Arthur C Clarke dies

[WhiteCrow]

In a way you can never get too upset about someone dying at the age of 90.

Nevertheless, this feels like the world has lost another of it's legends.

Arthur C Clarkes 2010 was the first serious Sci-Fi novel I read, and it gave me an incredible taste for it. As I got to know and enjoy his works it fueled my dreams of writing and for science.

So this news today feels like losing an icon and a mentor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7304004.stm

Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

He came to fame when his story was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, by director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, become a full-time writer in the 1940s.

After a failed marriage he moved to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, in 1956, where he lived, with a business partner and his family, and pursued his interest in scuba-diving.

[Stephen Morgan]

The great science writer Arthur C Clarke has died from breathing problems. He had been confined to a wheelchair for several years after a diagnosis of a form of polio.

Obviously his writings will live on, 2001 A Space Oddysey and 2010 being the most well known.

No doubt someone here will post a link to the BBC news on this.

RIP Arthur.


edited to add If someone wants to delete this thread, I didn't see the thread already started in the book forum.

[SiHart]

He had a great life and wrote many great stories- even I've read some Arthur C Clarke. The way he predicted some of the developments that we take for granted now- satellites and mobile phones was quite amazing really.

Of course I'll really remember him for the TV show The Mysterious World of Arthur C Clarke back in the early 80s.

RIP

Si xx

[Stephen Morgan]

Of course I'll really remember him for the TV show The Mysterious World of Arthur C Clarke back in the early 80s.

RIP

Si xx

That's the one. I was in work and didn't have time to go trawling the net to find his TV work, and I just couldn't think of it. Thanks Si.

[Rob McCow]

The great grandaddy of sci-fi has gone off on his last journey. :'(

Time will tell if he's been reborn as a 'star-child'.

[Philipnet]

RIP

Last Message from Arthur C. Clark - A Voice from Beyond
Visionary, Arthur C. Clark's recording from December 2007:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4db_1205893786&p=1

[Larry]

Of course I'll really remember him for the TV show The Mysterious World of Arthur C Clarke back in the early 80s.

RIP

Si xx

I certainly remember watching that - but 90 years old is a pretty good age to live to..

[WhiteCrow]

I certainly remember watching that - but 90 years old is a pretty good age to live to..

Yes - in a way it should be a celebration of an extra-ordinary man.

[Dirk Gently]

This is sad news even if he did live to a great age.
I know him for his famous 2001 & 2010 books/films but also for the concept of the geostationary communications satellite which was first proposed by Arthur C. Clarke in October 1945, published in an article titled “Extra-terrestrial Relays” in the British magazine Wireless World. The article described the fundamentals behind the deployment of artificial satellites in geostationary orbits for the purpose of relaying radio signals. Thus Arthur C. Clarke is often quoted as being the inventor of the communications satellite.*
Genius is an over used word these days but Arthur truly was. A brilliant mind used.

R.I.P Arthur.



*Thanks to wiki for the exact info.

[michael]

RIP

Last Message from Arthur C. Clark - A Voice from Beyond
Visionary, Arthur C. Clark's recording from December 2007:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4db_1205893786&p=1

wow like this
sad day
RIP sir arther c clark

[Carol Baynes]

A real shame- the man was a legend in his field. Just recently read "Rondevouz with Rama" again, although it's his short stories that I will always love him for. He never took it all too seriously either, and could write an off-beat story like "Trouble with the natives" decades before Douglas Adams and his like.

With Asimov and Heinlein gone, he was the last of the truly great and prolific 20th century sci-fi writers really. RIP Arthur.

[Captain Tancredi]

Here's hoping that somebody's given him all the answers to the Mysterious World. I think the key thing with Clarke is that he could write some very influential novels but at the same time keep one foot very firmly in the scientific and technical camp without losing his readability.

Having also been to Minehead for several holidays when I was very little, I hope they make some kind of memorial to him there- it's a quiet little seaside town with a little fishing harbour, and not at all the kind of place you'd expect to produce somebody who influences the very way that people around the world communicate.

[WhiteCrow]

Ironically I was only thinking of Arthur C Clarke.

I had a great mentor in my physics teacher Mr Sneyd. I think I was the first pupil in a long time to take a serious interest in the subject, and he became one of those really great tutors to me which everyone should have.

It was he who first guided me towards Arthur C Clarke as suggested reading. So Mr Sneyd and Arthur C Clarke always got a bit entwined in my head.

Mr Sneyd finally retired at 65 in 1989 when I when to University. He still played a part in my life, advising me on my career choice of becoming a teacher like him in 1994, but alas we fell out of contact after that.

It was kind of sad last week when I realised there's a good chance he's now dead, and all those chances to catch up on my life and the places Physics have taken me are now gone. And now the writer we talked about so much is gone as well.

I know I say this a bit, but it's one of those moments where you feel you've lost another piece of your childhood. The memory of it is a warm joy, but it's sad to know "that's it".

[Rob McCow]

There's a whole stack of his books I've never read.

I'm starting with 'Childhood's End' today

[Philipnet]

[Carol Baynes]

Brilliant!

RIP Arthur.