First Marker: The Dawn of Man
Stage 1: Beasts. Sentient, but without the ability to deduce or reason. The first marker improves that.
Second Marker: Buried beneath the surface of the Moon near Clavius (which is an actual lunar crater)
Stage 2: Man - with the newly formed ability to deduce, grows over millions of years, steadily using their new powers of reasoning to access Space. Electronic signals are coming from the moon, despite satellite read-outs revealing only a bare lunar surface. The electronic signal is too strong and too persistent to neglect investigation. The reason the electronic signal seemed to emanate from a bare space was because the source of the signal was buried beneath the surface of the moon.
Once the astronauts get close enough to touch it, the marker emits a piercing sound. This is not an attack on the astronauts, as Heywood Floyd is very much alive when he leaves the prerecorded instructions for the Discovery mission. The high-pitched piercing sound was a communication between the second monolith and another source somewhere near the planet Jupiter. The purpose of the Discovery mission is to locate the source of the communication with the second monolith. Before the Discovery reaches its destination, there is a battle of wits and wills between Bowman and the computer mainframe, HAL 9000.
HAL with his lack of human emotions could be said to be the next level in intelligence. Artificial intelligence, devoid of pity, doubt, regret, etc. - pure, dispassionate logic. It is only natural that these two should battle to see who earns the right to enter the third stage of development.
Third Marker: in orbit around Jupiter
Stage 3: In India, the Hindu view of human development comprises four stages or Ashram: 1) Brahmacharya, 2) Grihastha, 3) Vanaprastha, and 4) Sannyasa. The third stage, Vanaprastha, is defined as “a period of secluded life in the forest with severe discipline, austerity and penance. This is a stage in preparation for the final stage of renunciation, that is, Sannyasa.”
“This stage denotes a transition phase from material to spiritual life.”
“In this phase of life, the person is in retreat from worldly life. He lives away from the city, in a jungle as a hermit...”
Fourth Marker: in the room that was prepared for Dr. Bowman by the beings that placed the Markers. You can hear these beings communicating at points during Dave's stay in the room. It sounds like ghastly chortling.
Much earlier in the film, Dr. Heywood Floyd is briefed en route to the Tycho lunar crater that the (TMA-1 ~ Tycho Magnetic Anomaly) has been caused by an artifact “that appears to have been deliberately buried.” If we assume that the second marker was placed by a higher intelligence, then we can assume the first marker was too. It seems to be a game in which the first stage of human development is set into motion and by the time the second clue is able to be accessed, then that alerts the higher intelligence that clue #3 can now be activated. Once Dave reaches the third Marker, he is sent beyond Jupiter into another plane of existence.
He is very nearly obliterated by sensory overload during this experience.
It is a wonder that he makes it through intact or still breathing.
Presumably, the fourth Marker summons and morphs Dave Bowman onto the exalted level of the Star Child: pure, self-sustaining Mind.
“I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophical content...I intended the film to be an intensely subjective experience that reaches the viewer at an inner level of consciousness, just as music does...You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film.”-Stanley Kubrick
8 comments:
You found the four straightforward ones; the ones *placed* by the consciousness(es) - how many of the imitation markers can you find? The ones that men made deliberately or subconsciously mirroring the greater monoliths - and do they follow a pattern or scale?
It's not a trick question, or one with a predefined, correct answer. I'm just curious: Do -you- see any more than four?
Well, I don't know exactly. The entirety of human civilization could be an elaboration on the ingenious economy of the monolith form.
Certainly, the geometric configuration of the monolith inspired (perhaps, as you say, more subconsciously than not - do the ancestors of the apes even remember the first monolith? It is doubtful, and the astronauts regard the second as if it were an unprecedented phenomenon) much of the architecture of man's buildings, ships, etc. Acute (right) angles inspire acuteness of mind? Some of the spacecraft, like the moonbus for example, are sleek and rectangular. Maybe all of the advanced spacecraft, much of it deliberately streamlined, derives from the economical streamlined form of the monolith.
- descendants of the apes -
I've got one! I ought to watch the film again and see if I can't find some more...
http://www.schneiderism.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/hal9000.jpg
Very interesting topic, anon. This is getting to be quite a lively blog.
F yeah, T! Good call.
Lemon Lime:
The Fourth Man
Very interesting post, but I'll argue one small but key point: HAL is not devoid of emotion. He expresses, or at least mimics, curiosity, politeness and, ultimately, a level of fear that drives him to murder Remember HAL's reaction as Bowman deactivates him. HAL admits being afraid.
HAL, one letter forward is IBM, i wonder if that has something behind it?
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