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Have you ever felt alone?
Truly alone.
Even when there are people around you.
When having drinks with friends, when out with your family, in your classroom, in your
office or in public.
Why do I feel alone?
Not always, ofcourse.
Sometimes I get carried away like everyone else.
But I do feel it frequently.
I’ve questioned myself extensively on why I feel alone.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because of my view.
Not my opinion on things.
But the view from where I stand.
What is my view?
I see the bridge of my nose.
Only then then I see the world.
No matter where I turn, I see the bridge of MY nose.
No one in this universe share this view with me.
In that sense, I am truly alone.
I have watched 2001: A Space Odyssey more than 5 times at various stages of my life.
I’ve read the book twice.
Something about this film stand out, every time I watch it.
I first watched it when I was in my 2nd year in College.
I watched it recently about 3 weeks ago.
It stood out to me then, and it stands out now.
The film starts with a panoramic view of somewhere in prehistoric Africa.
A tribe of homonids fight for their place and their access to the water.
Later, this one homonini, in his book Arthur C. Clarke call him The Moonwatcher, looks
bewildered to find an alien monolith, that seem to have appeared out of nowhere.
It stands indifferently.
We only spend a few minutes with the Moonwatcher in the film.
But we get to explore Moonwatcher’s internal world in the book.
We learn about his premature intelligence and the isolation he feels, even when living
among his tribe.
Millions of years later we follow Dr. Heywood Floyd, on his journey to a less explored outpost
on the moon.
We know very little about Dr. Floyd.
What mimimal interaction we see him have with his colleagues and peers, is professional
and almost, surgical.
We see a breif video call with his daughter who’s about to celebrate her birthday.
But yet again, we don’t feel any warmth in the relationship.
Floyd is cold and clinical.
Then we see him witness the monolith, standing and waiting eerily in the dark part of the moon
Eighteen months later we follow the spacecarft Discovery One on its way to Jupiter, Saturn in the book
Onboard the ship are Dr. David Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole, along with three other scientists
in suspended animation.
Then there’s HAL 9000, an artificial intelligence system that controls almost all of the day
to day operations of the ship.
HAL has a human personality.
Kubrick deliberately strips off any meaningful human interaction throughout the whole film.
Even on board the ship, we never get a sense of just who David Bowman and Frank Poole are,
as people.
The dialogues between them are always functional, cold and clinical.
Even when Frank talks to his parents on his birthday, he seems utterly removed and uninterested.
Ironically, the character who’s most human and most relatable in its fear and insecurity
is HAL, a computer.
2001 has a wide array of poignant themes.
It touches upon human evolution, technological evolution, the possiblity that we might not
be alone in this universe, and the ever evasive question, what it means to be human.
But there is a sense of isolation and a certain quality of aloneness throughout the whole film
While I greatly appreciate all the other thematic elements in this story, I am haunted by its
portrayal of isolation.
One of the most striking scenes in the film, for me is when HAL murders Frank Poole.
The whole set of scenes leading up to his death is breathtakingly claustrophobic.
The fact that the whole scene is layered only with Frank breathing
through his helmet, makes it that much more terrifying.
When I saw, for the first time Frank spinning and floating through the endless dark space,
I felt a pang in my chest.
I recognized that feeling of drifting through an endless void
That might also be why I have a fear of the dark ocean.
Whenever I fly over the sea at night time, I always have this thought.
How would I feel if I am stuck in the middle of the ocean on a cloudy night.
2001 A Space Odyssey always evokes this specific feeling within me.
The feeling of this strange isolation gets exponentially expanded during the final moments
of the film, when David Bowman finds himself in an abandoned neoclassical bedroom, after
being pulled into a vortex and carried across vast distances of space.
There he spends minutes, days, years?
Older versions of David Bowman appear content, quietly accepting this fate, and waiting for
the inevitable.
For me 2001, A Space Odyssey is a harrowing illustration of my existential isolation.
It’s a grim reminder that we might be forever alone in this indifferent universe.
I also find that this feeling of aloneness is always countered by my need to connect.
I can’t speak for other people.
But I can tell from my own experience that, despite of this unshakeable feeling of aloneness,
I crave to connect with people.
But I have also put up walls within myself, so as not to get hurt, or not to be vulnerable.
It gets even layered.
Until a few years ago, whenever I watch this film, I go to bed with this expansive but
empty feeling of aloneness.
But lately I have surrounded myself with people with whom I can talk about this feeling of
expansive isolation, without having to worry about deterring them off.
I was also surprised to find out that these thoughts of isolation, loneliness and aloneness
are not unique to me.
I have now, people in my life, with whom I can joke about feeling alone over drinks.
Ironically, I have connected and bonded with people over 2001: A Space Odyssey and the
feeling of isolation it exudes.
I know I am alone, but I feel less lonely, thanks to Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.
If you haven’t read 2001 A Space Odyssey yet, you are in for a treat.
I would even dare to say that I like the book more than the film.
There’s also 2010, 2061 and 3001 the final odyssey.
These books, especially 2001, gifted me with a vivid, expansive, spiritual experience.
If you like the existential themes that I touch upon in this channel, then you shouldn’t
miss these books.
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What is your favourite science fiction movie of all time? and why? Leave a comment below and let's discuss