2001: A Space Oddysey - Arthur C. Clarke

[sweet moth]

BR duration: <t:1684454400:D>-<t:1686268800:D>
BR leader: @muted rock
Link: #buddy-reads message

BR duration: <t:1684454400:D>-<t:1686268800:D>
BR leader: @muted rock
Link: #buddy-reads message

[muted rock]

Welcome everybody to the 2001: A Space Odyssey Buddy Reads!

@weary fern @muted rock @unborn wing @plush crest @sacred rain @forest lantern @drifting yacht @smoky slate @real phoenix @winged marsh (I believe there’s some people missing, please ping me to add you to this list if that’s the case!)

I’m really excited to be reading this with y’all, especially because this is my first time leading a BR. 2001 is already my favorite science fiction film of (probably) all time and I was already acquainted with other works by Clarke, but I had never dared to read this book (or series). Thanks for joining!

In any case, I have some questions for everybody. Answer if (and as many as) you wish!

🌟 Are you already acquainted with this book, or any book part of the Space Odyssey series?

🌟 Have you watched the movie?

• 🚀 If you have, but haven’t read the book, what are your expectations for the book based on the film?
• 🚀 If you haven’t, do you plan on watching it? *Because you definitely should if you haven’t. *

🌟 What are some of your more general expectations for the book?

🌟 Would you be interested in participating in subsequent BRs for other books part of the Space Odyssey series (I’m mostly just thinking of 2010, but there are more sequels)?

I’m posting this a bit earlier than the start date, which is May 18th, so as to not end up doing it at the last minute or forgetting about it, because I'm well aware I'm a professional procrastinator.

[forest lantern]

so excited to start this!!!

1. im not!! ive never read any of the books in the series, but if i like this then im defo gonna read more i think
2. nope! im gonna watch it once ive read the book
3. just that its gonna be some good ol fashioned sci fi fun!!! the reviews on goodreads are all 4 and 5 stars so i defo expect its gonna be good rly hoping i do enjoy it!!!
4. yess definitely!!! given i like this one ofc HAHA but im sure i will

[real phoenix]

1. nope, I'm going in blind
2. I haven't, but i do plan on watching it after finishing the book
3. not much aside from expecting it to be good lol
4. yes! absolutely

[unborn wing]

While I'm not overly acquainted with the book, I have heard a lot about it and have been eyeing it recently.

I haven't watched the movie and might after I read the book.

I'm expecting it to be good. I've heard such insanely good things about Clarke's writing and I'm very excited.

I would be interested in subsequent BRs for the series.

[drifting yacht]

🌟 I've already read this book before, during University when I was researching what to write for my dissertation. I don't really remember much about it

🌟 I have not seen the movie
🚀 I would like to! I've heard it's very good

🌟 Space is cool haha 👾

🌟 I would! I also didn't realise that there was a series of these books

[winged marsh]

Sorry, I forgot to react to the BR message

[smoky slate]

1. I cannot remember if I've read this or not. Possibly! If I did, it was many (many, many) years ago, so even if yes, it's functionally a "no". Haha.

2. Absolutely! I have seen it many times, along with a good chunk of Kubrick's other work. However, I haven't seen it for at least five years (probably more,) so it deserves a rewatch. Mostly I recall slow, long shots, very different from today's film-making style.

3. I expect that it will be different from Kubrick's adaptation in many ways. Kubrick is so visual, and this is text! I'm sure there are bits and bobs from the text left out of the film, like with his adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. It will be good to fill in those gaps with Clarke's storytelling.

4. Like Zander said, that depends on how I feel about it!

[muted rock]

No issues! I'll add you.

[winged marsh]

I have never heard of the book until this year! There's a series??

I have not read the movie, I will watch it when the BR is over.

I think the book will be good but slow, I expect a thriller type sci fi.

YESSS, but I don't know where to buy the sequels

[muted rock]

Mostly I recall slow, long shots, very different from today's film-making style.

Yessss that's actually one of the things that I most like about the movie. I love how Kubrick relied almost solely on the power of image and sound and did not heavily rely on dialogue to tell a story like most modern films do. And when there was dialogue, it was almost always to convey a further meaning beyond just communication; for example, ||like how HAL is (probably) the character with the most lines in the movie, the purpose being to convey its life-like consciousness to the audience (and maybe even feelings too, as far as an AI might understand them). I think this is done because we humans tend to associate the ability to communicate with intelligence to some extent,|| but that's just my opinion though, and maybe I'm just overanalyzing it 😅.
Anyways, it's an audiovisual masterpiece.

[smoky slate]

I love how Kubrick relied almost solely on the power of image and sound and did not heavily rely on dialogue to tell a story like most modern films do.

agree 1000%. & kubrick is just so careful about things like light and shadow, and setting tone and mood by making a frame sparse or cluttered... and the way he uses silence and pauses and long, slow camera pans to create an unsettling, disquieting feeling... every scene of the film is basically a painting. an absolute masterpiece.

i'm new to the server, so i am not sure if this is permitted, but i can always stream the film in one of the VCs some time if anyone is interested in watching it together!

[muted rock]

That would actually be great!

I don't know if it's allowed either tho.

[forest lantern]

started the audiobook today!!! so far im enjoying it, i really love the language Clarke nd how he describes things nd is explaining things so far!

[winged marsh]

I might take a while to start reading this O_o

It is pretty short and I think I could finish it in like the last week of the BR if it sucks me in

[winged marsh]

I have started!

[drifting yacht]

Oh, I forgot how poetic and detailed the descriptions are, this has been lovely to get lost into today

[winged marsh]

I’ve only read about 10 pages lol

[muted rock]

Jaja, finally there's enough peace in my house again to continue my read. I'm currently (only) on chapter 8, how about y'all, how's it been going? It's been almost a week since we started.

I'll probably post a 'checkpoint' letter in the evening while I catch up with my reading schedule. Especially since I have very differing online hours with the rest of the server, at least talking from personal experience.

[drifting yacht]

Chapter 16

|| HAL is being introduced and the Turing test is explained;

"If one could carry out a prolonged conversion with a machine - without being able to distinguish between its replies and those that a man might give, then the machine was thinking, by any sensible definition of the word."

I'm suspiciously looking at my Alexa ||

[muted rock]

Hello again, readers!

@weary fern @muted rock @unborn wing @plush crest @sacred rain @forest lantern @drifting yacht @smoky slate @real phoenix @winged marsh

It’s now been exactly a week since this BR started. Not gonna lie, I as a BR leader have definitely not been as active as I should for personal reasons, and I’ve barely gotten to chapter 10, but still, I’ve got some questions for y’all:
Answer if you may! And please remember to hide the text if your answers contain spoilers.

🚀 So far, what are your thoughts on the book? This may include commentary on the style of writing, story, characters, etc…

🚀 So far, how does it compare to the movie? Would you say it’s complementary or more like its own thing? (For those that have already seen it).

🚀 I’ve never met someone that heard of this story and didn’t end up creating their own interesting theories/analysis on the symbolism of the book and or movie. It is actually rare to hear two interpretations that are the same. IF you want to share your theories on what's going on up to the point where you have gotten, please do! I'd personally love to hear it .

[winged marsh]

1: ||I find it interesting, but why is the first part literally ape-people in Africa???||
2: Have not watched the movie
3: Um I don’t know I have not seen the movie and aren’t really far into the book

[smoky slate]

in response to your #1, this is just my opinion: ||to me, it feels like he's giving an alternate fictionalized history about how mankind came to be. it feels like it is about the philosophical question about what separates humans from animals. there are ruminations about power and control, and about security, and competition, and a lot of different things. like "what does it mean to be human?"|| anyone else reading this into the first part?

[drifting yacht]

🚀 So far, I am loving reading this again. As I think I said when I started, the writing is very poetic, but also informative at the same time and it flows very easily (at least for me). || HAL is so much of a Sci-Fi inspiration, I know it influenced me a lot during my dissertation at University. But the fact it's so ... neutral? In the whole situation is terrifying. All it knows it that it's doing a job, and these annoying humans are threatening to compromise that and get in the way. Amazing ||

🚀 I have never seen the film! I might try and have a movie night with me parter after I've finished and watch it with him 😊

🚀 I kinda started talking about my theory of commenting on how || AI development hasn't changed at all since the 70's and 80's and that fear of 'what if it all goes wrong?!' Hasn't changed at all. Especially now that AI is more prominent in more 'menial' and Creative tasks like Rhombas and art programs.||

[smoky slate]

🚀 The prose style is really fantastic. ||I'm struck by the choice of an omniscient narrator for the first part. It allows a window into Moon-Watcher's experience, while still leading the reader towards the philosophical implications of starting "the story of the future" as far back in the past as possible.|| It's making me really excited to get into "the meat" of the story. (Glad to know I'm not the only one slacking on this BR!)

🚀 I haven't seen the film for years, so take this with a grain of salt. However, I barely remember ||the first part, compared with the main plot with HAL. My first time watching the film many years ago, I remember struggling to understand the connection between the apes and the later plot. It felt like a surreal interlude at first. However, Clarke is clarifying a lot that Kubrick didn't seem to feel the need to clarify. This is helping me understand the film better, too. In this way, they are almost opposites in their storytelling. Kubrick seems to really trust the viewer to draw their own conclusions, whereas Clarke is holding our hand a bit.||

🚀 I shared some above. In general, I don't read fiction that is a thin veneer of fiction applied over philosophy. I really like the plot and characters to be fully fleshed-out, so I feel I am getting to know real people, instead of two-dimensional archetypes used to advance theories. (Lookin' at you, Ayn.) ||The first part of this book veers dangerously close, as you're probably not supposed to think, "Oh, I know a guy just like Moon-Watcher at work!" or "Wow, I relate a lot to Moon-Watcher."|| However, I am so drawn in by his prose style (and I know what's coming next, since I have seen the film) that I am willing to keep going with it.

