By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: January 23, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – In 2004, while walking down a busy sidewalk in downtown Chicago, I reached a crosswalk and began walking across the street. It was then that I glanced down and saw it – a Toynbee Tile. I had read a little bit about these Toynbee Tiles, the strange markers mysteriously stuck in the asphalt of streets around urban America.They usually said something along the lines of: “Toynbee Idea: In Kubrick’s 2001 Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter.”

Resurrect dead? Bizarre, but interesting.

As a fan of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as being a bit of sci-fi geek with an interest in the parapolitical and conspiracies of all kinds, these strange tiles captured my attention. And then, that hot summer day in downtown Chicago, I actually find one. It was a very exciting moment. And while I took a picture of it, I can’t seem to find it. And anyway, the City of Chicago considers the Toynbee Tiles to be vandalism and many are paved over anyway.

But this phenomenon, regardless of the efforts of street maintenance crews in cities around the nation, has continued. And one man, Justin Duerr, was so captivated by the Toynbee Tile mystery that he made an 85-minute documentary about this urban mystery titled Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles directed by Jon Foy (click here to view the trailer).

Most of the tiles seem centered in Philadelphia, Pa. and then further out into other American cities. Amazingly, Toynbee Tiles have even been found in South American cities like Buenos Aires, Argentina.

And the name Toynbee? It is named after British historian and thinker Arnold J. Toynbee who wrote the 12-volume A Study of History, reportedly the largest English-language work ever published. Some think the tile-maker is referencing a Ray Bradbury story called "The Toynbee Convector." It's a bit of a mystery.

Anyway, people are talking about the Toynbee Tile mystery now more than ever. In late December, the Oklahoma Gazette noted that Foy’s documentary would be aired at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. I missed it and will have to wait for another opportunity to see it. Oh, and are any tiles in Oklahoma City? Not that I've seen. They are seen in St. Louis, however.

As for Duerr and Foy, well, I came across a decent interview with director Jon Foy, linked at Phawker.com.

As for the information in the Toynbee Tiles (and the copycat House of Hades tiles), well, it's interesting. While the documentary speculates who is (was) behind the tiles and what the messages possibly mean, I have wondered about it myself. In the sequel to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact (the film that inspired me to seek out Arthur C. Clarke's work and ultimately turn to writing as an expression of creativity) Jupiter is seen imploding and being "reborn" as a star, called Lucifer.

And then there is another idea ... that the writings of John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthy American capitalist who died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, is somehow connected. Astor wrote a book in 1894 titled A Journey In Other Worlds: A Romance of the Future, a science-fiction adventure about travelers going to Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter, according to Astor's imagination, is a "lost world" of amazing animal life and more. As for Saturn, it sounds more like what the tile-makers are talking about - it is where Astor's explorers encounter "disembodied spirits, who reveal secrets of nature and the afterlife," according to a write-up on the novella by the Skulls in the Stars blog. Resurrection on Jupiter? Spirits on Saturn? Similar ideas and philosophies?

Interestingly, while researching John Jacob Astor and the Astor family this past weekend, in connection to the Titanic disaster and this Astor-penned sci-fi story, I watched a great English costume drama, currently airing on PBS called Downton Abbey. Incredibly, right after studying the Astor family, the first episode of Downton Abbey addresses the Titanic disaster and the loss of John Jacob Astor IV. Coincidence? Synchronicity? Regardless, everything is seeming to be more and more connected with each passing day.

Copyright 2012 West Marie Media