What was the deal with the monolith?

What was the deal with the monolith?

It was the alien's way to make humanity evolve as a species

It was a theater screen. Also, exposure to it made HAL sapient

it was a symbol for the powerful BBC

>"EEEEEEEEEEEEEAAEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEAEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
what did it mean by this?

It's a metaphor about the disruptive and enlightening power of art, particularly movies (the monolith is the screen - that's why the movie begins and ends with a blank, black screen, the shape of the monolith).

always thought that thumb is from blade runner

When did Hal contact the plank?

...but the movie screen is horizontal...

Turn your head sideways. Just like you do when you're first born and when you die of old age.

So too you see the monolith on screen in the beginning and the end.

It represents Prometheus giving the gift of fire to man.

Semites have always been heavy into cubes and cuboids for some reason. Noah's ark, the ark of the covenant, and allah's cube, or kaaba allah as the arabs call it, all come to mind.

But smartphone is vertical. Monolith is smartphone. You have to touch it to make it work.

These "metaphor" cucks never give up
>What le kubrick meant by this?
Sure the guy was big on symbols but the movies sometimes also mean exactly what they seem
I'm so sick of these faggots thinking they are viewing an abstract picasso picture on a fucking turd picture
Google it up, the monolith had something to do with the books and an alien race using it to push evolution.
Oh and yes, Eyes Wide Shut WAS about secret societies too.

Brainlet general?

the blackness represents a dmt breakthrough (stoned ape theory)

Ok

What did Clark mean by this then

Is it made of oily black stone?

Advanced alien technology.

>blackness
>dmt breakthrough
Pic related, actual psychedelic breakthrough.

you don't get it
the blackness is the shutting off of the normal senses and except for the star gate sequence where we see the visuals dave hallucinates it's all in the minds of the characters off screen

This thread is currently very stupid. Is it going to get better, or worse?

Not always though. In fact, the movie gives you a visual cue when it changes perspectives when we look inside the monolith. Note that a few seconds before this shot, the lines were vertically-oriented. Much like the apes (and man), the monolith changes our perspective.

Kubrick's movie is radically different from the books in many key points. It's safe to say they have different meanings - you don't get the picture (ha) by reading the book, and vice versa.

Kubrick's movies are smart enough to have both overt plots and events ("meaning exactly what they mean") and subtexts and interesting observations. In 2001's case, one of those is the transformative power of art. Another is the use of technology that potentially enslaves and endangers man.

No it didn't you dumbfuck

for clarity, I am addressing the point that the monolith can't be a "screen" because it is vertical and not horizontal.

It represents us, the viewer

I don't think Kubrick just wanted to reference a drugged psychedelic state. IMO it was a broader exploration of enlightenment and transcendence.

same thing my nibba

...

Fucking heathens

this shit is so reddit but i want it

Because black is cool. Can you imagine how disappointing a white monolith would be?

It has to look like it's made by some alien tech and look mysterious by not having any dents or marks on it

Yes, it was. Also, I achieved perfect SAT scores. What were yours?

If it's black it's less obvious what material it is made of. If it's white it looks like marble.

The book version had the monolith be clear, and it gave out little homework assignments to the ape-men to help them along. It's a good thing that Kubrick was a little bit more subtle and ambiguous than Clarke. A good point to back this up is the "sequel" 2010, made in the 80s with Roy Scheider as the star. It's a well-made but otherwise forgettable film. Much like the books, it overexplains everything so we have no illusions about what the "monolith" and its purpose are. Also, HAL and David are ghosts for some reason.

Yeah, treat the original movie as its own separate entity independent of the books or 2010.