Walter S. Boxx
Dr. Patricius Raven
ENGL 1102
August 11, 2009

Monolithic Sight and Sound

2

001: A SPACE ODYSSEY IS AN AWE-INSPIRING TALE OF MAN– kind’s transformation from subconscious ape–man to a super–conscious, luminous space–being, assisted along the way by mysterious monoliths with perfectly squared dimensions . The film’s bookend sequences are devoid of dialogue . Director, Stanley Kubrick, ingeniously employs pathetic fallacy from sound and imagery to convey emotion and information in three sequences from the film : the title, “ The Dawn of Man, ” and “ Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite ” in this sweeping story of humanity .
Before the film proper even begins, pathetic fallacy sets the mood with classical music coupled with imagery in the titular sequence . The film begins with a simmering caldron of atonal music, Ligeti’s “ Atmospheres, ” played behind a black screen signifying the unknown or beginnings, because of the lack of structured notes . Next, a triumphant horn progresses up the scale toward thundering primeval tympani in Richard Strauss’, “ Also Sprach Zarathustra ” ; we ascend from the moon’s dark side to reveal the sun rising from behind earth : a conjunction of moon, earth and sun . The linear orbs and heroic fanfare impart a feeling of the sublime majesty of the universe . Celestial alignments later occur simultaneously with monoliths and serve as a visual cue of important plot events . The musical, symbolic prelude sets the tone for the dawn of man .
The “ Dawn of Man ” sequence has no words ; therefore, it communicates narrative structure totally with imagery and sound cues . A series of brief shots shows an arid African desert at dawn . Bones of an ape–man signify death is always near . Ape–men eke out an existence foraging for roots and insects while in competition with tapirs for the same ; an ape–man grunts in annoyance at a tapir that gets to close to his scraps . A leopard leaps from an outcropping on an inattentive man-ape . All of these scenes are pathetic fallacy : life is hard and dangerous . The dramatic need is protection from predators and a stable source of food and water . Two different tribes squabble for the one measly waterhole, just by squealing and posturing . The next morning after another fearful night of silence while sheltered in their cave, the man-apes awaken to find a giant domino cutting straight lines against the irregular natural rock formations normally encountered . A dissonant trilling chorus with orchestra, Ligeti’s “ Requiem, ” rises from a void and drowns out the excited screeches from the agitated encircling apes, music central again to inducing emotion, wonder and mystery in this case . Music only occurs to incite emotion and mark significance in the movie . Then a camera shot from the base of the rectangular monolith shows the astronomical conjunction introduced in the titular sequence . The ape–men tentatively close in on the strange object and touch it . The touching of the strange object leads to the first structural plot point .
The plot point occurs when the intellectual seed sown by touching the monolith sprouts, as one particular australopithecine forages amongst skeletal remains . In the pivotal scene, the man-ape crouches in front of some tapir bones, picks up a bone, then there is a split second shot of the monolith with sun and moon in alignment above ; we realize the black rectangle is the catalyst for what comes next, the triumphant Strauss music starts to swell, so something major is about to occur . He learns to use weapons to kill food and destroy enemies, which he does in the last scene of the “ Dawn ” episode, a second, and this time, definitive waterhole skirmish . Man will never be the same . There is a great transition to the next sequence, and a weapon parallel as well . After the water hole fight, the victorious man–ape throws his bone club into the air ; as it flips and starts its slow-motion descent from the sky, the bone becomes a satellite weapon in orbit around the earth—a flash forward of 4 million years .
The movie’s last sequence “ Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite ” serves as the resolution of human evolution by using pathetic fallacy in symbolic imagery, music and sounds, again, without words . Jupiter and its moons glow as the third rectangular monolith floats into view, the expectation of awe is felt as the volume of the same choral humming and soaring sopranos, heard when man first encountered the monolith in the “ Dawn ” sequence, rises . Another parallel harkening back to the first sequence occurs : celestial line up of Jupiter and its moons ; the music and the images make us feel wonder and curiosity about the monolith’s origin . An exploratory pod exits the Discovery, the space vehicle sent to investigate a radio signal beamed to Jupiter by a second monolith, “ deliberately buried 40 feet below the lunar surface, ” discovered by mankind in an unnamed episode following the “ Dawn ” sequence . David Bowman, the only surviving member of the crew, steers the pod towards the monolith, now part of the Jovial conjunction . The monolith vanishes as atonal music coupled with a kaleidoscopic onslaught of abstract gridline images rush toward us in bisymmetry growing from a distant vertex conveying motion through a wormhole toward an unknown destiny .
The destination “ plays against the grain ” by revealing the space pod resting on the floor of an ornate bedroom chamber of apparent human design—no weird aliens or futuristic machinery . Pathetic fallacy is employed once again to make us feel uneasy . The floor glows and loud, cryptic, laugh-like sounds echo intermittently . Kubrick next employs a masterful series of images relating Dave’s aging and ultimate transformation, symbolic of mankind’s eventual fate . David in his spacesuit looks into a mirror, seeing the wrinkles that grew during his transit ; he turns to investigate a noise from the next room . Spacesuit Bowman is no more as a grey–haired Dave wearing a black robe is dining at a table ; elderly David hears faint breathing and turns to see himself ancient and bedridden . Decrepit Dave slowly raises his head and reaches out toward the end of the bed where a monolith now stands . The next shot reveals Bowman as a glowing fetus in an amnion—rebirth as a star child.  “ Thus Spoke Zarathustra ” booms again as Dave soars into the inky depths of the monolith .
2001: A Space Odyssey is an exquisite example of how pathetic fallacy employed by a master can communicate information and emotion with only sparse dialogue—an extraterrestrial encounter (without showing an alien) and our ultimate human evolutionary future . Dave Bowman, having completed transformation, glows in space ; the newborn species of radiation contem- plates his purpose on the cusp of infinity and so do we .

*[ WSB ]_.