Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Arthur C. Clarke

Moon / Luna
Moon / Luna
Originally uploaded by . SantiMB .
I haven't checked out Twitter for ages and when I finally logged into Twitter last night, one of the first messages I read was from David Warlick who was sharing news of Arthur C. Clarke's death.

I think Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov shaped my early reading habits more than any other authors. They helped create and feed my appreciation of Science Fiction. Arthur C. Clarke is also the source of my favourite technology quote:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I've got loads of things I should be doing tonight... but one of my tasks will be to go down to the extension and retrieve something of his to re-read.


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3 comments:

Developer said...

David,

You are one of several folks in our community who have claimed that Clarke helped them to become readers. It was certainly the case for me, him and Robert Heinlein.

I'm actually not so much of a science fiction reader now, though I've gone through works by Greg Bear and the Canadian SciFi star, Robert J. Sawyer. The Hominid trilogy gave me a lot to think about, regarding us as a species.

Thanks for the link and glad to have you back on Twitter!

Unknown said...

Hello David
Like you, I will revisit some of Arthur C's work this weekend, Rendezvous with Rama possibly. I too read SF avidly, and in my student days amassed a great library of SF paperbacks, (for around 20p a time), many of which are now, sadly, beginning to disintegrate.

What might be said about most, if not all SF writers is "they got it", they interpreted the human condition past, present and future through technological metaphor and allegory, whilst predicting, (and in the case of Athur C- shaping) many of the technologies we have around us,. They predicted outcomes - whether, dystopian or utopian, that at the time seemed wild fantasy, but are now beginning to materialise.

David said...

Hello David

Heinlein... grief, how could I forget Heinlein? As for modern SF writers, I'd highly recommend Iain M Banks with Feersum Endjinn being one of my favourites.


Hello Theo

I was just saying to my daughters the other day how Glasow seemed to be turning into Blade Runner!