5001 SYMBOLISM IN STANLEY KUBRICK'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY created by Anton Halldinpatreon.com/antonhalldin#kubrick5001 FEEL FREE TO PUBLISH OR REPRODUCE THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AS YOU MAY, AS LONG AS: - no profit is being made, no monetisation. - proper credits are given. - alterations or additions are explicitly presented as such. Images from external media included in this work are, without exceptions, included solely for explanatory purposes and under fair use.***This work began as a short essay, ultimately altered and rewritten again as new notes had been scribbled down at the sheet of paper I kept for ideas. The small pastime project I had started – ambitions not greater than that of wanting to write down a few pages of loosely suggested interpretations – eventually transformed into the journal into which I would channel years of a deepened and ever-altered understanding of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ultimately, this film from 1968 was about to take me through the most overwhelming experience of my life, the impact and magnitude of which there had been no way to foresee. The creation of this work has been a long and absolutely thrilling journey, and it is a great pleasure to finally be able to deliver the result to you. 5001 – because of the 51st anniversary of this film of science fiction. This journey is now yours. My efforts in completing this work is dedicated with love and gratitude to the most beautiful person in the world – my very best friend and partner in love, Ursula. Göteborg, January 2019Introduction 2001: A Space Odyssey is a film that could be discussed on many levels. The film is science fiction and spaceships, and it is a story about alien life forms. There is a theme concerning the dangers of artificial intelligence, as the supercomputer HAL turns into a paranoid and omniscient madman. There is a story of apes about to evolve into Homo sapiens, becoming lethally violent as soon as their intelligence is high enough to invent the use of tools. The film touches on spirituality, as the main protagonist transforms into a merciful, brightly shining child. An unseen extraterrestrial intelligence present a mysterious artefact, a black upright monolith, among apes four million years ago. The event leads to the evolution of man. At the end of the film we end up in a mysterious room, created by the extraterrestrials for the purpose of transforming a human being into the infant in space. The infant in space that ends the film is one of the many defining images of the film that inevitably leads to the subject of symbolism. The alien intelligence has transformed the protagonist of the film into some kind of higher being, symbolised, as we might presume, by the infant appearing in space. With the aim of absolute scientific accuracy and of a realistic depiction of a future in space, the story of the film likewise directs the viewer into contemplating our existence as a species, our existence in relation to the vastness of the cosmos and our existence in relation to a God. Considering the scope of these suggested thematic matters, there should preferably not be any exact answer to the question about how we should interpret, say, the infant in space. Precisely defined answers to some of the mysteries of the film tend to alter and lose their adequacy after a while, like a cat slipping out of a cage. This aspect is an integral part of this work. But this work does, indeed, propose defined ways through which to interpret 2001: A Space Odyssey. Two perspectives of the film that have greatly influenced this work, are also those most referred to when discussing the film from a literary or philosophical viewpoint. One of the most prominent works of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) is Also Sprach Zarathustra, a book that in allegorical terms describes an evolution of mankind. The protagonist Zarathustra symbolises mankind, as he evolves from one level to the next, reaching what is described as übermensch, a superior human being. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, mankind evolves from ape-men to humans, and ultimately into the cosmic shining infant. The protagonist of the latter part of 2001: A Space Odyssey evolves into, by interpretation, a symbol of Nietzsche's übermensch, in what is perhaps the most prominent example of the film being in direct correlation with Also Sprach Zarathustra. In addition to this, there is a multitude of material in the film that could be regarded as directly, or indirectly, alluding to Nietzsche's book. A feature that further opens a door into this particular path of interpretation is the characteristic grand fanfare that, ever since the film premiered in the late sixties, has become the characteristic signature of 2001: A Space Odyssey – the opening of Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, an orchestral piece named after and inspired by the book. In Homer's ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, the hero Odysseus leaves his wife and son behind at Ithaca island, embarking on a journey through which he and his ship's crew endure various encounters and adventures. He will not be able to return home until many years have passed, but eventually reunites with his family, the beloved wife Penelope and their now adult son. An invitation into considering the film as modelled after Homer's epic is the very title of 2001: A Space Odyssey. An open interpretation would translate the title as 'Homer's The Odyssey in space'. (Worth noting is that both Stanley Kubrick and screenplay co-writer Arthur C. Clarke have in interviews actually proclaimed, in passing, that they wanted to make a story in the spirit of The Odyssey.) Odysseus and his crew encounter a cruel 'cyclops', a giant with only one eye, centred in the forehead – a description making the film's one-eyed antagonist HAL come to mind. Odysseus loses all of his crew before being able to return home to Ithaca. Another example of the film alluding to Homer's epic would be that protagonist Dave Bowman, in taking on the allegorical role of Odysseus, likewise loses all of his crew on spaceship Discovery, during the progression of his 'adventures'. The film has also been the subject of interpretations concerning human reproduction and conception. Spacecrafts and docking stations become sperm-cells and wombs, phallic spaceships enter vulvas in orbit. A feature that supports interpretations in this direction would be, simply, that the concluding result of the film is the appearance of a newborn infant (or a foetus, depending on interpretation). Who said what and when – since 1968 – about these particular interpretations of the film is not very easy to discern. A source of information concerning this is Wikipedia, offering an article broadly describing various interpretations of the film.Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory A quite extensive interpretation on 2001: A Space Odyssey in relation to Homer's The Odyssey and Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra is presented in Leonard F. Wheat's Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory (Scarecrow Press, 2000). Wheat's book sets the stage with a very thorough exposé of the plot of the film – the actual plot, devoid of symbolism, revolving around themes such as the intentions of extraterrestrial aliens, occasionally offering answers to these and other mysteries by referring to the book of the same name by Arthur C. Clarke. When dealing with symbolism, a presented thesis is that the main plot, the 'surface story' of the film, is driven by symbolism, depicting a story about the evolution of mankind, leading to a future in which mankind as a species turns into a symbiosis between man and machine, between man and artificial intelligence. “To grasp the second allegory [concerning the evolution of man in relation to machines and artificial intelligence], you must see the parallel between the Battle at the Waterhole and the Battle in Outer Space. Seeing the parallel requires recognizing that (a) each battle follows the appearance of a monolith, (b) Hal-Discovery [the artificial intelligence and it's spaceship 'body', by interpretation] in the second battle, like man in the first, symbolizes a newly evolved humanoid race, (c) each battle is fought between two symbolized races, contrasted with the surface story individuals, and (d) each battle is a battle for racial survival.” Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory, page 64. The main thesis of Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory is that the events of all of these three widely different sources of allegorically told material are alluded to simultaneously throughout the film, turning the film into a 'triple allegory'. The view that some aspects of what we see in the film could be interpreted as sexual symbolism and symbolism revolving around conception, gestation and childbirth is also presented – symbolism that is being interwoven into the interpretations of the film already at hand. The work contains plenty of references to sources having made previous interpretations on the film in the same domains as does the author. It could be said that prior to Wheat, interpretations dealing with Homer and Nietzsche have only presented either general thematic tendencies towards the given source material, or put forth mere solitary examples of referencing symbolism. Where Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory differs is that Wheat interprets everything in the film, every single scene, as symbolism. The film is transformed from a science fiction containing a couple of scattered allegorical tendencies and turns into a work that is entirely constructed out of allegorical symbolism. 2001: A Space Odyssey not only contains symbolism – the film is only symbolism. “[...] But these insights barely scratch the surface of 2001’s symbolism. Neither the depth and breadth of Kubrick’s symbolism nor the meanings of the most important symbols have been recognized. Even in the few cases where specific symbols have been detected, the inter- pretations have generally been oversimplified, often to the point of superficiality. Modest oversimplification occurs when an interpreter identifies Hal as the cyclops but overlooks related symbols depicting (a) the stake with which Odysseus put out the monster’s eye, (b) the jabbing and twisting – a la Odysseus – of the stake symbol, (c) a biblical character who toppled another giant the same way – by attacking its forehead – and (d) the monster’s victims. Massive over-simplification occurs when Kubrick’s symbolization of Nietzsche’s evolutionary progression is reduced to (1) non-tool-using ape symbolizes ape, (2) tool-using ape and Bowman symbolize man, and (3) star-child symbolizes overman ['übermensch']. Nietzscheian evolution is much more involved than that, and Kubrick’s symbolization of it is far more detailed, intricate, complicated, multifaceted, and subtle than the simple 1-2-3 sequence.” Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory, page 11. * Concerning the film as an allegory of the evolution of mankind in relation to machines, Wheat refers to author and screenplay co-author Arthur C. Clarke as bringing this theme into the story of the film. It is mentioned that Arthur C. Clarke was theorizing about a future in which mankind has fully integrated with machines, a future in which we – to traverse Arthur C. Clarke as quoted in the book – instead of interacting with machines, will be machines. The struggle on board spaceship Discovery, between the human members of the crew and HAL the computer, could be regarded as a battle fought allegorically: a struggle between human beings as a species and artificial intelligence, as a new 'species' becoming (or wanting to become) evolutionary successor to mankind. Leonard F. Wheat uses the position of Arthur C. Clarke as starting point and broadens this interpretation of the struggle on board Discovery One, into suggesting that the spaceship, including the onboard computer HAL, could be interpreted as a crossing between a human and a machine. Wheat points to the many 'human-like' features in the design of Discovery, in addition to HAL's 'human-like' intelligence, and concludes that the entire spaceship could be regarded as a symbol of a future humanoid race. This field of interpretation is also where to find most of the symbolism revolving around reproduction: Discovery is being 'born', just like the shining 'star child' is being 'born' at the end of the film. (An interesting visual link between Discovery and the 'star child' is mentioned. Discovery emerges, slowly, from the left-hand side of the screen, as the spaceship is introduced into the story. Later the 'star child' emerges from the left-hand side of the screen, too, quite in the same pace, the visual similarities suggesting the introduction of spaceship Discovery symbolising a 'mechanical infant' being 'born'.)Next >