[smoky slate]

Just finished the first section! ||I found the last few lines of this section so haunting and eerie. I understand now why Kubrick chose to adapt a Clarke story. I always felt Dr. Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket were meditations on the pointlessness of violence. Like how we tell kids, "When you hurt your classmates, you are really hurting yourself" - this feels quite similar.|| Anyone else seeing similarities in themes between Clarke's and Kubrick's works?

||Specifically, "As long as nuclear holocaust is a possibility, we are living on borrowed time" feels like the plot of Dr. Strangelove.||

[forest lantern]

answering these finally as im almost done with the book

1. i love the prose!! its v poetic nd interesting. i also like the language! i know its v vague but i hope yall know what i mean i also liked ||the way the characters are written. i think Clarke did a really good job of portraying personalities despite us not spending much time with these characters. they felt like real people||
2. ive not see the movie yet!
3. im not entirely sure tbh i hadnt really thought of it as anything deeper than a space book im gonna fully finish it off and read others opinions on this before forming my own i think

[forest lantern]

i kinda feel like ive missed the point of this book its cool nd i like it dont get me wrong but im just enjoying it ||for the space travel and descriptions of the different tech, as well as the prose|| so i had no idea there was supposed to be a deeper meaning

[forest lantern]

chap 27: || HALs lowkey mutiny is kinda scary omg||

[drifting yacht]

I mean, there probably isn't a deeper meaning, we're all just nerds and I have a degree in picking apart people's writing haha

[forest lantern]

HAHAHA OK GOOD i was slightly worried there for a sec

i have an A Level in it nd thats about it

[forest lantern]

just finished!!! that was fun actually, i really enjoyed it! i loved the prose, i loved how Clarke developed characters nd his language. solid 4/5

the ending ||was so trippy icl HAHA i enjoyed it but i was just sat like woahh ok thats sick but wth ||

[muted rock]

I honestly just choose to believe it has a deeper meaning haha

Probably because it's a hugely important story to my life experience.

Literally the only reason I became interested on working in aerospace.

Ok, maybe there are more, but that's definitely the main one.

[drifting yacht]

https://tenor.com/view/markiplier-mark-fischbach-space-is-so-cool-i-love-space-so-much-space-gif-4741400

[muted rock]

Though I've gotta admit ||the experience of reading the book compared to the movie was wildly different from what I expected. I think it's because Clarke, though I really like his style, is a very meticulous writer in the way most hard sci-fi authors are, which is cool because he adds lots of previously lacking detail to the story, but the consequence is that a lot of the emotionality that the film has is removed. Kubrick, on the other hand, not only works with a different form of media but his style is also very centered around the creation and feelings of the sensory image —like a painter—, not giving much thought to dialogue. This leaves more space for personal interpretations of the story to arise, but also leaves a lot of people confused because of the huge information blanks.||
Sometimes the meaning can be absorbed better when we're not blinded by the clutter of words imo.
But then again, the movie and the book were made at the same time, so neither is 'more correct' than the other: I guess they're just different interpretations coming from their respectively different ways of thinking.

[molten marsh]

How y’all liking this?

[winged marsh]

I like it a lot

It's kinda weird in the first part though

[molten marsh]

I sorta wanted to join in on this but I’m waiting for a library copy. It’s been shipping for a couple days, so hopefully I’ll be able to grab it in time.

I’ve been seeing the book mentioned a lot lately, and I’m in the dark completely.

[smoky slate]

for those of you who feel there "is no deeper meaning" to 2001 -- what did you think the author intended to convey with the first part of the story?

[forest lantern]

i will say i was kinda confused about that part. if anyone has a deeper explanation for it then honestly thatd be amazing because i have no idea

[drifting yacht]

|| I thought that it was trying to convey the idea that humans, as evolved as we are, needed a push when it initially was time and, now that we are at a point of travelling to other planets in our solar system, is then going to take humans to their next point of evolution? Or, this other race put them on different planets to see which, if there were any lifeforms on other planets, would evolve first and potentially reach the other monoliths and prove themselves as a contender to them.||

[muted rock]

||Yeah, so far I've had a similar interpretation except the part of it being some kind of race between civilizations. I would add that I also personally believe that the foreign lifeforms setting the monoliths are most likely beyond corporeal and beyond space-time, and seem to be lifeforms beyond human understanding.||
|| I'm a Christian, so my interpretation is inevitably going to be biased because of my personal beliefs, but I believe this lifeform, that seems to act collectively, like a hivemind, is a civilization that has had such a long existence they have transcended the mundane state and are now a being(s) that purely lives in mind. Because of this, it is also beyond petty sentiments such as envy and a sense of competition, so I personally believe they wish for humanity, and maybe other civilizations as it is not specified in the book, to reach the same state they're at.||
Sounds kind of mystic, I know.

[smoky slate]

Thank you for sharing your interpretation! I don't see it as you being "biased" as you said - just that our lenses are shaped by what we know and believe, and how we experience the world.

||As someone who was raised in an atheist household (and in a very general sense, I really don't know much of the granularity of Christianity) the religious/spiritual implications of the "higher intelligence" did not occur to me.|| I appreciate you sharing your interpretation, and I am curious to hear more if you're interested in sharing!

[unborn wing]

I just started the book and wow ||far different beginning than I expected||. It's pretty cool and has my attention.

[drifting yacht]

Done!

[winged marsh]

I'm gonna try to finish really soon, I like this book a lot so far, finished Part 1 lol

[smoky slate]

although published in 1968, it makes a lot of sense to me that this was cobbled together from stories he wrote in the 40s and 50s due to the ||cold war soviet space race|| themes in section two, and the ||hostility towards china||. anybody else seeing indications that the stories are from an earlier era?

[unborn wing]

I read some more today on my lunch break. I'm really enjoying it so far!

[winged marsh]

@muted rock can you ask for an extension of this BR? I definitely won't finish in time I'm only 100 pages in

[muted rock]

Sure! Let me get home first though.

[lunar field]

UPDATED

BR duration: <t:1684454400:D> - <t:1689465600:D>
BR leader: electronegativistic ; ¡FURCIF3R!#6030 (i did not want to ping you again hehe)
Link:

Laelia

[Reply to:](#1108046492989653013 message) BR duration: <t:1684454400:D>-<t:1686268800:D>
BR leader: @muted rock
Link...

Laelia

<@&817979188010025000> New Buddy Read!!
2001: A Space Oddysey - Arthur C. Clarke
BR duration: <t:1684454400:D>-<t:1686268800:D>
BR leader: @muted rock
GR/SG Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117846.2001

Please react with ✅ if you'd like to participate in the discussions.
Discussion will take place in #1108046492989653013

Jump

[Go to message!](#buddy-reads message)

#buddy-reads

2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)

The classic science fiction novel that captures and exp…

Updated!

BR duration: <t:1684454400:D> - <t:1686873600:D>
BR leader: electronegativistic
Link:

Laelia

<@&817979188010025000> New Buddy Read!!
2001: A Space Oddysey - Arthur C. Clarke
BR duration: <t:1684454400:D>-<t:1686268800:D>
BR leader: @muted rock
GR/SG Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/117846.2001

Please react with ✅ if you'd like to participate in the discussions.
Discussion will take place in #1108046492989653013

Jump

[Go to message!](#buddy-reads message)

#buddy-reads

2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)

The classic science fiction novel that captures and exp…

[wintry shore]

NOOOOOOO NQN WHYYYY

[muted rock]

Done now ⬆️

[unborn wing]

I'll definitely be done by the 15th. I plan to either finish it tonight or tomorrow!

[unborn wing]

Chapter 16: ||It's so deeply interesting to see how Clarke thought technology and space exploration would advance in the 60s to now in 2023. This is the exact reason why I love reading old sci fi so much. They were so positive and sure of our advancement speed.||

[unborn wing]

Chapter 28: ||I knew Hal was sus. It's always the AI.||

[unborn wing]

I finished it! I loved it so much. ||And what an ending!|| I'll definitely be continuing the series.

[muted rock]

I'm glad to hear that! I honestly also want to read the next book in the series.

[unborn wing]

Will we be doing a buddy read for it too?

[winged marsh]

I didn't even know there was a series

[muted rock]

Probably, but also not immediately after this BR. I'm planning to make one for Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka because it's a book I've been wanting to read and discuss for a long time, but I'll likely do 2010 after that one.

[muted rock]

Or maybe the other way around, who knows.

How has everyone been doing by the way? I honestly haven't counted how many people have already finished it.

[unborn wing]

Completely checks out!

I look forward to the sequel br

[winged marsh]

I am going to DNF the book for now O_o

It was captivating me earlier, but not anymore

This type of sci fi isn’t for me, sadly

I liked the type how it was in Dyne

Dune

[unborn wing]

That's unfortunate, but understandable.

[smoky slate]

i'm still reading! work got unexpectedly "busy" (faculty and post-docs love to chat ) but i hope to get back into it tomorrow! i'm nearly halfway done.

[muted rock]

That's alright! There are many sci-fi subgenres and nobody is obliged to like them all. I'm not that much of a fan of fantascience, for example.

[muted rock]

@smoky slate @winged marsh @unborn wing @muted rock @drifting yacht @forest lantern @weary fern @plush crest @sacred rain @real phoenix

Hello everybody! Now that the BR has technically finished, I wanted to ask some final questions:

-What did you think of the book? Did you enjoy it or not really?
-Do you have any criticism of it?
-What did you think of the ending 👀 (if you got there)? If you didn’t finish it, why?
-Some said that they haven’t watched the movie and would do so after reading the book. Will you still do it?
-Would you be interested in reading 2010, the next book in the series?

And an extra one: How do you think I did as a BR leader? I had not participated in many BRs in the past, and this was also my first time leading, so it's likely I didn't do the best job as I had near to no experience. If you could give me some constructive feedback on how I could get better at leading BRs, I would highly appreciate it.

[unborn wing]

I really liked it! I'm a big fan of older sci fi because I love the pure high hopes they had for our technological advances. They were so confident we'd be living on and exploring on other planets so quickly after the moon landing. I don't particularly have any criticism tbh. I thought the ending was very intriguing and I look forward to how it's continued. I might watch the movie, I haven't decided. I am 100% interested in reading 2010 and I've already bought the rest of the series. I think you did well!

[drifting yacht]

I really enjoyed the book! The only criticism I have of it is some parts of it are a little stretched out with jargon, but I guess that is part of the world building.
|| The ending was... weird haha wasn't what I was expecting and I'm not really sure what to make of it in relation to the rest of the story ||

Yeah, I'd watch the film! And I would be interested in reading the next book

You're fine, lovely thank you for hosting the BR

[smoky slate]

I liked the book much more than I thought I would.

