There's an interesting question in this week's edition of Roger Ebert's Answer Man column. Reader Alberto Diamante wonders if the following passage from James Joyce's Ulysses was the inspiration for the final image in my favorite movie, 2001:
"Would the departed never nowhere nohow reappear? Ever would he wander, selfcompelled, to the extreme limit of his cometary orbit, beyond the fixed stars and variable suns and telescopic planets ... to the extreme boundary of space ... he would somehow appear reborn above delta in the constellation of Cassiopeia and ... return an estranged avenger, a wreaker of justice on malefactors ..." (Penguin edition, P. 858).
Very interestering. Ebert emailed Arthur C. Clark, who said he never read Joyce, so it may be just a coincidence. On the other hand, Clark and Kubrick collaborated on the plot, so the influence may have come through Kubrick.
I find the passage quite intruiging, but I'm still not going to read Ulysses.
Posted by ahyatt at February 28, 2003 11:22 AM