《楚门的世界》EnvironmentofIllision.docVIP

____________________________________________________ Throughout the 20th Century, the creators of popular fiction have told stories about characters who are imprisoned in false paradises of technology and simulation, and other environments of illusion. In the book, The City and the Stars《城市与星星》, by Arthur C. Clark and the movie, Logans Run, for example, entire societies are shown trapped inside enclosed cities of high technology and self-indulgence, separated from the world of nature and from human nature. Inside these gilded cages, the inhabitants live a charmed and inconsequential life. In the book, The Futurological Congress《未来的国会》, we see another variation on this theme, with a depiction of a society that is trapped in a shared, drug-induced, illusion. The inhabitants believe they live in a world of futuristic conveniences when everything is in a state of decay and collapse. Beyond their false perception of the world is the terrible truth concealed from humanity -- nature itself is on the verge of a catastrophe that will destroy civilization. These works generally tell the same story, which is only barely concealed by variations in the characters and settings, suggesting that we are looking not only at a popular plot idea that has been borrowed by various authors, but also at a primal fantasy or an archetype that reveals something essential about the mind. Many begin by showing us characters who are happy in their falsified worlds. The story is then set in motion as things begin to happen that challenge the characters acceptance of their surroundings. It may be that the characters have an inner urge to find out what is beyond their limited lives or there may be flaws in the seamlessness of the illusion that cause it to begin to break down. As a result, a process of recognition sets in, in which the characters begin to realize they are prisoners. What they thought was the world begins to look like a cage. What they thought was a life begins to look like a lie. I