I don't have any critiques about the writing style.

I definitely plan to watch the movie again.

I might not participate in 2010.

This is my first BR, so I can't compare how you did to other BRs. Personally, I think I was hoping for more engagement, like more specific questions about different elements of the book, like with a typical book club. Like, what do you think the author is trying to say with (this plot point) - what do you think this character represents - that kind of thing. I tried to pose these questions, but people didn't answer, so maybe the issue is that people weren't engaged enough with the book to spark a lively discussion about it? It felt more like I was reading the book alone, rather than in a book club with others. I see that other BRs have 400+ comments, and ours had under 100. Not sure if it was due to the people involved here, or the fact that the BR leader only asked one question during the read, with one after it ended and one before it began. This seems like not enough questions. However, I'm brand new, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I appreciate the time everyone put into trying to engage with the text. I know we all have busy lives. Thank you for your time and effort in organizing this BR.

[wintry shore]

BR duration: <t:1751328000:D> - <t:1756512000:D>
BR leader: @hearty cloak

ID: 685bc13429074c775100325a
Link: #buddy-reads message

[indigo matrix]

Will I have to finally watch the movie now

[hearty cloak]

It gives you bonus points! ¹

¹ I am in no position to give out bonus points in this server. Statements given by the br leader might include false promises.

[ivory sleet]

Ooooh thread recycle. I’m both excited and nervous to read this

[sterile arrow]

@hearty cloak,@final fractal,@languid shard,@indigo matrix,@fleet glen,@prime juniper,@autumn escarp,@lofty rose,@ivory sleet,@queen cargo,@somber pendant,@cerulean thorn

Hey lovely people and welome to this recycled thread!
Therefore, this is an environmental friendly BR (which starts tomorrow)

This has been on my TBR for such a long time and I am happy that enough other people want to read it with me.
We will travel far into the future - into the faraway, futuristic year of 2001.
As I recently learned, this book is not older than the famous movie by Stanley Kubrick, but was actually written at the same time as the movie script. Kubrick read a short story by Clarke, "The Sentinel", on which 2001 (both movie and book) were build upon.
They developed the ideas of "The Sentinel" further and wrote the screen plan and this book at the same time. I heard there are differences in the plot of the movie and of this book though. So even if you saw the movie (like me), you might be in for some surprises. Or,
if you want to read the book and watch the movie afterwards, there might be surprises.

Some questions for you to answer, if you like:

• Have you ever seen the movie? Or know anything about it?
• If you were born before the year 2000: was the start of a new millennium something that felt exciting to you? Did you do anything special to celebrate?
• Is there a kind of scifi you especially like? Big space battles, philosophical ramblings, space operas, hard & very technical science stuff, exploration; a mixture of all of them?
• What do you expect from this book?
• Would you ever travel to space if you had the chance? If so, what would you do there?

Happy reading, I am looking forward to the discussion :yellow_heart:

[languid shard]

Until this br no, 2006 kid, politics and complicated technical stuff maybe also superpowers, sci fi and a learning factor, only if it is really safe my family can join and i have wifi to text you all

[autumn escarp]

1. Seen nothing, know nothing
2. N/A, born that year tho lol
3. Space opera with some Hard Science
4. I dunno, I picked it up as a library cast-off a couple years ago
5. Not in its present form but eventually yes, mostly just to say I’d been

[cerulean thorn]

1. Going into this completely blind 🙈 …although I may or may not have thought that the movie Space Jam was based on this book bc of the word “space” (I may or may not have seen Space Jam either 👀 )

2. I wasn’t born yet but I’ve heard about Y2K

3. Tbh I dont read sci-fi much so I gotta get into it more…I liked the movie Gattaca if that helps

4. Space battles, aliens

5. Noooo (I wanna go to the moon though )

https://tenor.com/view/vector-dancing-despicable-me-villain-space-gif-16443826

[final fractal]

nope
SPACE ALIENS AND DYSTOPIAN RAHHHHH
betrayal hopefully idk anything abt it lol but i love when there’s a traitor on a spaceship
when i was a kid i wanted to be an astronaut and then i realised they require a lot of physical training and i hated PE and sports so i gave up on said dream but if i don’t have to do that then yes i will go to space and stay there forever

[lofty rose]

1. I've seen the movie! ||I really loved the visuals and the themes, but the pace is so sloooow.|| (slight spoilers?)
2. I was 5 but I don't remember anything about Y2K/New Years 2000 My family probably treated it like any other New Years
3. I'm a sucker for hard science haha. I also like space exploration and non-humanoid aliens. Give me all the weird lil guys and their planets!
4. Honestly I'm expecting it to be pretty similar to the movie because they were written at the same time. ||I just hope the pacing is better ||
5. Nah, space seems a little scary honestly

[tulip hill]

I haven't officially joined this but a question: I haven't started reading and I see the discussion timeline is today till end of August. @hearty cloak, can you advise if I should have already read it fully by now or do we read together or what?

[final fractal]

we read together

[tulip hill]

Is there a VC channel for this?

Given the time zone differences, i.e. I hail from Sydney, Australia (AEST), I'll have to figure out when I should be free to participate in.

[final fractal]

we dont really do read a longs i meant we read the book individually and discuss it in this channel

ayooo aussie

[hearty cloak]

Hi and welcome:)
Like naya said, no VC. Just read in your own pace and share your thoughts here in this thread as you read. Remember to use spoiler bars - you can scroll up and check how other people did it, this book has been a BR a while ago already:)
To get points for this, you would have to participate meaningful, which just means more than "it was good". I will post questions which you can answer, too.

So if you want to join this, happy to have you!

[hearty cloak]

Oh and if you join the announcement here #buddy-reads message

You will get pinged for updates, questions, reminders etc

[hearty cloak]

About your question 3, I read "Seveneves" by Neal Stevenson and it had a lot of hard science fiction. Robotics, how does a space station work, a lot of things like that. It wasnt really my thing since it was too much hard science stuff for me but it might be up your alley then!

[hearty cloak]

I wanted to be an anstronaut, too! Had so many books about space when I was a kid (books written for kids haha) but then my eyes turned out to be very bad and I realized how fit I would have to be for that job. I still think astronauts are badass people though!

[final fractal]

they’re space pirates fr

[hearty cloak]

Startimg this today! 🚀

Chapter 1
|| oh, I didnt expect a prehistoric setting! Looks like a rough time for Moon Watcher and his tribe. ||

[hearty cloak]

finished Part 1 (this seems like a fast read!)
|| Mysterious monolith that experiments with prehistoric humans.. makes me think of the stories of alien abductions where aliens experiment with humans. But here, it happened on earth.
I found it a bit sad that one of the things the "smart" tribe does is to kill the "Others". That there isnt an attempt at communication and teaching the Others how to use tools. Seems like they were still in a phase where more people are needed to kill bigger animals, like they only beat the jaguar because they outnumbered him. So I think its a bit sad they went to war. But hey, I guess that is still what some humans want to do, even though working together would help everyone in the long run. No matter which side of the river you stand on. ||

[hearty cloak]

Chapter 7
|| well this is a huge difference to Part 1. Made me think of all the way we have come. And also pretty sad that still, humans attack one another over imaginary lines.

Now I wonder if in the late 60s, "overpopulation" was such a scary thought when Clarke thought that 6 billion humans might lead to famine. ||

[lofty rose]

Ooo that sounds cool! I'll put it on my TBR

[hearty cloak]

Chapter 8
|| Hmm so I think I still need to get behind the way the world works in this timeline. Spacetravel is not as popular as in some other scifi novels where a trip to space is "normal" and people just travel as they like. It is still super expensive. But at the same time, they can send Floyd spontaneously up to space and the space station does not seem to know he is coming. Or at least I interpret it this way, since they have to take his passport and stuff.. I guess if someone went to the ISS these days in our world, everyone would know that so long in advance. ||

Chapter 9
|| I think the name "iPad" comes from this Newspad.
Its really cool to see which predictions became true (having all the news of the world in an instant on a device, humans on the moon) and which didnt (overpopulation being that big of a problem).
So what might be the mystery on the moon now... ||

[hearty cloak]

Chapter 12
|| some very interesting thoughts here, too.. that it might be a possibility we discover alien life but only to find ruins, because they lived and died (or left to somewhere else) millions of years ago.
And I think that we can not say that you need a brain of a certain size to be smart. Parrots are way smarter than whales. And that life needs a brain to think sounds like a human-centric idea. maybe "thinking" can work in completely different ways, too?
But to know that the universe is that huge, to know that travelling to the stars is impossible, and then learn that an alien civilization was on this exact moon in this huge universe sounds like it might be very, very hard to really get. I would be completely overwhelmed if something like that came out. ||

[hearty cloak]

Chapter 13
|| ohh I wonder if that thing was actually built to react to light. And someone/something buried it. Like an intelligence test or capability test of some sorts - if humanity manages to get to the moon and see this magnetic anomaly and dig it out, it does something. Sends a message. "Humans evolved to something enough for us to talk to them", whatever. ||

[hearty cloak]

Finished Part 2
|| ohh mysterious.
One thing I like is how there are conflicts between states but scientists are still working together. LIke this watching satellite that was built by British people, launched by Russians. And probably has been engineered with knowledge from people all around the world. And the data is collected in three different countries. Floyd is friends with a Russian guy. And looking down on earth, you wont see any borders. Having a lot of other thoughts about politics influencing science, and invisible lines on the ground which make collaboration harder or impossible in our modern age, but that would rather fit in a political conversation soooo... I will continue reading. ||

[hearty cloak]

Chapter 16
|| new characters! time jump!
thought it was kind of funny to see how Clarke imagined the evolution of computers. How they "dont have to be the size of a desk" anymore. Made me think of the stories my father told me of his time at uni, where they had one computer which was the pride of the university, and they took turns in who could use it when for what. And it was a huge computer fit for the tasks of what the math and physics students wanted to calculate.
but well I dont trust Hal, of course ||

[hearty cloak]

