R.I.P. Sir Arthur C Clarke

Ace Garp · Post by **Ace Garp** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:24 pm

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but thought that many on this forum would miss this great man.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... rke119.xml

"My God - it's full of stars!"

See you on Rama Sir.

Post by **Disembodied** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:32 am

Sad news. Clarke provided me with a lot of my early SF reading, from his Big Idea stuff like The Fountains of Paradise to short stories like "The Nine Billion Names of God". Plus, of course, being both boggled and mesmerised by 2001 when I was about 12.

Lestradae · Post by **Lestradae** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:02 am

A salute to Arthur C. Clarke!

He was a great & visionary SF-writer in my eyes, especially the 2001 - 2010 - 2061 - 3001 series!

And his saying ...

Any technology advanced enough is virtually indistinguishable from magic.

... will no doubt be immortalised - it has already created a new word, namely "Clarketech" for devices so advanced that their function seems miraculous to the untrained observer.

Let`s hope they froze his brain or something, that would fit

L

Wolfwood · Post by **Wolfwood** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:15 am

Indeed, Clarke was one of my top favourite authors when I was a teenager and I used to read his books occasionally even thereafter whenever a new one got out (not that often) or I found one that I had not read yet.

His influence on the SF genre cannot be denied.

R.I.P.

RustiSwordz · Post by **RustiSwordz** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:52 am

Cya Clarkie dude, you gave us a hell of a ride with your stories.

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:15 am

RustiSwordz wrote:
Cya Clarkie dude, you gave us a hell of a ride with your stories.

Well said

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:48 am

RIP.

I'll surely miss him

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 5:48 pm

Not to mention that Commodore Clarke was the one who took the Blue Danube Waltz and turned it into the Space Craft Waltz - without which the Elite Docking Waltz wouldn't exist.

He's a man who was responsible for a big part of what would become the Atmosphere of our favourite game.

Rest in Peace, Commodore, and watch out for that big black monolith just outside Jupiter...oh, I see you found it. Someone call a Moray!

goran · Post by **goran** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:35 pm

My english isn't nearly good enough to express my feelings for Mr. Clarke.

I've been reading his work since childhood. This left a big hole in my heart.

Wolfwood · Post by **Wolfwood** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:58 am

Sit Arthur C Clarke's 90th birthday speech can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLdeEjdbWE

Seems to me that he knew that his time was to come soon...

Star Gazer · Post by **Star Gazer** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:20 am

Yep, he was one of the greats of SciFi, and gave so many of us such great pleasure through his numerous books.

I was introduced to his books when I was just 9 or 10 by my elder brother; he, Asimov, Heinlein, A.E.Van Vogt, Bradbury, and others shaped my love of space exploration and all things futuristic over the following years.

Even now, 50 years later, I thank them for the excitement and wonder they brought to my life.

Post by **Disembodied** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:39 pm

Ohh, Ray Bradbury... I remember getting The Illustrated Man when I was about 8 or 9, and being immensely impressed that the author's name was bigger than the title on the cover, which seemed a big deal to me then. I think my favourite story was "Kaliedoscope". Still one of my favourites, really, and it inspired the ending to the movie Dark Star. Which itself features one of the best pieces of SF music ever, in the song "Benson, Arizona": a Country and Western number about love, loss and relativistic time dilation.

Now the years pull us apart,
I'm young and now you're old...

Lives and loves where time is stretched and compressed are sad, but just one of those things to be faced up to... I first heard the song some years before Elite came out, when Dark Star was shown on TV in an all-too-brief BBC2 season of SF films that included 2001, and I wanted to live and work and travel in space, not as a NASA astronaut but as an ordinary working stiff. I still do. Which is why I play Oolite.

If anyone hasn't heard "Benson, Arizona", there's an MP3 online here. It's an excellent accompaniment to a lazy slide in from the Witchpoint to the station.

Sorry, I digress: but I'd like to think that Clarke would have got a kick out of this song. It suggests that interstellar flight has become normal, ingrained into the culture where the incredible becomes the everyday, and I think he'd appreciate that!

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:02 pm

Dark Star.........what a brilliant movie!

Commander Mysenses · Post by **Commander Mysenses** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:47 pm

Disembodied wrote:
Dark Star. Which itself features one of the best pieces of SF music ever, in the song "Benson, Arizona": a Country and Western number about love, loss and relativistic time dilation.

My vote goes to Queen's - '39 (from A Night at the Opera) for a dose of hokey 70's relativistic time dilation! (written by Brian May Ph.D. ... who'da thunk it!)