Rendezvous with Rama

Rendezvous With Rama explores what could happen if humankind ever comes across evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations without meeting the aliens who created it. The novel’s characters reckon with the implications of this premise, especially since it suggests that the Ramans’ purposes are beyond human comprehension. The Ramans’ apparent indifference to the existence of humanity underscores the vastness of the universe. The novel reveals that Rama’s passage through the solar system is simply a serendipitous event that affords humanity the chance to glimpse the Ramans’ lives but not the chance to know them.

Exemplifying this theme is the character arc of protagonist William Norton, who begins the novel having lost his sense of wonder about the universe. The novel drives this dilemma by emphasizing that he’s a frequent flyer through a solar system in which humans have extended their grasp. The solar system no longer feels like a mystery to explore because humanity has conquered and settled it. When Norton records messages for his wives, the fact that they live on different worlds is a simple matter. Clarke knows that to readers, this seems incredible, far different from the world that he and his readers live in. Norton finds nothing to marvel over in his society. His character arc moves toward restoring that wonder, beginning from the moment he recognizes the pattern of threes in Rama’s air lock system. It escalates when he beholds Rama’s interior for the first time, recognizing himself as the “first of all mankind to gaze upon the works of an alien civilization” (37).

When the Endeavour’s other crew members follow Norton into the vessel, they must reckon with the limits of their knowledge. They base their understanding of Rama on what they can see, which even then relies heavily on comparisons to human experience. They refer to the Straight Valley as a canal before realizing that it’s one of six linear suns. They give the settlements the names of prominent cities on Earth, based on their physical resemblance. When they reach those cities, they’re restricted from learning what purposes they serve, guessing at them only through their shape and size. Even then, Norton and his crewmates frequently remind themselves that “Rama [i]s hundreds of times older than any structure that ha[s] survived on Earth” (65). This precludes any attempt to draw parallels between humanity and Raman civilization and underscores the inability of the Endeavour’s crew to understand the mysteries of the universe.

Although the novel frames these mysteries within the context of first contact, Clarke hints that humanity need not wait for alien life to appear to sense the universe’s inexplicability. Boris Rodrigo’s character drives the idea that religion is humanity’s most accessible form of cosmic mystery at that moment. Even though Norton and the other crew members look down on Rodrigo’s religion for having the vague undertones of a cult, his theory that Rama is a cosmic ark, alluding to the Bible, resonates with the secularist assessments of Dr. Perera on the Rama Committee. The references to God and religion—including the fact that Rama derives its name from a major Hindu deity—signal Clarke’s position that some facets of human experience simply elude understanding. This doesn’t make them less valid as truths; it merely reflects the limits of human understanding.

When Norton leaves Rama for the last time, he’s haunted by his inability to make sense of where the Ramans are going and why. Equally haunting is the notion that the Ramans could reemerge and never even know that the humans were there. This marks the completion of Norton’s character arc, fully restoring his sense of cosmic wonder and mystery.