The Disease
“Reunion” begins with the ominous words that have attained such a level of familiarity they are now a literary trope: “People of Earth, do not be afraid.” The rest of this very short story is comprised of the rest of this message from an alien race to the population of our planet outlining the long epochal history of their part in our evolution. About two million years ago climate change began naturally occurring with the result being the rise of a disfiguring disease which separated the evolving creatures into two distinctly recognizable groups. Everything leads toward the jaw-dropping closing lines: “People of Earth, you can rejoin the society of the universe without shame, without embarrassment. If any of you are still white, we can cure you.” The real disease here is, of course, the symbolic underpinning of this ironic twist: the myth of racial superiority.
“The Sentinel”
Anyone who has ever seen 2001: A Space Odyssey knows that the single most familiar symbol in the Clarke canon is the monolith. Except that word never appears in the short story upon which the film was based. The titular object is the monolith, but the symbolism remains the same: proof of the existence of an intelligence infinitely greater than our own which may or may not be that of God.
Magic
References and allusion to magic and things being magical pop up throughout the stories in the collection. The context implies a definite symbolic meaning should be attached to this recurring motif which is explicitly situated in what is know as Clarke’s Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Magic thus becomes a symbol not for anything supernatural or inexplicable, but rather the ignorance of that which is not yet known.
Crysteel and Danstor
Crysteel and Danstor are aliens suffering from physical defects not commonly associated with their alien race: only one par of legs and arms, absent the usual eyes on the back of the head and such. But it is these deficiencies which deem them best equipped to pass themselves off as humans in a little exploratory mission to a small English village. Having learned everything they think they need to know from monitoring BBC broadcasts to seamlessly fit in, they do try their best. And fail at every turn. Because, of course, an invasive culture simply can’t pass themselves off as natives by reading the Cliffs Notes. Crysteel and Danstor are humorous symbols of the worst aspects of colonialist superiority.
The Mark V Computer
The Mark V Computer is used in “The Nine Billion Names of God” to speed up a process which will take thousands of years to finish if continued to be done by hand. The task facing the computer programmers is the compilation of a list all the names of God. The computer experts proudly determine that “What would have taken us fifteen thousand years it will be able to do in a hundred days.” Of course, they do not take seriously the implication that once the list has been completed it will bring about the end of the of universe. Which is exactly what does happen. Thus, the Mark V Computer is an ideal symbol of a recurring thematic motif throughout Clarke’s work: the dual nature of technological advancement to make our lives easier while also threatening our very existence.
