displays G to PG13 rated fics; I’d advise changing the ratings filter to All instead.
OTHER FAN FICTION NEWS: Yahoooo! I just found a site that archives "Rabbits!" (NC-17,), a "Reboot" story and the most delightful piece of Bob/Megabyte slash I've ever read. :-) Yes, you read that right: Bob and Megabyte. Oh, my... I get tears of laughter just thinking about it, as well as that certain glow that comes from reading a really, REALLY hot piece of slashfic.
Speaking of slashfic -- a recent and wonderfully kind review of "One Degree of Separation" has inspired me to take up the Hobby/Joe pairing again. I'd written a couple of short bits and posted them to the AI_Fanfiction mailing list , but time constraints and a sneaking suspicion that I was way behind the new pack of "A.I." fanfic writers in terms of quality and interestingness (that I was, in short, "old news") made me reluctant to take it up again. We'll see...
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?" (The Hellbound ;-))
TOMORROW'S ENTRY: Thoughts on "One Degree", Roleplaying, and Wicca
(originally posted on Diaryland.com, 2003-08-19 - 11:44 p.m.)
SETTING: Holy Hannah! 36 degrees Celcius, with 45% humidity -- the cats are furry puddles, and my husband and I aren't doing much better. Thank the Gods for cold running water and solidly frozen Breyers chocolate ice cream! The government weather service says that there's supposed to be a thunderstorm tonight; I can only pray that for once, for a miracle, they've got it right.
GIGOLO JOE AND ALL THAT: To distract myself from the sweltering heat, I saw "A.I." for the 15th time tonight (watched on a DVD that I received direct from Universal Studios as a gift for running an A.I.-related contest on my website, "Clear and Haunting Visions"), and was amazed all over again by its dreamlike quality, its haunting luminosity, and its sheer physical beauty. As an artist, and a colorist in particular, I see craftsmanship lovingly rendered in every frame, in perfect configurations of setting, symbol, and emotional dynamic.
Haley Joel Osment is breathtaking as the child-Mecha David, whose tragic existence and relentless love for his "Mommy" spans the 2000-year arc of the story. As Monica, the mother David is imprinted upon, Frances O'Connor is tortured by grief for her lost son Martin, a pain that David's presence in her life helps to ease -- until Martin returns, and she finds herself torn between the needs of her real son and her love for David; the scene where she decides to abandon David in the forest rather than return him to Cybertronics for destruction is the most distressing few minutes I've ever witnessed in a movie, full of agonizing betrayal and naked, helpless anguish. Fifteen viewings later, I still find it difficult to watch.
The very next scene introduces Jude Law as the lover-robot Gigolo Joe. Following David and assisting him in his quest to become a "real boy" so that Monica will love him, Joe undergoes a similar arc of transformation and ultimately, a transcendence of his function that not even David can claim. Joe has always been my favorite character in the film, a trait I share with Matrix Refugee, another denizen here at Diaryland.com -- not just because he's gorgeous and agile and seductive, although of course he is all that, but because of his essential mystery.
David was designed to be "a Mecha of a qualitatively different order", to achieve "consciousness" through his programmed ability to love, and to desire things not because he is programmed to do so, but because his self-motivated reasoning guides him in that direction. Joe, designed to do none of this, nevertheless achieves it all in the course of his single night with David. His discourse in the hallway of the Dr. Know franchise on Mecha-Orga relations reveals a suprisingly sophisticated (and cynical) understanding of the nature of the world he inhabits, and where does his suggestion that David should remain with him in Rouge City rather than pursuing the Blue Fairy come from? There is something more at work behind his shining eyes when he tells David that "(Monica) does not love you, she cannot love you..." The subtext, partially expressed in speech, is "... but I, as a fellow Mecha, can keep you safe here -- with me." This is not the programmed behavior of a sex-Mecha, a Supertoy for adult human beings. This is something quite new, and beyond a robotic gigolo's supposed limitations.
Joe's final act in the film is one of self-sacrifice. His enigmatic coda as he is taken (presumably) to his destruction ("I am... I was!") is the statement of a self-aware being acknowledging both his existence and the fact that he is not going to exist much longer. Taken with the opening words of his third line in the film ("I think") it forms a Descartian triangle of "I think, therefore I am, therefore I was" -- and suddenly the whole becomes much more than the sum of its parts. Joe goes to his death transcendent, accepting it as the end result of his self-motivated actions in service to the child-Mecha responsible for his ascent to a higher state of being. In that respect, the mystery of Joe is a tragedy as well.
In my fan fiction tale "One Degree Of Separation" (NC-17), Joe ends up being owned by Professor Allen Hobby, the visionary who conceived the David project in the first place, precisely because the good Professor perceives that mystery and finds himself unable to let it go. Matrix Refugee also explores Joe's further development in "Fathering the Fatherless" (PG-13). (I do hope you'll check both stories out, and remember -- feedback is gold to fanfic writers! If you like them let us know by leaving a quick review!)
For more "A.I." fanfic, check out the page at the "Clear and Haunting Visions" website. The "A.I." catagory at Fanfiction.net has new stories added periodically, so it's a good place to keep an eye on. Careful, though! It only automatically displays G to PG13 rated fics; I’d advise changing the ratings filter to All instead.
OTHER FAN FICTION NEWS: Yahoooo! I just found a site that archives "Rabbits!" (NC-17,), a "Reboot" story and the most delightful piece of Bob/Megabyte slash I've ever read. :-) Yes, you read that right: Bob and Megabyte. Oh, my... I get tears of laughter just thinking about it, as well as that certain glow that comes from reading a really, REALLY hot piece of slashfic.
Speaking of slashfic -- a recent and wonderfully kind review of "One Degree of Separation" has inspired me to take up the Hobby/Joe pairing again. I'd written a couple of short bits and posted them to the AI_Fanfiction mailing list , but time constraints and a sneaking suspicion that I was way behind the new pack of "A.I." fanfic writers in terms of quality and interestingness (that I was, in short, "old news") made me reluctant to take it up again. We'll see...
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?" (The Hellbound ;-))
TOMORROW'S ENTRY: Thoughts on "One Degree", Roleplaying, and Wicca