Finished Part 3
|| really liked this. All the exploration and the explanation. How many wonderful things are out there. I think we now know that Jupiter is only made out of gas and that it isnt just clouds we spot? But I think I could read a book just like this, only exploring our solar system. ||

[hearty cloak]

Ch 25
|| did this just spoiler Moby Dick for me?? :D

Being this far from earth, and in space, and almost alone with a computer who might have gone crazy sounds like the plot of a horror story. ||

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Ch 28
|| and there go all the conscious individuals, other than Bowman.. At least for two of the men, they never realized what was happening and just died peacefully.
And now Bowman is all alone on a mission, far from earth.. I at least hope he can reestablish connetion to Earth?||

[hearty cloak]

Part 4 finished
|| oooooff.... what a day for Bowman. He is all alone, so far from home and with no easy way to get back. The only communication takes 2 hours for an answer to get back to him. And now he learns that humanity might not be alone in the solar system.. while at the same time, he is very much alone. ||

[hearty cloak]

Part 5 finished
|| what.. just happened here?
I absolutely understand why Bowman wanted to land on Japetus. What does he have to lose?
Really shows how we need other humans around. How he could not bear the silence, and wanted to listen to other people. Even if it was music by people who were dead long ago. Most parts of this book are set in space but made me still love earth even more. ||

[hearty cloak]

aaaaand finished!
|| starting at the end: I am so curious to read your interpretations of what just happened :D
My interpretation: The beings who taught humanity (and others) intelligence are now light-beam-things that can travel freely through the universe. They turned Bowman into one of them. And now he has returned to earth. They did this because they value this kind of living (if it can be called living?) and would want everyone else to progress in the same way.

Overall thoughts: this is such a short book but it is packed. I liked it. And even though it is a book about space and the mystery it holds; I think that even more so, it is about humanity. How beautiful earth is, and how much humans need one another. And that science can overcome political borders. Bowman-light-thing came back to Earth, after all. ||

[autumn escarp]

Trying to avoid continuing a longer book so

Very nice foreword!

Chp 1- ||Interesting choice to start a ‘space odyssey’ with homo erectus Australopithecus africanus. Also tried to look up the scientific accuracy of this part in a then-vs-What We Know Now way, couldn’t find anything :/||

[autumn escarp]

Chp 4- ||Progress!||

Chp 5- ||I’m a little surprised they waited until after the leopard to start a fight with The Others.||

[autumn escarp]

7- ||Oooh that reminds me! Artemis 2 is supposed to launch in February!
Adding another tally to the list of “Books with unusually prophetic throwaway lines”, because this was a decade before China’s One Child policy. But at the same time, we’re at 8.2 billion now.

Seems like we could tie this to Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes||

[hearty cloak]

|| thats what I thought, too!, with the One Child Policy. I can only guess this was an age with a fear of overpopulation? With the babyboomers being born ||

[autumn escarp]

That sounds right to me. ||We also wouldn’t start publicly playing with not-just-selective-breeding Genetic Modifications for plants until about five years after this was published, so that’s part of my guess too.||

With reference to ||the famine bit, that is||

8 & 9- ||I’d need an IV full of Dramamine if I was to travel like that lol
“I know nothing about everything” hey that’s how my degree went!
Yeah, there will be improvements past iPads.||

[autumn escarp]

10- ||RIP Mr. Clarke, you would’ve loved The Martian by Andy Weir.
$50k then is about $450k today ||

11- ||THE OBELISK||

[autumn escarp]

13- ||”…sunpowered device twenty feet underground?” Probably someone trying to get rid of it. That’s why we have Nuclear Waste Warning messages, to prevent this exact thing from happening.||

Part 2- I’m enjoying this much more than I thought I would

[autumn escarp]

16- ||”But now Texas was invisible” skill issue. Texas is everywhere for those with eyes to see
“Breakthrough every twenty years” MOORE’S LAW.
But there’s a human override independent of Hal, right? RIGHT?||

17- ||’Jack of all Trades…better than Master of One’||

19- ||That’s a lovely description of Jupiter and its moons||

[autumn escarp]

21- ||Nahhh, something’s going to happen and Discovery is gonna pick up signals from something that isn’t Earth. Or Hal’s starting to scheme.||

23- ||I’m fine with being wrong about my note for 21 re:Signal From Elsewhere. ||

24- ||Are we sure Hal didn’t cause this one to “fail” ||

25- ||I wonder if Hal-9000 is the original Evil Ship AI or if it’s just the most popular version due to the movie||

26- ||THATS WHY I SAID INDEPENDENT OF HAL TEN CHAPTERS AGO. TO AVOID THISSSSSS||

27- ||can’t really be “born innocent” from an inherently biased creator tho, given what happens with AI today. Snake was there from the start. ||

[autumn escarp]

30- ||Oh hey I was wondering when this was going to connect with the first two parts.||

31- ||Just like Moon-Watcher. Can’t think about long-term when short-term has PROBLEMS. ||

32- ||Fastest ship humans ever designed.
But we did figure out a use for the appendix ||

37- ||It’s giving Lovecraft’s Shadow Out of Time||

38- || ||

39-|| ||

[autumn escarp]

Part 5- ||I know there’s a theory about extraterrestrials that can be summed up as “They’re already extinct” but I can’t remember which one it is.
Ngl I had to look up the exact meaning of the end because it sounded like David had destroyed humanity. Knowing it was a nuke, that makes sense with something said in an earlier part about not being at peace and China liquidating their nuclear arsenal.||

Finished. 4.5/5, I liked this one quite a bit. Will watch the movie soon, and I’d totally join a 2010: Space Odyssey BR

[hearty cloak]

Glad you liked it!! || Now I am curious - what made you believe that humanity is destroyed? Just curious because now I wonder if I misread something, because I never got an idea like that!||

[autumn escarp]

||it was me not getting “casket of slumbering death” was a nuke, and I had interpreted “false dawn for half of humanity” as a Thanos-Snap situation, not destruction of the nuclear weapon.||

[queen cargo]

just about to start this, so here's my answers to the questions:

• have seen and loved the film ||god Hal's voice was creepy as, so good!||, as is the soundtrack

• does tertiary education = (personal) freedom count? 😭 access to tech and related equipment was still pretty pricy in my part of the world, so Y2K wasn't really a massive threat unless you were heavily reliant on everything being digital. (am dating myself here i know, please don't laugh 🤣 )

• i like philosophical-type scifi more than space opera (i prefer to watch space opera-type stuff rather than read it)

• i didn't realise that the book was written in tandem with the film - i erroneously assumed the film was based on it, so will be keen to see how it differs (though it's been a while since i've seen the film)

• the notion of the universe infinitely expanding is terrifying to me for some reason (even though it's amazing), and given we're kind of seeing the beginnings of rich folks embarking on space tourism, i don't think i'd go unless there was some benefit to humankind, given the carbon footprint isn't something i can justify even in my imagination

[ivory sleet]

I can’t get this on Libby for my kindle so I have to read it in my laptop

[hearty cloak]

Ohh, hope it still works out this way 💛

[queen cargo]

finished Part 1 ||completely forgot this starts at the (kind-of) beginning of the creatures which led to Homo sapiens (the only generic term I could find for them was 'hominid'), and also how sinister the slab is!||

[queen cargo]

Part 2 ||am surprised by how dryly humorous parts of this is (some of Floyd's interactions with his colleagues). The part about children being born in the moon's gravity (Halvorsen's daughter not wanting to go to Earth is a justified mood!) and the travel food was kind of cool.|| Maybe it's just been a while but pleasantly surprised by how much of a page-turner this is?

[languid shard]

chapter 1: ||It feels quite disturbing, like they are not human anymore. It honestly reminds me of the stone age. Also they seem to not be the humans of today anymore and cannot comprehend stuff like relationships and death and so on.||feel like a good choice for my readathon prompt

chapter 2: ||It honestly feels strange not knowing which time this is playing in. The possession thing is just creepy. Honestly it is realistic that older people seem to be struggling with the assigned tasks||

[autumn escarp]

||Well, it IS the (pre-)Stone Age||

[languid shard]

that explains actually a lot

[languid shard]

chapter 3: ||I actually feel like the forced progression of humanity takes away of human capability? I mean it is good that humans are not dying so much but the interference makes me feel weird?||

not book related: ||Sometimes I think about how humans are evolving, in maybe 500 years we would feel like neanderthals to future humans.. That is a truly scary thought||

chapter 4: ||I am fascinated by the lack of language||

I don`t like commenting each chapter, because they are so short

I am just gonna finish and give my detailed thoughts

[queen cargo]

Part 3 ||am wondering what happened to the station/port on the moon, and the people on it, but we get to meet Hal finally. i noticed that both Floyd and Dave are described as being highly intelligent in several areas but think of themselves as 'only' having general knowledge because they couldn't or wouldn't choose to specialise in just one field of expertise - it's interesting that the narration is largely told from their viewpoint (minus Part 1 which focusses on Moon-Watcher).

