Consider: Who is Sophia Stewart?

I’m quite interested in the 1999 case that involved an African-American woman by the name of Sophia Stewart, and the Wachowski Brothers, The Matrix, The Terminator, and Warner Brothers. If you know nothing about this case, you shouldn’t, because it was barely, if at all, reported on by the mainstream media. As a matter of fact, I only came across this case by word of mouth.

Here’s the deal: In 1999, Stewart filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers (film studio that released The Matrix), the Wachowski Brothers (the directors of The Matrix) and Joel Silver (producer), claiming that The Matrix was plagiarized from her book, The Third Eye. She lost her case after failing to appear in court for preliminary hearings, but her apparent negligence does not dissuade me from buying into her story. I do think there was some shadiness on the part of Warner Brothers, and, I’ll be frank, I do believe both race and gender played a role in the downplay of this case and the unwillingness of many to grant it any credibility. Not to mention, as Stewart says, Warner Brothers is owned by AOL-Time Warner, which owns 95% of all media. There’s no way a case disputing authorship – by a colored woman! – of one of a studio’s most megalicious blockbuster hits would be reported on by that studio’s parent company.

To me, the glaring problem (for many people that counted in this matter) is that Sophia Stewart wrote a manuscript that, not only a black person, but a black woman (double whammy!) had no business writing. Black women simply aren’t supposed to pen work on the cerebral, intellectual, and philosophical level of The Matrix or, for that matter, The Terminator. Consider this quote by Sophia:

“When you read “The Third Eye”, you will see it’s all one story [The Matrix and The Terminator]. You have to understand I am very subtle with the way I write, I work on the subliminal. When I write I don’t want people to be able to tell my race or gender. Look at Octavia Butler the most famous black female science fiction writer they never put her work on the big screen. “

And I think that is exactly what the problem was – the manuscript did not dictate the “race” and “gender” of its author as “black” and “woman.” Ooops. Hollywood isn’t interested in “minorities” doing anything too ambitious, but if they do, they are to do so with the assistance of the “majority,” or simply majority opinion. You know, they just have to make the story more consumable for the American public.

It is no secret that Hollywood, for all its progressive showboating, is racially biased and culturally confused. I can’t tell you more than ten “minority” actors and actresses, let alone “minority” screenwriters and directors, that are consistently designated important spaces on the big screen (the obligatory biographical role set aside). Hollywood, to say the least, is terrified of color unless it’s placed in a certain, comfortable context.

I don’t care how many more times Halle Berry or Penelope Cruz win an Oscar, and how often Hollywood puts on a puppet show to appease its cultural critics – the real test of whether or not Hollywood can relieve itself of its racial ignorance and fears will only be revealed in the positions it allots to people of color off screen, such as that of director and writer, and in stories that do not create Wikipediaed or Googled microcosms of their culture and narratives.

Anyway, the disparity of colored voices in Hollywood has already been well-analyzed and chronicled by people a lot more upset about it than I am, so I won’t go off on that right now. I simply want to bring light to the case of Sophia Stewart. Her story is particularly important to me as a black female writer who hopes to see her manuscripts on the big screen. I’ll be honest, I had never considered the obstacles that might face a woman of my ethnicity and my gender, coupled with my ambitions. So Sophia’s story is of unique importance to me.

The very incident of the case, whether well-founded or not, raises an awareness that suggests, as a general rule of thumb, your work must be guarded, and you must understand what you are up against if you release it, in some form, to a marketplace. Stewart originally submitted her manuscript to the Wachowski Brothers through an ad. What you may realize after releasing your work, in part or whole, is that, depending on your physical makeup and plumbing, the battles you may encounter may surprise you – even in the twenty first century.

You can read Sophia’s page on the Underground News Network here: http://sophiastewart.unn13.com/thirdeye.html

Now, I will say I have not read The Third Eye (found it on Amazon, but apparently as of now it’s not available), but I still find myself giving Stewart the benefit of the doubt, because that kind of shadiness on the part of big Hollywood studios is exactly what would happen in a situation like this. Furthermore, the FBI, itself, stated in their investigation of the copyright case against The Matrix “creators,” that “credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers.”

Ultimately, the question that occurs to me after reflecting on this case is: What is originality? What is plagiarism? I think such determinations will always be for the courts to decide. I ask you, Reader: Do you think ideas, necessarily, recur? Do ideas, necessarily, overlap? In all honestly, I’m sure there are plenty of writers who have penned stories very similar to The Matrix, The Terminator, or The Third Eye. I guess the question is: Who gets the glory? And oh yeah but do we want that person to hold the trophy?

To be frank, if anyone had a copyright case, wouldn’t it be the Biblical writers?! Who doesn’t see the parallels between Biblical stories and The Matrix – or even The Terminator? But do parallels qualify as plagiarism?

Anyway, here is a last quote by Sophia that breaks down the relationship between The Matrix and The Terminator, and her book, The Third Eye:

“First these two franchises are owned by the same people or movie house. Ok, The Terminator and The Matrix are actually “one book”. That’s my “Third Eye” manuscript. It’s nine chapters but it’s all from the same source (no pun intended) Terminator starts from the front of my book to the back. Matrix starts from the back of my book and works its way to the front. They are moving in two opposite directions. My book was separated into two. “The Third Eye” is an epic, my book spans three time frames the past, the present and the future. Those films do the same thing. The child in the first Terminator who is born to the pregnant lady (Sarrah Connor) grows up to be the same as the grown man character in the Matrix called Neo, it’s that chosen one, savior concept. Matrix starts in the future, when technology has taken over. The Terminator was sent to kill the child who was prophesized to destroy the machines. That intersects directly with Neo as being the one prophesized to bring the machine reign to an end. One critic who is unaware of my lawsuit called the movies cousins but they are actually one in the same in the original.”

Again, you can read more about Sophia’s case, and see images of her manuscript, here.

Sources:
Sophia Stewart UNN Page,
MeetMyMind Blogspost
Playahata
Wikipedia

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