Impossible

~Atul Saraff, VII Semester

 What is the single most infectious and deadly disease in the world? If you were to believe Leonardo DiCaprio*, it’s an idea. In his latest movie he speaks about inception and about how an idea once planted in your head - grows, eats at you bit by bit every day, until it completely consumes you. An idea can make you believe something is as real as the ground you stand on. That it is more than just a thought; it can make you believe that it’s a fact.

  However, as easy as it is to make someone believe that something is possible, it is much easier to make them believe that something is impossible.

  At first glance the picture looks quite simple. There is nothing special about it. No colour, fancy tones or play with light. There is nothing that really stands out. In fact, you may quite easily miss it. But when you look from just a bit closer, you notice something. It’s something that doesn't make sense and yet seems flawless- The infinity staircase.

  Like the picture, our logic too seems quite simple and straight forward. There is nothing too fancy or complicated to understand. In fact, the cracks in the thought lines are so minute, that if you don't look close enough, you can easily miss them (as is the case quite so often). Since birth we are being subconsciously trained to think along a certain path. A path that is set along an endless loop. It is one that limits us forever in the years to come to the confines of a singular idea. The idea that laws of science and society cannot be broken, that certain things are beyond our understanding, and thus beyond the realm of possibility. It’s time to ask ourselves, ‘Is this the path we chose to walk on?’

  Studying the drawing we notice human figures scattered throughout the composition. However, this arrangement is not random. There seems to be a lot more people crowding the staircase, and only a few in other areas in the building. Also the figures on the staircase appear to me moving fast, almost frantic. The others appear stationary and relaxed.

   Like the figures in the staircase, we circle rounds. We all hurdle past one another without once stopping and asking ourselves, ‘Where are we going?’ The answer is as simple as it is unsettling, ‘No where really’. They say you have to have a third person’s perspective to be able to impartially judge any system. This in simple words means that you have to be out of the loop to be able to see what’s really going on!

  We spend a lot of the time in our lives thinking about the ultimate answer- the meaning of life. To cut that chain of thought short the answer is ‘42’ (as provided by the super computer ‘deep thought’ designed by pan dimensional beings of supposed higher intelligence)**. Now that we have that out of the way, time to think of the smaller questions, like ‘Why is life the way it is?’, ‘Why are we comfortable with certain ideas?’, and ‘What is it about some ideas that is comforting and what is it about others that are discomforting?’ The truth is, I for one do believe that the answer lies within us. We just forgot. And it’s that time of civilisation again where one asks himself all those uncomfortable questions which have caused revolutions in the past that have shaped us as beings, and forever altered our futures.

  Looking at the picture people may tend to believe that maybe it’s a play of perceptions, an illusion, or just a bad drawing by a crazy artist. But if you know anything about Escher you know this- it’s the crazy that the genius comes from. He has a better understanding of space and geometry than we might understand. Growing up with a civil engineer father and being educated in architecture himself has given him sufficient insight into the field. It is this incredible understanding that leads to his unbelievable works of art. I can never claim to fully know exactly what was in the artists head when he made this composition. However, as in the case of an archaeologist trying to decipher entire cultures by looking at buried remains, I can only imagine the emotion that might have lead to this drawing. And when I look I see a metaphor, a world with a few good men who enjoy true freedom, ‘Freedom of thought’.

  The movie INCEPTION provides for a truly horrifying scenario. How sure are we of what is real and what is not? How can we really know if an idea was ours or just planted by external forces? The thought that something as fundamental as ‘THOUGHT’ may be manipulated and adulterated sends shivers down my spine. However the movie also provides for a possible way of knowing you’re being played. Trace back to how you got there...



*Movies are the only real form of education we got man!


** ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams makes for almost scholarly reference material!