Where is the new space odyssey epic?
Science fiction fans, writers, and filmmakers: we need a new Stanley Kubrick and a new Arthur Clarke.
Greetings to all readers and subscribers, and special greetings to the paid subscribers!
Please scroll down for the main topic of this newsletter. But first:
I’ll interview Bobby Azarian via Zoom on Friday, December 2, at noon ET (9am PT, 6pm CET). Bobby is the author of “The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity” (2022). See my review of Bobby’s book.
See also Bobby’s post “The Paradigm of Emergence: A Unifying Worldview for a Divided World and a Solution to the Meaning Crisis” in Bobby’s Substack newsletter “Road to Omega”
The interview will be open and you are welcome to listen in and participate in the discussion at the end (please allow me to ask my questions first). So this meeting will combine the Turing Church meeting format and the one-on-one interview format.
The interview will be recorded.
The second Terasem Colloquium of this year will be held on December 14, via Zoom, from 10am ET to 1pm ET. December 14 will mark the 50th anniversary of the last day astronauts have been on the Moon. Speakers: Michelle Hanlon, Giuseppe Reibaldi, Marlène Michèle Losier, Adriano Autino, Keith Henson, Frank White.
You are invited! I look forward to seeing you on December 14!
I watched “2001: A Space Odyssey” a few weeks before Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in December 1968 and a few months before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in July 1969.
Today can be compared to the mid 1960s. The Artemis program is the Apollo program of the 2020s. Artemis 2 will carry astronauts to lunar orbit like Apollo 8, and Artemis 3 will land astronauts on the lunar surface like Apollo 11. But this time we want to go to the moon and stay, sustainably and permanently. And then Mars. Apollo was a false start, but Artemis could be the real start.
Read “Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece” (2018), by Michael Benson, for a look behind the scenes of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Read also the interview with Stanley Kubrick from the September 1968 issue of Playboy. And of course, read Clarke’s novel.
Benson notes that there was tension between Clarke and Kubrick: Clarke wanted to explain at least something, but Kubrick wanted “to remove as much verbal explication as possible in favor of purely visual and sonic cues.” The film is Kubrick’s, and the novel is Clarke’s.
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke inspired my generation with the cosmic sense of wonder of the best science fiction and a burning enthusiasm for spaceflight. Today, we need a new Stanley Kubrick and a new Arthur Clarke to produce the new space odyssey epic that will inspire the young in the next crucial decades.
Why did “2001: A Space Odyssey” work?
First (1), it followed the narrative pattern of the hero's journey, or the monomyth. Joseph Campbell summarized the pattern as:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
Second (2), the Moon played an important role at the beginning. In 1968, the idea that people would soon live and work on the Moon was in the air. Therefore, the early scenes with Heywood Floyd’s journey to the Moon, Clavius Base, and the discovery of the monolith on the Moon, provided the much needed connection from the here-and-now (the world of common day) to the fabulous wonders to come.
Now, the idea that people will soon live and work on the Moon is in the air again. Therefore, I think a new space odyssey epic should also start on the Moon.
Third (3), the story had a really momentous end on a par with religious stories. In Campbell’s words, supernatural wonder and fabulous forces. After seeing the film with my mother I asked her what the monolith was. She said that perhaps (as I was beginning to suspect) it was God.
So where is the new space odyssey epic? Who is working on it? Where are the new Kubrick and Clarke?
One suggestion I received is “The Medusa Chronicles” by Stephen Baxter and Alastair Reynolds, inspired by Arthur Clarke’s classic “A Meeting with Medusa,” of which it can be seen as a sequel. I love both the original and the sequel, but I think a film adaptation would be challenging. Also, the story is too far in space and time to create a connection to the here-and-now.
Another candidate is the classic “Rogue Moon” (1960), by Algis Budrys. The story is really good, a breathtaking page turner, but perhaps it is too dark to become the new space odyssey epic. However, I would really like a film based on “Rogue Moon” if it is well done.
Another candidate is “Heads” (1990), by the late lamented Greg Bear. The book is very short and suitable for adaptation to film. It is entirely set on the Moon.
Another candidate is “Déjà Doomed” (2021), by Edward Lerner. See this review published by the National Space Society. Here is an expanded version of my review titled “Hard science fiction with realistic pictures of near-future lunar operations” (Amazon):
I chose this novel as a science fiction companion to read in the week of the launch and lunar flyby of Artemis 1, and it was a good choice.
Like other novels by Lerner, “Déjà Doomed” is a masterpiece of hard science fiction with realistic sci/tech and painstaking attention to detail. The novel is inspired by today’s sci/tech but stays true to the spirit of classic science fiction.
Lerner doesn’t give a date, but the story seems set in the mid 2030s. Lunar activities by the U.S., Russia, and China are in full swing. The Americans are building a farside observatory. The Russians are mining Helium-3 for future fusion reactors - we don’t have operational nuclear fusion yet, and generally speaking technology is today’s technology with incremental improvements. Of course, the secret services watch everything.
An age-old alien base is found. An American team is sent to study it, soon followed by a Russian team. Both teams want to keep it secret from China. The aliens had superior technology, and their nuclear fusion technology is coveted by both Americans and Russians.
Astronauts are murdered. By whom? Everyone suspects everyone… and no one is right.
Lerner’s characters are realistic and well developed. They have a normal emotional range, but they are not over-emotional like many characters in contemporary fiction. They are normal people living through epic experiences.
This is a great hard science fiction novel that will give readers hours of solid entertainment with realistic pictures of near-future lunar operations. I would really like to see a film adaptation.
I told Lerner that I found the story a bit too optimistic in terms of lunar development - I guess by the mid 2030s we'll only (and hopefully) have a couple of tiny lunar outposts for preliminary research - and a bit too pessimistic in terms of fusion energy. He replied:
“If NASA has a person on the Moon (again) in 2025, maybe not. I guess we’ll see. But fusion has been 20 years off for at least 50 years. I'll be happy if/when it arrives… but I won't be surprised if it's still a while.”
I guess we’ll see.
None of these stories has point 3): a really momentous end with supernatural wonder and fabulous forces.
I guess Lerner, or Baxter, or Reynolds, could write the new space odyssey epic.
But a younger writer would be more attuned to the current zeitgeist. One of my favorites is Lindsay Ellis. See my short review of her novels “Axiom’s End” and “Truth of the Divine.” Ellis, a social media superstar in her thirties, revisits classic science fiction themes with contemporary sensibilities and a fresh, richly textured style. I guess Ellis could write the new space odyssey epic.
It is interesting that, of the works listed above, it is the oldest (“Rogue Moon”) that comes closest to contemporary sensibilities. I think a remake (like “The Medusa Chronicles”) would be a great novel to read and a good starting point for a film.
Very often filmmakers ruin good novels for film adaptations. This is not surprising, because a novel and a film are two very different things. I guess the new space odyssey epic should be written as a script for film first.
Here I’m mainly concerned with revitalizing my own Western culture, so I have ignored non-Western science fiction. I’ll correct this omission in a future newsletter.