Food of the Gods?

ElectricAve

MemberOvomorphJanuary 31, 20131439 Views4 Replies

Hi everyone :) I had this idea and I couldn't find a similar discussion already, so I thought I'd start a new thread: I was wondering what Elizabeth was going to eat from here on out, since they weren't coming back to earth. I thought maybe David could retrieve some food for her from the lifeboat, but it was probably way too dangerous for either of them to go in there again. Then suddenly I remembered the worms! They were everywhere, and worms have a lot of water and are really nutritious, so maybe she was able to find a bunch that were still healthy, so she could eat them on the way to Paradise. (Who knows, maybe that’s what the Engineers were eating too?) Okay, so what about after they arrive on the Engineers’ home world? We have no clue what this new planet will be like, but assuming its earth-like (and assuming she gets sick of eating worms after a while) do you think she might attempt to eat some of the native flora or fauna? Even better, what if she accidentally ate something that was [i]psychoactive[/i]? Something that would enable her to communicate w/the other life forms (I’m thinking like Avatar, but less cheesy lol). And Imagine how incredibly fascinating it would be for David to watch Elizabeth gain some insight into the Engineers' culture through a psychoactive plant. If she was to obtain a key piece of knowledge (by virtue of her humanness) that he could not have figured out on his own (by virtue of his superior intellect), he would be both impressed and humbled at the same time. And that’s when [url=http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mee1myiRcu1qeuk2io1_400.gif]it kind of dawned on me[/url] – they’re going to [i]Paradise[/i]! Home of the so-called Gods. If you think about it, the miraculous “foods” of Paradise are a common theme in both Christianity and Greek Mythology. Obviously there are the fruits from the Garden of Eden. Supposedly the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil will kill you, while the fruit from the Tree of Life will make you immortal (but according to Wikipedia, a lot of scholars think the trees are one and the same). In Prometheus, Elizabeth evokes the Greek myth of Pandora, but in Christianity, her equivalent is Eve. Then there’s David – created from dust, in the image of his father (Adam). He may be intellectually superior, but he lacks Elizabeth’s understanding of the nature of “good” and “evil”. Already he seems to admire the dark angels (and their super-evil black goo!) way more than he admires us. Maybe something in Paradise will change his perspective? I can’t help thinking that this will all come into play, even if it’s just metaphorically. They both share this really open curiosity about things, and I think it can only lead to more trouble lol. So now in the Greek myths, the food of the Gods was ambrosia – a rejuvenating food or drink that could make you immortal. Even Weyland was convinced that the Engineers possessed some kind of ambrosia that could spare him from death. So what if there was an element of truth to that? After all, the engineer didn’t really laugh or scratch his head when he was asked the question. He simply looked over and said “What makes this man [i]worthy[/i] of immortality?”. Maybe that’s a hint that what Weyland was asking for actually exists... So what do you guys think? Will food play an important literal or symbolic role in the next one??

Batchpool
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January 31, 2013

@ ElectricAve ( love that name by the way) I'm of an age where I remember this. [url=http://youtu.be/DuSwwZ1n6KU]Food of the Gods[/url] How ever I think it might be worth you looking and reading very carefully through this. [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Food_of_the_Gods_and_How_It_Came_to_Earth]H.G wells wiki...[/url] I looked at your thread title, but it was not what I thought, hope what I posted answers why but I also feel it is related to your question.

Batchpool
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January 31, 2013

If you were to take the HG Wells approach on all theories of the goo and all other discussions as to why? then the idea of an ambrosia could move the whole Paradise discussion into a completely different direction that to my knowledge has not yet been explored to the best of my knowledge.

