context on Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

1. 2001 , 2010, and the Golden Age of SF

2. Arthur C.
Clarke
(1917-2008)
 Like H. G. Wells, wrote
scientific speculation
AND science fiction
 (Brit RAF) radar instructor (WW II): article in 1945
proposing idea of communication satellites
 Ability to explain scientific ideas to lay audience (fiction +
nonfiction)—over 100 books!
 Snows of Olympus: A Garden on Mars (1995): nonfiction—
predicts/explains we’re ready to explore/colonize Mars in
new millenium

3. Space Odysseys: Fiction and
History Clarke’s Space Odyssey series: published from late 1960s to
1990s
 2001 (1968)
 2010 (1982)
 2061 (1987)
 3001 (1997)
 Space Age Milestones: (mobilized by the Cold War):
 Oct 1957: Sputnik 1 (launches space race btw US and Soviet Union)
 Dec 1968: circling moon (Apollo 8 mission)
 July 1969: landing on moon (Apollo 11 mission—Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin)
 1974: Skylab (first space station)
 Joint US-Soviet space mission:
 Apollo-Soyuz--earth orbit connection of 2 spacecraft (1975)
 1981: 1st
space shuttle launch
 1994: Mir (US-Russian Space Station)
 1998: International Space Station (designed, built, and launched
European Space Agency, NASA, and Russian Space Agency)
 No Moon missions (orbitals or landings) since Dec 1972 (Apollo 17
mission)

4. ’60s SF: SF’s “Golden Age” + “New
Wave” “Golden Age” SF (coined by fans)
 1930s-1950s: LOTS of SF published, SF
magazines and comic books founded
 Heroic Plots: “hard SF,” “space operas,”
technological adventures
 Anthropocentric! (what we can DO with
technology)
 Male appeal—guys who solve problems out on
the space frontier
 Interest in military/industrial complex
 Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, Isaac Asimov’s
robots, Heinlein’s Starship Troopers
 “New Wave” SF: 1960s-1970s Space Age
 Writers react against simple heroism
 uncertainties / human limits

5. Utopias and Dystopias in SF
 SF: utopic and dystopic tendencies
 Utopia: vision of an ideal form of human
society (in fiction or philosophy)
 Envisions people working together efficiently and
peacefully for maximum benefit of society
 Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) –His title was a pun
on 2 Greek words:
 eutopos: good place
 outopos: no place
 Much “Golden Age SF” tended to envision utopic
technological possibilities—unite and advance humanity

6. Dystopias in SF
 Dystopia: disturbing vision of human society
 related to utopia: as vision of human social
organization—efficient but totalitarian, degrading
 Usually futuristic: speculation, warning
 Develops in 1890s, early 20th
c SF (more modern than
utopia)
 Some (especially British writers) wrote high-tech dystopias:
 H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895)
 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)
 George Orwell 1984 (1948)
 Arthur Clarke, Childhood’s End (1953)

7. SF: Technology and Myth
 Myth: narrative (or set of narratives) that help to explain
 a culture’s worldview, sense of identity
 understanding of nature, earth, cosmos, humanity
 Via story plot, archetypes (representative characters)
 Mythic aspects of Utopias + Dystopias:
 PLOT oriented: Progress and Decline for Humanity
 Fate / Destiny / Mysticism: “higher” powers
 Mythic “Grand Narratives” of humanity
 Reinforced, tested and/or creatively adapted in SF
 Conversions of religion and myth into SF narratives…

8.  Is this evolution?
 …or a popular teleology of evolution?
 Teleology: explanation using the end result as the
cause. applies a goal / purpose and a direction as an
explanation of change
 Evolution plotted in teleological terms—implies a
mythical progress or decline, purposeful direction
Image Source: http://www.kheper.net/evolution/ascentofman.html

9. Clarke’s Context
for the “man-
apes”
 Raymond Dart: discovers Taung Child, first
Australopithecine ,in South Africa in 1924
 Dart formulates “Killer Ape” hypothesis:
 Idea that hominids evolved to use WEAPONS
 Bipedalism: to allow us to hold weapons! And
CONQUER nature
 Telos of Weaponry—idea of weapons as goal and
prime mover of evolution—widely accepted in
1960s
Image: Taung child (actual size of skull case =
about a fist)

10. Arthur Clarke’s Three Laws:
 1. “If an elderly but distinguished scientist
says that something is possible, he is almost
certainly right, but if he says it is impossible,
he is very probably wrong.”
 2. “The only way to find out the limits of the
possible is to go beyond them into the
impossible.”
 3. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.”
Source: Clarke’s collection of essays, Profiles of the Future (1973)