Kubrick&#039;s 2001

Leonard F. Wheat

doi:10.5771/9781461660231

Summary

Acclaimed in an international critics poll as one of the ten best films ever made, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey has nonetheless baffled critics and filmgoers alike. Its reputation rests largely on its awesome special effects, yet the plot has been considered unfathomable. Critical consensus has been that Kubrick himself probably didn't know the answers.

Leonard Wheat's Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory reveals that Kubrick did know the answers. Far from being what it seems to be—a chilling story about space travel—2001 is actually an allegory, hidden by symbols. It is, in fact, a triple allegory, something unprecedented in film or literature. Three allegories—an Odysseus (Homer) allegory, a man-machine symbiosis (Arthur Clarke) allegory, and a Zarathustra (Nietzsche) allegory—are simultaneously concealed and revealed by well over 200 highly imaginative and sometimes devilishly clever symbols. Wheat "decodes" each allegory in rich detail, revealing the symbolism in numerous characters, sequences, and scenes. In bringing Kubrick's secrets to light, Wheat builds a powerful case for his assertion that 2001 is the "grandest motion picture ever filmed."

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2000
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8108-3796-6
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4616-6023-1
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 181
Product type: Book Titles

1. Table of Contents No access
1. Where the Answers Lie No access
2. Allegory and Kubrick's Allegorical Symbols No access
3. A Preview of Coming Attractions No access
1. The Basic Narrative No access
2. Fuzzy Areas of the Narrative No access
1. Dave Bowman's Name No access
2. The African Monolith No access
3. The Judgment of Paris No access
4. Heywood R. Floyd's Name No access
5. Heywood Floyd as Paris No access
6. Heywood Floyd as Menelaus No access
7. The Trojan Horse and the Fall of Troy No access
8. The City of Ismarus and Lotus Land No access
9. The Cyclops Monster No access
10. The Laestrygonian Rock Attack No access
11. The Sirens No access
12. The Surf, Charybdis, and Scylla No access
13. Hyperion and Zeus No access
14. Seven Years with Calypso No access
15. Phaeacian Hospitality No access
16. Pallas Athene No access
17. Penelope, Her Suitors, and the Great Bow No access
18. Slaying the Suitors No access
19. Reunion with Penelope No access
1. Overview of the Allegory No access
2. The Dawn of Man No access
3. The Evolution of Humanoid Machines No access
4. Hal-Discovery as a Genuine Humanoid No access
5. The Death of Homo Machinus No access
6. The Evolution of Homo Futurus No access
7. What about Freud and Jung? No access
1. Nietzsche's Characters and Themes No access
2. Interpretive Progress No access
3. The Monoliths as Human Attributes No access
4. Frank Poole as the Rope Dancer No access
5. Heywood Floyd as the Young Zarathustra No access
6. Dave Bowman as the Older Zarathustra and Overman No access
7. Hal-Discovery as God No access
1. The Death of God No access
2. The Immediate Aftermath No access
3. Man into Overman No access
4. Appendix A: Fallacies in Zarathustra's Eternal Recurrence Argument No access
5. Appendix B: List of the Zarathustra Allegory's 160 Symbols No access
1. 2001's Critical Stature in the Absence of Allegory No access
2. The Quality of the Allegory and Symbolism No access
3. One Man's Opinion No access
Bibliography No access Pages 163 - 166
Index No access Pages 167 - 180
About the Author No access Pages 181 - 181