Michael Phillips
Phil 230
2001 and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The "Dawn of Man" scene from 2001 can be seen as a parallel to the prologue of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The monolith and Zarathustra play the same role, an inspiration to others. I am not entirely sure in the case of 2001 if the monolith was a tool or if it was a conscious being as I have not read the book, but for the sake of clarity, I will refer to the monolith as if it were a being. Both the monolith and Zarathustra intended to show humanity or protohumanity a new way of being, to bring them along to the next phase of their development. Zarathustra desired to show humanity how to achieve a state of sounder psychological existence surpassing humanity, a type of person he called Superman. The monolith brought the protohumans a new understanding, a way of dealing with the world, which brought them along their path to cultural development. After some research, I found that in the book, the Monolith was built by a single entity who intended to study and teach the humans. That is not made clear in the movie, and Kubrick did not agree with Clarke on many of the aspects of the story.
Both 2001 and Thus Spoke Zarathustra carry the message that humanity is not at the final point of its evolution, that there is still room for improvement. In fact, neither points to an endpoint for humanity, only a next step.
I have to admit that I only read the first 80 pages of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In it, Zarathustra was explaining how to live a psychologically better, more realized life, whereas in 2001, the monolith was merely showing humanity how to live a more physically comfortable life, how to conquer its environment. In that way, at least, the two stories diverge. Where Zarathustra spoke of overcoming the limits of self, the monolith taught the early humans how to overcome their environment and other humans.
It could be said that the second is necessary for the first, that humanity can not overcome the limitations of culture, psychology, and self, without first overcoming the limitations of environment, lack of culture, and the dangers of other people. Could, it be said then, that the monolith was a predecessor to Zarathustra? Both, after all, spoke to humanity, trying to show it how to achieve some state of being already possessed by the speaker. Of course there is the fact that Nietzsche died 17 years before Clarke was born, and 28 years before the birth of Kubrick, which leads one to believe that any such connection is merely a tribute to Nietzsche by Clarke and Kubrick.
On a personal note, I must say that I enjoyed 2001 as a Movie, and intend shortly to read the book. I also have found Thus Spoke Zarathustra to be interesting so far, but will probably read several other of Nietzsche’s books before going on to finish reading it. I also plan on reading all four books in Clarke’s series, which I probably will do before I finish Thus Spoke Zarathustra.