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waitwhatno posted:- The overmind is not god. It's an alien intelligence that sees a lot if danger in humanity and preemptively wants to pacify us, before we can spread in the universe and pollute it with our aggression and cruelty. We are being conquered and destroyed against our will. That's entirely not true, having just re-read the book. The Overlords have this task because bad poo poo was going to go down if we went interstellar and then developed psychic abilities. If humanity didn't contaminate other alien races just by loving around with their physical reality, humanity would've seriously hosed over other races on a psychic level. In keeping with the theme of childhood, the Overmind wants us to pee in a toilet, and the Overlords are the diaper that keeps us from peeing on the table where other people are eating. MisterBibs fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Dec 19, 2015 |
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Dec 19, 2015 01:52
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I found this link, it presents a very good discussion of the book. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/childhoodsend/
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Dec 19, 2015 06:23
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This was absolutely loving terrible. I am kind of astonished at the positive reaction on here, I thought it would mainly be people hatewatching it. I've not read the books, but I did once have a look at the Childhood's End wiki page, so I knew about the devil twist (it looked as goofy on the screen as it sounded in the description) and that the end involved children being taken away or something. So maybe affection for the book is making people way more generous towards this? Because it was terrible. The first episode was basically like an awful Christian movie, though in reverse. Venal skeptical billionaire gets his comeuppance from an aw-shucks US-rural humble believer. Much of the second episode seemed to be based around the ludicrous premise that after super-powerful aliens who look like devils reveal themselves, there would be only one person on the whole planet who would be curious enough about them to inquire as to who they were or what they wanted. The third episode descended into space magic. There's just a laundry lists of moments that make no sense or are totally incongruous. Why did world peace happen? It says that Israelis and Palestinians were hugging each other. Why? What was it about aliens existing that made all of their underlying problems disappear? Why did the Overlords use their magic beam to cure the wheelchair kid and kill his attacker and then never do that again, ever? Why is the "one free city" exactly the same as anywhere else, except they play jazz, watch old films and don't wear muted earth tones? Seriously, a loving ouija board? I'm a fan of scifi, but had never got around to reading any of Clarke's books. Let's just say that having watched this has not sped up my motivation to rectify that.
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Dec 21, 2015 08:33
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Comrade Fakename posted:Much of the second episode seemed to be based around the ludicrous premise that after super-powerful aliens who look like devils reveal themselves, there would be only one person on the whole planet who would be curious enough about them to inquire as to who they were or what they wanted. Inquire with whom? Nobody on the planet knows anything about the overlords till the very end. quote:Why did world peace happen? The overlords stopped all ongoing conflicts on earth, which is the definition of world peace. How? The same way they stopped every plane on the planet: incoherent technobabble about magnets quote:It says that Israelis and Palestinians were hugging each other. Why? What was it about aliens existing that made all of their underlying problems disappear? The wall was removed by the overlords. Hugging people could be a family reunited by that or liberal Israelis and Palestinians hugging each other. It doesn't say that every single person was hugging someone. There are a lot of people bitter about the overlords, hence the freedom league. quote:Why did the Overlords use their magic beam to cure the wheelchair kid and kill his attacker and then never do that again, ever? They cure everyone on the planet and they always intervene in cases of violence. That was their first "gift". I dunno why they took that long with curing that kid. Could be a plothole, maybe? quote:Why is the "one free city" exactly the same as anywhere else, except they play jazz, watch old films and don't wear muted earth tones? Seriously, a loving ouija board? New Athens uses medicine, it has jobs, money, cars, high population density, an economy and many other poo poo. It's not the star trek utopia like the outside world. Kids die from diseases there. I mean, I don't necessarily disagree with you on the show quality, but all you potholes are explained in the show itself, without having to read the book(which explains a lot of the actual plot holes).
