3. Gravity Provokes Us To See The Absurd
As we watch the harrowing circumstances of Dr. Ryan Stone as she attempts to survive, we might ask ourselves, Is it worth it? Stone, as a non-traditional hero, asks herself such a question in numerous occasions in the film. Just when we think that Stone has surpassed the one challenge before her, we discover a tragicomic twistthe manual needed to start the spacecraft isnt written in English. This twist is followed by another, and other. As we watch Stones efforts to survive, we are reminded of Murphys lawAnything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Indeed, just about everything that could go wrong in space does, and thus is the drama of Gravity as Stone seeks to right the course of the universe. There is another drama here and this relates to how we mightas viewersreflect on the events in the film. Both Camus and Sartre reminded us of the fact that our lives are surrounded by moment after moment of the absurd. Granted that we are not astronauts surrounded by deadly space debris and other unforeseen dangers in an alien and hostile environment, yet we likely do have our own senses of how the absurd plays itself out in our sometimes more mundane lives. Watching Gravity may do little to explain why Murphys law is so prevalent in our own lives. It may, however, give us necessary perspective about the many, many things that are beyond our control.
Scott A. Lukas
Contributor
Scott A. Lukas has taught anthropology and sociology Lake Tahoe Community College for sixteen years and in 2013 was Visiting Professor of American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He has been recognized with the McGraw-Hill Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching of Anthropology by the American Anthropological Association (2005), the California Hayward Award for Excellence in Education (2003), and a Sierra Arts Foundation Artist Grant Program Award in Literary–Professional (2009). In 2006, he was a nominee to the California Community College Board of Governors. He is the author/editor of The Immersive Worlds Handbook (2012), Theme Park (2008), The Themed Space: Locating Culture, Nature, and Self (2007), Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade, (co-edited with John Marmysz, 2009), Recent Developments in Criminological Theory (co-edited with Stuart Henry, 2009), and Strategies in Teaching Anthropology (2010). His book Theme Park was recently translated into Arabic. He appeared in the documentary The Nature of Existence and has provided interviews for To the Best of Our Knowledge, The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and Caravan (India).
See more from
Scott