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| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
This is an interesting thought, but there are a couple of areas where I think the analogy breaks down pretty significantly. First, I don't think Harris' character is really all that similar to the "God" of popular western religions in particular because he clearly doesn't embody the "Omni-3" role, as he is neither all powerful nor all benevolent. Beyond that, I think there's a massive difference between "overseeing" and "manipulating" - Harris' character would have to be a God who cares not for his creation, but only for his own personal gain.
Effectively the only God I can really see Harris character compared to is a weak version of Spinoza's god, but even then the level of determinism required doesn't seem to jibe with the apparently free-will of Carey's character.
So while I can see some corollary between Harris' and god, whatever kind of god he's supposed to embody doesn't seem relevant to much of the world. A large part of religious belief is instilling a sense of responsibility to a higher power, and in the world of the Truman show there can be no responsibility what-so-ever. |
It's true that the analogy is not especially strong in any strict sense -- it's really more of a symbolic comparison.
Harris' character is by no means omnipotent, but he does exercise extraordinary power over the "world" that Truman lives in -- summoning elements like fire and lightning in different attempts to dissuade Truman's efforts to leave in a way that seems somewhat allegorical to the gods of earlier religions. He isn't omniscient, but, again he does possess extraordinary knowledge of Truman's world through the however-many cameras (I recall it struck me as far too low a figure) on the island, and the information provided by the actors on the show. In both senses, he's clearly more limited than God would be, but still comparable in an abstract sense.
Benevolence is clearly a more problematic comparison, but it often appears during the movie as though he genuinely believes that his actions are in Truman's interest (even when they are pretty clearly not.) Belief in the Omni-3 God usually implies belief in some sort of objective "good" and therefore objective "benevolence" that I tend to have a problem digesting, especially in the context of the problem of evil. But I think it's fair to say, at the barest minimum, that Harris' character attempts to maintain a pretense of benevolence. And arguably, Harris' character appears more benevolent than God -- no one on Seahaven Island is stuck in abject poverty while they slowly starve to death, whereas many people under God's "care" are in the real world.
As far as the difference between overseeing and manipulating, I think that there is a bit of a more fine line than you're letting on, though I concede that again in this respect the analogy is imperfect at best. Consider a hypothetical situation where a person is going to make a bad decision, but God "inspires" them to recall a memory that helps them make a better decision instead. I don't think that's outside of the realm of religious belief, but it's arguably both overseeing and manipulating. Probably not everyone who believes in a personal god holds the same beliefs about how that God affects their life, which muddies the waters even further.
It's definitely another problem that the personal God envisioned by most believers wants to have an actual "relationship" with them and, ostensibly, wants them to be aware of his existence, whereas Harris' character aims to conceal his existence to Truman (until the very end as a final attempt to keep him from leaving.)
Despite the significant differences, though, I do think that the scenario presented is similar in enough respects to the idea of a paternalistic personal God who "knows what's best for you" that it, at the very least, raises the question of just how far we would want a "God" to go in creating a little world just for each of us where we'd be "safe" and "happy."
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