The books I have read since June are as follows:
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
And I’m working on Dune by Frank Herbert
Arthur C. Clarkes 2001: A Story of Evolution and Ascendancy
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a book that I have read cover to cover many times. There are very few novels that I wish to re-read, but since 2001 always leaves me with a surreal feeling of vastness, I have come back to it time and again. The fact that it traces the evolution of human beings from the beginning of sentience to the ascendancy to omnipotence makes 2001 a truly epic read.
The beginning of 2001 depicts the moment that humanity’s ape ancestors became sentient. In the opening sequences, a mysterious black monolith appears among a group of ape-like animals. Through mysterious, hypnotic, and alien means, the monolith instills intelligence and self-awareness upon the apes, therefore giving these pre-humans the prerequisites for civilization. After completing its task, the monolith disappears without a trace. The newly sentient apes use their newfound intelligence to fashion weapons and kill an enemy group of primates. The pre-human’s new tools “were simple enough, yet they could change this world and make the man-apes its masters.” This theme of ascendancy to mastery becomes one of the books major themes.
Arthur C. Clarke’s writing starts to shine in the next section of the book. The story skips forwards to a very optimistic version of the year 2001, where humanity has command over space travel and has colonized the moon. The majority of the story takes place on the spaceship Discovery One, which, manned by Dave Bowman, Frank Poole, and a sentient super-computer named HAL 9000. The Discovery One is on a many-month voyage to Saturn’s moon Japetus (Iapetus) in pursuit of a signal sent from another mysterious alien monolith that was found on earth’s moon. HAL eventually malfunctions and by his own cold logic, determines that Dave and Frank are dangerous to the mission. HAL, whose programming has dictated that the success in the mission to Saturn is the most important goal in his “life,” manages to kill Frank, but Dave manages to disconnect this robotic antagonist before he himself is killed. The parallel between HAL’s violence and the violence of the man-apes eons before is clear: with intelligence comes the ability and knowledge to kill for personal gain.
It is at this point in the novel that humans and the precursor alien race which produced the monoliths seem to be at essentially the same evolutionary level. Both races have brought intelligence to a lesser being. The aliens brought intelligence to humans with the monolith, and the humans brought intelligence to computers with their technology. The parallel continues in that both of the newly intelligent creatures immediately turn to violence, whether it be a man-ape killing another with a bone-weapon or a super-computer ejecting a man into space.
We soon learn, however, that in the eons since the monolith “awakened” the man-apes, not only humans, but also the unseen aliens have evolved quite a bit. Upon Dave Bowman’s finally reaching Japetus, another monolith opens up to him, creating a portal to a new surreal world. When Dave comes into contact with the monolith, he proclaims that “the thing's hollow — it goes on forever — and — oh my God! — It's full of stars!" This monolith instills into Dave a completely new level of intelligence: omniscience and transcendence from a material body. With his new omniscience, Dave has no inclination towards violence, but is, more importantly, truly the master of the universe, much in the same way that the monolith’s influence made the ape-men the masters of their own universe. The alien race has demonstrated its evolution by its ability to bring a new level of intelligence to humans, far beyond what it was able to do in the beginning of the novel and far beyond what humans were able to do with HAL.
The message here is clear: while humans are constantly evolving and are able to instill intelligence and power upon lesser beings, there are still greater powers out there, constantly evolving themselves. The never-seen aliens which produce the monoliths are a metaphor for any sort of god or greater-being. Arthur C. Clarke is making the message with 2001 that although the power available to humans is always growing, their power will always be insignificant in the incredible vastness of the universe. The amazingly epic and cosmic scale on which 2001 takes place will resonate within me forever.(722)
6 comments:
2001 would never meant so much had the "character" of HAL 9000 not been more human than the actual people in the book.
RE: C. Magnum Kelly
The entire conflict within HAL stems from the fact that he is not human.
His programming directs him to be upfront and helpful to Bowman and Poole all the time, but also to keep the true purpose of the mission to Japetus a secret.
Were HAL truly a human character, he would be able to resolve such a conflict of commands himself, but since he is a computer, he is a complete and total slave to his programming. Because his programming offers him no answer to his contradictory directives, he has no way of resolving the conflict and begins to malfunction.
On the topic of HAL's "humanity," HAL is sometimes the only one looking towards a beneficial goal; although in the end his skewed logic almost spells the end of the real humans. But you can tell through the word-play, through the goals and ambitions of the humans on board that often there is nothing beyond their cold, Joe Friday attitude. This was even accentuated in the movie, where the humans all speak in monotone, similar voices while HAL is capable of much more emotion. A slave to his programming much like the humans are slaves to their emotions HAL is duplicitous in both his directive and his approach. His ability to simultaneously keep the secret and lie to the crew while also being a machine and thus; subordinate to humans deepens his "character" as more than a robot and more than pre-set programming.
On a separate note I enjoy these debates, feel free to join me on my blog as well.
Eric--I think I was about your age when I read 2001 and was similarly impressed. However, I confess you've gone back to it far more often than I have. Still, it's one of those books whose premise and plot have so many implications for human history and development that, as you rightly point out in your entry, it has much to suggest to us.
And I will always remember the smooth cold voice of HAL in the movie telling Dave "I can't do that" when Dave orders him to open the pod bay doors. Both funny and chilling to think about a powerful computer having some sort of "nervous breakdown."
good lord its beautiful...
I LOVE THIS BOOK.
varun.
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