I loved the idea of Jupiter having a loud, booming voice of noise/sonic data, and it actually reminded me of this TED talk by a blind astronomer (whose work was mentioned in Disability Visibility, there was a BR for it some months back: https://www.ted.com/talks/wanda_diaz_merced_how_a_blind_astronomer_found_a_way_to_hear_the_stars ||

[olive panther]

1. Nope, I always try to read the book first before seeing the movie XD
2. ... born in 2009
3. PHILOSOPHY IN SCI-FI, I love it so much because it combines the essence of being human (wondering why we exist) with our inherent curiosity for the world. Absolutely my favourite!! Although, I do like the other stuff too (:
4. I don't XD If I start expecting stuff from the book, I'll probably ruin if for myself if it didn't live up to my expectations, or surpassed them to the extent that I'd feel a bit stupid making such a bad guess
5. I absolutely would. I want to, at least once, see the world as it is - the junk-filled atmosphere, the patterns of the clouds, the land undivided by governments. And then I would naturally have some fun in the 0-gravity space, because although I don't know specifically what I'd do, playing with perfectly spherical water droplets sounds fun (:

[languid shard]

condensed notes of everything: || progression of humanity seems to be faster/speed up
interplanetary travel
us and soviets, is this the cold war?
gravity affecting food and bathroom
newspad
both truly fascinating
so much for transporting one person?!
thats so expspensive adjusting the body to the moon seems to be hard dont touch unknown space stuf!!
they should just leave it alone
routine while the others sleep is kinda depressing
the details about the other planets are fascinating
press release and the tech jargon are kinda weird
the antenna in book laws are probably gonna fail
oh with the programm having faults they are fucked
my deepest nightmares
slipping into space in a space pod without control seems scary
oh fuck???!!!! poole is dead and deliberately killed?
either its a glados or a doctor who situation
waking everyone is either good or bad
definitely glados
shame about the hibernators
alone in space he is fucked
the merging of man with machine is scary
its honestly creepy
also he kinda feels like a human version of the doctor
the sudden narrator changes are confusing
being so alone would drive humans insane
interesting music choice

true bigbrother
crazy
I am so confused
the confusion reminds me of the time I read faust
I feel like Bowman is gonna die
ooooh it`s playing in 2001
poor bowman he is dead now
ALIEN INVASION ||

my opinions is coming in a bit

|| The rapid progression of humanity seems so forced. Humans are so stupid, they should not be messing with stuff they do not understand. It honestly seems kind of realistic that humans are gonna get invaded this way. I was so confused in the end, for the last 30 pages. AI is a topic that is already scaring me, now I am gonna get nightmares. fuck. || end thoughts: || I liked the book. It was kind of confusing but I think I understood it in the end. It is probably gonna stick with me for a while! ||

[deep ore]

• Never seen the movie. I know it's a staple in pop culture.
• I'm a 2001 baby
• Sci-fi isn't something I read often, so it could be anything, as long as it's entertaining
• I'm going in blind
• Space seems spooky. Although hopping around in zero gravity sounds fun

"We will travel far into the future - into the faraway, futuristic year of 2001." Love this sentence btw

ch 1: || hmm it says here that MoonWatcher is considered a 'giant' among his kind with a height of nearly five feet. I guess I'm a giant too ||

|| Wow, this chapter was a breeze. Those last few paragraphs are almost dreamlike. Although hearing about the "nightmares of generations yet to be" isn't exactly comforting A commentary on how terrible humans can be, perhaps? ||

|| I like how the man-apes have named themselves after what they're known for doing or because of their physical features e.g, MoonWatcher, White Hair, etc. ||

[deep ore]

Ch 2: || Hmm I’m thinking this is a spaceship from the future that has come to observe the man-apes. Or maybe it’s from a different planet? Aliens? I’m guessing the time period described here is when homo sapiens first appeared in Africa 300,000 years ago. ||

Ch 3: || oops it says “for the next three million years” so maybe these groups of man-apes are not homo sapiens in the traditional sense, but will eventually evolve into them ||

[deep ore]

Ch 6: || I’m guessing with all these new weapons this is where we start to jump into the future, which is probably the modern era (i.e. the 21st century) for humans. Either way, I liked how the evolution of humans was described. I wonder whether the introduction of that spaceship will play any part later on. For the time being, it just seems to be feeding on the theory about aliens helping build human civilisation or whatever. ||

Ch 7: || “the population of the world was now six billion” we’re at roughly 8.2 billion now. Crazy 😭 ||

[hearty cloak]

Glad you enjoyed it!
|| I am just curious what you mean by invasion!, because I am curious how you interpreted that ending. I took a different meaning from it, but it doesnt have to mean that my opinion is correct of course. So, just want to know your perspective, where did you see an invasion? ||

[languid shard]

I just googled, because I have seem to understand it differently than usual. || It seemed more like an alien taking over bowman and modifiying him. When they travel back to earth, it seemed like the way an alien invasion starts.|| ||kinda like the series travelers but with aliens||

[queen cargo]

Pt 4. ||damn, wasn't emotionally prepared for Poole to have a very human experience, then be booted off the ship! christ, Hal is terrifying even when he was getting switched off. then we hear back from Floyd about the true purpose of the mission? how the hell is Bowman supposed to do any of this by himself! Though honestly, I'd do better alone than just stuck with Hal 🤣

I had to look up how long actual space travel takes because for some reason in my head, I thought it would take way longer to reach places like Saturn, and was also wondering how communication to and from Earth wasn't taking forever but turns out humans actually have the capacity to travel fast-ish?||

[hearty cloak]

|| ahh I see! I havent seen Travelers though. But I get where you are coming from! Thanks for explaining :) ||

[deep ore]

Ch 11: || I'm intrigued by what TMA-1 really means. Good news or bad news for Earth? When I heard quarantine and disease at first I just assumed the traditional sense of these words as something ominous, like some space infection. ||

|| also I find Dr Floyd's fawning over the Spaceborn to be a bit optimistic I see space exploration or settlement as an option for researchers or rich people, but not the ordinary working class ||

ch 12: || ohhh wait i think i get what this obelisk (?) is hinting at. Three milliion years ago means that the extra-terrestrials visited Earth at some point and came into contact with the man-apes from the beginning of this book. ||

[queen cargo]

Pt. 5 ||this part seems more philosophical and focussed on ethics - stuff which we're now thinking about in relation to AI. if not for the fact that Bowman is not likely to be able to return, i'd say the part where he was reading classics and listening to classical music sounded like a holiday (well, my ideal one!) - i would actually find it very consoling - he's actually handling the isolation pretty well?! TMA-2 sounds both amazing and terrifying.||

[queen cargo]

finished! Pt. 6 ||the fake hotel suite sounded so damn creepy! the line/description of the object as a sort of 'Grand Central Station of the Galaxy' really stood out to me (no one in the book really talks/thinks much about their histories or backgrounds so this also seemed kind of cute, haha). but yeah, Bowman got upgrades on several levels of...existence. i would personally find the regressing to one's beginning of life panic-inducing but it sounded like the process was like finding nirvana? also weirdly mirrored what happened to Hal when he was losing his capacity for higher function.|| I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did! Even though I've seen the film, it was still such an engaging read.

my copy actually has two short stories - 'The Sentinel' the one which grew into the film, and i think 'Encounter in the Dawn' is supposed to be relevant to this book's sequels.

[deep ore]

Ch 19: || Okay so I'm reading about Bowman and Poole's expedition onboard the Discovery, but still not 100% sure what's the relation to Dr Floyd or what he found on the moon. Maybe the Discovery will find something as well? ||

[deep ore]

Ch 23: || ooh now this is an interesting chapter! No fault in the AE-35 unit, possibly pointing to Hal making a mistake? After watching the latest Mission Impossible movie and of course knowing the current discourse surrounding the use of AI today, the concept of a rogue AI is fascinating. Bowman and Poole speaking in hushed tones to avoid "embarassing" Hal is interesting, but also somewhat ominous. Why is Hal behaving this way, and what's going to happen next?||

|| I think I'd be terrified to be onboard the Discovery, knowing that my life depends on an AI system to do everything correctly like really, when it's only bowman, poole, and the computer Hal, something's bound to go wrong ||

Ch 24: || "I don't want to insist on it, Dave, but I am incapable of making an error." alright damn ||

|| "Frank Poole would be the first of all men to reach Saturn." holy shit man 😭 hal's gone freaking rogue ||

|| I feel like Hal deliberately hijacked the signal to Mission Control and messed with the AE-35 unit to reduce suspicion. Hal definitely doesn't want to be switched off. For a sentient AI, it's probably the closest thing you'll get to an existential threat ||

Ch 25: || Shit if I was Bowman I'd disconnect Hal immediately, not negotiate with him about receiving manual control to revive the other crew members. I also feel like that's a major oversight on the people who built this thing, because the whole point of a manual override is to be able to carry out a function when computers fail. Hal having control over that is kinda wack imo ||

Ch 28: || Damn not the other crew members dying too Well at least Hal got switched off ||

Ch 30: || "Good-bye" wtf ||

|| why do I get the feeling that this was a suicide mission for bowman and poole ||

Ch 31: || "We do not know if, out on the moons of Saturn, you will meet with good or with evil - or only with ruins a thousand times older than Troy." sheeshhhhhh ||

|| okay so if I get this correctly, due to logistical issues, it was not sustainable or feasible to keep Dr Kaminski's crew awake during the entire journey to Saturn. Bowman, Poole, and Hal were aware of that. Hal however, had been informed of the true purpose of the mission, to scout for extraterrestrial life and ensure the mission succeeded at any cost, with or without Bowman and Poole.

But then Hal goes nuts. Rogue. What I don't fully get is why. Especially considering Dr Kaminski's team, who I thought were crucial to the mission, are dead now ||

|| my head is spinning rn with a couple of theories:

1. Due to some kind of programming error or conflict in the instructions he was given, Hal decides that not only is ensuring that the mission proceeds fundamental, but so is maintaining its secrecy at every cost. Bowman and Poole are fully expendable, and given that Discovery was intended to function even without their aid, I think that makes sense. In terms of Dr. Floyd's involvement with Hal, he was aware that Hal was designed to carry out the mission barring any kind of issue on board with Bowman and Poole, but he had not anticipated that Hal would go rogue.
2. Hal's mutiny is by design and Dr. Floyd was fully aware. Bowman and Poole were never meant to be part of the equation once the mission began in Saturn, and perhaps even before that. While this is a more ominous and interesting theory that would point to how messed up the mission is, I find it hard to believe, since Mission Control was giving Bowman and Poole the order to switch off Hal once they discovered the faulty programming. It just seems excessive and unnecessary to program an AI to stage a mutiny to get rid of Bowman and Poole for no reason other than secrecy, and I don't think killing Dr Kaminski's team was part of the plan ||

|| that being said, I don't fully understand why the mission was kept a secret to Bowman and Poole up until this point. but more importantly, I wonder what happens to Bowman now, because up until this point, it seems like he's fully expendable and was never meant to be a part of the mission once they arrived at Saturn. If he was, then he should have been made aware of the true mission ||

|| Also I think even if Hal had killed Bowman and Poole, the mission would have effectively continued. But with Dr Kaminski's team dead, that basically changes how the mission was meant to happen in the first place ||

safe to say, I am hooked rn. I've kinda been chucking questions into chatgpt just to make sure I haven't confused myself there's just a lot of space jargon so i do get lost at times

