2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke which was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version. The story is based in part on various short stories by Clarke, most notably "The Sentinel" (1951). Kubrick collaborated with Clarke, and together they first concurrently produced the novel version that was released alongside the film, and then towards the end Kubrick simultaneously wrote the film's screenplay. For an elaboration of their collaborative work on this project, see The Lost Worlds of 2001, Arthur C. Clarke, Signet., 1972.
Synopsis
In the background to the story in the book, an ancient and unseen alien race uses a mechanism with the appearance of a large black monolith to investigate worlds all across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent life (the monoliths are perhaps Von Neumann probes, although the segment explaining this was cut from the film). The book shows one such monolith appearing in ancient Africa, three million years B.C., where it teaches a group of the hominid ancestors of human beings how to use tools and eat meat.
The book then leaps millennia to the year 1999, detailing Dr. Heywood Floyd's travelling to Clavius base on the Moon. Upon his arrival, Floyd attends a meeting. A lead scientist explains that they have found a magnetic disturbance in Tycho, one of the Moon's craters. An excavation of the area has revealed a large black slab, designated Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-One (TMA-1). It is precisely fashioned and, at three million years of age, was not made by humans. It is the first evidence for the existence of intelligent life off the Earth. Floyd and a team of scientists drive across the moon to actually view TMA-1. They arrive just as sunlight hits upon it for the first time in three million years. It then sends a piercing radio transmission to the far reaches of the solar system.
The book then leaps forward two years to the Discovery One mission to Japetus, a moon of Saturn. David Bowman and Frank Poole are the conscious human beings aboard Discovery One. Three of their colleagues are in a state of suspended animation, to be woken when they approach Saturn. Additionally, the HAL 9000, an artificially intelligent computer, maintains the ship and is an active part of life aboard.
Poole is receiving a birthday message from his family back home when HAL tells him that the AE-35 unit of the ship is going to malfunction. Poole takes one of the extra-vehicular pods and swaps the AE-35 unit, which is critical for sustaining communication with Earth. Bowman conducts tests on the AE-35 unit that has been replaced and determines that there was never anything wrong with it. Later, HAL claims that the replacement AE-35 unit will fail. Apprehensive, Poole and Bowman radio back to Earth; they are told that something is wrong with HAL and are given orders to disconnect him. These instructions are interrupted as the signal is broken. HAL informs them that the AE-35 unit has malfunctioned.
Poole again takes a pod outside the ship to bring in the failed AE-35 unit. As he is removing the unit, the pod, which he had left further from the ship, begins moving toward him. He is powerless to move out of the way in time and is killed by the impact;his spacesuit ripped open. Bowman is shocked by Poole's death and is deeply distressed. He is unsure whether HAL really could have killed Poole. He decides that he will need to wake up the other three astronauts. He has a long argument with HAL, with HAL refusing to obey his orders saying that he is incapacitated. Bowman threatens to disconnect him and HAL relents, giving him manual control over the process of ending the hibernation. As Bowman begins to awaken his colleagues, he feels a cold chill. HAL has opened the inner and outer airlock doors to space, venting the ship’s atmosphere. The pressure on board is rapidly dropping as the ship is equalizing with the vacuum of space. Bowman makes his way into a sealed emergency shelter where he breathes from an isolated oxygen supply. Bowman then puts on a spacesuit to re-enter the ship and disconnect HAL, whom he now knows to be a murderer. Bowman puts the ship back in order and re-establishes contact with Earth. He then learns that the true purpose of the mission is to explore Japetus, and contact the society that buried the monolith on the Moon.
Bowman learns that HAL had begun to feel guilty about keeping the purpose of the mission from him and Poole. This had started to manifest itself in little errors. In due course, when HAL was threatened with disconnection, he defended himself, because his very existence was at stake.
He spends months on the ship, alone, getting ready to rendezvous with Japetus. He notices a small black spot on the moon. When he gets closer, he realizes that this is an immense black monolith, identical to TMA-1, only much larger. He takes one of the extra-vehicular pods in an effort to put down on the monolith. The monolith, which had been inert for so long, opens and is full of stars. It swallows Bowman's pod and mission control never hears from him again.
Bowman moves very quickly through a field of stars that seem to have no end. Eventually, he is brought to what appears to be a nice hotel suite, carefully constructed to make him feel at ease. Bowman goes to sleep. As he sleeps, his mind and memories are drained from his body. David Bowman is made into a new, immortal entity that can live and travel in space; a Star Child. The Star Child then returns to our Solar System and looks over Earth.
