In The Matrix, just before Morpheus sends Neo down the rabbit-hole, he commends him for his awareness: "you know something . . . what you know you can't explain, but you can feel it . . . you don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad" and his words are both ominous and elegant, a perfect set-up for the bombshell soon to come, but I recently learned from an anonymous source that the Wachowski Brothers ran through a number of alternatives before they arrived at the "splinter in your mind" simile . . . here they are:
1) like a cinderblock in your anus;
1) like a cinderblock in your anus;
2) like a sea urchin in your urethra;
3) like a Khan worm in your ear;
4) like a polyp in TR's nostril;
5) like a hedgehog in your armpit;
6) like a caltrop between your butt cheeks;
7) like a booger in your mustache;
8) like the early-morning gound in your eye;
9) like a donkey in your bathtub;
10) like a splinter in your pinky-toe, right under the nail, and you can't get it out-- even with a pin that you sterilized with rubbing alcohol . . . it is this feeling that has brought you to me . . . do you know what I'm talking about?
3) like a Khan worm in your ear;
4) like a polyp in TR's nostril;
5) like a hedgehog in your armpit;
6) like a caltrop between your butt cheeks;
7) like a booger in your mustache;
8) like the early-morning gound in your eye;
9) like a donkey in your bathtub;
10) like a splinter in your pinky-toe, right under the nail, and you can't get it out-- even with a pin that you sterilized with rubbing alcohol . . . it is this feeling that has brought you to me . . . do you know what I'm talking about?
