2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


Only two of the most thought provoking works of the twentieth century. One serving as the inspiration for its namesake movie that included two mind-blowing segments... The famous "jump shot" from the slow-motion rotation of an animal bone (man's most primitive tool) to a slowly rotating space station (man's most advanced tool), highlighting the evolution of man's ability to create and use tools in only a few thousand years. The final segment of the film where Dave the astronaut has disabled HAL and traveled through a star gate, "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite." Dave suddenly appears in his capsule, looking out at a futuristic hotel room, only one curiously familiar in style, like a luxurious French hotel room. Suddenly, a man in a space suit appears outside the capsule in the room. Future Dave. As Future Dave looks around, an older man begins sitting down to a table to eat. It's Future Dave 2. #2 becomes the focus, only to have attention shift to an old man in a bed, "Future Dave 3." It then becomes apparent Dave is traveling into the future as he nears a state where he leaves behind his body and enters a state of existence as pure thought.

YouTube: 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Clip - "Room" (1968) Stanley Kubrick (JoBlo Movie Clips)

The other presenting a concept of time via strange aliens, Tralfamadorians from Tralfamador, who have a simple response to any reference to death. "So it goes." Why? As one finally explains to the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim... Because we Tralfamadorians see time as a continuous infinite ribbon of experience. We exist at every point on that infinite continuum simultaneously. You may be dead at point A but there are an infinite number of other points where you are alive and well.

I can guess why people might be a-feared of people reading ideas like that. Might really punch through the monotheistic monopoly on generating fear of death and eternity. Can't have THAT happening, can we?

WTH