nemesis wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Phil Cook wrote:
>>> Yeah see Andrew, duh it's obviously an allegory for the life cycle. :-P
>> In seriousness for a moment...
> 
> it is:  unknown intelligent race devises a device (monolith) to spread
> intelligent life in the galaxy.  One of them ends up on Earth where it
> instigates apes to become the dominant life form on the planet.  They
> eventually get to a level of sophistication that allows them to travel through
> space and reach the moon where the beacon monolith warns the creators that the
> new intelligent species are now able to contact.  One of the species come in
> contact with the portal monolith and trips over to unknown place where it lives
> for the rest of his life.  When of old, at death bed he figures out the purpose
> of the monolith, represented as a baby in gestation.

Close, but not quite.  According to the book (which was written at the 
same time as the movie, but the movie got released first due to 
Kubrick's paranoia), Dave goes through the Stargate (long before 
MacGuyver got to it), sees various cosmic scenery, ends up in a holding 
cell whereby he spends the rest of his life.  The Monolith, programmed 
aeons ago by the aliens to do just this sort of thing, records his 
memories and, as his physical body dies, stores his essence in a lattice 
of light, hence the Star Child, newborn ambassador for Earth and toady 
for the aliens' designs.  Close the novel with him looking at shiny 
Earth and having the same thought of what to do with his abilities as 
Moon Watcher, the man-ape whose brains got stir-fried by the paleolithic 
monolith.

If you want incomprehensible-for-the-sake-of-being-artsy, check out the 
anime Ergo Proxy.  It's all deep and cerebral, right up to the very end, 
where...something anticlimactic happens.  And you, the viewer, goes "ho 
hum, that was lame compared to the buildup".

-- 
Tim Cook
http://empyrean.digitalartsuk.com

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