2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY meaning of the monolith revealed 1 of 2

People invent their own interpretation of what is unexplainable, vague, ambiguous, and I prefer my own one in this case. Ever listened to a song, built up a meaning in your mind and later listened to the artist giving a very mundane explanation that didn't fit as well? This film is not mundane or simple, but the process of stimulation and play on the mind is analogous. My interpretation is imaginative and creative, but that is the point, that is human nature, we seek to understand the unknown.

This isn't unknown. Artists don't pluck symbols out of thin air. There is always meaning in their choices, even if unconscious. Someone could say the monolith represents a pink elephant (a purely invented meaning) but someone else may say it represents mathematical structure (not totally invented - it does have a mathematical structure not found naturally). That's the diff. The screen metaphor is consistent with multiple aesthetic details in the film that have baffled critics for decades.

A polished stone pyramid or sphere or other precision shape would have been equally valid. The rectangular slab could just as well symbolize a doorway to the unknown or the unknown itself. I don't believe Kubrick's effort was centered around the irony of our relationship with the cinema screen; that is very secondary if existent at all. The fact that the sun is seen crossing the structure more than once is far more relevant.

There is never any indication that the humans or apes know what the object is: it is unknown. Dark doorways are subconscious symbols, but in all my reading of psychology I have never come across widescreen cinemas being referred to as universal symbols of the subconscious. If a reference to cinema screens is made, it is a very secondary touch.

You made I mistake by putting subtitles in the first minute, because thats the part in wich you´re looking and beeing hypnotized to the monolith/screen/technology isn´t it?
Please sorry my english, by the way excellent video, congratulations.

"...AND BECAUSE IN ALL THE GALAXY, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere.

They became farmers in the fields of stars; they sowed and sometimes they reaped.

And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed."

- A.C. Clarke, 2010 : Odyssey Two (Epilogue, 20'001)

Kubrick had nothing to do with Odyssey Two (apart from receiving a big contracted chunk of all profits from the sequel novels). Se the expanded analysis on my site for divergences between film and book.

Obelisks are taller, tapered and with a pointed top.

wow, everytime I see a Kubrick film I see something new. I don't think I'll ever get bored of his films. Really helps us grow.

I'm in. I have listened to Mr.S.K. speak extensively....and this is DEFINATELY
in line w/ his very facinating frame of mind..AS I SEE IT, anyway. Although, I've never heard of it, I wonder
if MR.robag88(..is that Forever &ever?? LOL), is the first to notice this?? In any case...I say, bravo. R.