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Dec 21, 2015 12:45
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Comrade Fakename posted:This was absolutely loving terrible. I am kind of astonished at the positive reaction on here, I thought it would mainly be people hatewatching it. I've not read the books, but I did once have a look at the Childhood's End wiki page, so I knew about the devil twist (it looked as goofy on the screen as it sounded in the description) and that the end involved children being taken away or something. So maybe affection for the book is making people way more generous towards this? Because it was terrible. Rendezvous With Rama
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Dec 21, 2015 15:09
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Rendezvous with Rama is probably the best sci-fi story ever written in my opinion, with the possible exception of The Stars My Destination. I've heard the sequel books are poo poo, but never bothered reading them. Rendezvous itself is amazing though, and my main fear if it was ever adapted is that it'd do what Childhood's End did and add a load of unnecessary melodrama that distracts and detracts from the established story because one of my favorite things about Rendezvous is that there is no real villain or even an antagonist of any kind - just the mysteries of Rama providing tension the whole time as the crew explore it since it's such an alien and unknown that literally anything could happen or be lying in wait. The fact that the crew are all competent professionals and just want to explore Rama itself and don't drag any massive lingering personal issues in is great too. You do get a sense of them as people and there's some implied drama between all the scientists on Earth trying to organize things, but the actual crew the book focuses on are just people doing a job and that'd almost certainly be the first thing to change in any adaptation sadly. Edit: The Stars My Destination is almost the direct opposite now that I think of it, since it's all about Gully Foyle's personal goals and the melodrama surrounding it, with the sci-fi almost a secondary concern that is like Childhood's End in that it's all rather fantastical and not at all sciency-stuff about teleportation. Still an amazing read though. tsob fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Dec 21, 2015 |
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Dec 21, 2015 16:45
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waitwhatno posted:Inquire with whom? Nobody on the planet knows anything about the overlords till the very end. Dunno, how do we inquire about stuff we don't know about now? If only there was some sort of method for doing that... quote:The overlords stopped all ongoing conflicts on earth, which is the definition of world peace. How? The same way they stopped every plane on the planet: incoherent technobabble about magnets They never say the mechanics of how they're stopping war. Are they making all guns stop working, or what? They never say. Charles Dance just says there's no more war and then the world leaders say "welp, I guess there's no more war then." quote:The wall was removed by the overlords. Hugging people could be a family reunited by that or liberal Israelis and Palestinians hugging each other. It doesn't say that every single person was hugging someone. There are a lot of people bitter about the overlords, hence the freedom league. I'm no fan of the wall, but I think if you suddenly disappeared it without warning the immediate outcome would not be hugs. There's no suggestion that the Overlords are using mind control, and just stopping violence (somehow) doesn't alleviate underlying problems, certainly not in the short term, at least. quote:They cure everyone on the planet and they always intervene in cases of violence. That was their first "gift". I dunno why they took that long with curing that kid. Could be a plothole, maybe? They only cured 60% of people, and they never did it through magical sky rays. And that was the only instance of them intervening in violence shown (and they guy's gun worked, so, how were they making world peace again?). Also, curing grievous injury was a new one, they only cured diseases before. quote:New Athens uses medicine, it has jobs, money, cars, high population density, an economy and many other poo poo. It's not the star trek utopia like the outside world. Kids die from diseases there. Literally nothing you mention there appears in the show (except cars - which they also have outside the city), beyond a brief mention that they have crime there. When the boring family arrives the mayor just gives them a house, and there is no mention of the parents getting jobs. Seems pretty utopian to me. gohmak posted:Rendezvous With Rama Yeah, as soon as you posted that I remembered that I did actually read Rama and I thought it was OK.
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Dec 21, 2015 18:44
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Comrade Fakename posted:I'm no fan of the wall, but I think if you suddenly disappeared it without warning the immediate outcome would not be hugs. There's no suggestion that the Overlords are using mind control, and just stopping violence (somehow) doesn't alleviate underlying problems, certainly not in the short term, at least. They suppress uppity populations with localized eclipses. Do you hate your neighbour more than you like the sun? You're right about the underlying problems, it's mostly just a spit shine. Also no suggestion Overlords are using mind control? When the overlords arrived tons of people were possessed somehow and began telling everyone else to remain calm. They are certainly capable of using humans as puppets. Maybe the ones who were used as messengers have a predisposition to the psychic gene? Is that explained in the book?
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Dec 21, 2015 19:20
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32MB OF ESRAM posted:Also no suggestion Overlords are using mind control? When the overlords arrived tons of people were possessed somehow and began telling everyone else to remain calm. They are certainly capable of using humans as puppets. Maybe the ones who were used as messengers have a predisposition to the psychic gene? Is that explained in the book? Those were actually projections of dead people. In a couple scenes you can see the photo or whatever they're 'taken' from (don't ask me why the process erases the photo, I didn't get that).
