2001: A Space Odyssey Page #5

This little family of male and female and two children is gorged

and replete, with sleek and glossy pelts - and this was a

condition of life that Moonwatcher had never imagined. From

time to time they stir lazily, as they loll at ease near the

entrance of their cave, apparently at peace with the world.

The spectacle of domestic bliss merges into a totally

different scene.

The family is no longer reposing peacefully outside its cave;

it is foraging, searching for food like any normal hominids.

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CONTINUED:

A small wart-hog ambles past the group of browsing humanoids

without giving them more than a glance, for they had never been

the slightest danger to its species.

But that happy state of affairs is about to end. The big male

suddenly bends down, picks up a heavy stone lying at his feet -

and hurls it upon the unfortunate pig. The stone descends upon

its skull, making exactly the same noise that Moonwatcher had

produced in his now almost forgotten encounter with Big-Tooth.

And the result, too, is much the same - the warthog gives one

amazed, indignant squeal, and collapses in a motionless heap.

Then the whole sequence begins again, but this time it unfolds

itself with incredible slowness. Every detail of the movement

can be followed; the stone arches leisurely through the air, the

pig crumples up and sinks to the ground. There the scene

freezes for long moments, the slayer standing motionless

above the slain, the first of all weapons in his hand.

The scene suddenly fades out. The cube is no more than a

glimmering outline in the darkness; the hominids stir, as if

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CONTINUED:

awakening from a dream, realise where they are, and scuttle

back to their caves.

They have no concious memory of what they had seen; but that

night, as he sits brooding at the entrance of his lair, his ears

attuned to the noises of the world around him, Moonwatcher

feels the first faint twinges of a new and potent emotion - the urge

to kill. He had taken his first step towards humanity.

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EXT cave AND PLAINS - Utopia

Babies were born and sometimes lived; feeble, toothless thirty-

year-olds died; the lion took its toll in the night; the Others

threatened daily across the river - and the trib prospered.

In the course of a single year, Moonwatcher and his companions

had changed almost beyond recognition.

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