A Response to 2001: A Space Odyssey Essay -- 2001 Space Odyssey Essays

A Response to 2001: A Space Odyssey I love having the Blue Danube waltz in 2001; it's my favorite part of the movie. What I find most amusing about it is that it ties in so well with the smoothness of a space orbit. In the first space scene, anything that is free floating, like the pen or the ships themselves, is perfectly in balance with the music. Nothing in orbit is ever rushed, and at no time does it ever falter from its halcyon state of existence. The Blue Danube matches this perfectly, and it contrasts sharply with the forced human stellar endeavors that are also present. For example, when the attendant is attempting to walk along the spacecraft aisle, she looks like a toddler who is just learning to walk, and the music that accompanies her is so sublime and unencumbered. Even the pen she is reaching toward looks like a champion athlete in comparison to her awkward movement. On one level, this can be seen as a symbol for the general idea of humans fighting with nature itself. Humanity has always tried to se parate itself from the "beasts;" we have intricate eating customs that involve utensils, we wear clothes that are much more intricate than those that would be required by basic needs, and most importantly, we do everything we can to make our societies totally disconnected from nature. If this message is, in fact, a part of Kubrick's statement, then it is directly comparable to Nietzsche's ideas on science and technology. Specifically, I refer to the story on science in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," where Zarathustra discusses the aspect of science that acts as a security blanket for mankind. As a race, we develop theories and inventions to understand our existence and force our e... ... though. Specifically, he makes me dread the scenes that showcase his creations of strife and pain. If Kubrick intended me to raise my blood pressure during the first space-monolith scene, then his use of Ligeti did the trick. Maybe that's exactly what he intended. Maybe he was trying to communicate the anguish that is inherent to the change embodied by the monolith or the incomprehensibility that overwhelms our imaginations if we think too hard about the infinite stretch of space. Or, maybe he just wanted something that made those particular scenes stick out and appear ripe for interpretation in any of numerous ways. Either way, regardless of the intelligence at work in the non-Strauss scoring, I still viscerally liked the Strauss and not much else musically. That's ok, though, because the Blue Danube and the introduction to Thus Spoke Zarathustra are just that good.