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Dec 21, 2015 21:21
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32MB OF ESRAM posted:Also no suggestion Overlords are using mind control? When the overlords arrived tons of people were possessed somehow and began telling everyone else to remain calm. They are certainly capable of using humans as puppets. Maybe the ones who were used as messengers have a predisposition to the psychic gene? Is that explained in the book? They didn't use people as puppets at the beginning. They projected dead loved ones out of people's minds to tell them about the Overlords. Milo's person was his dead dad and Ricky's was his dead fiancée. That still heavily suggests the ability to muck about with people's minds, though.
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Dec 21, 2015 21:33
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WarLocke posted:Those were actually projections of dead people. In a couple scenes you can see the photo or whatever they're 'taken' from (don't ask me why the process erases the photo, I didn't get that). violetdragon posted:They didn't use people as puppets at the beginning. They projected dead loved ones out of people's minds to tell them about the Overlords. Milo's person was his dead dad and Ricky's was his dead fiancée. That still heavily suggests the ability to muck about with people's minds, though. There is probably a great debate to be had with regard to using legit mind control versus reanimating dead loved ones that parrot your message. Both are so shamelessly manipulative, dead loved ones is juuuust a step beyond though.
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Dec 21, 2015 23:33
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I think the book is all right, I think this miniseries was made with good intentions but does not reflect the good qualities the book does possess.
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Dec 22, 2015 00:29
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Comrade Fakename posted:Dunno, how do we inquire about stuff we don't know about now? If only there was some sort of method for doing that... I have no idea what that means. Who are you going to ask about the overlords? Or do you mean something like running scientific experiments on ... their ships up in the skies? Or trying to peeking through the windows with a telescope while they are taking demonic shits on the demon crapper? quote:They never say the mechanics of how they're stopping war. Are they making all guns stop working, or what? They never say. Charles Dance just says there's no more war and then the world leaders say "welp, I guess there's no more war then." Yeah, that part was stupid, I give you that. Also extremely stupid: Using an aircraft carrier/navy ships to distribute food. Wtf? There are like a billions empty container ships chilling of the coast of China. Well, at least they didn't use disarmed ICBMs for it ... quote:I'm no fan of the wall, but I think if you suddenly disappeared it without warning the immediate outcome would not be hugs. There's no suggestion that the Overlords are using mind control, and just stopping violence (somehow) doesn't alleviate underlying problems, certainly not in the short term, at least. I can personally guarantee you that if the wall was to vanish today, all of a sudden, there would be at least two people hugging somewhere along the border for cameras to film it.
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Dec 22, 2015 00:32
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waitwhatno posted:I have no idea what that means. Who are you going to ask about the overlords? Or do you mean something like running scientific experiments on ... their ships up in the skies? Or trying to peeking through the windows with a telescope while they are taking demonic shits on the demon crapper? The method he could use would be the scientific method. Or, as you suggest, just asking the Overlords. Or, yeah, getting a better look at their spaceships. These are examples of things you could do to find out more about the mysterious all-powerful aliens, but apparently only one person on the whole planet cares enough to bother.
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Dec 22, 2015 01:50
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Catching up on this now, this second episode is like 80% filler. I was kinda hoping for the Overlords-hanging-out-in-society buts, but maybe the effects budget didn't warrant having more than one actor? They are using the hell out of that alien-pod-flying-off-the-horizon shot.
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Dec 22, 2015 22:02
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I was not at all thrown by the whole stopping war thing that a few people seem to be hung up on. One of his quotes, which also doubles up as a major theme in many of his works, isArthur C Clarke, may he rest in peace, posted:Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic Now whether you view this as a deft exploration of that concept, or a lame way of handwaving stuff away with "a wizard did it" is down to your personal taste (for the record I'm of the first school of thought), but throughout the show it was demonstrated that the overlords had the tech to be able to observe and react to everything, to slow time in localised areas, to travel interstellar distances, to create projections based on the neural patterns of living beings, to disassemble and re-assemble complex (to us) structures like houses, and to cure previously thought to be uncurable diseases, amongst other things. And on top of that, they were in cahoots with an even further advanced being that they didn't fully understand and were doing it's bidding, a situation about which we can presume the overmind would lend them a hand now and then whenever they requested it, using tech they probably couldn't distinguish from whatever their concept of "magic" had evolved to be. So yeah, stopping all war on a planet of primitive mammals doesn't seem any more implausible from that perspective than when a pale man was able to instantly kill tribesmembers from a distance by pointing a cylindrical object at them and tensing his finger muscle. And then there's that other quote they put at the start of the Xcom remake a few years back, which was also a major theme. The one about being alone in the universe, or not, and both being equally terrifying. Liked this show a lot, looking forward to seeing more decent sci-fi as it seems to be becoming the vogue, at loving last.
