Rendezvous with Rama

“Such a disaster, it was realized, might not occur again for a thousand years—but it might occur tomorrow. And the next time, the consequences could be even worse.

Very well; there would be no next time.”

Instead of opening with Rama’s arrival, the novel begins by describing the meteorite strike that happened decades earlier. In this way, Clarke establishes the stakes: Humanity must regard every new object in their solar system as a threat or face the consequences of conflict, which include possible extinction.

“For the first time in a hundred years an element of total uncertainty had entered human affairs. Uncertainty was one thing that neither scientists nor politicians could tolerate. If that was the price of resolving it, Endeavour and her crew would be expendable.”

The colonization of Earth’s neighboring planets and satellites has made the solar system so familiar for humans that they no longer regard it with wonder. This passage becomes crucial in establishing The Mysteries of the Universe as a theme by emphasizing the air of uncertainty surrounding Rama. This uncertainty extends to the stakes for the Endeavour’s crew.

“Dr. Bose could still recall the excitement of that time, when the lost treasures of the Greeks, the Romans, and a dozen other civilizations were restored to the light of day. That was one of the few occasions when he was sorry to be living on Mars.”

In this passage, Clarke observes humankind’s natural tendency for comparison. When confronting the prospect of extraterrestrial life for the first time, Dr. Bose, among many others, can capture how they feel only by thinking back to the closest analogue in human history. Imagining the sense of wonder that one might feel on such an occasion drives The Human Instincts of Wonder and Aggression as a theme.