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coyotegothScience fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died aged 90 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, it was confirmed tonight.
Damn it. Clarke was one of the three SF writers whose work was most influental for me as a youth (along with Ellison- only nominally SF, granted- and Heinlein; Sturgeon and Heinlein came later.) I still reread and enjoy his novels; I’ve seen 2001 more often than any other film, with the possible exception of Citizen Kane; when I was a child, dreaming about nuclear war, I copied out his story "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth" by hand- I found it somehow comforting to imagine people survivng WW3, on the moon, looking at the aftermath of nuclear war from a safe distance. When he was born, the first World War was still being fought; he lived to see men walk on the moon, and 2001 itself. He was the last of the “Big Three,” along with Heinlein and Asimov; it is impossible to overstate his influence on science fiction. His book 2010 contained the first depiction of bisexuality treated as an everyday occurrence that I ever read; he originated the notion of geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays... I’m too upset to go on. Rest in peace, Sir Arthur.
Damn it. Clarke was one of the three SF writers whose work was most influental for me as a youth (along with Ellison- only nominally SF, granted- and Heinlein; Sturgeon and Heinlein came later.) I still reread and enjoy his novels; I’ve seen 2001 more often than any other film, with the possible exception of Citizen Kane; when I was a child, dreaming about nuclear war, I copied out his story "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth" by hand- I found it somehow comforting to imagine people survivng WW3, on the moon, looking at the aftermath of nuclear war from a safe distance. When he was born, the first World War was still being fought; he lived to see men walk on the moon, and 2001 itself. He was the last of the “Big Three,” along with Heinlein and Asimov; it is impossible to overstate his influence on science fiction. His book 2010 contained the first depiction of bisexuality treated as an everyday occurrence that I ever read; he originated the notion of geostationary satellites as telecommunications relays... I’m too upset to go on. Rest in peace, Sir Arthur.
