So What Was 2001: A Space Odyssey about, Really?

Back in 1969 I finally caught 2001: A Space Odyssey in a Cinerama theater in Scottsdale, Arizona. At that point, the film had been running in that theater for over a year. I had longed to see it since its release in 1968 (I remember seeing it on the marquee of a theater in downtown Indianapolis), but when we visited relatives in Phoenix the following summer the opportunity finally presented itself. After the crescendo of its end, and the credits that ran to the tune of Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube," I stepped out of the theater in a fog, completely stunned. From the hype I had heard about the film I was expecting something of an ambitious, up-to-date Destination Moon.