The Children's Room

This is a fairly archetypal science fiction theme going back to "2001: A Space Odyssey" and before. We are an evolving race of creatures. We cannot be stuck with our useless, frail beings. We need to move on to become better, more advanced creatures. There is, of course, a religious element in all this, but I don't think most writers saw it that way. With "Childhood's End" we see the despair of the parents and the death of civilization as we know it. This isn't quite as dramatic. We will continue because only a select few geniuses will be gobbled up by the library lady to do god knows what in the future. The interesting thing is the joylessness of the whole thing. There is nothing uplifting in the kidnapping of these kids and the more they read the "book," the more they are convinced they have to do this. They are deceptive and conniving and downright evil in some sense. Perhaps they are going to be an order of conquering overlords. This episode is spooky to say the least. The special effects in the library are quite good.