Zeitgeist
Or the Visionary Frank Poole Effect
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Remember the astronaut in yellow in 2001: A Space Odyssey? The one whose EVA becomes, …well …kinda ultimate? Which makes for bad blood between astronaut Dave, in the red spacesuit, and the HAL 9000 computer?
[You’ll recall that HAL, concerned that the humans were “interfering with the mission,” set astronaut Frank Poole, in the yellow suit, irretrievably adrift in space.--ed.]
HAL: I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.
We’ve all heard that one before, haven’t we? So much for your Age of Spiritual Machines .
Unfortunately, novelist Arthur C. Clarke, unable to sit quietly with his own work of perfection (2001: A Space Odyssey 1968), revives Frank Poole in 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997). Clarke claims the vacuum environment of Poole’s space suit kept HAL’s chess partner cool long enough for science to advance the 1,000 years necessary in order to get the computer off the hook.
Hell, Dave did the job in five minutes with a screwdriver!
Still, Frank Poole adrift may be the most underrated symbol in any Stanley Kubrick film. Frank’s dilemma kicks off the new millennium with panache, capturing the True Spirit of our Time.
Dave, my mind is going.
I can feel it,
Vanx 9000
July 25, 2006 at 7:29 pm
dammit. i need to see that again now. my brain hurt a little at first as i got all caught up trying to remember.. until i saw the end. and just thought yes.
dammit.
July 26, 2006 at 12:18 am
I had the HARDEST time with that movie! I’m still not sure I “get” it. Care to enlighten me?
July 26, 2006 at 1:30 am
The more I write about it, S, the darker it gets–but Pope John Paul II said in writing that it is one of the greatest movies ever made. Does that help?
But seriously, I’ve always seen it as an indictment of the machine and an endorsement of humanity, which is, I think, what the Pope liked. It’s the whole Kurzweil conundrum, in a way. The end is a phantasmagoria, though, ain’t it?