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Dec 23, 2015 03:43
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First episode was interesting and not SyFy-embarrassing. 2nd and 3rd eps were godawful turds. Geez, that was a serious waste of time to watch. Nice make-up/prosthetics on Charles Dance, though.
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Dec 23, 2015 06:52
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WarLocke posted:Those were actually projections of dead people. In a couple scenes you can see the photo or whatever they're 'taken' from (don't ask me why the process erases the photo, I didn't get that). I think it was supposed to be visual shorthand to let you know that the people showing up in the next scenes weren't "real." About the only thing I really didn't like about the miniseries as a whole was the child acting for the end, especially Jennifer. I know it's difficult to have good actors for kids that little but she was still just completely wooden.
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Dec 23, 2015 17:23
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muscles like this? posted:I think it was supposed to be visual shorthand to let you know that the people showing up in the next scenes weren't "real." I'm inclined to blame direction rather than the kid. I suspect they didn't have a super-clear or interesting notion of how "otherworldly" children act and directed her accordingly.
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Dec 23, 2015 19:16
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JazzFlight posted:First episode was interesting and not SyFy-embarrassing. Yeah the whole story lost any sort tension after the first episode.
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Dec 23, 2015 21:04
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etalian posted:Yeah the whole story lost any sort tension after the first episode. That must be why they kept focusing on Rick. The tension kinda/sorta worked with him in the first two hours, let's stretch that for another four! WAIT A MINUTE. This is the guy who wrote "Fear Her," which had one of the most cringe-inducing sequences in Doctor Who history. No wonder it included such stellar visuals as bored-looking children ascending into the sky and bored-looking children staring into a backyard.
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Dec 24, 2015 06:16
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I read this book this past summer and was surprised to see that this was a miniseries as I was browsing TVIV so thanks OP for getting my attention in that regard. I thought, aside from some wooden acting, that this was a pretty faithful adaption of the book. The ending sort of blew my mind when I read the book so I'm not sure if the show would have had that same effect if I didn't know it was coming, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was and look forward to the day when SyFy is actually dedicated towards adapting/launching series that actually have to do with science fiction.
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Dec 24, 2015 08:04
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speshl guy posted:I read this book this past summer and was surprised to see that this was a miniseries as I was browsing TVIV so thanks OP for getting my attention in that regard. I thought, aside from some wooden acting, that this was a pretty faithful adaption of the book. The ending sort of blew my mind when I read the book so I'm not sure if the show would have had that same effect if I didn't know it was coming, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was and look forward to the day when SyFy is actually dedicated towards adapting/launching series that actually have to do with science fiction. This. As flawed as this was I would hope that it gets enough attention for them to keep trying.
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Dec 24, 2015 16:02
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From what I read in the books it seemed as though the Overlord's planet was perceived as only existing in shades of red because of their sun being a red dwarf, and I feel that they really missed out on some cool, surreal visuals by not taking that route, and, you know, by spending all of 2 1/2 minutes on the planet to begin with. Another missed opportunity was Milo's encounter with the Overmind. First of all why would it bother acknowledging someone as simple and insignificant as Milo, and second of all once it did, for all of its vast knowledge and awareness all it could muster was basically "We are a collective consciousness" in response? Really? Nothing else? I know it's bad to spell things out for the audience but we sat through 6 hours of buildup, we deserve maybe something like "We also represent the utter annihilation of the human ego, individuality and self expression. One could say our intentions are in fact sinister and antagonistic to those of humanity." It also seemed as though the showrunners didn't make it clear enough that humanity wasn't exactly destroyed with the earth but that it joined the Overmind. Otherwise, I enjoyed that the showrunners took the liberty to portray the Overmind actually "unlocking" human consciousness. In the book Clarke just kind of made humanity's transition the inevitable conclusion of a couple decades of existing as a peaceful utopia. I'm not sure whether I liked that interpretation. It was horrifically satisfying to me (and to a certain extent, true to life) that the show portrayed humanity's rapid evolution as something that wasn't entirely natural and something that humanity didn't exactly consent to. The Lark Ascending to cap the show off was also a very nice touch, and the religious aspects were well-handled imo. Just out of curiosity, for those who never read the book, what was your opinion on how humanity eventually joined the Overmind. Was it abundantly clear to you what happened or were you just kind of left scratching your head once Earf exploded?
