Not only did this masterful work inspire Astronauts, Scientists and Philosopher’s it also can be credited - in my opinion - with being a cornerstone work for Clarke. Being one of my most favorite Author’s, he has inspired me ten fold in my work and life. I am a teacher at a small college, and I have a poster of 2001 on my back wall. Occasionally a student will ask, or take interest in Clarke and I will usually be successful in coverting them to a fan.
The question I most often get, is in my study groups when the topic changes from Psychology, to my blathering about Clarke and 2001: and other works. Those students who have seen 2001, always ask what my opinion is about the Obelisk.
Now I would like to ask the teeming millions.
The Black Obelisk of 2001: A Space Odyssey, what in your opinion is it, and how do you describe it’s effects on guiding the movie from the beginning. From when the first Ape touches it, to Bowman looking at it in Space?
**Mods please move this if it is not in the right forum. I’ve seen similar titles in GD.
Well, the discussion would be vastly different if you limit the coversation to 2001. In his later books he explained in much greater detail the purpose and origin of the Monoliths. They are basically computers desgined to go and create ideal situations for intelligent life to arise, and then to speed the process where applicable. They are automatic, and this becomes a tricky moral question when humnas find life on Jupiter, but a monolith decides that another form of life (on Europa I think) would have a better chance at becoming intelligent and destroys all of the life in the clouds of Jupiter (by turning it into a second sun) to give another species a better chance.
I think the monolith could be seen as the literal catalyst for man’s progression along the evolutionary ladder, or (if we’re discussing subtext) a metaphor for man’s primal spirit of inquiry. There are four monoliths in the original film (I’m not familiar with any of the subsequent books and have only seen the so-so 1984 follow-up once):
(1) Dawn of Man sequence. Touching the monolith (which appears out of nowhere), it is suggested, plants the seed in the ape tribe to develop the first basic tools, and thereby allows them to gain dominance over the other tribe.
(2) The Moon, where it’s been buried. Touching it seems to have no effect this time (maybe because contact is not direct, maybe because man is more advanced), but it does emit one piercing radio signal (and only one) before staying, presumably, silent forever. (Note: The DoM monolith might also give off a buzz/moan, but it’s hard to tell if that sound is diagetic or not)
(3) After Dave is in the pod, the monolith appears from amidst the stars. Dave seems to fly into the monolith. The first two Ms appeared to be of comprable dimensions, but this one is much much bigger (and presumably, more fluid/less tangible than the others)
(4) The Bedroom. Dave has aged/evolved to his deathbed, where the monolith suddenly appears at the foot. Next thing we know, the starchild is born and is transported back to “our” universe.
This film is, obviously, open to many interpretations, but its ambiguity is one of the things I find most satisfying about it. The resolution is left unexplained, but it’s unquestionably a triumphant step forward that Dave (Man) takes. In every instance, the monolith doesn’t just “do” something–man (in all his stages) shows an innate curiosity about its purpose and meaning. Unquestionably, the saddest parts of the movie for me are those in the spaceship (forgot the name) with Dave & Frank, where we are seen as overwhelmed by the technologies, to the point where the most “human” character is a machine. The monolith is an opportunity to break man from beyond the limits of what he’s been able to achieve thus far and takes him to another stage of being (or consciousness). Don’t know if I can say too much more off-the-cuff that’s coherent, but I continue to find it a magnificently beautiful, mystical work.
I always thought that the Monolith on the Moon was a beacon to monitor life progress on Earth, the radio signal being, “OK, the monkies have developed spaceflight…there goes the neighborhood…”
Earth thus being upgraded from “Harmless” to “Mostly Harmless”…
I suppose one might call it a meta-MacGuffin. It’s not just that Clarke put it there to move the plot along (that would be a regular MacGuffin), but that the aliens put it there to move the plot along. The one at the Dawn of Man, as I recall, didn’t actually do anything, aside from letting the proto-humans know, simply by its very existance, that made things can exist. Here’s something which is suddenly there which was not previously in the environment, and therefore the apes conclude that it’s possible to make something new. Likewise, the monolith on the Moon doesn’t do anything except transmit one electromagnetic pulse. What message is carried in the pulse? It doesn’t matter, because no matter what it was, we, in curiousity, follow it. Which was the whole point of the pulse, to begin with. The one around Saturn (following the book, here, rather than the movie) had the same purpose: Its presence there was just to inform us that yes, that’s the place.
So all along, it didn’t matter so much what the monoliths were, just that they were.
I am not sure the Apes “concluded” anything. Rather, the observance of the monolith could very well have been the very first time they had ever seen anything with exactly straightlines, or completely smooth. This observence could have sparked that first route in their collective conscious that allowed them to think about using tools. i.e. the bone to beat the other ape clan members. Notice they started walking upright more as well, in that sequence.
I like to think the apes got the first evolutionary spark from the monolith, and that is when they started thinking the way they did.
I have seen the other movies, like DJ they outline some things about the monolith, but they do leave much to be desired.
I don’t have a copy handy, and it’s been a looong time since I read it, but I seem to remember the text indicating rather directly that the apes are altered in some way by the monolith. I definitely remember that they are “entranced” by it for a long time and unable to move, and that drastic changes result immediately. I’ll have to find the book and post quotes later, but I IMHO it’s a not-so-subtle clue that the first monolith does physically spark off the evolution of man.
