Anyone have any ideas about the meaning of this conversation between Aeon and Celia in the morgue scene in "The Demiurge"?

Celia: "Tell me what you know!" Aeon: "What? The joints were too weak, the head is finally gone... but you can't tell what a man thinks when he's... that love doesn't solve anything." Celia: "You don't know anything about us!"

I know Aeon is speaking of the Demiurge's head in the missile, but still, why does she bring this up? And why in such a halted way of speaking?

-- Mat Rebholz (mer5@dana.ucc.nau.edu), April 25, 1998

Answers

When Celia says "tell me what you know" Aeon takes the question literally in a tounge-in-cheek manner. She knows that the joints were too weak. She knows the head is finally gone. She knows that you can't tell what a man thinks when your having sex. And she knows that love doesn't solve anything. This last answer she directs specifically at Celia meaning that her love for Nadir won't solve her problems, to which Celia replies "you don't know anything about us" Aeon is trying to dance around Celia's question and at first tries to avoid her all together.

-- Frostbite (http://foo@bar.com), April 26, 1998.

One thing I love about the series is the snide play-on-words/toung-in-cheek type comments uttered so matter of factly. The ones that spring to mind besides Aeon's literal answer here are Trevor's "key her up and throw away the lock" in the memory lapse episode and "do you have a tip for me? Maybe some spare change?" in the utopia or deuternopia episode. I know at least a couple others have caught my ear, but I forget them now.

-- P D (snazzman@hotmail.com), May 14, 1998.

From End Sinister:

Aeon: "But I have the control, so it seems that I'm making the choices." Trevor: (sighs) "If I wanted the control back, I'd have it by now." Aeon: "And I'd steal it again. I'll never be changed against my will..."

And so on. This seems to be a metaphor for a sense of control, rather than just the physical control to the satellite. Control is a common theme of the show it seems...

-- Mat Rebholz (mer5@dana.ucc.nau.edu), May 14, 1998.

All very Shakesperean, no?

-- Frostbite (foo@bar.com), May 19, 1998.

ok. about Celia. and about "Leading the Witness"

i remember that she is in total denial of what has actually happened. at one point she sees a man get shot (i think by Trevor), and then raised from the dead by the Demiurge and it's emmanation(s), but she insists to herself that Aeon is to blame. This is an interesting personification of denial. She even says, "I know what I saw" at one point. She asks questions, but doesn't want to hear the answers. This is typical of people who are in denial.

i'm not sure why, but i also think back to the scene where Aeon is trying to find her weapon in a large warehouse where others are recovering their lost loved ones. This seems to imply that Aeon is in love her weapon(s) and is oblivious to the suffering around her.

There are certainly a lot of dead people in this episode, and this probably should not be overlooked, even though the focus is upon the living few. Part of the reason that i believe they are significant is because of the parachuting scene as well as the Peter Chung interview cited by others.

I also think of the scene in which Celia is about to smash the box containing the three-eyed cat, and she trips. Did she trip because of the Demiurge? Did she trip purely accidentally? Or did she trip because she was uncertain of her own beliefs/actions.

I remember being uncertain about the relationship between Rubio and Zenith.

The Demiurge Bird seems significant as well. It looks like a thunderbird or phoenix or whathaveyou. Before its transformation, it looks like a sparrow or pigeon. Bird, Cat, Man.

Maybe that's the threat of the Demiurge to humans in this film: that it will reanimate increasingly complex life forms? I dunno. But I remember that movie Final Fantasy? Is that the name? With the computer-generated characters fighting against ghosts of the animal kingdom.

Both movies have that element of xenophobia vs symbiosis.

p.s. - when is was talking about "leading the witness" i was referring to my own conscious mind. This falls underneath the category of suspension of disbelief, or reduction of aesthetic distance.

For example, the layered meanings of Aeon Flux as a series are cummulative and additive. Watching Aeon Flux requires a certain level of concentration. Passive watching is possible, and is probably enjoyable as well, but most likely provides different kinds of interpretations. "Leading the witness" refers to the act of allowing the analytical part of the mind the freedom to interact with the observational part of the mind. Since the observational part of the mind is observing fiction, this also refers to allowing the analytical part of the mind to ask pressing questions of the imagination.

We are not encouraged to do this in normal life, for good reasons, but this kind of creativity is useful to me in interpreting creative artifacts. Without this process, there is merely observing, or imagining, or analysis. All of the die-hard Aeon Flux fans here seem to me to be engaging in the kind of thinking i'm describing. Obviously, Peter Chung is probably extremely good at this kind of thing as well, but even if he isn't, i imagine that part of his goal is to encourage new ways of thinking about things.

Ok. Now back to the character Celia. Celia observes, but her denial is a denial of her own witnessing mind. She doesn't allow her analytical mind to interact with her observational mind, so there is that ridiculous disjunction. It's no surprise that Aeon doesn't take her entirely seriously nor Celia's pursuits or questions. Even though Aeon is narcissistic, Celia seems to seek affirmation of what she knows deep down is not the truth.

Celia and Aeon are very different form one another in that Aeon doesn't seem to require or request any affirmation, and she even avoids it because she seeks to define herself on her own terms exclusively. This makes her difficult to interact with most, but not all times.

There are many episodes where Aeon seems extremely comfortable with herself while everyone else is frantic. Perhaps this is Aeon's denial. And in this key episode, Trevor verbally questions Aeon's sense of self/sense of affirmation. A giggle gives it away. Laughing can be for joy or for nervousness. With Aeon it could also be either, neither, or both.

I'm just thinking out loud again, but if not here, where ? If not now, when ?

-- Day Of Brahma (DayOfBrahma@aol.com), November 04, 2004.