Bones in Outer Space: Narrative and the Cosmos in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Its Remediations
2015; Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; Volume: 16; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1780-678X
Autores Tópico(s)Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
ResumoSeveral million years ago, one of our ape-like ancestors throws a bone into the air; as it falls down, the bone turns into an artificial satellite orbiting around the Earth. In this essay, I argue that this celebrated match cut from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) tackles a major problem for any narrative dealing with cosmic realities: namely, capturing in narrative form a temporal and spatial scale that far exceeds what human beings can normally experience. Using as case study Kubrick’s film and two of its remediations (Arthur C. Clarke’s 1968 novel—written in collaboration with Kubrick—and Jack Kirby’s 1976 comic book adaptation), this essay seeks to theorize how the representation of cosmic phenomena may pose a formal challenge to narrative across different media. I build on contemporary approaches to the study of metaphor and embodiment to argue that metaphorical blends and the involvement of audiences’ bodily experience may be used by storytellers to bridge the imaginative gap between the human-scale world and the cosmos. Further, I explore how in my tutor texts the authors’ narrative strategies may become entangled with interpretive meanings concerning humanity’s position in the universe.
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