Well 2001: A Space Odyssey has been completed. I was up all night reading (5AM), and skipped breakfast to read the rest. That was a hard sleep. Why oh why, did I stop at the line “My god it’s full of stars.” Symbolic my ass! What was I thinking?!? Well who cares now? I finished the book, and that might just be one of the greatest books I’ve ever read, if not one the greatest. Not since “Order of the Pheonix” has there been such a passion for words. If there was anything to surpass my love of the movie, I’m glad it was the book. I’ve seen many a movie, and have been disappointed by the week novelizations. On the other hand, I’ve read novels that were so far from the plot I forgot what I was reading, containing characters who seem antagonists to their film counterparts. 2001, however, was an absolute dream to read. While the plot did sway from the film, I was not only overjoyed to see more of the Odyssey universe, but actually found the novel better. The only complaint, that I repeated to myself like a broken record, was “Why didn’t they have computer graphics in the 60's?” Although Kubrick’s star travel is one of my favourite pieces of film, I wish it included the double star from Clarke’s version. A White Dwarf coating an amber-like sun with a blue, milky field like a crop duster as it orbits, only to have a tidal wave of flames scorch out it’s work in seconds. Hmm. Maybe I should write a book......... no. Not only are the characters true to the movie, in spirit and attitude, but the reader is also given the omnipotent view, including thoughts and ideas that can’t be expressed in film, unless mindless narration is used.

After seeing the film numerous times, the slightest difference in plot was easily detected. Let’s take Frank Poole’s unfortunate demise at the hands of the all-powerful HAL, which I found out was a complete coincidence with the IBM thing and not intended. For those of you who might not have noticed, each letter before I, B and M are H, A, and L. Clarke says it’s a coincidence, unlike how the ONE just happened to be NEO. (Let’s not start on the meaning of Neo’s name and whether it’s an anagram, or philosophical. Right now, Clarke is da man!) Anyways, in the movie, HAL uses the space pod to kill Poole, sending him streaking out into the unknown. Then Bowman goes EVA to get him, and as we all know..... “I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” In the novel, however, HAL simply lets the space pod, named Betty, drag Poole away. Bowman never goes after him, realizing that he can’t catch up with the accelerating pod. HAL then opens the pod bay doors draining the atmosphere out of Discovery, forcing Bowman to find an emergency shelter.

It’s only after reading the novel that I realize that Kubrick made reference to so many parts of Clarke’s novel. Not only do I fully understand what the hell happens, as opposed to my theory (which I might add was spot on, except that I couldn’t settle on who left the monoliths, thinking that “aliens” were too hokey of a solution), but I have also discovered a few ironic jokes, whether they were intended or not I do not know. My favourite that I have realized thus far, would relate to the plot difference explained earlier, with “Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”

Not only is 2001 written with such beautiful imagery (uh oh startin’ to sound like an English essay) but it is just so goddamn believable. After taking Senior Physics( I passed by the way.), it seems evident that Clarke knows of the power of plausibility, unlike those money-grubbing whores who wrote “The Core”, well “crapped out”, in my opinion anyway. The Laws of Astrophysics, the characters of Earth and the motivation behind the monoliths all contribute to a believable, therefore disturbing, view of a future that seems all to imminent.