2001: A Space Odyssey
Series: Space Odyssey Series, Book 1
By: Arthur C. Clarke / Narrated By: Dick Hill
Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
Thank GOSH the introduction by Clarke is edifying!!! And Dick Hill… is that you?!
Lemme just get the narration outta the way here for a moment, so’s I can truly High-Five the beJESus outta Dick Hill. Now the thing I m’self am familiar with when it comes to Hill is that TRULY, the man is best known for his Thrillers, Hard-boiled detective mysteries with the jaded detectives all cynical and whatnot. He’s known for crime series. And such all…
But good golly gosh, does he do well here with a veritable CLASSIC, or what?! One that spans eons! One that spans the generations! One that spans technological development! One that spans the holy moly of Evolution, for cripes sake! Throw in some production techniques, and Hal’s even-keel pronouncements are AWEsome! From early man being probed and manipulated -and- kinda sorta not paying attention to the crystalline monolith cuz it can’t be eaten, and it ain’t gonna kill ‘im, and all the way to space-age David Bowman wondering What On Earth Is Going On…? Gosh, Hill just relays it all so very well. Mystery, yes. Horrifying bits, yes indeed. Confusion leading to the sense of glory, oh my yessss.
Kudos to Mr. Hill!
Onto the fact that, dude, dunno if they couldn’t find a sitter or if they indeed thought we could handle it, but our folks took my siblings and me to movies that we were waaaay too young to see. So EVEN THO’ I’m pretty sure I was too young to watch the film and understand it? Well, I’ll give m’ folks their due and say that it wasn’t their fault it went so so so very over my head, and that I’m fairly certain I’d STILL not understand it today.
Enter the Introduction to 2001 which Clarke reads to us himself. Oh thank gosh! Cuz even tho’ the reading public might be well aware of the fact that the book was written collaboratively with Kubrick? Well, I sure as heck wasn’t. Mighty interesting to hear the genesis of the work, that it started based on one of Clarke’s short stories from the 1940s, was written, changed, written again, morphing ENDlessly until Kubrick kinda sorta changed a few things on his own end, and that it aaaaaallll wound up released in 1968.
That it holds up well? That even science nuts can’t roll their eyes about the science in the science fiction? AWEsome, might I say again?
Early on, early early hominids are baaarely surviving, great starvation, and oh yeh, a Leopard who tracks them down for meals. Moon-Watcher ponders things a tad more than the rest in the group who, oh yeh, drop like flies from starvation, wounds turned septic, blah blah Leopards and Such All drag the bodies away for meals. But when, what’s this: Drums, which will NOT be created for ooooodles more time, are heard, and a crystalline monolith is discovered, and summarily dismissed, the group at one point is drawn to it, and they’re mesmerized and manipulated by some other…. something. Members of the group behave in certain ways, and their clumsy fingers are drawn into trying to tie grass. And Moon-Watcher? Dude, he’s THE ONE! Soon, he’s getting ideas, about using tools… as weapons… for food… for killing.
Zip off to the 1990s and aNOTHer monolith is discovered, this time, on the Moon, a black slab that’s been causing electromagnetic disturbances is considered to have been created by intelligent life due to its measurements. Now zip on to 2001 and main character David Bowman as he and shipmate Frank Poole are the only two conscious on a spaceship with a crew of five… oh and Hal, the AI computer. I like how Clarke writes Hal in the book as opposed to the film. The film had me dreaming of mysterious and malevolent computers throttling me, but here, Clarke has Hal as merely confused. He’s actually “feeling” guilty, and he’s “afraid” of disconnection meaning a cessation of his existence rather than a mere sleep before reboot. Huzzah to something which does NOT gimme nightmares!
And might I cogitate that this is where some people will love the book, and some will hate it. Cuz ya ain’t getting cinematic stars all over the Universe, you’re getting Clarke’s brilliant writing skills, some heavy-duty written details so that the reader/listener might IMAGINE (Good cow! WhazZAT?!) a vaaaast Universe, the glory of stars and star-shine. And then one is given enough information to freak the heck out cuz things are not what they seem.
I know I know I know. I’ve read the Wikipedia entries about Man Evolving to become More Than Mere Man; that those early hominids were depictions of The Dawning of Intelligence; that in 2001 Man goes beYOND Being Technologically Intelligent and morphs into The Next Phase of Evolution.
But me? Honestly, I just saw it as disheartening, that we’re always morphing from some form of killing each other into a higher form to just kill each other some more.
Beautifully written, truly grand narration, and CERtainly a Grand Listening Experience. It’s just that it looks like the Cold War has NOT ended, and that Clarke may truly have had his mind and assumptions in the right place.
And if that doesn’t totally blow for the future of mankind, I dunno what-all else could be worse… An excellent Listen, just now m’ nightmares aren’t gonna be about Hal going all whacked, but on Men (And possibly a few Women) going all whacked INDEED…
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