58 pages • 1 hour read
Arthur C. ClarkeThe Nine Billion Names of God
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1967A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Humans as Inferior to Aliens
Most of the stories in this collection show or assume that any alien intelligence in the Universe is far superior to the human race. Characters repeatedly experience the act of exploration as humbling because they discover that they know less than they thought they did, or they are far less advanced than the aliens they encounter.
“The Sentinel” illuminates this theme. The astronauts stationed on the moon are all certain that no intelligent life-form has ever set foot on the moon prior to themselves. Their discovery of the object referred to as the sentinel proves them wrong and shows them that there is a source of intelligent life in the Universe that has been waiting for the human race to evolve. These intelligent beings that are only interested in human contact once they have achieved space travel.
“Out of the Sun” brings a group of astronauts into contact with a God-like creature born directly of the sun. Again, the human characters are shocked to discover that their assumptions—that life could not exist on the Sun—are incorrect. They are forced to reckon with the possibility that this creature is “a godlike being” (102). This humbles them to the point that the narrator becomes fearful that one day “they may discover us […] they may not like what they find, for to them we should be no more than maggots” (103). Gone is the hubris of the exploring astronaut, assuming himself the most intelligent being in space. The narrator instead feels embarrassed, now that he knows he is circling “around their mighty, ancient home, proud of our knowledge and thinking ourselves lords of creation” (103).
In “Wall of Darkness” Shervane experiences a similar humbling. He begins with an unquenchable thirst for discovery, building a massive structure to do what no man has done before him. However, as he reaches the edge of the wall, then discovers that he is walking on an infinite loop, he understands that he has been foolish to think himself capable of gaining knowledge that has driven other men insane. Rather than continue his pursuit, Shervane destroys the platform so that no one else ever has to experience the surreal and unsettling sensation of realizing that they know nothing about the structure of the universe after all.
Finally, “No Morning After” offers a simple and humorous view: Humankind is so deeply inferior to the intelligent beings attempting to save them that they are not worth the effort.
Placing Human Evolution in the Context of the Universe
The most blatant examination of evolution comes in “Encounter at Dawn,” which plays with the cliché phrase, “dawn of time.” A crew of explorers and researchers travel through the Universe looking for human life. They have found many planets with similar habitats as Earth, and as many civilizations. The narrator says, “Nature had repeated one of her basic patterns” (214).
However, the protagonist comes from a planet where humanity has reached the end of civilization. When Bertrond lands on the planet readers will come to know as Earth, he wishes to spare this group of people from the mistakes and destruction his own kind have created. This story offers the possibility that human life exists all over the galaxy in differing stages of evolutionary development. “Encounter at Dawn” opens the reader up to the possibility that life on Earth may be very young in comparison to other intergalactic civilizations.
Elsewhere, “Transience” makes no comment on the relative age of Earth but portrays the evolution of humans from Neanderthals to space travelers. It does so by illustrating a series of young children experiencing the sands and water of the same beach throughout centuries. Beginning with a young boy for whom “only a hairsbreadth still separated him from the beasts among whom he dwelt” (242), and ending with a young boy boarding a spaceship to leave planet Earth, “man had come and gone” (246). In this story, Earth is the constant while mankind is simply a transient presence.
“The Possessed” offers a science fiction explanation for the evolutionary oddity of lemmings, who die annually in great numbers: An alien life force inside the lemmings’ DNA causes them to go in search of their ancestor, falling off a cliff into an ocean that was once a valley. Clarke imagines that an intelligent life force, after losing its own home planet, chose an Earth creature to inhabit, hoping it would evolve into an intelligent being soon enough. The creature turns out to be the lemming, which disappoints the alien. The story suggests that of all the creatures on Earth to emerge from the sea, humans simply got the evolutionary luck of the draw.
The Pitfalls of Taking Mystical or Religious Beliefs Too Seriously
“The Nine Billion Names of God” plays with the idea of taking anything, whether it be science or religion, too seriously. The monks who are working to bring about the end of the Universe are not very pious, engaging in all the manmade pleasures from which they are meant to abstain. Meanwhile, the computer operators are religiously devout to the rationality of science, thinking the monks foolish. Yet it is the computer operators that assist the monks in finally completing their work and bringing about the end of the world. Many religions prophesy the end of the world; thus, the story may criticize the foolish nature of the monks who are happily enjoying life on Earth and its technological advances while working to bring about its destruction.
Elsewhere, “The Star” openly criticizes the idea that there is one God who created the Universe. Narrated by a Jesuit priest and astronaut, readers watch as a religious man has to confront a painful reality: His God destroyed a peaceful advanced civilization in order to mark the birth of Jesus Christ on Earth with the star of Bethlehem. If the priest accepts that God is real and the ultimate creator, he must also accept that God is merciless and cruel. Alternatively, he can reject the idea of God and accept that,
since a hundred suns explode every year in our galaxy, at this very moment some race is dying in the depths of space. Whether that race has done good or evil during its lifetime will make no difference in the end: there is no divine justice, for there is no God (252).
This story shows the priest experiencing a crisis of faith brought on by the accumulation of scientific knowledge, suggesting that in the age of space exploration and beyond it is foolish to continue to believe in the concept of God.
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