is, of a choice between a subordinate (“Down, Fido”) or a superior or at least
equal (“Take me to your leader”) status for the alien being—becomes quite
superfluous on a cosmic scale. In the context of Earth, “heterogeneity” is
understood in a naively parochial way, as a mere difference in degree of
homogeneous development. In this understanding, the possible essential and
unbridgeable difference between truly heterogeneous (alien) beings are
overlooked.
On the other hand, this very realization of the impossibility of establishing
any kind of contact, even when the fear of attack is removed, finally tips the
scales in the transformation of Falcon. The last phase of his withdrawal from
the medusa, even though it started somewhat earlier and under different
circumstances, has lost the underlying fear of the creature that was always
present. Now there is an awareness of the impossibility of establishing contact
while any anthropomorphizing ingredients remain in him.
Only in that light can one understand the real meaning of the sentence
which Falcon murmurs at the very end of the chapter “Prime Directive,” when
the atmosphere of the largest planet of the Solar System, with all its threats and
promises, is already far below him: “Some other time.”
This “some other time” presupposes another, new, Howard Falcon, no
longer burdened by anthropomorphic contradictions, who has at last attained
his new, cyborg identity and has been liberated from the deficiency which
stands in the way of the human race making contact with truly alien beings.
Clarke does not in fact give much data about the advantages a cyborg has over
a man in making contact with alien cosmic creatures, except that the cyborg
would not be burdened by anthropomorphic contradictions. After all, any-
thing like that would have gone beyond the scope offered by the framework of
the story, since embarking on a closer analysis of Falcon’s new identity would
be as dangerous for the coherence of the work as an attempt at the noumenal
conception and presentation of the Jovian medusa.
From the point of view of human participants in the work and the
omniscient storyteller, the cyborg is as alien as the medusa, which means
that Clarke had to be very careful as to what extent he could approach its
noumenon. In the case of the cyborg, Clarke indeed did not need “external
interventions” as with the medusa, because the basic story line could be
developed right to the end without getting any closer to the noumenon of
Falcon’s new identity. The central meaning of the work was finally formed
when it at last became clear to Falcon at the very end of the mission that any
34
Z. Živkovic
attempt at making contact with the medusa was destined to fail in advance,
and would do so until he has transformed completely and thus freed himself
from anthropomorphic restraints.
1.4
Conclusion
Consideration of “A Meeting with Medusa” has enabled us to arrive at the final
conclusions of our investigation. This has primarily been centered on the
problems linked with the possibilities of conceiving and presenting nonhuman
characters from the point of view of the omniscient story-teller, in those
science fiction works with the first contact theme that not parables.
We have seen that, in the novella we have been examining, contact between
the earthly astronaut and the Jovian medusa could not have been made for two
reasons.
On the one hand, such an event could not have taken place on Falcon’s
initiative, since anything like that would seriously impair the coherence of the
psychological portrait of the pilot and of the work as a whole. On the other
hand, the coherence of the work would have been seriously brought into
question if contact had been achieved by the eventual initiative of the medusa,
bearing in mind that, in this case, Clarke, in the role of omniscient storyteller,
would have inevitably had to step onto the plane of motive, that is, of the
noumenon of the heterogeneous entity, and would have thus violated a basic
rule of the narrative.
But, although there has been no contact, Clarke, as omniscient storyteller,
has nevertheless succeeded in getting closer to what we have designated as the
level of noumenon in conceiving and presenting a nonhuman character. This
was possible in the first place because Clarke resorted to what we have termed
“external interventions” during the narrative procedure. These “interventions”
represent special kinds of adjustments at the edge of plausibility, and they are
used in the story in five particular places.
In the first two cases, Clarke from the very start stifles in Falcon a short-lived
and hazily positive emotional attitude towards the “monstrous bag of gas”—an
attitude which would in the long run have inevitably led to contact—in the
way he abruptly introduces changes of situations. The first time involves the
unexpectedly aggressive response by the medusa to the attack by the mantas,
which strongly activates a mechanism of fear in Falcon. The second time
Falcon’s emotional wavering towards the medusa is replaced by an attitude
which is fundamentally against making any contact is the sudden appearance
of one of the gigantic creatures immediately above the Kon-Tiki.
