Lejuan
Super Freak
I'm no 2001 scholar so I can't provide a meaningful counter to Agar's take. But the initial smell is fishy, with more than a touch of the conspiratorial about how he constructs his argument and arrives at his conclusions. Agar is talking mostly about the monoliths' representation as a basis for his reading of their function. But Clarke specifically identifies them as an alien tool in his writing. Agar's angle is fun and deliberately plays on the ambiguity of the narrative... but when I read it I imagine a bunch of graduate film nerds passing around a jay and blowing each others' minds. Still, a lot more knowledgeable and across the material than me, so why not?