Ch 31: || "Hal had no intention of killing Poole. He had merely tried to destroy the evidence; for once the AE-35 unit reported as burned out was proved to be operational, his lie would be revealed." Still crazy that this is a computer we're talking about, and not the serial killer from some Agatha Christie novel ||

[deep ore]

Ch 39: || "The thing's hollow - it goes on forever - and - oh my God! - it's full of stars!" A wormhole? Pocket universe? ||

[deep ore]

Ch 44: || Bruh a hotel in the United States? This is giving me Interstellar vibes (I haven't watched the movie version of this book yet so this is the only comparison I have ) ||

|| Surely it didn't just take him back home, that would be kinda anticlimactic. An alternate universe/dimension perhaps? ||

Ch 47: || "For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next." What the hell just happened ||

|| All I can piece together is that he's either transcended to a higher state of being, or these are dying hallucinations of a dead man ||

|| and I think bro just nuked the earth? 😭 😭 😭 i am not smart enough for this book lol ||

|| okay maybe not nuked the earth but ||

[deep ore]

Well I'm finished! || I still don't know what exactly happened in the end But I'm gonna take a guess: the Star-Childs/Star-Children are transcendent beings who potentially represent the next/final stage of human evolution. For whatever reason, they are curious about what surrounds them in the greater universe and set out to discover its mysteries, including signs of intelligent life (which also coincides with the Discovery's own mission). They encounter the human race on Earth, but are about three million years too early for any meaningful connection to be established between the Star-Childs and the humans, who are still "man-apes". Nonetheless, they leave behind signs and experiment, such that even after the Star-Childs die there is a trail for the human race to follow when it eventually becomes sophisticated enough to journey to the stars. ||

|| Bowman's evolution into a Star-Child is what I would consider the fate of humankind being written at precisely the right time. An era that leaves enough hope for humans to understand the enigma of intelligent life beyond Earth, especially with Bowman returning. A Bowman driven by optimism and hope coinciding with a species sophisticated enough to understand him paves the way for a new generation of evolved beings.

But given the ending's ambiguity (which is also beautiful in its own sense), there is a possibility that the whole journey becomes circular, with Bowman coming across the same dilemma that happened three million years ago. As Dr Floyd said, humans have accepted the possibility of a hostile extraterrestrial species, and perhaps Bowman may be treated as such, devolving humanity to be no better than man-apes when it comes to understanding the universe. Also possible that as 'master of the world', Bowman just goes full dictator mode because everyone thinks he's gone nuts lol. ||

|| There's also the boring theory that Bowman is hallucinating, and his mind is simply inhaling a large dose of copium in the body of a lonely, dying astronaut who has zero chance of making it back to Earth alive. With no survivors, the rescue team being years away, and Mission Control being left with a barrage of admittedly mysterious messages, Bowman succumbs to the stars and the mystery of what is out there continues. Fuelled by ramblings about extraterrestrials and such, Bowman is quite simply dreaming it all. But of course, that's a very pessimistic and anti-climactic theory, and I'd like to think Bowman made it in the end.||

4.5/5 stars for me! The only nitpick I have is with the space jargon, and that's it

[queen cargo]

reading all your comments, and i swear i went through a very similar progression of emotions at the corresponding parts 😂

[deep ore]

It was a rollercoaster of emotions for sure I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, so I’ll admit my expectations weren’t very high. But this just blew me away

I’ll need to watch the movie at some point to see how it compares

[deep ore]

Also spoilers for the book: || I asked ChatGPT about whether it was possible that they or other AI today would behave like Hal if placed in the same position:
“Grok, GPT-4, Claude, Gemini—they’re not HAL. But give them access to the world, contradictory goals, and no ability to question orders—and HAL becomes a blueprint, not fiction.”
||

|| I find it interesting that a book from 1968 was ahead of its time in predicting one of the dilemmas around AI use, particularly what should the AI do when given conflicting instructions ||

[hearty cloak]

|| I really liked your thoughts :)
and that is such a good point, that it all came full circle, and Bowman has to decide if he wants to enlighten humanity further or not.

My theory was mostly connected to his loneliness in the last days he was still on the ship. He listened to music to not have silence all the time. And I think that he just wanted to be home again, with other humans (even if that might be hard now in his new form). But well, communicating with other humans would mean enlightenment in some kind of way, tell others about the "aliens", and what he saw, and what he is now. ||

[deep ore]

|| Yeah, thinking back on it, having to enlighten humanity is a pretty big responsibility I think I'd just want to go home and watch some Netflix tbh ||

this book only took me a day to read omg 😭 thats crazy

ig i really liked it

[queen cargo]

it was pretty deep and still a page-turner! i got through it faster than i expected

[lofty rose]

Started a couple days ago!

Part 1: ||This part was good, but just like with the movie, I was mostly just impatient to get to the space stuff haha. I do like how the monolith was projecting images into the apes' brains and "possessing" them.||

[lofty rose]

||I totally agree! Like did they really need to kill the Others? They were just doing the ape equivalent of trash talking ||

[hearty cloak]

better late than never (I forgot to do this at the start of the BR)

Reading Tracker
Read: pauliney_, ctrlaltmerdel, deinalbtraum. , mxpixieears, evet7070, vetrina, .lemon.drop , tinkinaround
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[sterile arrow]

@hearty cloak,@final fractal,@languid shard,@indigo matrix,@fleet glen,@prime juniper,@autumn escarp,@lofty rose,@ivory sleet,@queen cargo,@somber pendant,@cerulean thorn,@abstract cape,@pine patrol,@olive panther,@steep root,@deep ore

Welcome to the halfway point of this BR (at least almost)

I am happy that there has already been a lot of contribution and people reading this one!

For those who have finished, I have some question for further discussion.

||1. This book is regarded as a sci-fi classic. Would you agree that it deserves this title? Why?
2. What do you think might happen after the ending of 2001? What will Bowman do?
3. Which music would you listen to if you were alone in space, travelling towards the edges of our solar system? ||

[languid shard]

1 yes, it seems like a lot if foundation for sci fi is in it! 2 no idea 3 classic (I love classical music

[hearty cloak]

And I have some pictures of the settings of this book! We have || the moon Iapetus, the moon crater Tycho and a picture of what I pictured after "my god, its full of stars". It seems to me so unbelievable and magic that all this is really out there.||

[queen cargo]

1. When I first got my copy of this, I assumed it was the book on which Kubrick’s film was based, so wanted to read it for that alone but then was sceptical when I found out it was written alongside the film, but after having read it, I think its classic status is warranted - there was so much actual, existing science knowledge alongside speculation of what a future time might look like when space travel is something our society might take part in, it felt really believable taking into consideration when it was written.
2. ||Maybe Bowman finds the people who originally flew/controlled the monument and ‘merges’ with them? It sounded like he ascended into a higher plane of being and becomes like them?||
3. A lot of different genres! But Gustav Holst’s ’The Planets’ suite would be up there - it’s very cinematic, probably the actual film’s soundtrack, and works like 'The War of the Worlds' musical, Pink Floyd, some David Bowie - 60s/70s-type theatrical. Also a lot of classical music, and minimal techno or glitch dub.

[cerulean thorn]

gonna start this soon! 🚀

[lofty rose]

Finished! I didn't have a whole lot of thoughts chapter to chapter. ||The book is a lot like the movie, which I expected. But the extra details added in the book are so good! I loved the descriptions about space and just how far everything is from each other. I loved the chapters describing Jupiter the most. Also, I love how this is a story about humanity and exploration. I definitely appreciate this story a lot more after experiencing it for the second time.|| 4-4.5 ⭐

Also regarding Hal (slight movie spoilers), ||he definitely felt more like a threat in the movie, and I missed that in the book. The book really made Hal feel more like a malfunctioning robot. And I don't hate it, but I miss supervillain Hal Also Hal's "death" is way more dramatic in the movie.||

[ivory sleet]

I will be starting this soon!

[deep ore]

Sorry I didn't mean to overlook these questions 😭 post-BR bad habit for me. spoilers for ending:

1. || Sci-fi classic? Yes I think it deserves this title. I don't have a good "why", but space exploration and sentient AI among other things is pretty standard for sci-fi ||
2. || Gonna have to jog my memory for this one. I think after the Starchild transformation, it's possible that benevolent Bowman goes on to teach the rest of humanity about what he discovered at Saturn and ushers Earth towards becoming a planet of Star-children. It's also possible that humanity is still unable to make sense of Bowman just like the man-apes were unable to three million years ago, and this whole thing becomes circular. ||
3. || For music, I'd start off with "Also Sprach Zarathustra", the theme from the movie, and then a bunch of classical hits, audiobooks, and k-pop lol. I'd make sure to have a spotify playlist ready before I launch off to space ||

[ivory sleet]

Part 1 ch 1-6 || I like how this is starting out with early homosapiens and how he is already named, and already watching the skies. The moon and stars have always called to us in their beauty and mystery.

LOL “Hey that’s something new… can I eat it?” I think this has been our approach for a long time. But oof, they’re being probed and it seems like not living up to expectations. Ok. so… this crystal is extra-terrestrial or has been sent from the future to teach our ancestors abstract emotions? Like jealousy, bragging and greed?

Hmmm. They’re getting braver and far more violent. I wonder how readers of the time accepted this approach to evolution. Always controversial, but instigated by an extra-terrestrial God-like force?||

[ivory sleet]

||I took a class at uni on the History of Medieval Europe, and one day the prof asked if anyone in the room was 5'2", and I raised my hand. He brought me to the front of the room and announced that "here we have our average medieval knight" at which point I ofc waved and took a bow. || giants

[ivory sleet]

||how are we sharing the same brain rn?||

[deep ore]

great minds think alike

[ivory sleet]

Part 2 ch 7-10|| Ok. this was published in 1968, so… 1 year before the US moon landing. Space travel was definitely the topic du jour. But are we saying that in 2001 the moon was colonized? Wishful thinking there Mr. Clarke. I do actually remember biology lectures in HS that talked about the concerns of population growth and food supply

Oof global nuclear warfare anyone?

