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Presentation
Salvation from Illusion, Salvation by Illusion: The Gospel According to Christopher Nolan
Annual Meeting American Academy of Religion
  • George Faithful, Seton Hall University
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Location
Baltimore, MD
Publication Date
11-1-2013
Department
Religion and Philosophy
Abstract

You are not really paying attention to reality. Nor should you, according to screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan. You do not need to know the truth. What you need is the perfect lie. Therein lies your hope of salvation. The perfect lie will save you from lesser lies but will also protect you from the destructive austerity of the truth. That has been a consistent theme in Nolan’s cinematic corpus.

While this article will limit itself to his science fiction works – The Prestige, Inception, and his Batman trilogy – the theme of salvation from and by illusion is significant in Nolan’s other works in its negative form: the truth destroys.

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Citation Information
George Faithful. "Salvation from Illusion, Salvation by Illusion: The Gospel According to Christopher Nolan" Annual Meeting American Academy of Religion (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/george-faithful/19/