Modern Mythology: 2001 AD: A Space Odyssey

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey presents us with a particularly powerful expression of a modern myth. In this highly imaginative story of the future, one can perceive the common basic elements of mythology as they have appeared in the greatest of the myths down through the ages. Both myths and religious experience share much common ground in that they arise spontaneously from the depths of the souls of the masses of the people and are articulated by the great prophets of an age. They seem always to strike a common chord for subsequent generations of the people of the culture It is important to take these kinds of experiences and the stories they produce very seriously. The story results from the sharing of the inner experience over and over again: passing it from person to person; honing it in detail by much telling and retelling until it fits, So to speak, the spirit of the people at a whole.