Saturday, November 12, 2011

"2001: A Space Odyssey" : The Power of Symbolism

We have been learning some pieces of the stories that have based Western literature.
Without having the least basic knowledge, I would pretend to understand it only by touching
 the fragments of European culture. All I can do is nothing but to stand still in front of the
huge high mountains of the cultural works.

The power of symbolism! This is what I have been overwhelmed when reading some pieces
of Western literature here in North America. (Canadians look happy when they use this word
 instead of saying ‘Canada’.) They have the Bibles (New and Old), it’s preceded stories such as
the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ancient Greek Myths, and many classical works descended from them
 such as “Beowulf”. We can’t be momentarily careless even when reading titles of a piece of
poem. We recently read a long poem titled “David”. Here is Dr. David Bowman again, who was
also very brave.

This time, we watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” directed by Stanley Kubrick, I was at a loss
again in front of the black giant “monolith” on the moon, where the six men posed smiling to
take memorial photos. The bone thrown by one of apes, the origin of the mankind is also
symbolized, maybe, as the origin of the tools, which made human apart from other animals
distinctively, which also meant machines, computers, HAL 9000’s.

I remembered the picture of the fetus, the baby in the uterus, taken by Lennar Nilsson,
I had shown the pictures in his book when I taught my students at sex education. I had never
 thought I met him here again on the screen.

 I should have brought the book about Nietzsche from my bookshelf to Canada, which I
started to read just before I left Japan, when got interested in his philosophy saying “God
died” I had been looking for the firm theory of nonviolence which doesn’t rely on religions;
the theory without using the words of religions! I think humankind has not succeeded in
constructing the theory of nonviolence yet, except for some great religious people. On that
way, I met Nietzsche, who I heard criticized Christianity. Though I didn’t have to criticize
Christianity, I had been seeking for how we should deny violence completely in this society
and in this world.

Hal was not a complete machine after all: he read their lips in the dialogue between David and
 Frank; killed Frank; and rejected to let David into the station. In the battle between David and
Hal, I thought man defeated the machine for a moment, where I felt a hope. I thought human
beings still rely much on a small number of people who have been continuing individual efforts
 for the truth, or justice we have called. The movie showed us a lot of symbols in Western culture.
The more we learn, the deeper we would understand this movie.     

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