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Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90 in Sir Lanka

The Rover

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The Rover

The Rover

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arthur_c_clarke_portre.jpg

From ABC News:

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.

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956, lured by his interest in marine diving which he said was as close as he could get to the weightless feeling of space.

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

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From CNN-

He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite, the first of which were launched in the early 1960s. But he never patented the idea, prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled, "How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time.

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MadScreamingGallery

MadScreamingGallery

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Thanks for posting that news Rover. My husband and I have been huge fans of Arthur C. Clarke for decades. We were first introduced to his work, as kids, when we saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" (still one of our favorite films). When we were teaching overseas, we always had at least one student who was a fan of Clarke - it didn't matter what country or language or culture - there was always at least one kid who was captured by Clarke's imagination. In our opinion, he was one of the most creative, interesting, and influential minds of the 20th century. I scanned our bookshelves tonight and realized how many of his books reside there. We will miss him. I wonder if he will be cremated and his ashes launched into space.

The permalink below is to a three-page obit in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/books/19...xprod=permalink

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SunChild

SunChild

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Thanks for posting that news Rover. My husband and I have been huge fans of Arthur C. Clarke for decades. We were first introduced to his work, as kids, when we saw "2001: A Space Odyssey" (still one of our favorite films). When we were teaching overseas, we always had at least one student who was a fan of Clarke - it didn't matter what country or language or culture - there was always at least one kid who was captured by Clarke's imagination. In our opinion, he was one of the most creative, interesting, and influential minds of the 20th century. I scanned our bookshelves tonight and realized how many of his books reside there. We will miss him. I wonder if he will be cremated and his ashes launched into space.

The permalink below is to a three-page obit in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/books/19...xprod=permalink

Thanks for that.

I was introduced to Clarke when we studied "Childhood's End" in school, and have always loved him, too.

The obit reminded me that one of my favorite quotes is from him, I'd forgotten:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

RIP to a man ahead of his time.

i would say "what a loss", but that's not true. he left behind so much.

That's lovely, and true.

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Victor

Victor

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An amazing visionary. 2001 has remained one of my favourite films of all time. The book still leaves me stunned after all those years.

His books were so scientifically accurate and realistic that when something strange happened it really blew you away.

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dragster

dragster

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An amazing visionary. 2001 has remained one of my favourite films of all time. The book still leaves me stunned after all those years.

His books were so scientifically accurate and realistic that when something strange happened it really blew you away.

I couldn't have said it better!! :)

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Gainsbarre

Gainsbarre

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An amazing visionary. 2001 has remained one of my favourite films of all time. The book still leaves me stunned after all those years.

His books were so scientifically accurate and realistic that when something strange happened it really blew you away.

It's quite an interesting story, the writing of 2001.

In 1964, Kubrick was interested in making a sci-fi picture, and he was having lunch at Trader Vic's in New York with Roger Caras, the Columbia Pictures publicist assigned to Kubrick's recently released Dr Strangelove.

Anyway during the lunch Kubrick mentioned he wanted to make a Sci-fi film, and Caras just happened to be a close friend of Arthur C Clarke, who, it must be noted, was not considered an important or great science-fiction writer at the time, and wasn't held in the same regard as Isaac Asimov.

Biographer John Baxter wrote:

"Clarke's appeal had always been largely in the British market, and though he had a reputation for scientific extrapolation, based on his early interest in rocketry and a lucky guess about the use of synchronous satellites in worldwide communications, other speculations, like horizontally-launched rockets, a Mars that resembled the Sahara desert, and whales being farmed like cows, were more often wrong. Most recently, his 1961 Novel 'A Fall of Moondust" had speculated that the moon was covered so deeply in talcum-fine dust that vehicles could be engulfed in its drifts...working with Kubrick would be the making of Clarke. It elevated him from the front-rank of second-rate science fiction writers to someone who, as a speaker put it in welcoming him to a 1976 MIT symposium, 'is the only person I know who can be unambiguously introduced by a four digit number - 2001'""

But Roger Caras, being Clarke's friend, suggested to Kubrick that Clarke be the one to write the script. Kubrick believed Clarke to be a recluse living in the jungle, but he was assured that Clarke travelled to New York often and only lived in Sri Lanka because his long-time companion Mike Wilson operated a skindiving business on the island.

So Kubrick read some of Clarke's books, and decided he liked "Childhood's End" the best, but found out that Abraham Polonksy had already taken out a cinematic option on the story. Clarke suggested to Kubrick he base the film on little-know short story he'd written that he entered into a BBC competition in 1948.

Kubrick agreed, and The Sentinel became what the film was officially based on, however, the film in reality was based on a combination of The Sentinel, Childhood's End, and what Kubrick and Clarke drafted up themselves.

However as the script developed in the pre-production phase, the story of 2001 more and more became a collaboration between Kubrick and Clarke.

When the script was finished and shooting began, Clarke began writing the book based on the script. He wanted to have it written and published before the film came out. However Kubrick had to have final approval on the book and what Clarke had written. Kubrick used this power to hold up the book until after the film's release, by continually sending Clarke back to re-write it. This dragge don as the film production dragged on. Principal Photography on the movie was finished by mid-1966, however the film itself wasn't released til April 1968. Kubrick took his time developing the special effects. During the production of the film, Kubrick also decided that the movie worked better in virtual silence, so the majority of the dialogue was cut along with all of the planned narration.

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SunChild

SunChild

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[snippage of pictures]

And from the Jimmy Page Fantasy Sequence in TSRTS:

The Star Child

And from the musical prelude for the The Firm Tour:

But... 'borrowed' from the King:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rw43UwCIh8

Heh. (Oh, yeah - sneer at me, honey... The King indeed. :wub: )

Wow, never really made that connection before. If Elvis's costume was white velvet with dragons and poppies, hmmm...

So, dare I say it, but it's really thanks to Kubrick that Arthur C Clarke is remembered...

Maybe, as well remembered as he is. His books and stories are good on their own.

(It's time to watch 2001 again!)

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Gainsbarre

Gainsbarre

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Maybe, as well remembered as he is. His books and stories are good on their own.

(It's time to watch 2001 again!)

I don't know, my personal belief is that the reason why 2001 is so good is more to do with Kubrick than Clarke

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