space/self/world

<p>Using perhaps the most famous science fiction film ever made what does it mean that we are determined by space? That the human individual was created by controlling its spatial environment(s)? Complicating matters further that same control that defines us limits our understanding and the spaces themselves to the extent that the individual itself is under command. <em>space/self/world</em> is a critical examination of a certain philosophical approach to space via Stanley Kubrick's <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em>. As bookends to a chronology of the human self-specifically its spatial relationship(s)-that encompasses Kubrick's whole body of work <em>2001</em> provides an account of human existence from beginning to end. That existence is deeply informed by spatial negotiations involving all people and things. Theodor Adorno's essay Odysseus of Myth and Enlightenment explains how the modern self (and reason) came to be in terms of power relationships and self-domination. Seen together the film and theories articulated by the Frankfurt School icon give an account of spatial identities that when brought up against theories of acoustic space put forth by communications theorists Marshall McLuhan and J. Macgregor Wise demonstrate human identity as largely the outcome of spatial negotiations that have resulted in instrumentalization of spaces and in turn ourselves. This book travels <em>2001</em>'s narrative arc critically analyzing it by providing a nuanced-at times abstract and metaphorical-account of space instrumentalization and power relationships that all intersect as building blocks of the contemporary self. Originally written 15 years ago its concepts and concerns are as apt and urgent as ever.</p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>Blair Miller is a brilliant emerging scholar who has critically engaged</span><span style=color: rgba(95 99 104 1)> </span><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece </span><em style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>2001</em><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)> and provided an illuminating and challenging reading. Focusing on the categories of space self world and identity in Kubrick's space odyssey Miller provides a critical</span><span style=color: rgba(95 99 104 1)> </span><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>and philosophical reading that will challenge us to see Kubrick's complex</span><span style=color: rgba(95 99 104 1)> </span><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>film as a text that expands our philosophical vistas and visions of the universe.</span><span style=color: rgba(95 99 104 1)> </span><span style=color: rgba(32 33 36 1)>I strongly recommend this original and ground-breaking work. </span></p><p>Douglas Kellner Philosophy of Education Chair Graduate School of Education & Information Studies UCLA</p><p> </p><p>Blair Miller turns a timely analysis of Stanley Kubrick's <em>2001: A Space Odyssey</em> into an exploration of the ways human beings respond to the spaces they confront and inhabit which itself turns on the question of whether we can respond in more reciprocal less destructive ways to the spaces in and through which we make sense of our selves.</p><p>Nikolas Kompridis Author of <em>Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future</em></p>