I just found out that one of the greats, Arthur C. Clarke, hero of the golden age of science fiction has left our world.
A short CNN article. His Wikipedia entry.
For years now I’ve known I’d never realize my adolescent dream of finally meeting Clarke in person, shaking his hand, perhaps giving him a big ole hug, and just saying thank you.
Though I never met the man, he was very dear to me. Funny how we idolize someone when all we ever see of them is their creative output in a single field. But, for some reason, Clarke’s work touched me more deeply than his contemporaries — such greats as Heinlein, Asimov, and Norton join him as some of my favorites. He was superb at the exploration of what I call social science fiction — soft sci-fi that concentrates on the human condition with technology as window dressing — and what I consider the epitome of science fiction. Not that his hard sci-fi was slouchy.
Clarke wrote the, to my memory, first sci fi novel I ever read, The City and the Stars. It is, at the very least, the story from that era of my childhood reading career (twelvish) that has remained with me the most strongly. His thoughts and philosophies helped shape my own thinking, and his work kicked off my (now substantial) collection of books. Finally, he, along with Asimov, Hoyle, and Sheffield (all scientists cum fiction authors) still inspires me to chase my dream of commercial publication.
I can not do justice to his life or his meaning to me here. It’s too late to say thank you. But, it’s not too late to introduce his work to someone new. So, if you’ve never read Clarke, stop by your local bookstore. They’re bound to have one or two of his more popular works. I recommend The City and the Stars, Childhood’s End, The Songs of Distant Earth, A Fall of Moondust, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Slaintè,
Q
Tags: books, Fiction, noteworthy