Toynebee Tiles

This morning I spent over an hour reading about Toynbee Tiles, the strange street markings like the one above (all bearing a variation on the phrase TOYNBEE IDEA IN KUBRICKS 2001 RESURRECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER) which are plastered all over Philadelphia. I always assumed there was a interesting story behind them — but little did I know it would be this strange.

From all accounts, the origin and meaning of the tiles is still a mystery, despite the fact that sightings go back twenty years. No one knows who is placing them — although there are some delightful theories — or how to interpret the strange message. Also, they’re all over the world, not just Philadelphia.

Most interpreters operate under the assumption that the Toynbee in the title is Arnold Toynbee, the famous meta-historian, and the reference to Kubrick comes from an episode of the colonization of Jupiter depicted in 2010: Odyssey Two (which was not directed by Kubrick). At this point, it should be clear that whoever is pasting these things onto the ground does not have a terribly firm idea of what he is talking about.

The identity of the artist is the most intriguing aspect of the mystery. First of all, it seems likely that there are two separate artists, since there are “old school” tiles and “new school” ones. The prime suspect is a man named James Morasco, who was featured in an 1983 Phildelphia Inquirer article which mentioned the colonization of Jupiter, Toynbee, and Stanley Kubrick. The article is miserably short, and no one knows much else about James Morasco. We do know, however, that whoever is pasting the tiles holds a grudge against Knight Ridder (who owned the Inquirer) — since he pasted a huge tile into the street at 16th and Chestnut detailing his feelings. (It’s no longer there; Chestnut was repaved not long ago).

Also, is there any reference to Arnold Toynbee, famous historian who once said, " The vast literature, the magnificent, opulence, the majestic sciences, the great realized should, the soul touching music, the awe inspiring gods. It is already becoming clearer that a chapter which has a western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way.... Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder."









Thanks to www.resurrectdead.com