ElectricAve
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January 31, 2013

Hello Batch :) [i]I'm of an age where I remember this.[/i] WOW! I've never seen that before! lol There might actually be something there! When RS said that Paradise would be "the most savage, horrible place" I imagined that it would look something like prehistoric Earth or "The Lost World". Lots of huge savage beasts and maybe even dinosaur looking things - like a Rain forest on Steroids. So what is to say that the black goo isn't similar to the oil on earth - but on "steroids"? Maybe it actually does come from their home planet. Oil on earth is made mostly from of all the dead plant matter - so imagine if their plants have all these wild, bizarre properties to begin with and you compressed all of that under tons & tons of pressure over millions & millions of years. Like David said, [i]it's organic[/i]. The black goo seems to be some kind of mutagen that reacts randomly with whatever it infects (Holloway was certainly a surprise) , and that is not too far off from the premise of the H.G. Wells "food of the gods" (at least from what I understood from the trailer vid - I have to check out that wiki link, too!). I'll say this tho: if we've learned anything about oil spills on earth it's that [i]Oil is Death[/i]. It kills everything it touches. Now think of that black goo as a [i]Living Death[/i]. It's a sickening, terrifying prospect... And it recalls a line from the movie that "In order to create" (=the alien creatures) "you must first destroy" (all of the plant life that is slowly destroyed and compressed to create this strange goo). I had a really scary thought that perhaps the Engineers were simply seeding planets with life to offer up as mass sacrifices to their deacon/xeno gods (since it looks like they worship them). Perhaps they are cannibalistic, too (wouldn't put it past them if they're into sacrifices)... and where are their women?? I know I'm just rambling now, but really, everything about them is so creepy, and it reminded me of how creepy ancient human societies used to be. The whole premise of Prometheus is the revelation that all of the world's cultures were linked - all of the odd similarities in architecture, mythologies & legend, and the preoccupation with the stars, were all clues about our origins. So it makes sense that in order to construct the Engineer's backstory, you would use our own. If they were trying to teach us their ways, then some of that creepy behavior would make sense -- it was simply us trying to be more like them. The cryo-sleep, for example, is eerily reminiscent of egyptian mummifications & entombment, which was supposed to carry the "sleeping" occupants to the stars - to the afterlife (remember Shaw's discussion w/her father? We viewed that while she was in the sleeping chamber). I thought Shaw's undergarments were really weird, too - it looks like just a bunch of gauze wrapped around her. [b]Like a mummy[/b] (maybe that was a visual cue meant to help us connect the dots between the Engineers and our ancient customs). I sense the Adam/Eve/Paradise thing is something of a turn-off, but I don't think it means that the next film will be a mushy, boring romance (although I ship Shavid like crazy, but that's just for fun lol :D). What I [i]do[/i] think is that love/compassion will be a major theme, and any allusions to mythology or religion will be very subtle, abstract, and symbolic (just like Prometheus) and I think it'll serve to develop those two characters (but that's for another thread). All in all, I'm just as lost as anyone else as to where the story is going, but RS did say that a sequel to Prometheus would be a departure from the Alien franchise, and would focus more on the Engineers, so all I could image was that we were going to learn more about their culture - like [i]why[/i] do they go about with ritual sacrifices, why do they worship something so sinister and destructive - basically, what do [i]they[/i] believe in, and why do they believe in it, and of course, why did they make us (or did they?). Prometheus raised so many deep questions about the origins of man, that I figure Paradise should try to deliver some answers. Thanks again for that link, I'm reading that wiki page now, and its really intriguing. I'll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts on the possible "food"...

Batchpool
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February 01, 2013

This planet has certainly had its fill of oil spills. And oil in its crude form can mean death. The other thing about oil is that it can be broken down into more useful substances. Unfortunately these substances create ecological problems as well by how we use them. I think the goo is similar in that it is a bio chemical swiss army knife. It has a lot of functions, as well as being a weapon. It is anyones guess what the source of the goo is, but maybe it is a harmful by product as well. Maybe the engineers figured out that they needed to get rid of this stuff by dumping it on remote moons. Maybe their home planet has become a toxic waste land and they need to terraform new places to create an opportunity to produce food. During the 70’s there were quite a few B movies produced that fortunately made it into the bargain basement of video stores. There are quite a few out there that did cover environmental disasters like ‘No blade of grass ‘, and looked at the breakdown of society. There is of course another view that maybe we are the food of the gods and to the engineers we are just cattle waiting to be harvested. Something similar to the Quatermass series produced in 79. [url=http://youtu.be/7wx4VA7wwqU]No Blade of Grass[/url]