boyajian@akov68.DEC (03/07/84)
Well, I saw 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY twice before I laid eyes on the book,
and I figured out the ending without the book's help. It's possible that 2010:
ODYSSEY II (I haven't read it yet) says something else entirely, but here's my
impression:
As Bowman reaches Jupiter orbit, he finds another monolith, this one be-
ing the entrance to a Star Gate (a space warp/hyperspace tunnel/whathaveyou).
The whole light show was the journey through the Gate, ending up at what is
possibly the home planet of the Patrons (the aliens behind the monoliths, to
borrow a term from David Brin's novels). I hadn't known what Kubrick was getting
at with the hotel room business, but reading the book cleared that up. Bowman's
seeing older versions of himself symbolized his evolution into another life
form ("Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny" and all that). Finally, he appears as
the Star Child, the fetal form of the higher life form that the Patrons have
uplifted him to (againing borrowing terms from Brin). Just as the aliens up-
lifted the ape-men into humans at the beginning of the film, at the end, they
are uplifting humans, beginning with Bowman, into something higher. At the very
end, Bowman, as the Star Child, returns to Earth to help uplift the rest of
humanity.
--- jayembee
(Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard)
UUCP: (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian)
ARPA: (decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian@Shasta)