I’m aware that the book is significantly different from the first version of the film, which got ‘mis-handled’ by the film stock processor and is lost to history, not to mention the second (supposedly darker and less hopeful) re-shoot with which we are familiar.
[edit: The production staff and some of the cast members sometimes also refer to another version, for which there is slim pickins on the net…]
I’m in a position of having formed an opinion of that film which leaves me impressed beyond pretty much any other film I’ve seen or heard of; which leaves me in a pickle.
I’m reticent to read it because I don’t want to find that the themes with which I’m so impressed and love the film for are drawn from some other, contradictory philosophy.
Although, to be sure (and I’ve mentioned this recently), I enjoy 2001: A Space Odyssey much more since I read the book.
