Motoko Redivivus

As I recall, it was only a matter of days after reviewing The Roboter's Motoko Files (Motoko Files: Cyber Prophecy by The Roboter) that I was apprised of the fact there were two versions of it. This is the Radhaus version featuring Rebekkah Hilgraves.

I still do not want to spoil it by revealing the ending (maybe it’s too much to mention the spiritual exaltation). Then again, everyone knows how a play by Shakespeare ends, yet theatergoers attend a new production of it anyway. this is because an additional level of appreciation has been added, one of experiencing the performance of the play itself, the talent and skill of the actors, and the director’s interpretation. Therefore nothing suffers by repetition. Instead it is made new again, and sometimes better.

This is what has happened here. Rebekkah’s impeccably measured cadences and significant pauses and the sheer wealth of emotion that she brings to this is worthy of classical drama. It is not out of place in a cyberpunk dystopia either. Indeed not. You can feel Motoko’s connection to the Grid. This listener becomes as much a part of it as she does. I also experienced Motoko’s existential crisis in a way that I missed the first time. Then I was a mere spectator. Now I’m involved, living the experience with her. And I followed the story with greater attention – not always easy because I suffer from attention deficit disorder – because I was riveted by the human dimension. In Motoko’s frame of reference, the experience was imported from her to me by Rebekkah.

If the Ghost in the Shell is the organic trace lingering after the cyberization made necessary for the survival of the human race following “the Big One”, Rebekkah’s is the voice of that ghost, proving that, when life must cling for support to a system of silicon and cold light, the human heart lives on.

George Miler, November 29th 2015