2001: A Space Odyssey: A Transcendental Trans-Locution (Critical Essay‪)‬

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) has invited an army of commentators and probably encouraged the publication of Arthur C. Clarke's more discursive novel of the same name shortly after the movie release in April 1968. However, the existing critical discourse on 2001 rarely foregrounds the importance of Clarke's novel as an independent work with inherent differences from the movie. In fact major science fiction film scholars such as Vivian Sobchak (in Screening Space), Scott Bukatman (in Terminal Identity), and J. P Telotte (in Replications) do not even mention Clarke's novel in their discussions about the film. Both the movie and the novel originated in Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" (1948), but "The Sentinel" merely foreshadows the complex conceptual scopes of the works that developed from it. The general critical stance regarding 2001 is a somewhat linear one--from "The Sentinel" to Kubrick's film and then to the novelization of the film by Clarke. Early commentators such as Jeremy Bernstein, Stanley Kauffmann, and Jerome Agel even regarded Clarke's novel as an explanation of the film, a view which is echoed to some extent by critics like Robert Kolker even in 2006. (1) Again, commentators like David Patterson and Zoe Sofia seem to acknowledge the difference between the novel and the film and yet end up appropriating the novel to explain the film. (2) However, a close comparative examination of the novel and the film clearly shows that Clarke's novel is neither an explanation nor a novelization of the film but a work existing independently. While Clarke's novel is rooted directly in the tradition of hardcore science fiction, Kubrick's film subverts all the norms of traditional films to create something unique. On the one hand, Clarke exploits the conventional device of science fictional discourse to contemplate the theme of the existence of higher forms of intelligence in the universe. On the other hand, Kubrick employs a method similar to the "transcendental style" to bring about an ineffable quality that gives the film a quasi-religious air of mystery. This article contends that though they deal with the same theme, the film and the novel are the products of two completely different media and should be seen as such. Unlike the common screen adaptations or novelizations, the film and the novel were created simultaneously; they both function independently of one another, each with its own unique structures, themes, and significance.