Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke
Editor’s note
I have recently come to love two podcasts: Overdue and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Both of these podcasts celebrate reading and sharing what we gather from reading. If you have not had a chance to check out either of those podcasts, I would highly recommend them. This entry in the sketchbook is a part of a series I have decided to call The Library Card. In this series, I am going to follow the leads of both Overdue and Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, sharing my thoughts while playing around with the ideas of the books that I am reading.
I believe I have the most recent printing of Arthur C. Clarkes, Childhood’s End. While the original version places itself in the context of 1953, where men had not yet traveled outside of Earth’s atmosphere, this copy reimagines the setting to be where men have traveled to the moon and are now preparing to go to Mars. At the beginning of the text there is a note: “Note: Apart from the new Prologue, o alterations have been make to the text. From Chapter Two onwards, Childhood’s End remains exactly as in 1953.” I am not sure if the ‘new Prologue’ is chapter one. It must be. If not, I will not make any claim as to the originality of the beginning of this book. Whatever.
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke
Del Rey
1953
Chapter I
Blind Contour Recap
‘Helena Lyakhov always went through the same ritual. She was not the only cosmonaut who did so, though few ever talked about it.’ We are introduced to Helena, a Russian cosmonaut who is preparing for a new, internationally coordinated mission to Mars. She is reflective, thinking of an old Cold War cosmonaut, Yuri, as a busload of tourists show up. She prepares herself for the tourists’ cameras when she notices that they are not pointed towards her, but up to the sky. Turning, she catches just a glimpse of the ‘gigantic shadow sliding behind the moon.’
The mission commander, Mohan Kaleer, saw the ship from the edge of a volcanic crater used to prepare the astronauts for Olympus Mons. At once he realized that the history of humanity was at an inflection point. It was like watching an ice shelf break from a glacier and fall to the sea. The ship was beautiful. It far outstretched any accomplishment that human kind had ever achieved. And yet, he had no regrets in his life’s work. Still, all this time he had spent to reach the stars, and now the stars have come to him.
Chapter II
Blind Contour Recap
Chapter two opens in the Secretary-General of the United Nations’ office some years after the arrival of the ships. Rikki Stormgren is looking down on the streets below, anticipating the arrival of Alexander Wainwright, a figurehead for an international group that resists the intervention of earth’s new Overlords. It is a meeting he is not looking forward to. For the past few years, Rikki has stood as Earth’s ambassador to the Overlords. Only he has ever stepped foot on one of their ships, and even he has never seen an Overlord face-to-face. The Overlords have never once been hostile, despite at least one nation attacking an Overlord ship with a nuclear missle. On the contrary, the Overlords have only been helpful for humanity. There is no longer famine or poverty, and the living wage for all people has been steadily rising since the Overlords’ arrival. This does not alleviate the fear of group’s like Wainwright’s Freedom League, who feel that humanity’s God given Liberty is stripped away by the control of the Overlords.
Rikki agrees to make mention the objections of the Freedom League to the Overlords’ ambassador, Karellen. When Rikki and Karellen meet in the Overlords’ ship, their conversation is genial. Rikki asks if the Overlords will show themselves to the world, to alleviate some of the tension. Karellen notes that, all things considered, humanity has been trusting of the Overlords, but that there still seems to be resistance that stems from the world’s religions. “Not all religions can be right” says Karellen, and he seems hesitant to broach that subject much further. Karellen promises Rikki that he will talk with his superiors to see if there might be a way to alleviate some of the fears that groups like the Freedom League harbor.
Notes
The Overlords seemed largely indifferent to forms of government, provided that they were not oppresive or corrupt. Earth still possessed democracies, monarchies, benevolent dictatorships, communism, and capitalism. This was a source of greate surprise to many simple souls who were quite convinced that theirs was the only possible way of life. Others believed that Karellen was merely waiting to introduce a system which would sweep away all existing forms of society, and so had not bothered with minor political reforms. But this, like all other speculations concerning the Overlords, was pure guesswork. No one knew toward what future they were shepherding mankind.
It is interesting that the Overlords do not deal with individual nations. Instead, they work only directly with the United Nations. I like the idea that the Overlords seem not to have a preference for a particular type of governance. This seems to imply that they recognize there are many ways that people can live, and that peace/prosperity can coexist with diversity.
The Overlords seem want the betterment of humanity, even if they do not reveal their motivations. It is interesting that they do not show themselves in public, and it isn’t clear just how many Overlords are in the ships.
Chapter III
We get a bit clearer picture of the Secretary General, Stormgren. He is just months from retiring, and though he has risen to a place no other politician has, he lives in a modest flat. Most of his subordinates live in more luxurious homes, but that does not matter to Rikki. His experience has taught him to value other things.
The chapter opens with Stormgren having difficulty gettig to sleep. His mind is running ‘like a machine with no govenor’. He wonders, staring at New York from his balcony as the rest of the city sleeps, what it will be like once he retires. His wife passed away years before, and their kids have established their own families. Rikki falls asleep sometime after that.
When Rikki wakes, he finds himself dazed and in a strange room. The room is dark and the walls feel like hewn stone. When the door to the room opens, he finds himself greeted by a large man, Joe, who beckons him. Rikki had been brought to some safe place, away from the view of Karellen and the Overlords. Joe tells Rikki that he is a part of a group seeking liberty for man kind. They are of the sort that might be associated with the Freedon League, but Wainwright, the leader of that group, would have nothing to do with kidnapping.
Rikki is not treated harshly, but rather as a guest in what seems like an abandoned mine turned safe house for Joe’s organization. Joe tells Rikki that he will be staying in the mine with them for the next few days. After hanging out with Joe’s lackeys playing poker for a few days, the leaders of Joe’s organization aparently deem it safe to come meet with the Secretary General.
Six men, leaders of the organization, come to meet Stormgren. They are not interested in standard ransom schemes. Rather, they would like information from the Secretary General. What are his meetings with karellen like? What are the details of his meetings with the Overlords? What do the Overlords look like? Stormgren greets these questions with both amusement and care. He does not believe that anything that he could say would hurt Karellen and the Overlords, but he is also not interested in so easily abbetting his kidnappers. But he does wish to know what the Overlords look like himself. He has freely admitted that human curiosity has gotten the better of him. And so, knowing that any information he gives to these kidnappers will do no harm, he speaks frankly with them. Maybe they can glean some information that has alluded Stormgren. Maybe he too could find some answers.
Then, suddenly, Stormgren’s kidnappers are suspending in animation and a silvery orb shows itself to the Secretary General. It is a robot of sorts, controlled by karellen, here to free him from his captors. Karellen, through the orb, explains that Rikki’s kidnappers are somewhat of a state of paralysis, temprorarily living their lives thousands of times slower than normal. The robot then leads Rikki out of the mine, explaining that the Overlords have been keeping tabs on his location for quite some time. Though Karellen gives credit to Rikki’s captors for a clever kidnapping scheme, it seems they had no hope of fooling the Overlords. And now that the organizers of this rebellion group have shown themselves, Karellen can keep tabs on them. Karellen assures Rikki that the men will go about their lives as they otherwise would and that Karellen mereley wishes to keep an amused eye on them.
The chapter finishes with the Secretary General’s interest hightening. The conversation with his kidnappers seemed to embolden his curiosity. What if he could devise a way to see what the Overlords really look like?