Daily Dialogue — April 7, 2013

HAL: I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a… fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.

Dave Bowman: Yes, I’d like to hear it, HAL. Sing it for me.

HAL: It’s called “Daisy.”

[sings while slowing down]

HAL: Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you. It won’t be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage. But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.

— 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is death suggested by SandbaggerOne. Today’s suggestion by Mark Walter and plinytheelder_t .

Trivia: The joke working title, “How the Solar System was Won”, reflected the original idea for the film. Just as How the West Was Won was a series of short stories spanning decades, 2001: A Space Odyssey was going to be a series of stories showing explorations on many planets and moons, ending with “The Sentinel” showing the uncovering of the monolith on the Moon, which was the first contact with extra terrestrials. A genuine working title was “Voyage Beyond the Stars”. When Fantastic Voyage was released, Stanley Kubrick reportedly so disliked that film that he did not want his film to sound anything like it. In the end, “2001” was chosen as it is the first year of both the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. In 1999 Arthur C. Clarke held a press conference in which he said he was dismayed that so many people (including college professors and journalists) were incorrectly calling 2000 the beginning of the century.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Mark: “Having prattled on in the other post about the Daily Dialogue theme of Death, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this scene in what is, in my opinion, “The Greatest Film Ever Made”….Hal’s death in 2001:A Space Odyssey….poignant and moving in a film that is all about life, death and re-birth.”

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