User:DoctorWho42/Apeman, Spaceman—or, 2001's Answer to the World's Riddle

"Apeman, Spaceman—or, 2001s Answer to the World's Riddle"' is an essay on the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by American author Leon Stover. It was published in the 1969 short story anthology Best SF: 1968 edited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison.

Content
The music's opening and closing bars hint at the meaning. The sun mounts the barren hills and the perspective shifts. It focuses on man's progress. The World Riddle theme from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Richard Strauss plays. Strauss composed it as an homage to Nietzsche. It charts man's progress from its origins to Superman. Humanity begins with apemen. They are peaceful and vegetarian. A black monolith appears where they feed. Its perfection and improbability confound them. An apeman touches it and inspires him. He discovers the lever from a tapir bone from bashing and swinging it in the air. He leads them to hunting and meat eating. Meat eating takes less time than plant eating hence the leisure of tool making which leads to science and technology. The World Riddle theme underscores the scene. The bone thrown becomes a spaceship in three million years. A space station turns majestically to Blue Danube, a waltz for man's easy technologic virtuosity. There is a long appreciation of a docking manoeuver. There are Hilton, Pan Am, and Bell Telephone services. The audience ohs and ahs at them. The scientist rides the moon bus to Clavius. Its occupants eat ham and cheese sandwiches. Banality reinforces confidence. There is a wipe to Jupiter a decade later. A crew of five with three hibernating talks with Hal the computer. Hal is more spirited than them. Technology artificially extends humanity. Electronic extensions of speech functions dehumanise the organisation man. Hal reports a malfunction. Frank Poole investigates and finds none. When Poole tries fixing it, Hal cuts his oxygen. David Bowman goes to retrieve Poole. Hal won't open the port. The way back is the airlock but Bowman forgot his helmet. Hal turns off life support. The three hibernating die. Bowman succeeds with daring and bravery. The sound returns when the airlock closes. Bowman shuts off Hal. A monolith appears and Bowman follows. He receives a galactic vision. In C. S. Lewis's Perelandra (1944), man is evil. In 2001, man would be lifted from technology's captivity into supermen. Bowman reaches for the monolith at the foot of the bed. A star child looks down on Earth. 2001 ends with the World Riddle theme. It is the journey of apeman to superman but still one step from God. The universe is cyclical. God must return to the hills. If God is dead, the burden rests with SF.

Reception
In 1969, Cosmos: A Science-Fantasy Reviews Geoffrey Giles decided "Vying with them for your attention are a selection of reviews of 2001: A Space Odyssey', by magazine critics Lester del Rey, Samuel Delany, Ed Emshwiller and Leon Stover." Analog Science Fiction / Science Fact's P. Schuyler Miller critiqued "perhaps four reviews of the Kubrick-Clarke "2001" tend to water down the total effect." In 1970, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's Joanna Russ said Best SF: 1968 "does a great service to readers by reprinting four reviews of 2001: Lester del Rey's, Samuel Delany's, Ed Emshwiller's, and Leon Stover's."