2001: A Space Odyssey Themes

Some books want you to laugh, some books want you to cry. 2001 wants you to gasp. To that end, it gives you bigness—big, vast sweeps of time, big vast sweeps of space, big vast fiery suns coming...

2001 doesn't do much in the way of characterization, so it doesn't provide its characters with much in the way of dreams, hopes, or plans. What does David Bowman want out of life? Who knows. But wh...

David Bowman ends up all by himself on a spaceship out by Saturn—which is kind of lonely. But his isolation is also a metaphor for the general bigness of space and humanity's lonely place inside...

Any book that's about evolution is also going to be about death. Evolution works through death; some individuals die, but those that live get to pass on their genes. So, over millennia, evolution m...

2001 loves strength and skill. Moon-Watcher is awesome because he is smart, and being smart lets him figure out better ways to kill things. Then humans move on up with their gadgets and space ships...

For the most part, 2001 is really into technology, whether it's bone-saws, spaceships, or alien lattice brains. Technology is cool, technology is hip, technology helps you on up the evolutionary la...

Science-fiction has two big themes. The first is space—and 2001 gives you lots and lots of space stuff. The second is time—and 2001 has a bunch of that as well. In fact, space and time are basi...

You wouldn't think there'd be much to say about women in 2001, because there are almost no women in the entire story. The future is populated just about entirely by men, and the occasional male rob...