Philosophy of E.T.
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Janet Hocker Rushing refers to a yearning for wholeness in our time, something that all cultures have longed for in some degree. Our own age is seen as one of fragmentation, secularization, and an absence of unity, leaving us with a modern need for transcendence such as has been noted by a number of writers. Rushing finds that we seek this sense of the transcendent in our entertainment and our art, and she refers to the fact that our modern audiences find transcendence addressed in movies, notably science fiction films that make a cosmic connection in mythic form. She cites E.T. as one particular representative of this genre, and she applies what she calls the "perennial philosophy" to this film, as will be done here with reference to another science fiction film of an earlier era and one of the first to make this mythic connection most directly,m 2001: A Space Odyssey. Rushing says there are rudiments of perennial philosophy in the mythic lore of all cultures. The perennial culture, a term coined by Leibniz, refers to a philosophical framework which sets forth clearly the evolutionary place of myth in the cosmological scheme of things. Rushing finds that while we may yearn for the transcendent, we also have a fear of it that we control by attempting to perpetuate our own egos as surrogate gods. The collective ego of Jung has now become an entity separate from the cosmos. Today we feel a disconnection from both roots and future, and this is expressed as fear that the
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onclusion.
Consider first the title, or rather the sub-title. The use of the word "odyssey" is carefully calculated to evoke an image of the great literary epic The Odyssey in which the central character of Ulysses must take an extended journey because he has offended Poseidon. Ulysses takes thirty years to return from the siege of Troy. The parallels are not precise with 2001, but the last portion of the film, entitled "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," takes the character of Dave Bowman on a journey longer and more distant than anything humankind can imagine. The use of the word "odyssey" recalls the epic, and this film does have epic scope and a meaning that extends beyond the characters directly involved, creating a new mythology for a new age.
To make sense of the narrative and thematic structure of 2001, it is necessary to determine the nature of the main character. The main character in the usual sense would be Dave Bowman, the individual who becomes the focus of attention and whose actions lead to the conclusion of the film. In the larger sense, though, the main character is not an individual at all but Mankind, and the film is the story of human beings from the time of their origin as human beings to the next step
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1579
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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