Who loves this movie? I do! Seriously wicked good movie.
Who loves the novel? Who has ever taken the time to read the novel? Well, I have and I loved it... so much more than I loved the movie which is hard to top.
Arthur C. Clarke has topped the screenplay he wrote together with Kubrick with a bright red cherry because when you read the novel and then watch the movie again, you experience it at such a new level of understanding it almost becomes tangible.
The science written about in 2001 is so nearly true, much of it is already a fact rather than fiction. He describes how we can get the news from everywhere in the world wherever we want it in a matter of seconds, which I believe we call the internet which we use on so many devices. I was mindstunned ( a lovely new word from Nathalie's dictionary) when I read a decription of what I would call a tablet or smartphone, in a book written in the 60's when we had computers the size of school buildings.
A brief description of 2001 is almost abundant since its adaptation is such a cult icon, but for those too young or maybe too ignorant to have seen this, I'll give a short summary.
2001 is about aliens trying to connect with the humans on earth. They do this in different stages of our evolution, beginning with ape men and ending with humans as we know them but with severely advanced science as we set on a journey to understand the meaning of the symbols left to us by the aliens.
As we travel across the universe we get to know the most famous villain of the sixties, HAL (which is derived from IBM). HAL is a computer who runs the ship and is equipped with a artificial intelligence that in the end leads him to corruption.
As the novel runs to its end, you'll get a psychedelic view of how interstellar travel could be possible if you have enough imagination to imagine the impossible.
I have a great fondness for novels that can stun me. 2001 delivered. I've never read a science fiction novel full of facts already true today and I felt like I had an insight view behind the movie's actions. It never bored and I would've finished it earlier if my e-reader didn't die on me. Luckily the library I attend had a copy and I was able to finish it. 2001 is the perfect recipe for a science fiction novel and I'm very curious of how the sequel is going to be.
