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Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence

posted 7 years ago by checkerouterofthings
5 replies | jump to latest

What if, instead of the starchild representing some new transformation of Dave and humanity, Kubrick is going for something cyclical instead.

One of the themes in The Shining seems to involve how mankind forgets the atrocities of the past and as such is doomed to repeat them. What if Kubrick is also giving play to a similar idea in 2001? Maybe Dave doesn't defeat Hal, but they both end up killing each other in what is, simply put, another cycle in the seemingly endless washing machine of life on planet earth.

Consider this passage from Nietzsche's "Notes on the Eternal Recurrence":

"Whoever thou mayest be, beloved stranger, whom I meet here for the first time, avail thyself of this happy hour and of the stillness around us, and above us, and let me tell thee something of the thought which has suddenly risen before me like a star which would fain shed down its rays upon thee and every one, as befits the nature of light. - Fellow man! Your whole life, like a sandglass, will always be reversed and will ever run out again, - a long minute of time will elapse until all those conditions out of which you were evolved return in the wheel of the cosmic process. And then you will find every pain and every pleasure, every friend and every enemy, every hope and every error, every blade of grass and every ray of sunshine once more, and the whole fabric of things which make up your life. This ring in which you are but a grain will glitter afresh forever. And in every one of these cycles of human life there will be one hour where, for the first time one man, and then many, will perceive the mighty thought of the eternal recurrence of all things:- and for mankind this is always the hour of Noon".

[–] raincoatriver 7 years ago

My life is eternally yours as your life is eternally mine...racing toward an endless end and crossing an invisible line.

"gonna throw, my raincoat in the river...gonna toss, my umbrella in the sea"...Sammy Turner.

[–] BobbyDupea 7 years ago

I'm also guessing that both Clarke and Kubrick were somewhat familiar with T.S. Eliot's writings, which often touched on similar themes, including this quote:

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

My real name is Jeff

[–] ARNKxx 7 years ago

That is great Jeff. But I'm not with the whole cyclical process of doom, which would be returning to Earth ad infinitum. Instead you can escape the cycle and explore new worlds.

[–] BobbyDupea 7 years ago

SPOILERS BELOW

In real life, I am skeptical that the payoff from spending all we would have to spend to establish human colonies on other planets or moons would be worth the huge (very huge) expense - as opposed to fixing our problems here on earth. But what I meant in my above post by quoting Joyce is not to suggest that humans return to earth - I meant to suggest that the film refers to a return to our original state as infants as our ultimate destiny.

I think the star child, and the astonishing journey of Dave to his destiny, are also references to the humility that would be appropriate in realizing that, no matter what our state of technological development, we are still just beginning to understand the mysteries of the universe and of ourselves.

My real name is Jeff

[–] nothinghalo8 7 years ago

Interesting theory, I never thought about that. I've spent some time thinking about eternal recurrence and wondering if it's possible to break the cycle...maybe that's what the monolith helps him do at the end...