OT: Arthur C. Clarke Dies

[Don]

There were two kinds of science fiction writers. One side of the coin was L. Ron Hubbard and the other side was Arthur C. Clarke. I think every one has seen 2001 once in their life. This guy was really a great visionary when it came to science and space.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm

[Moon Beam]

Awww this is sadly but I'm glad he lived a nice long life.
Thanks for posting of this Gunbot.

[Monker]

There were two kinds of science fiction writers. One side of the coin was L. Ron Hubbard and the other side was Arthur C. Clarke. I think every one has seen 2001 once in their life. This guy was really a great visionary when it came to science and space.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm

Well, the two sides are HG Wells and Jules Verne. Athur C. Clarke firmly planted his fiction in real science...which puts him on the Jules Verne side of the coin.

Quite honestly, 2001 left me with a "WTF was that?" It was not until I read the book that the movie made sense. I found later that the two were written at the same time. You really only know half the story if you only saw the movie.

It's ironic too, because I recently DVR'd 2001, and was thinking threst of the series should be made into movies.

[Arkansas]

Probably what we really need to know is, what music did he listen to while in his 80s?
Did he listen to all the current crap, or all the old crap. Or maybe, did he listen to that which meant something to him at some point in his life?

I'd really like to know his thoughts on how music has changed.
Maybe he didn't like music at all. Maybe his 'music' was his writings & musings...?

Just throwing out food for thot...related to another thread. Apologies.


later~

[MartyMoffatt]

Clarke, along with Asimov, were my two favourite authors. These two, more than ANYBODY else, put the science in science fiction. But they did so with humour and with an easy writing style that made complicated subjects make sense. Now they're both gone and the SF genre is much poorer for it.

Marty

[Gordon from Edinburgh]

There were two kinds of science fiction writers. One side of the coin was L. Ron Hubbard and the other side was Arthur C. Clarke. I think every one has seen 2001 once in their life. This guy was really a great visionary when it came to science and space.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm

Arthur CClarke - was a great author - i enjoyed pretty much everything he wrote - and his plans for satellite communication were visionary.

[Gordon from Edinburgh]

Clarke, along with Asimov, were my two favourite authors. These two, more than ANYBODY else, put the science in science fiction. But they did so with humour and with an easy writing style that made complicated subjects make sense. Now they're both gone and the SF genre is much poorer for it.

Marty

Yes Marty, Asimov was great too - i find myself re-reading the Foundation novels and wondering why these were never made into blockbusters like Lord of the Rings - or even done like the Martian Chronicles were back in the late 70's/early 80's. And his short stories were great bite size chunks of sci fi.

[MartyMoffatt]

Yes Marty, Asimov was great too - i find myself re-reading the Foundation novels and wondering why these were never made into blockbusters like Lord of the Rings - or even done like the Martian Chronicles were back in the late 70's/early 80's. And his short stories were great bite size chunks of sci fi.

Yes, Asimov produced some great work. I’ve been collecting his books for some years now and currently have around 100. However, as he was one of the most prolific authors ever and wrote something like 500 books in his lifetime, plus countless articles and short stories, I still have a long way to go to get the complete collection. Only a fraction of these were science fiction (he also wrote a lot of non fiction, joke books, mystery novels, encyclopaedias etc) but his science fiction stands out as the leader in its genre, along with Clarke’s.

Funnily enough, I’ve just re-read the Foundation series (for the umpteenth time) – I agree it is a travesty that the story has never been taken up for the big screen. Although, thinking about it maybe that’s a good thing. The movies made such a hash of his book ‘Nightfall’. ‘I Robot’ fared only slightly better. And the other great ‘galactic empire’ set of novels - the ‘Dune’ series by Frank Herbert - also got completely screwed up when they tried to convert it to the big screen.

Clarke on the other hand struck lucky in having Kubrick adapt his book to the big screen. Actually there are question marks as to which came first, as both book and film were developed together and fed off each other, although Clarke’s short story The Sentinel was certainly the original inspiration. Nevertheless, the film is a classic and still ranks as one of the best and most iconic science fiction films ever made. The follow up ‘2010’ is also very good.

Marty

[FinnFreak]

Probably what we really need to know is, what music did he listen to while in his 80s?
Did he listen to all the current crap, or all the old crap. Or maybe, did he listen to that which meant something to him at some point in his life?

He once sent a telegram from Sri Lanka congratulating the UK prog band Marillion on the release of their album This Strange Engine (1997).

Marillion's keyboard player Mark Kelly told the media that the band was flattered and that they would be game to do the soundtrack to a film adaptation of "2061."

I believe Arthur C. Clarke is also listed in the pre-order credits of Anoraknophobia (2001). Not sure about Marbles (2004).

"Childhoods End" is also a song by Marillion on their album Misplaced Childhood (1985).


also:




Mike Oldfield - The Songs of Distant Earth is an album, written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's novel Songs of Distant Earth.

Songs such as "Supernova" and "Hibernaculum" could be seen as similar or even influenced by Enigma, while "New Beginning" has ethnic world chants in the style of Deep Forest. There are also Native American and Scandinavian Saami influences on the album. However to be fair, Mike Oldfield had been using a variety of ethnic musical styles since the 1970s, long before the emergence of Enigma or Deep Forest in the early 1990s.

The booklet of the album features a foreword by Arthur C. Clarke about the evolution of Songs of Distant Earth from short story to novel. It ends with the following about the album:

"Since the finale of the novel is a musical concert, I was delighted when Mike Oldfield told me that he wished to compose a suite inspired by it. I was particularly impressed by the music he wrote for The Killing Fields and now, having played the CD of The Songs of Distant Earth, I feel he has lived up to my expectations.

Welcome back into space, Mike: there's still lots of room out here."

This was not the first time that Mike's music had been connected with the books of Arthur C. Clarke.

Prior to The Songs of Distant Earth, Mike had released Tubular Bells II, which featured a track called "Sentinel" — which also happened to be the title of a short story written by Arthur C. Clarke that later evolved into his most famous work, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another track from Tubular Bells II was called "Sunjammer". The Arthur C. Clarke short story, The Wind From The Sun, had the working title of "Sunjammer".

[Enigma869]

Arthur C. Clarke was also directly responsible for the development of geostationary satellite technology (Think DirecTV). He had quite the life! I thank Clarke every Sunday when I fire up the NFL Sunday Ticket


John from Boston

[Liquid_Drummer]

I have seen 2001 and 2010. I have read 2001, 2010, 2031 and 3001. Huge fan here. He did have a nice long life..... RIP.

[mistiejourney]

Clarke, along with Asimov, were my two favourite authors. These two, more than ANYBODY else, put the science in science fiction. But they did so with humour and with an easy writing style that made complicated subjects make sense. Now they're both gone and the SF genre is much poorer for it.

Marty

Agreed. My bookshelves are full of Clarke and Asimov. He had a long life, but he will still be missed.