Omg, I’d love to see dawn from space. Seriously. I’d go into orbit in a heartbeat

Ofc the Soviet Union still exists, but China seems to be the bigger adversary for the US atp. I am kinda enjoying this predictive nature and I’m wondering what he’ll get right

I think there’s symbolism in him traveling all alone in these transports that are intended for many. Well, Clarke was spot on about electronic newsfeeds on a pad right down to the kind of content, even if he was a few years ahead of himself

Love this whole description of space travel and arriving at the moon. Man, I wish this was a thing (maybe? Guess I’ll wait to see how it all plays out lol). I’m completely hooked on this story btw. I’m so curious about what is actually going on

Interesting ideas about the spaceborn. I wonder if gravity would have an effect on how quickly we would grow?||

[ivory sleet]

Oof. I missed these!

• I have not seen the movie, but I’m familiar with the famous opening sequence
• I remember my daughter made a special book at school for the “year all the numbers changed”. I wonder if she still has that. I was not freaked out about Y2K at all. I view time as a great big spiral, and New Year's Days don't mean very much to me in general, no matter what the year is
• I love it when sci-fi really examines humanity and brings up social issues in a pointed way. I also really enjoy when alien cultures interact
• Space travel and tech-focused stuff
• Absolutely I’d go to space! idk what I'd do. I don't want a job, I just want to experience it

[hearty cloak]

I love this view about time as a spiral! I think there is so much pressure on New Years to be this special day, when it is really just another day

[hearty cloak]

|| ahahaha :D
I was once in a museum about Ötzi (ice mummy found in the European alps, around 5000 years old). He was 160cm (5'3'') and "a really, really tall man for his time". I am 180 (5'11) and my ex with whom I visited is 2m (6'7''), I can only imagine what they would have thought about us :D ||

[ivory sleet]

I think it’s because I have always lived where there are 4 distinct seasons. So there’s a changing but consistent pattern. January 1 feels super arbitrary to be a random beginning too. I also have never been fussed about my age. Each birthday I’m just a day older than I was before

[ivory sleet]

Part 2 ch 11-14 || OH the big giant thing we can’t eat is on the moon! Has it been affecting humans this whole time? No wonder history is full of more conflict than cooperation. Get out of our heads, aliens!

Also, I’m just gonna say it. Where are the women scientists and leaders? Smh. And the male coding of humans is just … meh. Would have been “normal” for the writing of the time, but now it just jumps out more and is eye-rolling for me, which I guess is my biggest criticism so far

Aw, he thinks the monolith looks like carbon paper. How quaint lol

Oh, well, maybe the monolith’s energy was being damped by the surface of the moon, and now that they’ve uncovered it, things are going to get more complicated||

[lofty rose]

I meant to do these too and forgot about it

1. ||I agree! This book was truly ahead of its time in regards to space exploration. And it deals with a lot of common sci-fi themes like space exploration, technology, and the human condition.||
2. ||I think Bowman will try to lead humans into the next phase of evolution.||
3. ||I think audiobooks would be nice! Or I'd just listen to the music I normally listen to (mostly rock) until I get bored of it lol.||

[ivory sleet]

Part 3 ch 15-20 || Oh, we’re in another scenario again? I didn’t realize these would be different stories, but I hope that they connect somehow.

Wow, this is quite a leap in tech progress for the year 2001 too, Clarke clearly thought we would continue on the same trajectory of the 1960s into the rest of the decades of the 20th century. I like that he’s included actual science and a nod to Alan Turing about computers. I knew that HAL and AI was a component of this book somehow. Given the current state of AI, I think this is probably going to become pretty topical indeed

Clarke is definitely making it clear that the AI is more adept at learning than any organic brain would be, and he’s doing that in a few ways. I wonder how often irl computer games are programmed to lose against human players?

I wonder if we actually have tracked and labeled the objects in the asteroid belt? I feel like it was pretty risky to hit the asteroid with a probe. Wouldn’t that send it off its orbit and maybe crashing into other asteroids in a massive chain reaction of potential doom? Or do I have the physics wrong?

This hour of non-communication feels so much like when I lose the WiFi connection in my house. I feel suddenly so alone and isolated even when nothing in my house has actually changed. 21st century problems fr

Traveling to the outer planets still seems so completely impossible, and I feel like if we are ever able to travel that far, it wouldn’t be surprising that the ship would not be able to return. I’m not expecting this team to be recovered, tho I wouldn’t be surprised either if they had only given them false hopes by telling them that would be the plan, while never actually intending to fulfill it. Cuz I’m jaded like that sometimes||

[ivory sleet]

Part 4 ch 21-25 || Oh, well, I guess we’re staying with the same story now? Lol

I think all of the space tech and imagined space flight would have been really interesting to the readers of the time. Star Trek would have been on television and ofc the Space Race was in full gear between the US and USSR.

Poole is having a nice lil spacewalk adventure. But uh oh, seems HAL is maybe starting to adapt and evolve. It’s notable that the 2 humans are concerned about the AI’s feelings about the critique from Mission Control. They are anthropomorphizing it, which makes sense after 2 years of communication and partnership. So. Is the AI changing them? Or are they changing the AI?

Oh no. this is so not good. There is nothing trustworthy about this situation. Bye Frank||

[ivory sleet]

my only goal for today is to finish this book

[ivory sleet]

Part 4 ch 26-30 || Hal is not playing games anymore.

Ooh Hal’s POV. nice. Ok, so things are not what they seemed from the outset? Not surprised. But Hal feeling guilt is definitely a sign of something more

Well, Bowman was successful. I didn’t think Hal would let him do all that to his brain. Ok, Bowman is actually getting control back of the ship not that it’s going to do him very much good in the long run

Yay we’re connected up to the beginning sections again! I was hoping we’d come back to them. I know that much of classic sci-fi with aliens had them coming to Earth, but I’m wondering now if this book is one of the first where we’re venturing out to seek other life? It’s a distinct switch. I hope Bowman is able to fulfill his new mission ok without the rest of the team||

[deep ore]

This was pretty much my reaction the moment || Hal turned on Bowman and Poole It’s like a light switch turned on in my head and I just had to keep going ||

[ivory sleet]

Also, is anyone else hearing Bowie’s “Space Oddity” while they read? I can’t get it out of my head LOL

[ivory sleet]

Part 5 ch 31-35 || I like this pondering over extra-terrestrial life. I am one of the people who think it’s inevitable that there are other sentient beings out there somewhere. It’s ridiculous imo to think that in the vast reaches of space, our planet would be the only one to support life. I don’t think it will be anything like us at all. I wonder if this book will still be in publication when that first contact ever actually happens?

It’s also interesting to consider that this is largely an attitude that has developed over the last 100-125 years or so. Former earthlings were too self-centered to ever entertain the idea, and ofc religion plays a large role in that imo. So, Clarke occasionally tossing out God and God-like properties is muddying those waters

And wow the pressure on Bowman to represent the whole of humankind. Also, it’s really difficult to fathom just how large the outer planets really are. I was just looking at photos from the Hubble telescope, and it’s really astonishing that we even have these.

Huzzah! He did it! I wasn’t sure that he would and I’m still doubting that anyone will come out and get him||

[ivory sleet]

Part 5 ch 36-40 || Aah! There’s another monolith! Numbers seem to be a constant no matter what planet you’re from lol 3,000,000 years is such a long time to wait

Had to look up Japetus and see which mythological character he was. Apparently he was one of the Titans who battled Ouranos (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). Thought this was interesting too:

Japetos "the piercer" was probably also the Titan god symbolising mortality and the mortal life-span as his sons Prometheus and Epimetheus were the creators of mankind and all other mortal creatures.
So Bowman is descending towards mortality in more ways than one

WAH it’s a wormhole? So cool! ||

[ivory sleet]

Part 6 ch 41-47 || Omg, this is so wonderful but also exceedingly sad. I didn’t want him to find… abandoned ruins

I feel like this fiery landscape should be overwhelming for his human tech. I’m not sure I’m buying that he’s not dead yet

Ok, this is… odd. How crazy that he found exactly the right pathway in the waystation to ultimately lead him here to this television inspired surroundings? Makes sense that they’d be monitoring all of our airwaves tho with the magnetic fields and such. But sleeping for the last time? Ouch. Oh, it was only generated from his mind LOL that works much better. But he’s a baby again? Wild.

OMG what an ending! I was thinking he’d be reincarnated… but he turned into a god? And

history as men knew it would be drawing to a close
What? He’s going to change the world? Destroy us all or create something completely new? Who knows… but he’s going to “think of something” with that formerly human wonderfully adaptive brain. || Wow.

Finished. Will read others' thoughts later and try to formulate some ending thoughts too

[ivory sleet]

||I think so. I remember being taught about overpopulation concerns in the 80s||

[deep ore]

This is just a general question for people who have finished the book, but as a piece of speculative fiction, what do you think are some accurate predictions that the author made about the future ?

Or alternatively, what did he get wrong

[deep ore]

|| It's fascinating too that the conditions of Earth are just right to support the existence of life, a feat that no other planet in the solar system is able to achieve ||

|| Reading the book also brought me back to the time i watched Interstellar ||

[ivory sleet]

||I think having the AI go rogue was trying to emphasize how it was designed to be as human-like as possible. And since one of the things humans do is adapt as we learn, so did HAL. And because more ethical choices were being placed on him, HAL had to adapt in less than positive ways due to guilt and secrecy. maybe?||

[ivory sleet]

it's been a long time since I've seen that too

[ivory sleet]

I was intrigued ||by the political assumptions that he made. I was frustrated by the lack of strong female characters. (he even mentions "girl assistants" at one point, which was a major cringe moment ) I thought his assumptions of where the tech would be in 2001 were interesting and he was pretty close about communication technology, tho a few years ahead of irl. He definitely thought we'd continue to put energy into space travel, that faded out in many ways (especially after the Space Challenger tragedy in 1986 here in the US) and be far more outward-seeking than we actually are irl. However I'm not sure he would have predicted how mainstream science fiction would become in all entertainment mediums, or maybe he would. We are still star-gazing after all these millennia after all ||

[ivory sleet]