I like the explanation, I think it was in the 2010 book, the monoliths were not so much computers as the alien equivalent of the Swiss army knife. They could do a vast multitude of things, and we can no more understand how they work than the protohumans could understand the Space Shuttle. I think in the early versions of the first novel, (written while the movie was being made), the dawn of man earth was actually visited by the aliens and they purposefully ‘nudged’ the protohumans towards developing higher intelligence/civilization. Then left the monoliths behind to monitor our progress.
The purpose I like to place on the monolith is that it represents, in some icon-ish way, the “unfathomable” futures of all technologies throughout the universe. That’s why everyone freaks out when they interact with it. The apes, naturally, were very disarrayed at it’s presence. A more distinguished form of life called “man” later discovers it, militarized in the shadow of it’s possible threat, which can be interpreted as the same type of reaction.
The monolith’s angular ‘perfection’ (I assume it’s perfectly smooth; I only saw the movie, never read the story) suggests that it is unnatural, that it was ‘manifested’ by intelligence. Perhaps it’s just an incredibly bizarre aftifact from some long-gone civilization from another world, crossing the paths of midde-aged creatures like ape and man?
Regardless, because of it’s exclusive screen time, the monolith must be an important element of the story. When it lined up with the planets and sun, everything went cosmic. Overwhelming…hmmm…maybe it’s a key to some planetary machine…
I guess I’m split between a key to an alien machine and a representation of unknown power.
I’m assuming that this thread is spoiler box free, btw.
ed is exactly right - in the novel 2001, the monoliths are actively engaged in pushing the apes over the edge in regards to their intelligence. While engaged in a long-term contest with another group of apes over a watering hole, “our” apes awoke suddenly to find the monolith among their sleeping area. Over the course of time, the apes dreamt images and instructions that were coming from the monolith itself, thereby allowing the First Human to make the connection between Bone-Swing-Head-Death.
The next step was the moon voyage - the monolith sent out a message to Jupiter, daring and spurring mankind to make the jump from an Earth-moon based species to an interplanetary one.
The one on Jupiter transcends humanity, making us in contact with who the hell knows what.
And something that made me wonder (which was touched on in 2001 but never expounded upon) was that while the monoliths all had the same ratio, no mention was made of the different sizes. Earth/Small, Moon/Larger (and needing more effort for the monkeys* to find), Saturn/Larger Still. Look here, then Here, then HERE!
Of course the timeline is skewed in my little observation, the technological level of the monkeys was at the same level with the Moon Monolith/Saturn Monolith. Like Chronos says, it might just be a sign saying, “Look HERE next”.
Just seems like the Saturn Monolith was pretty large compared to the other two, and no significance was placed on this other than, “Hey…we can take a pod out and try to land on it”. Maybe it was large so the monkeys could find it?? I don’t know, I think they could have found a smaller one just as easily.
As for the OP, I always was of the opinion that the monolith on Earth was a jump-starter to a higher level of reasoning. Divine? Alien? I don’t know, but I think it was meant to transmit something to the monkeys, just as the Monn Monolith transmitted a radio burst and the Saturn Monolith transmitted Dave…someplace.
One day the monkeys are getting bullied by the other tribe, then they see the monolith and make the jump in reasoning to tools to defeat the bullies. Throwing a bone into the air allegorically becomes a spaceship floating in space. Throwing things a little higher in the air.
“Obelisk”? I don’t remember the Washington Monument in the movie…
Personally, I’ve read the book too many times to offer new theories. I think it’s explained pretty well in there.
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Do any cinefiles out there know what became of the monolith props used in the film, or what they were made of? I’m curious if they’re still around, or were destroyed 30+ years ago.
That’s be a cool thing to have in your living room.
[/hijack]
“Do any cinefiles out there know what became of the monolith props used in the film, or what they were made of? I’m curious if they’re still around, or were destroyed 30+ years ago.
That’s be a cool thing to have in your living room.”
Kubrick had all of the original props destroyed after the film. They had to create all new ones for 2010 . Whether they had access to the original plans or not I don’t know.
Yes it would be cool. The monolith would make a great coffee table.
I don’t think the monolith have to be considered as an allegory or a metaphor. It is not, I own both the book “2001 A Space Odissey” and the short story “The Sentinel” by Arthur C. Clarke, and I’m positive in what I’m telling you.
Looking through the words of Clarke, the monolith was clearly some sort of machinery that helps, impulses and monitors the progress of the races selected to be raised by the never-seen aliens.
In The Sentinel, the story that drove to 2001, the monolith was an “alarm gadget” to notify the aliens that humans have reached the moon.
In 2001, the first monolith was sortuva “academy”. It helped to develop the minds and brains of the prehistoric men who found it, specially one of them. The second monolith did the same thing as the one in The Sentinel, and the third monolith was a kind of “stargate”, functioning as a traffic central for unknown species of travellers (remember something like this in Contact?). All of this is not suggested in the original texts; it’s narrated with precision.
Arthur C. Clarke is a hard sci-fi writer and rarely uses metaphoric concepts or simbolisms in his work; Stanley Kubrick, in the other hand, used to do it in his films. Maybe that’s the origin of all discussions about this sf masterpiece.
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