I picked up a collection of his short stories not too long ago, and have made my way through three of them. The Sentinel, which is the story that inspired 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rescue Party, and Guardian Angel. My question deals with end of Guardian Angel. (His novel Childhood’s End is based on Guardian Angel.) What is the reader supposed to make of Karellan in the end?
Potential spoiler!!
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Is he supposed to be a dinosaur or something similar? All that Stormgren sees is his “very famous and unexpectedly beautiful [barbed] tail.” That’s the only thing I could make of it. Any other theories?
For those who may have read Childhood’s End, Karellan is the alien “supervisor” overseeing the changes on Earth. The barbed tail is the only thing the reader learns about his physical form. Did Clarke go into more detail about the form of the aliens in the novel?
yeah. if i recall correctly (i read it back in my teenaged years) the Karellan looked like the archetypical devil figure. that’s why they didn’t show themselves.
Because, on the page opposite the last page of the story, there is an illustration of a devilish figure, but I thought it was related to the next story in the book, since the others had a picture at the beginning. Thanks! I can go to sleep now.
It’s been years since I read it, but I think Karellen is quoted as saying “we sometimes make mistakes,” which is repeated near the end of the story. I took that to mean he or his predecessor was here on earth before, but the contact was so so disastrous that we still associate his figure with evil. Actually I thought it was a reference to dragons, but the devil fits too.
Of course, in Childhood’s End… [spoiler warning!]
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…in Childhood’s End, Karellen’s “current” expedition leads to the end of humanity as we know it, and an evolution to the next stage. It is explained that “racial memory” can work backwards, i.e. we dimly see the future where Karellen’s race is responsible for the end of our race. Which is why we have always associated that figure with evil, and which is why he didn’t show himself for a long time. This is specific to Childhood’s End though, I don’t think this was implied at all in Guardian Angel.
IIRC the Karellon itself explains saying that humans have a racial memory which is buried so deep it is like an instinct but that it includes referances to future events.
The Karellon then sugeests possible reasons (educated guesses) but is not 100% sure.
Maybe that is a way for the author to suggest that even though they are at their evolutionary limit and highly advanced the path to the ultimate stae of being is not necessarily certain and if you get stuck that is a kind of hell in itself for such a creature.
Yes, the 2nd part of “Childhood’s End” describes the Karellon as having a barbed tail, horns on their heads, and leathery wings. “Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterretrials” has an excellent interpretation of what a Karellon would really look like.