RIP Sir Arthur C. Clarke, 16 December 1917 - 19 March 2008

[willow_red]

Earlier today, my favorite author passed away. It was the stories of Arthur C. Clarke that got me hooked on science fiction as a kid, and it was his writing style I most tried to emulate when I was a teenager. An autographed bookplate from his personal library has held a place of honor on my bookshelf for many years. For those who don't immediately recognize the name, he was the author behind 2001: A Space Odyssey. He publicized the idea of communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit more than a decade before Sputnik, and in the late 1970s, he wrote about space elevators. He was truly one of the grand masters of science fiction.

I've known for a long time that this day would come. I remember reading Rama Revealed one summer during high school, and thinking how much the main character's death sounded like the author saying goodbye. But that was a dozen years ago, and he has written (and co-written) many books since. Last December, however, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, he recorded this 9-minute video, in which he reflects on his long life, and says goodbye to his fans. At the end of the video, he says that most of all, he wants to be remembered as an author.

And that is how I will remember him.

Comments

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

No fear of that. His writing is amazing. This is a sad loss. =(

[enishi2000.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a nicer way to be remembered.

I freely admit that I'm not familiar with his works (or science fiction outside of stuff relating to Star Wars unfortunately) but I can at least appreciate the impact his writing has had on others.

When I get more settled in Prague, I'll find the local library and see if the British Counsel has donated any of his books to it. If they can donate half of "The Sandman" and 2 copies of "Watchmen" to the library in Liberec, then they can damn well scrounge up at least one copy of 2001, or perhaps some Asimov.

Wish he could have lived to see all the awesome space travel coming

[illyanarasputin.livejournal.com]

He definately will be remembered as an author amoung other things.
I really have nothing else to add. Except that I truly hope to live 90 years as full as his were...

-illyana

[(Anonymous)]

It's a shame, but considering the legacy he's brought to millions, maybe even billions, of people around the world, like Illyana says, I think he had a full life.

I started to compile a list of names I could think of that had an impact in our lifetime (both good and bad) starting about 20 years ago after Ben posted about Andre the Giant. I got to about late 90s, early 00s and I couldn't go on any more. I got to about 185 names that included a ton of famous and infamous people. We've seen a lot of them go in the recent past.


-J

[willow-red.livejournal.com]

Hey, good to see that you're alive and in Prague. If you haven't read any Clarke, I can recommend some stuff that would be a better first read than 2001, especially if you're used to space opera rather than "hard" sci-fi.

I would say to go for the short stories first. He's written a bizillion of them, and there are a number of anthologies wandering around. You might even be able to find some online. The neat thing is that many of his novels started off as short stories, so if you find one you really like, there might be a "long" version. As for his novels, some are really good, and others, well, let's just say he really likes Sri Lanka. If you happen to find it, I think you would like "The Songs of Distant Earth." Anyway, I'll stop here.

[jameshroberts.livejournal.com]

Clarke was my first foray into real sci-fi. I remember seeing the movie of 2010 in the 3rd grade. It was the first thing we ever recorded off TV; we'd just gotten a VCR. I still have the tape somewhere, 80's commercials and all. After that, I went back and watched 2001, read the 2001 books and a bunch of his other stuff. I even made a feeble attempt to learn Russian after seeing 101. I owe my career path, at least in part, to Arthur C. Clarke. I was always disappointed they never made a movie out of "Rendezvous with Rama", but I understand that there's one in production now!