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In Reply to: RE: Fresh Musings on Kubrick’s Monument for the Ages: 2001 posted by mpathus on May 10, 2008 at 23:20:11
That's a very interesting point you make about HAL and the Jupiter mission being a kind of "survival of the fittest" microcosm, one I never reflected on before.The HAL 9000 may be, and I am certainly not original in suggesting this, one of the great characters of cinematic history; and quite unfairly, Kubrick was never given much credit for creating characters.
HAL is wonderful to psychoanalyze. After his psychopathic, murderous rampage, as he is being electronically lobotomized by Dave, he recalls his early childhood. His intructor, Mr. Langley, taught him a song, which he offers to sing for a group of observers. Everyone knows the song is "Daisy", or as I knew it, "A bicycle built for two."
This childlike, innocent recollection seems far removed from the egotistic murder spree we have just witnessed -- until one realizes that the song itself is a very strange one to have taught a sentient being who has no ability to exist in the physical world, who will never ride a bicycle, who will never participate in the carnal pleasures and emotional intimacies that we physical humans take for granted. When this aspect of HAL's existence are considered, Mr. Langley choice of tutorial material is not only inappropriate, it is downright cruel. He's screwing with HAL's head, in effect. For this reason, HAL's psychopathic veer can be explained easily: He was a victim of child abuse.
Clarke, who collaborated with Kubrick on the script, later said that Stanley Kubrick was the most intelligent man he'd ever met. Mr. Clarke had met quite a few intelligent men, was was pre-eminently one himself.
Edits: 05/11/08Follow Ups:
NT
Yes, HAL is truly iconic -- perhaps a perfect reflection of ourselves as intellect but without a root (soul) connection to an analog divine paradigm = massively top-heavy puppy without conscience.
Daisy: "...half crazy, all for the love of you..." HAL doesn't know how to love, but termination is easily enough: all ones and zeros = either on or off.
I think of Alien's version of "HAL" being the ship's computer "Mother"= design, and Ash = emotion/impetus (Ian Holm). Ash blows its top at Ripley in frustration for the absurdity of his pseudo-symbiosis with humans, magazine in hand for a phallus. Ash was responsible for jeopardizing the crew, just as HAL was, due its dependance upon orders and inability to understand or generate.
Once the genie is out of the bottle it becomes a travail to get it back in -- first Prometheus then Frankenstein, and we now face the goliath artificial intelligence in the 21st century.
The movies seem less escapism than tutorial :)
That's a very intersting take on "Aliens", a very good film with great atmospherics, wonderful crew of quirky, griping company grunts, a novel view of corporate hegemony workers, and the monster ... it's a great set-up, but it soon devolves into a "10 little indians" scare fest. Yet, as you point out, it certainly has its moments, and interesting parallels to Kubrick's work to boot.
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