Arthur C. Clarke: See you in the heavens - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Cynthetiq · 03-18-2008, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Source: AP
View: Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90
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Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90
By RAVI NESSMAN – 50 minutes ago

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.

Clarke's non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."

From 1950, he began a prolific output of both fiction and non-fiction, sometimes publishing three books in a year. He published his best-selling "3001: The Final Odyssey" when he was 79.

Some of his best-known books are "Childhood's End," 1953; "The City and The Stars," 1956, "The Nine Billion Names of God," 1967; "Rendezvous with Rama," 1973; "Imperial Earth," 1975; and "The Songs of Distant Earth," 1986.

When Clarke and Kubrick got together to develop a movie about space, they used as basic ideas several of Clarke's shorter pieces, including "The Sentinel," written in 1948, and "Encounter in the Dawn." As work progressed on the screenplay, Clarke also wrote a novel of the story. He followed it up with "2010," "2061," and "3001: The Final Odyssey."

In 1989, two decades after the Apollo 11 moon landings, Clarke wrote: "2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history; we are sundered from it forever by the moment when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out on to the Sea of Tranquility. Now history and fiction have become inexorably intertwined."

Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.

Born in Minehead, western England, on Dec. 16, 1917, the son of a farmer, Arthur Charles Clark became addicted to science fiction after buying his first copies of the pulp magazine "Amazing Stories" at Woolworth's. He read English writers H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon and began writing for his school magazine in his teens.

Clarke went to work as a clerk in Her Majesty's Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.

It was not until after the World War II that Clarke received a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics from King's College in London.

In the wartime Royal Air Force, he was put in charge of a new radar blind-landing system.

But it was an RAF memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications — an idea whose time had decidedly not come.

Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World, which almost rejected it as too far-fetched.

Clarke married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children.

He moved to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef. He discovered that scuba-diving approximated the feeling of weightlessness that astronauts experience in space, and he remained a diving enthusiast, running his own scuba venture into old age.

"I'm perfectly operational underwater," he once said.

Clarke was linked by his computer with friends and fans around the world, spending each morning answering e-mails and browsing the Internet.

At a 90th birthday party thrown for Clarke in December, the author said he had three wishes: for Sri Lanka's raging civil war to end, for the world to embrace cleaner sources of energy and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings to be discovered.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Clarke once said he did not regret having never followed his novels into space, adding that he had arranged to have DNA from strands of his hair sent into orbit.

"One day, some super civilization may encounter this relic from the vanished species and I may exist in another time," he said. "Move over, Stephen King."

Sad to see this extremely intelligent and visionary man leave our space.

Willravel · 03-18-2008, 04:22 PM

Clarke was easily one of my favorite people ever. I will miss his presence, but enjoy his contributions for as long as I live.

debaser · 03-18-2008, 04:36 PM

He was a visionary, and a true inspiration both through his writing and the way he lived his life.

God said, "Cancel Program ARTHUR"...

Hain · 03-18-2008, 04:58 PM

djtestudo · 03-18-2008, 05:29 PM

You know, I could have sworn that he was already dead...

Still a very sad day, though.

fresnelly · 03-18-2008, 05:32 PM

The Light of Other Days by him and Stephen Baxter is one my all time favourite books.

highthief · 03-18-2008, 05:33 PM

I remember seeing some interviews with him in relation to one of James Burke's series - The Day the Universe Changed or Connections maybe - and thinking what a visionary he was. Not enamoured of his work, specifically, just that he had a great mind and knew how to communicate his ideas far better than most.

KnifeMissile · 03-18-2008, 05:43 PM

I learned how to read by reading his books!

Rest in peace, Arthur C. Clarke!

Ustwo · 03-18-2008, 06:12 PM

As a fan of sci-fi I've never been impressed with a lot of his work.

Maybe its just that Rama seires left such an awful taste in my mouth, but it started out a good one and turned, rapidly, into the most preachy piece of crap I ever read.

Of course hes not the only one guilty of that, Orson Scott Card, and Frederik Pohl did almost exactly the same thing, perhaps its just the nature of the trade, you have a great idea and story and they keep paying you long after you run out of ideas for it.

Despite not being a fan of his work, I'll miss him as an icon, its rather sobering that just about everyone I've extensively read is now dead.

Crack · 03-18-2008, 09:58 PM

Even if you don't think you have ever read any of his work. You have.

Strange Famous · 03-22-2008, 12:37 PM

Wasnt there a child sex scandal about him?

I read a few of his books when I was a teenager... but Im sure I remember him being involved in a paodophilia scandal a few years ago, but i dont remember the details.

FuriousAvatar · 03-23-2008, 01:50 AM

Oh my, I missed this completely! Clarke was easily among my favorite authors. I can accredit my love for sci-fi stories to him and another favorite, Orson Scott Card. He was definitely a visionary, with wide and sweeping ideas about what the future could hold. And while we now live in the years he wrote about, much of what he said still holds truth, and will for decades to come.

There have been allegations of Clarke being a pedophile. I honestly hope for it to not be true. I don't want to think of one of my favorite authors and a role model in this light, especially at his death.

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/or...12137128.shtml

03-18-2008, 04:36 PM	#3 (permalink)
debaser Sir, I have a plan... Location: 38S NC20943324	He was a visionary, and a true inspiration both through his writing and the way he lived his life. God said, "Cancel Program ARTHUR"... __________________ Fortunato became immured to the sound of the trowel after a while.

03-18-2008, 04:58 PM	#4 (permalink)
Hain has a plan Location: middle of Whywouldanyonebethere	:-(

03-18-2008, 05:29 PM	#5 (permalink)
djtestudo Baltimoron Location: Beeeeeautiful Bel Air, MD	You know, I could have sworn that he was already dead... Still a very sad day, though. __________________ "Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen." --Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

03-18-2008, 05:32 PM	#6 (permalink)
fresnelly Functionally Appropriate Location: Toronto	The Light of Other Days by him and Stephen Baxter is one my all time favourite books. __________________ Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

03-18-2008, 05:33 PM	#7 (permalink)
highthief Junkie Location: Ontario, Canada	I remember seeing some interviews with him in relation to one of James Burke's series - The Day the Universe Changed or Connections maybe - and thinking what a visionary he was. Not enamoured of his work, specifically, just that he had a great mind and knew how to communicate his ideas far better than most. __________________ Si vis pacem parabellum.

03-18-2008, 04:22 PM	#2 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Clarke was easily one of my favorite people ever. I will miss his presence, but enjoy his contributions for as long as I live.

03-18-2008, 05:43 PM	#8 (permalink)
KnifeMissile Location: Waterloo, Ontario	I learned how to read by reading his books! Rest in peace, Arthur C. Clarke!

03-18-2008, 06:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	As a fan of sci-fi I've never been impressed with a lot of his work. Maybe its just that Rama seires left such an awful taste in my mouth, but it started out a good one and turned, rapidly, into the most preachy piece of crap I ever read. Of course hes not the only one guilty of that, Orson Scott Card, and Frederik Pohl did almost exactly the same thing, perhaps its just the nature of the trade, you have a great idea and story and they keep paying you long after you run out of ideas for it. Despite not being a fan of his work, I'll miss him as an icon, its rather sobering that just about everyone I've extensively read is now dead. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

03-18-2008, 09:58 PM	#10 (permalink)
Crack Misanthropic Location: Ohio! yay!	Even if you don't think you have ever read any of his work. You have. __________________ Crack, you and I are long overdue for a vicious bout of mansex. ~Halx

03-22-2008, 12:37 PM	#11 (permalink)
Strange Famous follower of the child's crusade?	Wasnt there a child sex scandal about him? I read a few of his books when I was a teenager... but Im sure I remember him being involved in a paodophilia scandal a few years ago, but i dont remember the details. __________________ "Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate, for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain without being uncovered." The Gospel of Thomas

03-23-2008, 01:50 AM	#12 (permalink)
FuriousAvatar Crazy Location: Juneau, Alaska	Oh my, I missed this completely! Clarke was easily among my favorite authors. I can accredit my love for sci-fi stories to him and another favorite, Orson Scott Card. He was definitely a visionary, with wide and sweeping ideas about what the future could hold. And while we now live in the years he wrote about, much of what he said still holds truth, and will for decades to come. There have been allegations of Clarke being a pedophile. I honestly hope for it to not be true. I don't want to think of one of my favorite authors and a role model in this light, especially at his death. http://www.postchronicle.com/news/or...12137128.shtml