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Dec 24, 2015 19:48
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I read the book many years ago and had forgotten all but the devil twist, but I interpreted it as a happy ending then and now.
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Dec 24, 2015 20:00
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speshl guy posted:Just out of curiosity, for those who never read the book, what was your opinion on how humanity eventually joined the Overmind. Was it abundantly clear to you what happened or were you just kind of left scratching your head once Earf exploded? I hadn't read the book yet (reading it now) and it was clear they were joining the Overmind but not clear why the Earth exploded or why the girl was still there after 80 years (and not physically changed). It also seemed awfully convenient that she lasted that long and then everything finished up right after Milo came down to give the Earth a goodbye kiss.
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Dec 24, 2015 20:17
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I love a generic "benevolent alien overlords.... or are they?" scifi story but this should have ended after the hilarious (in a good way) episode 1 reveal. Also it should have been made in the 90's and the title should have been something like "The Outer Limits". It would have been an awesome episode. Whoever decided we needed to watch grieving farmer for 60 minutes or have shot after shot of kids dressed in beige staring past the camera should quit TV.
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Dec 27, 2015 04:28
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Comrade Fakename posted:I'm a fan of scifi, but had never got around to reading any of Clarke's books. Let's just say that having watched this has not sped up my motivation to rectify that. I'm a fan of painting but I've never seen a picture of the Mona Lisa.
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Dec 29, 2015 23:23
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General show spoilers ahead. I was on board with this after the first part. The dead wife, genius ghetto child and the media tycoon were pretty hamfisted and didnt add to the narrative. Reducing the wait to 15 years makes less sense too. But it did capture the themes of the book and set up the reveal of the Overlords very well. Second part was total shite. The turbo charged alien ouija board, the conspiracy between Boyce and Karellen, the religious stuff, Karellen getting shot, Ricky's illness, etc all shlocky straight to video tripe. I dont see how any of it is an improvement on the book when it comes to setting up the third part or introducing the supernatural elements of the story and the Overlords mission. It seems like they started from a point of not wanting to have multiple overlords and condense the time line to involve all these characters that were created for tv and just went nuts. I have mixed opinions about Clarkes writing but the second part of this book really is quite solid. I think its a shame that it just discarded all of that and we somehow have Karellen being shot in a barn by a religious woman and getting saved by Rikki farmer prophets alien magic serum.
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Dec 29, 2015 23:29
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I'm a fan of Clarke, but not a huge fan. I read Childhood's End back in highschool after binging much of the 2001 series, which turned out to be a lot more fun in novel form. I was surprised Clarke wrote something like Childhood's End until research filled in some context for me though. For people who have not read Clarke, I feel like you shouldn't judge his work by this adaptation, and even if you read only Childhood's End, it's nothing like the sci-fi he's actually famous for. It was written during an earlier part of his life where his beliefs were pretty different. I think it's a good book, and this show managed to adapt i, in a way that wasn't offensive to watch as a mild clarke fan, but it left a lot to be desired. The book is sincerely better, and is a short/easy read. And if this show put you off of the author, rethink how you judge things for one, but give clarke a shot and read the novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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Dec 30, 2015 00:23
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I never read the book, but I've read a lot of other Clarke stuff like all the 2001 books, Fountains of Paradise, etc. What I didn't really like about the movie was it was hopeless from the beginning. There was essentially no way for humanity to "win." No uplifting message, no way out. Everyone that opposed the aliens died and looked like assholes in the process. Just "whelp, here we are, we're ganking your entire society and turning your children into energy light beings or whatevs, gently caress you!" Kind of a downer.
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Dec 30, 2015 00:57
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If they're going to pick a book of Clarke's for a miniseries, they should do The Songs Of Distant Earth
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Dec 30, 2015 01:12
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Astroman posted:What I didn't really like about the movie was it was hopeless from the beginning. There was essentially no way for humanity to "win." No uplifting message, no way out. Everyone that opposed the aliens died and looked like assholes in the process. Just "whelp, here we are, we're ganking your entire society and turning your children into energy light beings or whatevs, gently caress you!" Or, from another approach, there are things so alien that we have hardly a hope to comprehend them -- like in Solarus. In this case a giant overmind that takes orders from a multidimensional superhive... The roundabout message to the piece is something like 'a bunch of stolid folks hold us back' or 'we have some serious work to do to evolve new perspectives to even begin to have the capacity to solve our next set of problems'. As in, we'll have to acknowledge some big changes to who we are to be better.
