Just finished Paths of Glory, and I’m reflecting on Kubricks’ body of work as a commentary on our repression and suppression of the feminine; our unwillingness or inability to reconcile conflicting impulses and instincts vis a vis our relation to “nature”, both literal nature and our own natures. How do we deal with the paradox of having to live with, for, and opposed to “mother” nature? Is this all about transcendence? That is, transcendening mortal life, transcending the mundane? Is this all about anxiety and our quest for meaning? Witness the singing German girl at the end of Paths of Glory, the dying sniper at the end of Full Metal Jacket, the sexually repressed couple in Eyes Wide Shut, the isolated and alienated hotel-keeper in The Shining, Barry Lyndon as the prodigal son in eternal search of the “ideal”, Humberts infatuation with youth, beauty, purity, and innocence in Lolita, and the sexual predators of A Clockwork Orange. The theme pervades 2001 and Dr. Strangelove throughout. I’ve thought a lot lately about how all art essentially asks these same fundamental questions questions about our relation to the feminine; as birth-giver, as provider, and as taker of life. Are all our systems and institutions since the dawn of man simply an attempt to both literally and figuratively subjugate women so that we don’t have to face ourselves? Could this speak to where we come from? Where we are going? Who we are? WHY!?