2001: A Space Odyssey Part 3, Chapter 17

Cruise Mode

• There's a couple of pages about the ship routine.
• And some background on Bowman. He is very smart, but is a generalist rather than a specialist, which is why he was chosen for the spaceflight.
• All hail the supersmart generalist.
• And more tech nerd description/enthusing about how the ship is put together and everything is planned and in its place.
• When his work is done, Bowman reads about explorers and likes the Odyssey; he'd be happy to be in a book named after it, presumably.
• Bowman and Poole have girlfriends back on earth, but you never find out their names or anything about them. Odysseus traveled for years to return to his wife Penelope; Bowman doesn't really care at all about whatever-her-name-might-be.
• And the astronauts hope that nothing changes the monotony of their routine. That's foreshadowing, also. If you missed it.