
To understand 2001 a Space Odyssey, you HAVE to interpret it through the Odyssey - tosh
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/2n466v/to_understand_2001_a_space_odyssey_you_have_to/
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staunch
> _I don 't think anybody's said this before..._

Except the movie is literally named after The Odyssey and Kubrick himself
explained why. These invented analogies are just as likely to be right as
wrong.

 _Kubrick and Clarke privately referred to the project as How the Solar System
Was Won, a reference to MGM 's 1962 Cinerama epic How the West Was Won. On
February 23, 1965, Kubrick issued a press release announcing the title as
Journey Beyond The Stars.[26] Other titles considered include Universe, Tunnel
to the Stars, and Planetfall. In April 1965, eleven months after they began
working on the project, Kubrick selected 2001: A Space Odyssey; Clarke said
the title was "entirely" Kubrick's idea. Intending to set the film apart from
the "monsters-and-sex" type of science-fiction films of the time, Kubrick used
Homer's The Odyssey as inspiration for the title. Kubrick said, "It occurred
to us that for the Greeks the vast stretches of the sea must have had the same
sort of mystery and remoteness that space has for our generation."_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_\(film\))

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thatcherc
To understand the movie, one only needs to read the book on which it is based.
Clarke's book makes a lot of the movie (like the meaning of the apes and the
ending) unambiguously clear.

I think the similarities brought up in the post are interesting but over-
interpreted here. Plus, there are many other parts of the Odyssey that don't
show up in 2001. The only compelling connection here is the cyclops, but
without that the film can still be perfectly adequately understood.

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soneil
The book was actually written concurrently - one isn't based on the other.
They are both vaguely based on an earlier short story of his, Sentinel, but it
doesn't really help much.

Agreed that the book clears a lot up though. I mean, I totally didn't get the
monkey thing without it. For me, the book is a great story, and the film is
pure eye candy. And if they could mate the two, it'd be 8 days long.

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simulate
O' Brother Where Art Thou? is also loosely based on The Odyssey:
[https://www.menofthewest.net/odyssey-o-brother-art-
thou/](https://www.menofthewest.net/odyssey-o-brother-art-thou/)

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singularity2001
To fully appreciate the movie one needs to read Ray Kurzweil's "The
singularity is near".

