2008 March 19 | Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for March 19th, 2008

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Renowned Science Fiction Author and Futurist, Dead at 90

Written by John Erianne on March 19, 2008 – 2:43 pm -

“Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what’s over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without food than without information. Without information, you’d go crazy.” – Arthur C. Clarke

I am saddened, as I’m sure many are, at the news Arthur C. Clarke is dead. Even though his death was not unexpected, it’s still unsettling. We just don’t produce writers or visionaries like Clarke anymore. There’s a hole in the world this morning.

The first time I read Clarke, I was 12, almost 13. Seventh grade. I remember sitting in the Woodruff School library reading “The Nine Billion Names of God”. I was supposed to be writing a report on lions and I was hiding the storybook behind Volume “L” of the Encycopedia Britanica, away from the watchful eyes of my teacher and the school librarian. I’m sure I got more of an education from that one short story than I ever got from writing that report on lions. Clarke opened my eyes up to possibility. He engaged my imagination and my sense of wonder and for that I’ll always be grateful.

Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England in 1917. He later served in World War II as a radar specialist, which inspired his one, non-SF novel, Glide Path and lead to his idea that geostational satellites could be used as communication relays. He was also involved in the early development of satellite technology.

His prolific writing career began in the 1940’s in the SF fanzines of the era. In addition to 2001, he is best-known for the novels, Childhood’s End and Rendevous with Rama. In his later years, his declining health forced him to write with the help of collaborators such as Gregory Benford and Stephen Baxter.

As a writer, scientist and a human being, he committed himself to the notion that humans would eventually evolve and grow out of their basers selves and that a more hopeful future was possible. If more of us shared his vision, it just might be.