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skylar2 's review for:
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
When I read this the first time, I found the story captivating and inspiring. Clarke connects our fascination with the uniqueness of human intelligence with the question of whether we are truly alone.
Re-reading it many years later, I still found the story compelling, but I can no longer ignore the fact that the same mind that could grasp millions of years of human evolution, moon bases and space travel, artificial and alien intelligence, simply could not accept that women and men are equals. In 2001, it isn't the subtle choice of character gender; all his characters (aside from the ship's computer) are flat enough that their gender doesn't really matter, though of course the space plane stewards are women, and even dance for their passengers. Clarke makes his feelings clear in an off-hand remark on the ship's space pods:
Re-reading it many years later, I still found the story compelling, but I can no longer ignore the fact that the same mind that could grasp millions of years of human evolution, moon bases and space travel, artificial and alien intelligence, simply could not accept that women and men are equals. In 2001, it isn't the subtle choice of character gender; all his characters (aside from the ship's computer) are flat enough that their gender doesn't really matter, though of course the space plane stewards are women, and even dance for their passengers. Clarke makes his feelings clear in an off-hand remark on the ship's space pods:
They were usually christened with feminine names, perhaps in recognition of the fact that their personalities were sometimes slightly unpredictable.I still consider Clarke to be one of the greats, but I'm also glad that we have other sci-fi authors that can embrace all of humanity.