Beyond Zarathustra: Nietzsche and 2001: A Space Odyssey

by Pedro Groppo

The usual connection between Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy and the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is through Thus Spake Zarathustra, and it was hailed at its release by at least one contemporary review as the “first Nietzschean film.”¹ Central to Thus Spake Zarathustra is the concept of man as mainly a bridge between the ape and the superman. Richard Strauss’ homonymous tone poem, one of the musical cues of the film, also invokes a reading on 2001 on Nietzschean themes. Little has been written, however, to substantiate these claims, often giving way to facile interpretations. I will argue that there are indeed confluences between Stanley Kubrick’s film and Nietzsche’s philosophy, and these are grounded on the notions of truth and abstraction, the death of God, Will-to-Power, and Eternal Recurrence. 2001 is undeniably asking ambitious questions about the nature of intelligence and humankind, its place and fate in the universe; and it can be seen as a fitting illustration of many Nietzschean ideas, properly attuned with its time and medium. This essay does not aim, however, to be a comprehensive reading of either Nietzsche or 2001, but rather discuss their connection in order to clarify aspects of both.

Laerte: a new series

Can you figure out what we’re looking for?

 

Indiana Jones round-up

The House Next Door: Smitten With a Whip: Three Appreciations of Indiana Jones
What are we looking at? Is this an unseen spectator’s fantasy? Willie’s grandiose daydream? An alternate reality? It’s no real-world nightclub routine, that’s for sure. What stage director in his right mind would choreograph a dance routine in a style that’s not theatrical but cinematic (the dancers obviously arranged for an unseen movie camera’s benefit), and stage it in a room that the club’s patrons can’t even see? Anything goes, indeed.

The House Next Door: Migration and Exodus: Indiana Jones
Was a time when Spielberg might have had Indy rising into frame full-face and body, the blast behind him merely a source of Slocombe-superintended backlight. But here, in concert with his visual Herrmann—from Schindler’s List on—Janusz Kaminski, he makes sure to dwarf Indy, obliterating him (as per the final sequence of Last Crusade) into silhouette, forcing character and audience alike to bear witness to the glory and the horror, to reconcile the realities of mankind with its no less tangible myths.

BLDGBLOG: Inside the Test Village

Edward Copeland on Film: Indy in Peril: An Action-Scene Breakdown

Temple of Doom: Bang a gong, sing a song
“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” tells you how to watch it in the first shot. This time the twin peak is revealed to be embossed on a gong — which establishes the retro-1930s “Oriental”-exoticism theme of the adventure, and kicks off Kate Capshaw’s Cantonese “Anything Goes” musical number with a bang, beginning with the extended take that immediately follows. For movie fans of all ages, this gong instantly evokes fond, resonant memories…

New York Press - ARMOND WHITE - Another Indy Classic
When the impudent, postmodern imperialism of Raiders was followed by the comic essay on the morality of speed in 1984’s Temple of Doom, both needed some crucial political correction—eventually provided by The Last Crusade’s overview of Western political and religious heritage.

Dick Cavett Show: John Huston

John Huston is the guest for this edition of the Dick Cavett show, aired in February 1972.

Huston speaks lovingly of working with Humphrey Bogart, saying that “he was the first choice for all the pictures I did with him and is still my first choice in pictures…I only wish he were here to do them today.” The irony that Huston heartily puffs away on a giant cigar while eulogizing Bogart and writer James Agee (The African Queen), both of whom died from smoking-related illnesses is hard to miss.

“People who know him, or who have drunk with him, or who have worked with him, say that he’s about the best company you can get, if you can stand the pace.”

Laerte’s ongoing “bonobo eye” series

This week, Laerte is obsessed with monkey eyes:

Note how Laerte incoroporates the previous series in the second comic!

UPDATE: on Sunday, this one came out.

UPDATE 2: on the following Monday, May 5:

Laerte’s poop gift series.

Brazilian cartoonist Laerte published his poop gift series this week. The question remains: is it funny?

Update: maclaine has pointed out that this is in fact Laerte’s reworking of a joke from 8 years ago:

What is the fixation with excrement? Not that I don’t like it, it’s certainly better than anything by Caco Galhardo, for instance. Although this is not so bad.

Nothing to See Here

Nothing To See Here is a website dedicated to mapping forgotten and “lesser-signposted places” to go. There is a great selection and commentary that will certainly liven up your next vacation. Surely you don’t want to go to the - gasp - Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower! (read: tourist traps). Why not go to The Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, location for nothing less than Blade Runner? You should seize and also drop by Buffy’s House! In New York, The Whispering Gallery is something you probably already visited but never knew; more film buff geekery in the Wicker Man’s Legs in Burrowhead; for those with Ballardian inclinations, the Trinity Car Park in Gateshead sounds like heaven. I would’ve added the The Dakota Building in NYC and Doune Castle in Scotland. (or are those too mainstream?)

More 1950s interviews

This time from Mike Wallace, made available by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Some selections:

Frank Lloyd Wright

Aldous Huxley

Salvador Dali

Erich Fromm

Kirk Douglas

Peter Ustinov

Tony Perkins (pre-Psycho)

Lili St. Cyr (America’s leading strip teaser talking about ufology)

I Drink Your Milkshake

Too much of a good thing. I don’t know what it is about this movie, but suddenly everybody loves it more than their mother; or at least they love showing that they’ve watched it. Well… I guess it’s better than the steampunk fad, including steampunk Darth Vader.

[via /Film]

The Death of Postmodernism

Alan Kirby:

Whereas postmodernism called “reality” into question, pseudo-modernism defines the real implicitly as myself, now, “interacting” with its texts. Thus, pseudo-modernism suggests that whatever it does or makes is what is reality, and a pseudo-modern text may flourish the apparently real in an uncomplicated form: the docu-soap with its hand-held cameras (which, by displaying individuals aware of being regarded, give the viewer the illusion of participation); The Office and The Blair Witch Project, interactive pornography and reality TV; the essayistic cinema of Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock…