2001 A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C Clarke
science fiction
copyright 1968
read in November 2021
rated 6/10: read to pass the time.
I've seen the movie -- when it first came out. This is the book based on the movie. Will it explain what the movie was about?
Sort of.
The movie was amazing vision set to beautiful music. Then there's the flashing through space... to a mysterious and incomprehensible ending.
The book lacks the vision and music. It does explain why the shuttle hostess walks funny. Other than that, the main body of the book does give explanations... sometimes at odds with the movie.
Then the book takes us flashing through space -- with less explanation and less logic than the movie.
Then the astronaut becomes a "Star Child". I only know that from reading Wikipedia. The Star Child sees an orbiting nuclear bomb -- and explodes it! Why? No explanation.
The end of the book is as mysterious and as incomprehensible as the end of the movie, but with a nuclear bomb.
Oh, and back at the beginning... the book is clearer: The aliens influence man-apes towards intelligence. The book is very clear: the man-apes use their new intelligence to kill animals for food. To kill predators for safety. Then to kill other man-apes because... because they exist.
Perhaps the nuclear ending suits that depressing view of the uses of intelligence.
Watch the movie for the visual effects and music. Read the book for... well... for no reason other than to compare it with the movie.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
===There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters." ... Boris Johnson
===
Dying for you to read my blog, at https://notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com/ :-)
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