Imagine trying to communicate a dry-as-dust subject called ‘Gravity and its effects on the temporal plane of the cosmic system’ in a movie with an equally science-book like title of Interstellar . So, here are a few keys to open the variety of doors to enter this film. The first key is a simple philosophy spelt out in the climax scene when Cooper (played by Mathew McConaughey) lands in the multi-dimensional set of his library watching himself through the chinks like a ghost. What does he mean when he wonders why and how we converted a Five Dimensional world into a Three Dimensional reality for our convenience?
We all know how we function within the three spatial dimensions of length, breadth and depth; or the temporal realms of the past present and future. What we have lost, the film claims, in our simplistic perception of the three dimensions are two vital elements called Time and Gravity. Director Nolan explains Time as something which makes us think about Logic and subsequent Ethics to guide our rational consciousness while Gravity for him are the simple laws of human attraction, in short ‘Love’ guiding our instinctual judgments. So while Logic drives Cooper to go on space explorations for material resources to save mankind, his instinct pulls him back to be with Murph, his little daughter back home. It means that ‘Time’ which exists in our perception in a long linear plane can be ‘curved’ to join up and enable us to visit the past in the present. Therefore one should be a kind of ghost, able to look at ‘that time’, as if it is happening ‘now’ thanks to the laws of attraction/ gravity.
Next, what other space can aptly locate such a feeling than a huge library of books containing all our memories and desires? Murph, who virtually lives in that library, asks her father to stay back but logic and the ethical world of a scientist forces Cooper to open the door and leave her. But does he really open that door and leave his daughter with whom he is so attached? Indirectly, this is also indicated by the film not telling us where and when the story is located.
If that could explain Gravity/love then the next element namely Time/logic provides another challenge. We belong to a solar system where different planets/moons move and rotate at different speeds with relation to the Sun. That means the 24 hour time is not a constant in the universe and therefore every day that Cooper spends on Saturn is equivalent to months on earth and by sheer logic his daughter would be ageing much faster than him! Can this really happen when our experience of it is so relative? Can he stop loving ‘that’ little daughter?
Well, it is important to see Interstellar more as a metaphor and conceptually, at that. So emotions like affection/desire and visuals of ageing are more a state of mind than real.
Once we understand this, all heavy terms such as wormhole, black hole, dust storms and the myths of Lazarus and Noah can be easily grasped! Just sit back and enjoy!
( The writer is Dean, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Hyderabad)
