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2010 Although Arthur C. Clarke had initially said that there would be no sequel to 2001, in December 1982 he published a novel entitled 2010: Odyssey Two. Written more as a sequel to the film than to the novel, it tells the story of a Soviet space flight to Jupiter nine years after the original voyage of the Discovery. Three Americans accompany the Russians; Heywood Floyd, the disgraced former head of the National Council of Aeronautics, Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, the programmer of the HAL 9000, and Walter Curnow, a space engineer. Arriving shortly before the Russian-American mission, a Chinese spacecraft sets down on Jupiter’s moon Europa, where they discover a life form that destroys their vessel. At the Discovery, the Americans reactivate the HAL 9000, and learn that it malfunctioned due to human error. Forced to decide between its instructions to keep secret the discovery of the original lunar monolith and its instructions to provide the crew with accurate information, the computer became paranoid and tried to eliminate the human element from the equation. Meanwhile, the ghostly specter of Dave Bowman appears to Floyd, warning him that he must leave Jupiter space within fifteen days. Using the remaining fuel in the Discovery and piggy-backing it onto the Russian craft, they return home as Jupiter is miraculously turned into a small star by the monolith, presumably to allow life to evolve on Europa. The book was an instant best seller, scaling to the top of the New York Times bestseller list, and selling over 2 million copies over the next 15 years. Nominated by the World Science Fiction Convention for a Hugo award, the novel received moderately favorable reviews, although some complained about its amount of exposition. The New York Times reviewer wrote, “the sequel violates the mystery at every turn. We learn what the slabs are up to - and although the answer involves some splendid science-fiction conceits, it is hardly awe-inspiring.”[77] 2010 was made into a movie entitled 2010: The Year We Make Contact, co-written by Clarke and directed by Peter Hyams. It starred Roy Schieder as Heywood Floyd, with Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain reprising their roles from the first film as Dave Bowman and the voice of the HAL 9000. Although the film opened with stills and music from 2001, it was a very different film than its predecessor. A straightforward narrative, with a typical Hollywood structure, 2010 left almost nothing open to interpretation. As one reviewer said when comparing the two films,
For the most part, the plot of the film remained true to Clarke’s novel, although Hyams added a much stronger Cold War subplot, bringing the U.S. and Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war. When the monolith turns Jupiter into a star, it has the added effect of bringing peace to the troubled Earth. 2010 ends on a very unambiguously optimistic note. 2010 was moderately successful, but it was not a hit film. Where it did achieve landmark status is in its early use of paid corporate product placements. Mark Crispin Miller quotes Advertising Age magazine’s exultation that “2010 is a case of how product placements in the movie are becoming a springboard for joint promotions used to market films.” About twenty different companies, including Adidas, Panasonic, Apple Computer, and Sheraton Hotels, are acknowledged in the closing credits, and one scene taken directly from 2001 is even featured in the film as a TV commercial for Pan Am airlines. Contrasting these with the sardonic usage of corporate logos in 2001, Miller decries the “insane revisionism” of 2010 as a film that turned the cynical outlook of 2001’s dehumanized future into a glorification of technology and corporate domination.[79] While the use of product placements in the earlier film were seen as something that was supposed to be threatening, in the later film they were seen as an indication of its realism. 2061 and 3001 Having “decided not to wait” after the Challenger disaster for additional scientific information about Jupiter from the grounded Galileo spacecraft, Clarke published a new sequel, 2061: Odyssey Three, in December 1987.[80] Heywood Floyd, now 103, takes a luxury space cruise to Halley’s Comet, which has once again entered the inner solar system. Meanwhile, another spaceship is stranded on the surface of Europa, where a gigantic diamond mountain ejected from the core of Jupiter has disturbed the native life. The Europan monolith, which has now incorporated the essence of astronaut Dave Bowman and HAL 9000, is trying to deal with the question of whether or not life on the Jovian moon was worth sacrificing the possibility of life on the gas giant. The novel is structured mainly as an adventure story, and the spiritual and religious elements of the narrative are almost non-existent. Although it achieved bestseller status, 2061 was not as successful as its predecessors were. The New York Times called it “a pallid sequel to 2010: Odyssey Two, which was a pallid sequel to Mr. Clarke's splendid 2001. The new novel has no characters of interest, generates virtually no narrative tension and barely touches on the enigmatic monoliths that figured so prominently in the previous books; rather than resolving anything, the ending is a shameless come-on for Odyssey Four.”[81] In March 1997, Arthur C. Clarke published 3001: The Final Odyssey. A national bestseller, the book was his most successful since 2010. It resurrects Frank Poole, one of the astronauts killed by HAL in 2001. He is discovered floating beyond the orbit of Neptune and taken to a tower reaching 20,000 miles up from the Earth’s surface where he is revived and gradually introduced to life in the 31st century, which is full of fantastical technological wonders. Eventually, he makes his way to the surface of Europa, and makes contact with the combined entity of Dave and HAL (the novel refers to them as “Halman”). He learns that the monolith is not sentient, but that its function is to report on the development of life in the solar system to the nearest “relay station” 450 light-years away. Concerned that the monolith’s superiors might destroy Earth after learning of the barbarism of the 20th century, Poole and his compatriots develop a “Trojan Horse” out of computer viruses that had been locked up on the far side of the Moon. Unleashing these upon the monolith with the help of Halman, they make all of the monoliths in the solar system disappear. The essence of HAL and Dave is preserved on a super-high memory computer chip. Much like Clarke’s 1975 novel, Imperial Earth, 3001 is filled with detailed descriptions of a future society where nearly all of mankind’s problems have been solved by technology. At one point, the “barbarian” Poole makes a comment that the human race has deteriorated since his time, to which one of his caretakers replies, “That may be true – in some respects. Perhaps we’re physically weaker, but we’re healthier and better adjusted than most humans who have ever lived. The Noble Savage was always a myth.”[82] The last 20 pages list the numerous sources that Clarke drew upon for the scientific ideas in the book. Most critical reviews of 3001 were mixed. A New York Times review by mathematician John Paulos, said, “The plot…hangs together reasonably well, although in this third and - the subtitle would suggest - final sequel to 2001, Mr. Clarke has to struggle to weave all the threads into a coherent narrative.”[83] Most reviewers complained about the book’s literalness and lack of spirituality. The Economist’s review compared 3001 with 2001, saying “In "2001", the monoliths were doors of transcendent perception; in "3001" they become banal and easily dealt with alien threats. Poole's avenger, David Bowman, is the Odysseus transformed at the end of 2001 into a "star child" of seemingly unlimited potential; in 3001 he is just one more sentient computer program.”[84] Another New York Times review by Richard Bernstein read, “Mr. Clarke's new book…is full of whimsy about the world of the future. But it is so languid and unmysterious, so lacking in the elaboration of plot, character or concept, that it reads more like a proposal for itself than like a fully realized work.”[85] Clearly, financial interests played a role in the writing of 3001. Clarke was given a $2 million advance from was the advance of Ballantine Books, a previously unheard of sum for a science fiction writer. Clarke is said to have commented, “They waved a lot of greenbacks at me until my eyes glazed over”.[86] The investment paid off, however, as the 3001 spent ten weeks at the top of the New York Times best-seller list, peaking at number two in the spring of 1997.[87] Next: Internet Revolution, HAL's "Birthday", and Commercial Co-Option |
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