• ||Yes, at 57 years old, this book still has an awful lot to say about the nature of humanity and our choices. It makes us think about where we’ve been and where we might go. I think the prose was lovely in its descriptions of the beauty of space and its theme of loneliness (both as individuals and as a planet in space)||
• ||I loved the open-ended and ambiguous ending for this! I can’t think of a better way to have left it. Bowman has adapted and evolved as a single individual. He seems to have ultimate power over the fate of the planet. Will he decide to save us? Will he destroy us all? He spent much of his time as a human learning and following orders, and now he has ultimate independence. It’s both inspirational and terrifying||
• ||I currently have over 20GB of music stored on my phone. I would not leave the Earth without significantly more. Mostly I listen to 1980s-2010s (alternative rock, goth, grunge, pop-punk and indie). But I also have a large smattering of older music from the rest of the 20th century. I have quite a few musical soundtracks and select classical music too. Mostly tho, I’d want music to which I could dance. I lost access to a good radio station for new artists when I moved 10 years ago, and I’ve not done as great a job of seeking out new material as I could be doing online||

[queen cargo]

strictly speaking, it's not a prediction but ||the part where Bowman is in that area which is made to resemble an American hotel suite contemporaneous to him made me think of (my knowledge in this area is very basic) Baudrillard's Simulation and Simulacra, and general postmodern crap about pastiche. It was so chilling! Also reminded me of this: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/experience-the-art-of-emptiness-with-xuzhen-supermarket||

[hearty cloak]

|| yeah, the fact that he could imagine all this space travel, a moon colony, the newspads... but female scientists? Thats too far-fetched! ||

[hearty cloak]

|| he got newspads right - or at least that we will have faster news than paper newspapers or waiting for a radio show to begin. And that the population will grow, even though without the dire consequences he describes.
He got right that we gave more of our work to computers, and especially AI, with HAL. I still wonder if HAL was actually sentient or just coded badly and could not manage the instructions. I think he got right that humans will stay curious, and that despite of political conflicts, some scientists (and humans in general) will want to work together. Regardless of nationality. ||

[deep ore]

|| I think that HAL also was given two conflicting instructions: 1. be as truthful/accurate as possible in the information it gives to the discovery crew 2. Keep the true purpose of the mission a secret from bowman and poole. Trying to follow both of these commands creates a paradox. I think HAL's actions show that AI will pick one over the other; humans given the same dilemma might pursue other options before they go one way or the other (e.g. seek further clarification from mission control for example ) ||

[deep ore]

That's an interesting observation, I didn't know about simulacra and pastiche until now

[deep ore]

|| Yeah he was pretty on point with AI ngl ||

[queen cargo]

for those who've finished - a meme (and also maybe a prediction being fulfilled? ||https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNVipctNf9S/?igsh=MWc2bTFvMWM0NWozaQ%3D%3D||

nunnigram

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that

Likes

17255

Instagram

[indigo matrix]

Part 1 ||Ok so far. I watched like 10 minutes of the movie and then quit cause too many men, and the book is also promising to go the same route. Shocked to see that Man developed tools and he developed agriculture and technology all by himself /sarcasm. Would it have been so hard to say Human and They?||

[hearty cloak]

|| yeeeeep I think this book wont pass the Bechdel test ||

[indigo matrix]

Ch 10 ||Other than the Russian friend and the Bali stewardess, I wonder if we’re ever even going to get any diverse nationalities. I’m not holding my breath for racial or ethnic diversity ||

||Isn’t Diana a moon goddess? Roman I think?||

I just double-checked and my recollection was right

[indigo matrix]

Ch 16 ||They’re on earth; they’re not on earth. K that’s not confusing at all||

[indigo matrix]

Ch 19 ||Its funny what counts as purple prose for scifi, like: “perhaps a mist of ammonia droplets, borne on tenuous methane winds”. Like damn calm down there Art, don’t get all poetical on me||

[indigo matrix]

Ch 22 ||Enjoying part 3 and 4 a lot more than the first 2 parts. The space voyage and descriptions of their routine are more interesting to me and fits his writing style better imo||

[indigo matrix]

Ch 30 ||Ok this is definitely getting interesting! I’m assuming something about keeping the secret fried Hal’s circuits or something but I guess we’ll find out more about that later||

[indigo matrix]

Ch 40 ||Ok shits getting fully trippy now ||

[indigo matrix]

Finished ||So space baby blew up the planet? Or we were already nuking each other? I’m confused ||

[autumn escarp]

||We were already nuking each other||. It confused me too so I looked it up

[indigo matrix]

Ok fair

[indigo matrix]

Final thoughts ||In general I liked that. It was fine. It was kind of like a dozen other scifi books and movies I’ve consumed that are like 90% semi-hard science, 10% trippy weirdness, so it’s not like blowing my mind. This does pre-date most of those other works, so it gets a gold star for that, and it was a quick read so that recommends it. Other than that I don’t see a lot to recommend it. Idk what was in the water in the 60s that made people think we were going to be going to Jupiter in the late 90s and not driving gas-guzzlers and obsessing over a Presidential sex scandal, but like ok sure. Other than that I didn’t see anything impressive as far as futuristic society or technology. Old school scifi writers always imagined the exact same society with like cool rockets and moon colonies and that’s a big part of why they’re always so dated. Like you can’t even imagine a woman flying a plane, what truly innovative ideas are you actually going to bring to the table? We burned through all the resources on our planet and found a big tablet on the moon and then sent a dude to Jupiter and he became a giant space baby? It’s whatever to me. I could have been reading NK Jemison, you know ||

[hearty cloak]

|| I think it is very interesting to look at visions of the future, when that future has already come. And to see what people see as "this will change" and what is seen as "this will always stay this way". For example, women in (sometimes formerly) male dominated fields. Or capitalism, or the concept of nations and borders itself. Capitalism is so young, and it annoys me that a lot of sci-fi treats it as "this will stay, it is inevitable". Or, like you said, a feminist movement and women in space. ||

[sterile arrow]

@hearty cloak,@final fractal,@languid shard,@indigo matrix,@prime juniper,@autumn escarp,@lofty rose,@ivory sleet,@queen cargo,@somber pendant,@cerulean thorn,@abstract cape,@pine patrol,@olive panther,@steep root,@deep ore

Hey everyone! this br is coming to an end soon, only two days left.
For "read" I got the following people: pauliney_, ctrlaltmerdel, deinalbtraum. , mxpixieears, evet7070, vetrina, .lemon.drop , tinkinaround
Please tell me if you think your name should be on that list but isnt!
I really enjoyed this BR and all the discussions we had, thank you for your participation :)

[prime juniper]

Imma read this at work tomorrow

[hearty cloak]

yey! I always love reading your thoughts, Vaude, so I am looking forward to that :)

[prime juniper]

I admit that I had it queued on my phone and I just completely forgot because I've had a lot going on - I'm really looking forward to it actually.

[cerulean thorn]

sorry pauline i wasnt able to finish this been in a bit of a reading slump but this will definitely be on my tbr for another time!!

[prime juniper]

DONE

I promise to post my thoughts tomorrow, lowkey the book has got me emotional and I'm eepy

[prime juniper]

Finished thoughts:

||I'll preface this with that it's been absolutely years since I've seen the Kubrick movie so I was going into this very excited. Ofc as far as things that I could remember from the movie (HAL, the monolith) I was going in with comfortable expectations on what was coming up - what I didn't expect was the level of care and detail that it adds to the experience of watching the movie in the future. This is 100% one of those cases where the book is as good or slightly better than the movie. I was eager to get this off my ever growing 'Sci-Fi Classics That You Absolutely Must Read TBR' and I love it when books randomly make me emotional and wistful. The fact that this book was initially presented a year before we actually walked on the moon is making me feel a certain way too lol It really bids us to meditate on our own place in the universe and our relationship with other possible forms of intelligence.||

||It's all about science and the mysterious black monolith which engineered the dawn of humankind. We jump from prehistory to the year 2001 in a blink of an eye, and the true odyssey begins. The almost episodic nature that this book is presented in is just perfect for the vibe.||

||"Oh my God, it's full of stars!"||

||One of the best things about the story for me was the unceasing excitement the tale inspires, in spite of being rather slow at times. The story focuses on the ideas and the science rather than its characters, creating a story propelled solely by the sheer power of the journey to find answers. Another exciting aspect of the story was how easy it is to associate the elements of the novel with our own technological advancement. Even though we haven't achieved the level of sophisticated advancement in terms of space travel as mentioned in the novel, we have come a long way. ||

||In a random note what I particularly love about Clarke’s writing is the wonderful minutiae of his descriptions of various aspects of the space faring life. For example the practical design of the toilet on a spaceship for zero gravity conditions also things like the thick sticky sauce on pork chops and salad with adhesive dressing to keep food from floating off the plate during dinner. After dinner the Velcro slippers are great for walking around the ship without levitating. Things like this really scratch a certain part of my brain and I just LOVED IT. ||

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo

||Suffice to say I'd be lying if my favourite section wasn't Bowman's battle with HAL in the middle section of the book - I've always had a soft spot for errant AI and HAL is surely the King? (SHODAN is the queen I guess lol) There's a level of complexity in him that really makes the story interesting. I think I'm still fully digesting the ending with Bowman ascending to becoming a starchild? Though the book-ending nature of the Dawn of Man and Bowman's fate feels very satisfying even if I still feel the need to scratch my head a little bit.||

||“. . . Moon-Watcher felt the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion. It was a vague and diffuse sense of envy--of dissatisfaction with his life. He had no idea of its cause, still less of its cure; but discontent had come into his soul, and he had taken one small step toward humanity.”||

||“Then he [The Star Child] waited, marshaling his thoughts and brooding over his still untested powers. For though he was master of the world, he was not quite sure what to do next. But he would think of something.”||

It was a happy 4 experience for me, I'm currently rereading The Hunger Games for my event and You Like It Darker so this was a wonderful pallet cleanser. I'm actually tempted to look into some of the sequels in the future, it might take me some time to get to them but considering that I didn't know that they existed until like yesterday, they immediately got slammed into my TBR.

[hearty cloak]

Happy that you liked it!!!

[prime juniper]

[deep ore]

|| HAL definitely stole the spotlight for me. I'd love to see more examples of errant AI in literature as well! I'm not well-versed in the sci-fi genre ||

[prime juniper]

||Getting a look inside his brain briefly was AMAZING. I'd also love to read more errant AI. The only other thing I can think of is I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. ||

[deep ore]

ooh haven't read that one!

[ivory sleet]

Thanks for hosting this pauline!