Ok so most people have no idea what Gnosticism is or find it hard to get into so here is a list of popular Gnostic films,books,games,music etc to get you going and to make you relaize just how big Gnosticism really is.IUf you have any Gnostic media that is not on here then please tell me about it and I'll put it up.These are just a few examples of Gnosticism being in the media.
Gnostic films:
1.The matrix 1,2 and 3.Basically it's the whole idea that this world isn't real and we are all bound here in a "dream" until we realize what this world is.There are lots of Gnostic references here including "Follow the white rabbit","Wake up Neo" and "Will you take the blue pill or the red pill?"Also the part where Mr Anderson changes to Neo and becomes a different person(has Gnosis)once he realizes what he really is.These films are full of Gnosis.
2.Donnie Darko.The hallucinations Donnie has,the philosophy of time travel,the bit about Roberta sparrow denouncing the church and writing the book on the philiosophy of time travel,donnie questioning love and fear and the world around him,the end of the world bit,the madworld song,the bit at the end where everyone is crying,donnie's rebellion against the material world etc.It's a hard film to understand but when you do it's worth it.
3.Vanilla sky.The fact that david's soul mate is called sofia and that gnostics seeks the goddess sophia as a soul mate,when david wears the mask(representing that everyone wears a mask and is not real),david's hallucinations,the man who says he has the power to "control the world",the part where david is not sure whether sofia is juliana or sofia(representing the dualism inside of us),the life is but a dream bit,the lucid dream bit(reincarnation),and the ending where david has realized about the lucid dream bit and wakes up and meets sofia(representing finding gnosis and going back to the true god).
4.Bladerunner.It's based on a book by Philip K dick who was a well-known Gnostic,the story is about artificial humans and there is a very important question asked as to whether they have souls,the religious symbolism,the paranoia about certain people being in control and having too much power,the fact that the character Deckard thinks hes human when really hes a robot(just like us today),the dreaming of the unicorn(symbolising having gnosis/awakaning).
5.The 13th floor.The creator learning that he too is created,the fact that there are a number of parallel worlds existing alongside each other,the virtual worlds/simulations,the simulated bodies losong themselves as the player takes over(like our position today),the fact that the users can be transferred back to the real world if they remember who they are(like us again),the whole "question reality" thing,the letter syaing the world isn't real,the bit where part of david dies but part of him lives on etc.
6.Tron.The tagline stated:"A world inside the computer where man has never been before.Never before now.",the symbolism,when the creation goes haywire, it's up to the creator to incarnate inside and put things right,Flynn when he is convinced he is dreaming,the whole digital world etc.
7.Fight club.The fact that the movie is about the main guy being two people but not knowing until the end,the bit where he trys to kill himself to kill Tyson(to me I see Tyson as the mortal man he must kill and who he thinks he is as the Gnostic man),after shooting himself the main guy awakes in a mental instiution thinking he is in heaven,and right at the end tyler is expected to come back(reincarnation in the gnostic form),the whole "God's middle children" thing which Tyler says.
8.A.I.(Artificial intelligence).Will the blue fairy(Sophia)make Pinocchio a real boy?,the android children with the ability to love,the rivalry between David and Martin(the rivalry between our human and Gnostic selves),the resurrection process,the search for the blue fairy to make david real(the search for wisdom/Gnosis to make us real).
9.Dark city.What if you were the only one awake?,the things that appear to be wrong with the world in the film,time memory and identity behaving in odd ways,murdoch losing and then discovering his memory,etc.
Gnostic music
1.Tori Amos.Here are a number of her songs that have Gnosticism in them although some are just particualrly religious ones: Devils and Gods,Velvet Revolution,Pancake,The beekeeper,Original sinsuality,Mary,Mary's of the sea,God,Father Lucifer,Muhammad my friend,Crucify,Angels,Take to the sky,Mother Revolution.
2.The waterboy's-The christ in you.
3.Dead can dance-Enigma of the absolute
4.Jethro tull-Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day
5.Necrostellar-Lucifer suddenly rising
6.Marilyn Manson-Loads of his songs have Gnostic bents particularly: The fight song,Disposable teens,Target audience(Narcissus Narcosis),In the shadow of the valley of death etc.
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1 comment:
I agree very much, that Donnie Darko has many references to gnostic thinking, which at last lead me to your blog. I would like to add one movie, I felt of especially strong gnostic association, which is Jack Arnold's "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes" with its dramatic final.
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