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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
On Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:34:31 -0700, Ron Wanttaja wrote:
My personal opinion is that Clarke fall excelled in the extrapolation of technology and predicting what the scientific/human impacts would be. However, the *people* in his novels always seemed pretty stiff. Heinlein was better with characterization; inventing interesting people to interact with the technology. Reading Clarke, in the early 60s I thought that was the way the advanced, scientific community, ultimately the populace, was to be. Focused, time concerned, mission oriented. When I watched 2001 (1970?), the characters were wooden, almost unreal. The emotional star was a computer, I took from these characterizations that this was the world I would grow old and accustomed. Analytical and godless. The earliest Clarke novel I remember reading is "A Fall of Moondust," as a Reader's Digest Condensed book back in the '50s or '60s. Though I read it many times and remember the plot real well, I remember little about the characters. But I can see a Heinlein title and say, "That's the one with the guy who...." Ron Wanttaja My first Clarke was a RD and it set RD apart from all other subscription magazines at the time. From then to here, RD jokes and articles to email, globalization of communication. I know for a fact that my own fascination with the future, and interest in technologies, spawned directly from the works of Clarke and those like him. -- |
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
On Mar 21, 9:34 pm, Ron Wanttaja wrote:
My personal opinion is that Clarke fall excelled in the extrapolation of technology and predicting what the scientific/human impacts would be. However, the *people* in his novels always seemed pretty stiff. Heinlein was better with characterization; inventing interesting people to interact with the technology. That's an interesting observation because my feeling about Heinein was that he had about four characters altogether. He'd insert them in every story in the ways that they needed to be used to keep the tale moving. That's what made them so much fun to read when I was 12 or so, I suppose. The earliest Clarke novel I remember reading is "A Fall of Moondust," as a Reader's Digest Condensed book back in the '50s or '60s. Though I read it many times and remember the plot real well, I remember little about the characters. But I can see a Heinlein title and say, "That's the one with the guy who...." My first was the probably "Island in the Sky," but I read "A Fall of Moondust" and would love to have that RDCB version because of the illustrations. It would make a good movie. And I remember clearly NONE of the "Moondust" characters, but the characters in "Island" I will never forget. I felt like I knew the crew of "Rocket Ship Galileo," but all I remember of other Heinlein characters is the Martian flatcat. Neither of them wrote about aviation, did they? Sci-fi was always space. Mike |
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
Jim Logajan wrote:
"Lawrence" wrote: "WJRFlyBoy" wrote in message .. . I was told that to best see Clarke's brilliance, read Heinlien. I never did. Got talked into Tolkein. Mistake, ymmv. -- That's interesting, I'd never heard that before. News to me too. I've read Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, and a host of others. Heinlein did as good a job at the science as Clarke, IMHO - particularly in his "juveniles". For example, Heinlein's explanation of space suit requirements in "Have Space Suit, will Travel" was instructive to me when I read it in my early teens. (The idea of a used rocket dealership in "Rolling Stones" caught my fancy too. Man, where does one go to buy a good used nuclear powered VTOL rocket when you want to go to Mars to picnic on the edge of Valles Marineris?) If you'd like to relive a little of the old Heinlein "kids and science fiction" stuff, try Jerry Pournelle's new book "Starswarm". |
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:57:25 -0400, WJRFlyBoy wrote:
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:05:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote: Neither of them wrote about aviation, did they? Sci-fi was always space. There was that cool scene in 2001 on the Pan Am spaceplane flight where the food went weightless, does that count? My parents took me to see 2001 when it released (I was four at the time) and I've probably watched it another half a dozen times on TV. So, I made a point to purchase the DVD and watch it again in 2001 (wife and I watched it New Years Eve 2000) and what amazed me was how BAD the acting/ characters were (except HAL of course). The other thing that I found almost humorous is how the "Iconic" names that were splashed around like AT&T, Pan Am and IBM (oh, noooooo, HAL is NOT a play on IBM) are either gone or shadows of their former selves. |
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
On 23 Mar 2008 12:10:39 GMT, WayneC wrote:
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:57:25 -0400, WJRFlyBoy wrote: On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 07:05:00 -0700 (PDT), wrote: Neither of them wrote about aviation, did they? Sci-fi was always space. There was that cool scene in 2001 on the Pan Am spaceplane flight where the food went weightless, does that count? My parents took me to see 2001 when it released (I was four at the time) and I've probably watched it another half a dozen times on TV. So, I made a point to purchase the DVD and watch it again in 2001 (wife and I watched it New Years Eve 2000) and what amazed me was how BAD the acting/ characters were (except HAL of course). The other thing that I found almost humorous is how the "Iconic" names that were splashed around like AT&T, Pan Am and IBM (oh, noooooo, HAL is NOT a play on IBM) are either gone or shadows of their former selves. My wife ruins 2001 every time I put it on for the same reasons. All of which are true. -- Remove numbers for gmail and for God's sake it ain't "gee" either! I hesitate to add to this discussion because I'm not an instructor, just a rather slow student who's not qualified to give advice that might kill someone. |
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
Stumbled across the complete text to Clarke's short story "The Star" while
looking for something else: http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html I hadn't read that in over three decades. Great writing. Do they still make writers like that anymore? |
#28
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In Memoriam: Arthur C. Clarke
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