Themes
The Perils of Technology
2001: A Space Odyssey explores technological advancement, its promise and its danger. Two specific perils of technology are delved into in great detail. First, the HAL 9000 computer puts forward the troubles that can crop up when man builds machines, the inner workings of which he does not fully comprehend and therefore cannot fully control. Second, the book explores the perils related with the atomic age.
Evolution
2001: A Space Odyssey takes a protracted view of progress, human and otherwise. The story follows the growth of human civilization from primitive man-ape. Distinctively, Space Odyssey is concerned about not only the evolution that has led to the development of humanity, but also the evolution that humanity might undergo in the future. Hence, we follow Bowman as he is turned into a Star-Child by the monolith. The novel acknowledges that evolutionary theory entails that humanity is not the end, but only a step in the process. One way this process might continue, the book imagines, is that humans will learn to rid themselves of their technological trappings. And eventually, their corporal bodies.
Space Exploration
When 2001: A Space Odyssey was written, mankind had not yet set foot on the moon. The space exploration programs in the United States and the Soviet Union were only in the early stages. Much room was left to imagine the future of the space program. Space Odyssey offers one such vision, offering a glimpse at what space exploration might one day become. Lengthy journeys, such as manned flights to Saturn, and advanced technologies, such as suspended animation, are shaped and shown all through the novel.
Technological Malfunctions
As HAL begins to malfunction, his actions become increasingly less predictable. It begins with something more or less trivial -- predicting the AE-35 unit to malfunction when there is, in fact, nothing wrong with it. Interestingly, HAL's malfunction causes him to incorrectly predict that other things will malfunction. HAL's breaking down happens in contrast to an otherwise flawlessly planned undertaking -- making his malfunction be even more prominent. This warns against the danger of creating technologies that we do not have full control over.
The Trappings of Space Travel
Like any good science-fiction story, 2001: A Space Odyssey offers a comprehensive look at the scientific world it is set in. Attention to detail is taken to guarantee that the reader gets a sensation of familiarity of the technology described in the book. Dr. Floyd's journey to Space Station One is depicted with awareness of fine points such as the experience of a Space Shuttle launch, the adhesive sauces used to keep food firmly in place on one's plate, and even the zero gravity toilet.
The H.A.L. 9000 Computer
The H.A.L. 9000 computer symbolizes the progress of technology. It represents many apprehensions about technology. First, HAL is an artificial intelligence – it can mimic all of the thought processes of the human brain with greater speed and reliability. Second, its inner workings are not completely understood – even by the people who created it. HAL is an extraordinarily potent technology that cannot be fully controlled. When HAL begins to deviate from the way in which it has been programmed, this is an illustration of the apprehension many people held that our own technological development will someday come back to haunt us in surprising and unanticipated ways. See also HAL 9000.
Sequels
A sequel to the film, titled 2010: The Year We Make Contact was based on Clarke's book 2010: Odyssey Two and was released in 1984. (The book was published in 1982.) However, Kubrick was not involved in the production of this film, which did not have the impact of the original. (Nonetheless, Kubrick makes a cameo appearance in the film, after a fashion; a photograph of the director is used to represent a Russian premier, seen on a magazine cover. Also, the name of the captain on the Leonov is "Kirbuk".) Clarke went on to write two more sequel novels: 2061: Odyssey Three (1987) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997). To date there has yet to be any serious discussion of filmmakers adapting either for the screen.
Trivia
- Roger Ebert notes that Kubrick originally intended for the first spaceship seen in the film to be an orbiting bomb platform, but in the end he decided to leave the ship's meaning more ambiguous. [1]
- It has been frequently noted that "HAL" is "IBM", shifted one letter back. Clarke insists that this is a coincidence; see HAL 9000.
- HAL/S is an aerospace-oriented computer language used in the Space Shuttle.
- The name of the Saturnian moon Iapetus is spelled J-A-P-E-T-U-S in the book. This is the British spelling of the moon's name, whereas the American spelling begins the name with an I.
- The book's description of the moon Japetus curiously closely describes another Saturnian moon, Mimas; this was a coincidence, as close-up images of Saturn's moons did not become available until 1980.
- In the film, Discovery's mission is to Jupiter, not Saturn. Director Kubrick used Jupiter because he was unhappy with the special effects depicting Saturn and its rings. Clarke also replaced Saturn with Jupiter in the novel's sequel. See 2010: Odyssey Two.