The boy inside the matrix box

5

I love whatever you're telling me

So please keep on talking

Keep On Talking – Melody Linhart

Through the kitchen window, Nataniel looks pensively at the street. When he sees a silhouette coming out of the apartment block and heading towards the sidewalk bench across the street, he starts feeling thrilled and runs to join the person.

Seven watches him come towards him with a smile on his face. As he approaches, Nataniel notices that he has an injury on his left cheekbone. However, he refrains from commenting on it.

"Here you are, my friend the philosopher. Fate has been crossing our paths regularly these last few days!"

"Fate is perhaps forced by the fact that we live in the same building."

"What a lack of romance for someone with a literary background!"

Without a word, Nataniel takes a seat next to him on the bench. Seven gives him an amused look.

"What do you prefer? Rather literature or philosophy?"

"Difficult choice."

Seven observes Nataniel with his ocean gaze. Pensive, he plays with the strand of black hair that falls on his forehead. "What would you like to do after high school?"

"Everything" Nataniel laughs softly. "A study of philosophical anthropology in literature."

"Interesting! An anthropology enthusiast, then?"

"I think it goes hand in hand with philosophy."

"That's true... What do you like most about anthropology?"

"Well... It's just that humans are so different and... we still believe that it's just us and our way of thinking. We have so much to learn from other cultures... I read Mead, do you know her?"

"A bit."

"It's... so interesting! There are passages about gender and sexual identity and... it's such a problem here, but in other societies, like Inuit, it's so much simpler. I just think that... we could all be better if we were all a little bit anthropologist each."

A smile floats on Seven's lips as he gently nods his head. "It's nice, what you say."

"Is it? Thank you, then."

"What about philosophy and literature? What is their role?"

"Humanity needs philosophy. That's great to learn the customs of other civilisations, but... we need philosophy to understand what is good and what is not. In fact, we need it to understand a lot of things. To understand others, to understand oneself, society, politics... Philosophy even allows us to understand what it really means to understand something."

He watches for Seven's reactions, fearing to bore him, but the young man follows his words carefully "You can't do without philosophy. We need to think about things, to tame them and to conceive of them." He finally falls silent, pensive. "Sorry, that sucks."

"No, it doesn't." Seven frowns.

Despite Seven's words, Nataniel is diving in a deep silence.

"What about literature?" asks Seven after a while.

The young blond man casts an indecisive glance at him, but finally lets himself be carried away by the desire to answer:

"It's necessary, too. Because it allows us to dream, to go beyond the limits of our existence and thus to grasp new possibilities... But also because philosophy needs literature. You can convey so many messages through a novel... In fact, I would say that philosophy needs art in general. It's a subject that philosophy loves to debate about, but... it wouldn't exist without art."