shakeybrainsurgeon
Contributor
Green_Manelishi:
If I recall, 2001 was never a book, at least not before the movie, in that the film was based on a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, The Sentinel (a rather standard sci fi story about an alarm clock planted on the moon by superior beings as a means to detect when humans were smart enough for space travel).
Kubrick expanded this story into an evolutionary tale a la Nietszche, divided into three parts (ape/man/superman). We never know who or what drives the transition between the ape and man, man and superman, that is symbolized by a black monolith. Kubrick's use of Also Spoke Zarathustra is also illuminating, as Strauss's theme was overtly designed to represent ape/man/superman. Strauss phrased the "world question" (why are we here and what does it all mean?) as a rising G-C-G and puts it first to ape (clueless) with tympanic drum beats signifying time passage, then to man (a glimmer of undertstanding), drums again, then to superman (who so clearly knows the answer than he laughs at how simple it all is ---hear the French horns laughing at the end).
Thus, the choice of music was no accident, but reflects the transition from ape to superman...
One hitch in whoever was driving this process in the movie, God or Aliens, occurred when the Discovery II was voyaging to Jupiter. Two intelligences were on board...which to chose for the final elevation to ultimate being? Simple, do what evolution always does: make them fight it out. HAL's failure was deliberate and meant to pit machine versus man in the final survival of the fittest.
These subtleties were Kubrick's. Clarke's story, by comparison, was lame. (As was the sequel 2010).
A 2001 book may have appeared, but it postdated the movie...
