Classic of the Day: 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

With the recent passing of Steve Jobs, there has been much about what he helped do to create the modern world.  Much of the focus is on his more recent achievements, such as helping conceive the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, but his influence starts much farther back, in the early days of microcomputing with the Apple I.  His influence reminded me of previous visionaries.  To whit, Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick and  2001: A Space Odyssey.

Published in 1968 as a companion work to the film of the same name, it was ahead of its time in many of the predictions it made.  While not particularly accurate on a large scale (no bases on the moon, no tourist travel to space stations, etc.), computers were represented relatively accurately in their abilities.  Sure, there are no superintelligent computers out to kill us, but they do play a mean game of chess.

The story itself is about the evolution of man from its apelike origins to space exploration, all due to a big black monolith that just sort of sits there, in Africa, then the moon, and finally orbiting Jupiter (or Saturn, depending on which version you are reading).  And then some weird stuff that no one understands.

Why should teen boys like it?  Well, there isn't anything in particular that is exciting about it; there is no high-paced action.  But it is a bit of a local story, so to speak, even if set in space.  It's our space, in our solar system.  And most of it is perfectly plausible.  Space travel is slow and boring and lonely, so even if it is science fiction, it is still realistic.  It's sort of the best of both worlds, fulfilling the fantastic heroic adventure wish of being an astronaut that a lot of boys have while still being something they could realistically hope to achieve (until the end, anyway).

The book is slow, though it does make more sense than the movie.  The sequels (2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey) are more conventional narratives with less philosophical musings, and 2010 was also made into a movie.

It is recommended to the nerdier kids for sure.  It's not a long read, but it is heavy, so 16 and up is best.

Incidentally, Arthur C. Clarke is credited with coming up with the geostationary communications satellite (one of the reasons TV, GPS, cellphones, and other stuff like that work).  He is also responsible for one of my favorite quotes, Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."  Like the iPhone.
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