Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey the myriad mysteries of cosmic intelligence anathema. The film has been seen by many people not only as a literal story about evolution and space adventures, but as an allegorical representation of aspects of philosophical, religious or literary concepts. Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical tract "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", about the potential of mankind, is directly referred to by the use of Richard Strauss's musical piece of the same name. Nietzsche writes that man is a bridge between the ape and the Übermensch. In an interview in the "New York Times", Kubrick gave credence to interpretations of 2001 based on "Zarathustra" when he
2001: A Space Odyssey (film) level of being that represents the next stage of human evolution. The film also conveys what some viewers have described as a sense of the sublime and numinous. Ebert writes in his essay on "2001" in "The Great Movies": In a book on architecture, Gregory Caicco writes that "Space Odyssey" illustrates how our quest for space is motivated by two contradictory desires, a "desire for the sublime" characterized by a need to encounter something totally other than ourselves—"something numinous"—and the conflicting desire for a beauty that makes us feel no longer "lost in space," but at home. Similarly, an article