Early memories of Authur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke was laid to rest today. He leaves behind stark memories in the minds of many readers...at least he left them with me.

On my personal Clarke journey, it all started with Childhood's End. Long before Hollywood produced Independence Day Clarke wrote a vision of aliens taking over the earth with a visceral effect. I remember, as a kid, a gutsy teacher of mine having us read the book. It was one of the finest assignments I've ever received and it definitely piqued my interest in speculative fiction.

Although I went on to read many similar works, I think this was the first book of its kind I ever read. Needless to say, I became hooked and have since written my own speculative fiction.

Clarke assembed a fascinating mix of characteristics in his aliens. The book also had a compelling dramatic struggle that a reader seeks as well. In hindsight, I don't recall any romantic aspects in the story but Clarke was never known to write about women or love matters in an effective way. As a young lad, I'm sure I didn't really care about that at the time.

Also during my youth, I caught 2001: A Space Odyssey on television. My brother and I were avid film buffs as boys but the movie was out before our time. It was an intriguing film that had so much sub-text about society but I'm sure my first viewing was more "woah!" than meaningful commentary.

Clarke appeared on television and in interviews since I got a grip on his visionary nature. It kept me on the look out for his commentary. He truly understood science yet was able to keep humanity in context of the scientific implications. It is this mixture of capabilities that made him such a wonderful writer. It was a blessing that we had him around for so many years considering his health challenges.

To Arthur C. Clarke: Cheers!

Under-ice exploration in fiction

Arthur C. Clarke features Jupiter's moon Europa in his space fiction work 2010. Having a liquid surface covered with ice, Europa is a very intriguing target for exploration. Especially where finding life is the mission.

According to this post, we'll be exploring that very same moon with technology written about by Clarke. The prospect of finding life under the ice is looking even more promising lately. In support of these seemingly barren places actually holding the keys to life, new evidence is making it more of a likelihood.

A Darwin's Orphans entry last month features two recent articles on the subject: January 22nd post.

Science and fiction sometimes converge. Searching for life under the ice is now a hot topic. Technology such as this new underwater explorer called ENDURANCE is another step toward validating all of the speculation. I'm sure it'll be another decade or two before we learn more from such an edgy piece of equipment. But when we do it would be amazing if we saw Clarke's speculative fiction turn into reality.

It's this sort of imagination that makes these kinds of stories worth reading. We all wonder what will be and when a writer forecasts a future world in an accurate way, it makes the stories even more fascinating.

Cloning in fiction

Recent news of rhesus monkey cloning will motivate writers to again consider speculative fiction based on this technology. There is a rich collection of such stories and novels along this line and I'm certain more will follow.

Although not the first story to feature cloning, Ursula K. LeGuin wrote Nine Lives back in 1969. Six years later Arthur C. Clarke wrote Imperial Earth followed by Ben Bova's novel The Multiple Man a few years later -- great writers and some fascinating fiction that Hollywood would attach itself to many times over.

There is the classic mutation cloning movie The Island of Dr. Moreau. It was pretty creepy first time around and even weirder, in my opinion, when they brought in Brando for the remake decades later. One really good cloning film, however, is The Boys from Brazil. I watched it in the cinema when it came out in 1978 with lots of Hollywood buzz. Gregory Peck really nailed the part of the sinister Josef Mangele and Laurence Olivier was superb as Nazi hunter Lieberman. The movie was based on an Ira Levin novel that I have not yet read. If you have, feel free to post a comment here on it.

Yes, there is a wealth of cloning fiction out there -- much of it quite inventive. Although I don't personally have a story in mind revolving around such technology, I'm looking forward to reading the next one that does.

Arthur C. Clarke's sat-com future realized

In this post yesterday, Earth Times assesses future plans for satellite communications. Mirroring Arhtur C. Clarke's vision of 1945, a new European Commission is mapping out plans for MSS (Mobile Satellite Services) to expand them into a much broader usage.

The problem today impeding expansion is licensing. This EU commission is taking on this challenge in hopes of expanding the service range of satellites. You can read the article to get further details but what might this mean to you?

Imagine a world where you don't have to check that cell tower map when you travel to the hinterlands. With satellite phone communications, you wouldn't have to worry about such matters...a line of sight to the proper spot in the sky and you'd be all set...wherever you are. It would be life-enriching to be sure but it sounds like an economic conundrum for the time being.

Hopefully, we'll see a broad realization of Clarke's satellite communications vision. It's going to take some deft problem solvers to get us there.

Pratchett in the land of Oz

This article about comedic sci-fi author Terry Pratchett has some interesting quips. The Discworld Convention is going on in Melbourne and the reporter gets some comments from Pratchett -- the auteur of the renowned Discworld collection.

Most notable of his comments are:

-- How he met Arthur C. Clarke at a young age
-- Making social comments via sock puppets

It sounds like a fun event...a bit of a travel if you live in the U.S. though. Just the same, I'm glad that prolific writers can gather with their readers and coalesce over great fiction.

Fans of the series should feel free to comment here.