Contest -
Well, my contest didn’t really take off. We’re going to expand the topics and give people more time.
Win a free copy of Beyond the Matrix! Starting now, there will be a monthly essay contest. Topics for the month will be listed in this space. For each contest, three to five of the best essays will be chosen and posted here. The winning essay for the topic will be awarded a free copy. The winning essay will also be posted, and there might even be a response essay. Essays should be 1000 words, with no html, so use parenthetical notation for any references. Any unoriginal work will be deleted. The essays will be judged by Stephen Faller, and all decisions are final. Essays will be respected and not altered if they win.
To kick off this feature, four winners will be selected. You may enter for multiple topics, but you won’t win more than once. If you want to submit your essay under a username, that’s fine, but real names and addresses will be necessary for winners. In the event that all the essays stink, there will be no winners. The contests will continue as long as they are popular. To enter, please send your essay in a message body without attachment to the author. Entries must be received on the last day of September to qualify. Good luck!
The topics are:
1) Compare and contrast Neo to Neitzche’s Superman. How does Neitzche’s work fit into the Matrix?
2) Discuss the Matrix series and a major religion like Buddhism or Hinduism. Go in depth. Just about any religion is fine; I wrote articles here about Christianity, and I hope readers can supplement the knowledge base. Consider Christian occultism, like Gnosticism.
3) Analyze “Enter the Matrix.”
4) Analyze a character.
5) Write about the Matrix and the book _Simulations_and_Simulcra_.