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Dec 30, 2015 03:37
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FilthyImp posted:Popular science fiction has conditioned us to expect something positive out of everything. Popular fiction of all kinds from the last few decades seems to have had a much more dystopian and down beat on the whole to me, and to be more likely to come out with a "humans and poo poo and we're going to gently caress everything up" message than "everything'll work out, and there's always a silver lining". Star Trek almost seems like the outlier for maintaining a rather positive message than to be any kind of indication of the normal run of things.
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Dec 30, 2015 14:20
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FilthyImp posted:Popular science fiction has conditioned us to expect something positive out of everything. Star Trekish stuff where we can solve global pollution with a phased ionometric pulse or something. But there's some good stuff out there where we just end up bungling around because scientific progress doesn't really equate to the necessary intellectual evolution needed to harness it. We don't always have to be the protagonists in those stories. Well I guess that'd be fair enough if we, the viewer, had actually seen what the next set of problems were, the reasons why we had to join the groupmind. Instead we basically saw it from the perspective of the in universe humans who were left behind. It'd be like if a volcano was erupting on a desert island and modern humans decided to go in and save a bunch of uncontacted tribals...ruin their society, destroy their culture, etc. From the outsider perspective it's the humane thing to do, but if you only see it from the pov of the tribals who are rebelling against these sky people with planes and guns it's incomprehensible and horrible--especially if they never understand the concept of the volcano or nuke or whatever is going to kill them all. Supposedly these aliens were doing a great thing for our own good, but with what little info we had it just seemed patronizing and awful.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:28
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Astroman posted:Supposedly these aliens were doing a great thing for our own good, but with what little info we had it just seemed patronizing and awful. I like that there's a stark divide shown between those that ascend and those that refuse the paternalistic attitude. I guess it's because if we can't put aside our sense of individualism, then we wouldn't be able to really comprehend what that tang-sea group over consciousness would be like. It changes up the idea that humanity spreads out among the stars, to only really propagate our species' problems on a universal level (territorialism, greed, War, etc). It's very much a case of 'No, you don't get to do that. You need to be better'. I mean, that's pretty common in SciFi, but usually we're the ones doing the moral high horsing.
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Dec 31, 2015 02:34
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FilthyImp posted:I get that. In a way it does a good job of showcasing how we would react to something like that. Humanity would naturally be wary, fight back, assume that we could influence the outcome, and just be stubborn in general. Ah, but that's the thing...the only ones who get to ascend are the kids, who are raised in this new environment. The rest of humanity has no choice. Even the ones who were all on board with the aliens, drinking the kool aid of peace and love and high culture/education were just robbed of their kids and left in the dirt. And the kids didn't have a choice either if you think about it.
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Dec 31, 2015 04:02
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For some reason, I thought the whole point of the book (and it's one of the things that makes the Overlords sympathetic) is that it's the fate of species to ascend into the Overmind. Except for the Overlords, who shepherd species through the process and try to learn more about it, but they can never play in the Overmind's game. Songs of Distant Earth would be an interesting miniseries, the secret gallery of cool stuff from Earth would be a really fun scene to do.
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Dec 31, 2015 04:30
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I think the Overmind has a very specific set of requirements that it requires a species to meet before it can be assimilated. In the books the Overlords were not candidates because they chose a certain path during their evolution that made them incompatible with the Overmind, in other words they "evolved wrong". I loved that aspect of the books because it was depicted as though the Overlord's failing was being a much too inquisitive race and that pursuing knowledge for the sake of knowledge spelled their doom. Humans entered the Overmind's radar because of their tendency to dabble in the supernatural: communicate with the dead, telepathy, fortune telling, etc. It felt like with Childhood's End Clarke was basically telling us to abandon the scientific method in lieu of an adherence to more spiritual, communal practices. Renounce Satan and save your soul.
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Dec 31, 2015 07:04
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Why did that little girl hang around earth for 80 years before blowing it up? Because the guy was still alive?
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Dec 31, 2015 07:43
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