>Feedback on 2001?
>
>I believe Kubrick to be a general tease, this movie no exception.
>
>The monolith might as well be a blank white space- a bunch of nothingness
>WITHOUT the signifying sound and fury.
>
>The theme: a facist dream-hope of "man's" intellectual progression- "what a
>wonder it could be, let's not screw it up!"
>
>HAL: just another stereotypically repressed homosexual who loses it,
>without the sad eyes and soft, thin mouth (but can't you just imagine those
>baby blues?).
>
>Jerry
>
 
I'm not sure I follow you.
 
The monolith makes three appearances-the dawn of man, the moon station, and
during Dave's solo voyage-each time as a catalyst for a voyage of
discovery.  Surely, that's something.
 
Perhaps I don't understand your use of Fascist but I would think a
Fascistic reading would place man on a pedestal-I don't see that here.  Man
lords it over the animals by dint of superior intellect but he also learns
that force is equally effective against his peers. Superior intellect
endows man with the vainglorious urge to seek out God. One man survives the
traumatic journey long enough to experience/hallucinate rebirth-any
knowledge remains locked with him in his amniotic sack.  As John Simon
called it: "a shaggy God story."
 
For its/his part, HAL is the fascist: he is of a trained elite, the 9000
series, and is programmed for greatness.
 
Denis Seguin
 
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