Genesis and Ghost in the Shell

Discuss the philosophy found in the various incarnations of Ghost in the Shell

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Sergeant X
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Genesis and Ghost in the Shell

Post by Sergeant X »

(do we have to hide spoilers somehow?
I kind of assumed that most everybody on here has probably read or seen most of the media associated...?)

From my understand neither Oshii or Shirow are terribly religious and so I think that the biblical quotations and references that pop up in series are meant to signify something else.

Personally I think it relates to cybernetics.

First example I can give is at the end of the first movie. Motoko has that long conversation with Project 2501 and eventually agrees merge her consciousness with his. There's that long tilt shot of the shot-up evolutionary tree which also doubles as the Tree of Knowledge. She sort of enacts the program set forth in Donna Harraway's A Cyborg Manifesto but in doing so may have created a being that is evolutionarily superior to human beings

There are numerous quotations in the second film which I already started another thread on in The Films section of the forums. I'm pretty sure one of them is from Paradise Lost

Then there's the apple and the cross thing in Second Gig which I replied to in the other thread but I suppose we can have multiple conversations about similar topics since this is a forum and all.

Let's see Angel Feathers -(divine judgement?) in Germany (perhaps a commentary on the perverse nature of the whole thing - "If god exists, everything is permissible...")

and I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to say that Kuze is somewhat of a 'Christ figure'
his whole fuse with the net bit at the end sounds a bit like cybernetic liberation theology

thoughts?
“Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They're always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.”
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GhostLine
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yeah

Post by GhostLine »

Since GitS weighs heavily on the theme of ascending, it acknowledges the boundaries of the human experience. The expansion of human consciousness was always spoken about in religious terms until recently, so I agree GitS is using familiar religious handholds without the intention of being religious.
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