The Theme of First Contact in the SF Works of Arthur C. Clarke
35
The way in which the medusa and Falcon come closer to each other
represents the third place at which an “external intervention” by Clarke saves
the coherence of the novella. As we have seen, for this purpose, the author
introduces a deficiency in the design of the space capsule with the obvious
intent of showing that the above-mentioned convergence takes place acciden-
tally—the only possible way, in the logic of things.
The fourth intervention is to leave to the medusa the special “initiative” in the
four phases of the “attempt to make contact.” Although the creature’s actions are
conceived in such a way that they do not at all suggest any possible reaching out
by the omniscient storyteller to the plane of noumenon of the “monstrous bag of
gas,” they nevertheless display certain characteristics which dictate Falcon’s
irrevocable decision to withdraw, in the grip of a strong tide of fear.
It was just the necessity of such a response by Falcon that was for Clarke a
reliable warranty that leaving the “initiative” to the medusa would not result in
a contact that would seriously bring the coherence of the work into question.
From the very beginning, in fact, Clarke created the psychological portrait of
his hero in such a way as accord with this role.
In the process of examining to what extent it is possible, from the point of
view of the “omniscient story-teller,” to come closer to the noumenon of a
nonhuman character, Clarke establishes that it does not suit him to have a
character who is indubitably a man (that is, an anthropomorph) as the second
participant in a “first contact” situation. For, as is convincingly demonstrated
by the example of Dr. Bren
ner, who has no plan of action at the crucial
moment, the necessity of withdrawal in the face of the medusa’s “initiative”
would not then have been warranted, an act which is the only thing that can
save the coherence of the work. Only a special kind of transitional form suited
this purpose, a form possessing exaggerated anthropomorphic characteristics,
but also suggestions of a new, nonanthropomorphic status.
The particular half-cyborg nature of Howard Falcon thus represents a
necessity that dictates the development of the central Jupiter episode in “A
Meeting with Medusa.” In addition to the considerably greater narrative space
devoted to it, another factor that increases its importance is that some partic-
ular points from the episodes which take place on Earth can only be under-
stood in the light of the events that unfold on Jupiter.
In this sense, the best example is the central symbol itself—that of the
medusa—which only becomes functional at the very edge of plausibility, that
is, when it is established that Clarke needed not only a cyborg but that kind of
cyborg in whose consciousness a negative symbolic bridge could be established
between the complex moment of transition from human to cyborg identity
and some of the phenomenal, explicit features of the heterogeneous entity
(form).
36
Z. Živkovic
The psychological makeup of the main character is especially expressed in
the fifth and last “external intervention” by the author, when the closest
approach to the level of the noumenon of the heterogeneous protagonist is
achieved from the point of view of the “omniscient story-teller.” To make sure
of an opportunity for realizing the “most intimate” degree of encounter
between the earthly astronaut and the medusa, in circumstances where there
is no longer any “danger” of actual contact, because the decision to withdraw
has already been made, Clarke again manipulates the design of the Kon-Tiki.
This time, the “external intervention” involves the particular way the
capsule engines work—they need a whole five minutes to reach full power.
It is the very shortness of this interval, as well as Howard Falcon’s perception
that he is still not mature enough for contact, that each of his interpretations of
the medusa’s initiative will be based on anthropomorphization, until he has
been taken over by his new, cyborg identity, which allows the author to ascribe
one action to his nonhuman here—the “gentle rocking” and “patting” of the
balloon—that in any other case would represent unwarranted reaching out for
the plane of noumenon of the alien entity on the part of the omniscient
storyteller.
Further than that—at least so it seems to us—one cannot go. The number
of “external interventions” is even here on the very edge of what is permissible:
their repeated introduction, with the aim of possible continuation of investi-
gation of the possibilities of getting closer to the noumenon of the alien entity,
would only have made an unconvincing construction out of a coherent and
stable story. There is no doubt that Clarke was honestly sensitive to that
intervention and did not allow himself further stretching of the bounds of
probability.
But even in the framework within which he stopped, he succeeded in
writing a work which, with regard to the noumenal conception and presenta-
tion of a nonhuman character, has almost no match in science fiction stories of
“first contact.”
Translated from the Serbian by John and Ružica White
2
Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End
No Utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time. As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights and become discontented with power and possessions that once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And even when the external world has granted all it can, there still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of the heart.
Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End
The novel Childhood’s End resulted from a voluminous expansion of the
novella “Guardian Angel” which originally appeared in two versions: a some-
what shorter, American one which appeared in the April 1950 issue of
“Famous Fantastic Mysteries” and was edited by James Blish who condensed
it and made minor alternations, and Clarke’s original version—which was
published in the Winter 1950 issue of the British journal “New Worlds”. This
latter one was subsequently used as the basis for the first of three parts of the
future book.
The book being discussed here takes a special place in Clarke’s SF writings,
among other things because it presents the most complete axiology of the
author’s view of the world through a highly indicative sample of scientific
Utopia. One of the advantages of treating this theme in Childhood’s End is
witnessed in the fact that it does not hold a key position in the structure of the
plot but rather it occurs in a broader reference where conditions are amenable
for studying it from external and internal perspectives.
“Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End.” Written in 1975. Originally published in Serbian in 1975
in the monthly magazine “Delo”, 11–12 / 1975, 1617–1625, Belgrade, Serbia First published in English in “Foundation” #124, Science Fiction Foundation, Harold Wood, Essex, UK, August 2016, 85–91.
© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
37
Z. Živković, First Contact and Time Travel, Science and Fiction,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90551-8_2
38
Z. Živkovic
In placing the scientific Utopia in the coordinate of a cosmic history of the
human race and not in an earthly one, Clarke found himself obliged to
re-examine the plausibility of the function on which it is founded as well as
the worthiness of the goals which it supports. Indeed, this re-examination did
not essentially belittle science as a key factor on a specific level of the
development of civilization, but it did point to certain general inadequacies
in the Utopia which is founded on it—with regard to a much more relevant
and general system of values than the ephemeral ideals of “the childhood” of
mankind.
The scientific Utopia depicted in this work of the British author has a
significant feature. It does not represent the fruits of human zeal, but rather
comes as the result of external intervention by non-Earthly beings, whose
degree of scientific advancement is incomparably higher than Man’s. The
motives of these “altruistic” deeds of the Overlords are not directly pertinent
to our deliberation; furthermore, the human actors in the novel Childhood’s
End did not manage to grasp everything by the end of the novel, when it
became clear that in the plans of the newcomers from cosmos Utopia was only
a temporary and secondary phase whose background was devoid of only
altruistic motives in the stricter sense of the word.
Clarke cites three conditions which enabled the Overlords to fundamentally
change Man’s world in a mere fifty years: “a clearly-determined goal”, “a
&nbs
p; knowledge of social engineering” and “power”. From the description of a
subsequent realization of “the new world”, however, it becomes clear that
the first two conditions actually represent only prerequisites for the creation of
a Utopia, while the focal point is exclusively found in “power”. Clarke
understands this term to mean the appropriate volume of scientific knowledge
required to set up a positive form of control over the planet on which Man
resides.
Just as in all Utopias, this control of Man’s world is aimed at creating
conditions under which every individual would be free of the obligations
which hinder his creative activity. In Childhood’s End, these conditions are
treated in somewhat greater detail on two occasions, in chapters six and ten.
The emancipation of the individual-creator takes place on several levels,
beginning with direct labour production all the way to professions in the world
of entertainment, such as certain fields of sport. The Overlords first of all
enabled the complete automatic production of basic consumption commod-
ities, which completely eradicated the struggle for bare subsistence character-
istic for all earlier periods. “The average working week was now twenty
hours—but those twenty hours were no sinecure. There was little work left
of a routine, mechanical nature. Men’s minds were too valuable to waste on
Utopia in Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End
39
tasks that a few thousand transistors, some photoelectric cells, and a cubic
metre of printed circuits could perform.”
Idleness, which resulted from having a great deal of leisure at one’s disposal,
permitted everyone to devote themselves to more thorough and long-term
education. Parallelly with increasing the general level of education, there was a
final break-off with certain traditional mistaken notions of a spiritual nature
which had burdened mankind, even when there was no real basis for this.
Thanks to a device obtained from the Overlords, humans gained a direct
insight into their own history, and into the period of the founding of all the
more important world religions, which was sufficient to have them finally
disappear. “Humanity had lost its ancient gods: now it was old enough to have
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