Arthur C. Clarke dies 18 Mar 2008 When I was about 8, I read in a newspaper that one of my favourite short stories, “The Sentinel”, by Arthur C. Clarke, was to be made into a movie by some film maker I never heard of. I had to wait 5 years to see 2001, A Space Odyssey. The last of the golden age science fiction writers, who thought that anything was possible, has died. Fiction General Science History
History The founder of the history of ideas 18 Feb 2010 Gary Nelson has pointed me at this article on Arthur Lovejoy, the founder of the history of ideas movement that I count myself part of. It is an interesting take on what Lovejoy was doing, a kind of cultural evolution historiography. Read More
History History in schools 13 Oct 2008 As I recall it, Australian history was deadly dull. Most of it could have been taught in a single half-year, with time to cover the second world war to spare. That’s what happens when a very few individuals live on a continent for (at that time) less than two centuries,… Read More
Evolution Taxonomists and bad history 21 Feb 200818 Sep 2017 In a recent paper on biological nomenclature in Zoologica Scripta, Michel Laurin makes the following comment about the stability of Linnean ranks: However, taxa of the rank of family, genus or species are not more stable. … This sad situation should not surprise us because the ranks, on which the… Read More
I was lucky enough to see 2001 once in the full original Cinerama format. It was the nearest thing to a transcendental religious experience I’ve ever had. Clarke may not have been the greatest writer of dialogue or character but he created worlds of the near future with a vividness and clarity that grabbed my imagination in a way that few other have equalled. It is a sad loss.
I saw the movie in 1968 at the Cinerama theater in Los Angeles and I still remember how stunned my friends and I were by the experience. While it may seem dated and ho-hum now, at the time it was fresh, sometimes beautiful, thought provoking and just a little confusing. Clark also wrote one of my favorite science fiction books, “Rendevous with Rama”.
I saw the movie in 1968 at the Cinerama theater in Los Angeles and I still remember how stunned my friends and I were by the experience. While it may seem dated and ho-hum now, at the time it was fresh, sometimes beautiful, thought provoking and just a little confusing. Clark also wrote one of my favorite science fiction books, “Rendevous with Rama”.
I saw the movie in 1968 at the Cinerama theater in Los Angeles and I still remember how stunned my friends and I were by the experience. While it may seem dated and ho-hum now, at the time it was fresh, sometimes beautiful, thought provoking and just a little confusing. Clark also wrote one of my favorite science fiction books, “Rendevous with Rama”.
I saw the movie in 1968 at the Cinerama theater in Los Angeles and I still remember how stunned my friends and I were by the experience. While it may seem dated and ho-hum now, at the time it was fresh, sometimes beautiful, thought provoking and just a little confusing. Clark also wrote one of my favorite science fiction books, “Rendevous with Rama”.
He was one of the great visionaries. The Fountains of Paradise is still one of my favourite novels. But there’s at least one Golden Age writer still kicking about… Ray Bradbury is alive.
He was one of the great visionaries. The Fountains of Paradise is still one of my favourite novels. But there’s at least one Golden Age writer still kicking about… Ray Bradbury is alive.
He was one of the great visionaries. The Fountains of Paradise is still one of my favourite novels. But there’s at least one Golden Age writer still kicking about… Ray Bradbury is alive.
I happened across The City And The Stars in a used book store last year. I had read the book when I was about fifteen, but I didn’t have any specific impression of it. Rereading it last year, I was stunned at what a moving work it was. I’ve been a big fan of Clarke ever since I read Rendezvous with Rama when I was about ten years old. His later work (the stuff with Gentry Lee comes to mind) was disappointing, but his work during his prime stands as some of the greatest achievements in Science Fiction.
I share your perspective, John. I too “met” Arthur Charles Clarke when I hadn’t run out of fingers to count my age. I came to regard him, as well as certain other authors and scientists as friends. Because they either wrote lucid accounts of the latest discoveries or they were there at their first conception. Clarke did both. I will miss him not only for his memories sake, but for the things he didn’t live to say. Now it is up to us.
I share your perspective, John. I too “met” Arthur Charles Clarke when I hadn’t run out of fingers to count my age. I came to regard him, as well as certain other authors and scientists as friends. Because they either wrote lucid accounts of the latest discoveries or they were there at their first conception. Clarke did both. I will miss him not only for his memories sake, but for the things he didn’t live to say. Now it is up to us.
I was one of the few in my crowd who read the book 2001 before seeing the movie. Consequently, I was the one who got to explain WTH was going on to all my friends. But I was a Clarke addict from then on, until at least my 20s.