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Nietzsche among the Aliens in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Science Fiction Studies
- SF-TH, Inc.
- Volume 47, Part 3, November 2020
- pp. 377-397
- 10.1353/sfs.2020.0061
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
An intriguing commonality among Nietzschean readings of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is the scant attention they pay to the representation of aliens, one of the film's most thought-provoking sf elements. If one moves beyond allegorical readings and takes the film's storyline about extraterrestrial entities guiding human evolution literally, it is apparent how 2001 mounts a challenge to Nietzsche's staunchly human-oriented, terrestrial philosophy. An important basis for this challenge is the Christian-influenced branch of sf defined by Arthur C. Clarke, Olaf Stapledon, and even John Milton, which the film reflects in both its plot and sublime aesthetics. The film's musical evocations of extraterrestrials prompt us to contemplate otherworldly possibilities that Nietzsche dismisses, but Kubrick's extensive effort and failure to create a viable visual representation of the aliens creates a lacuna that makes the final part of 2001 profoundly ambiguous and agnostic.