Arthur C Clark bids goodbye

[Cobalt Greywalker]

The famous author has died, aged 90

Click here for the BBC page

[Logan Darklighter]

Damn. Not exactly unexpected, but still. Damn.

His stuff wasn't as consistently FUN as the other 2 Grand Old Men Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. To me anyway. But I think more of it influenced
everything ELSE in my life (movies, comic books, the internet) then any other sci-fi author ever.

Salute, Sir Clarke.

[robkelk]

I remember when I was much, much younger than I am now, and I had teachers that encouraged me to read whatever books I wanted to. I found some interesting
books in the grade-school library, over in the shelves meant for students more than a few grades ahead of me... and more than a few of the really interesting
ones were written by Arthur C. Clarke. If it wasn't for his books (and books like them by the other two Grand Old Men of Science Fiction, Asimov and
Heinlein), I'd be a completely different person with completely different values, and nowhere near as much of an understanding of science.

I never took the time to thank him for setting me on the right path. And now I can't.

(And if there isn't at least one webcomic that shows a flat-black 1:4:9 tombstone in the next few days, then there's no justice in this world...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[DHBirr]

I think it's appropriate here to repeat one of my comments on the death of Dave Stevens -- and all the other luminaries who've left us recently:

Somebody needs to figure out what Fantasy-and-Science-Fiction-hating S.O.B. got his hands on a Death Note, and take it away from
him!

-----
Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[Epsilon]

robkelk wrote:


(And if there isn't at least one webcomic that shows a flat-black 1:4:9 tombstone in the next few days, then there's no justice in this world...)

1+3+5...

I think he would have liked that.

-----------------

Epsilon

[Bob Schroeck]

(I'm doing that entirely too often these days.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Logan Darklighter]

Over on the Hero System boards, someone posted about this. I'm copying my replay here as well. 

Originally Posted by FenrisUlf
Is anyone even left from the Golden Age of SF, or have they all left this life?

Robert Heinlein
Isaac Asimov
Arthur C Clarke

Those three men were commonly thought of as "the three grand old men of Sci Fi", or some other sobriquet similar.

Some would herald Bradbury as one of them. Others dispute that (as above).

It's not that they were one and all the oldest or the first. It's that between the three of them, they did more to popularize Science Fiction, and more importantly, to popularize SCIENCE itself, to the generation that came after them.

Many many young engineers who worked on the Apollo program and later the Shuttle programs cited one or more of them as inspiration. Asimov himself was almost as well known for his NON-fiction science books and essays as for his Science Fiction stories.

I look at them this way.

Heinlein made science and space travel look adventurous and fun. Sparking younger imaginations. When you were a kid, you wanted to live in Heinlein's worlds. You knew things could be fantastic because he made you believe it.

Asimov, the perfect science teacher, explained things most clearly and could hold your interest in doing so. If you had him as a science teacher in high school, you'd want to DO things with the understanding he gave you.

Clarke may have been the one with the most ambitious ideas though. His stuff was the sort of thing that made you stop, put the book down for a moment, and think about the implications to the mind and perhaps even the soul. He's the College professor that turns your world upside down.

Now they are all gone. Is the world poorer for their passing? Not as long as their work endures. And not as long as we remember.

Sir Clarke would probably have thought of a prayer for him to be foolish. (Though I'll say one anyway.)

But I think he would have greatly respected the continuity of memory. So I will say - I will remember you sir. And I will pass on that memory to MY next generation so that they remember you as well.

[ECSNorway]

What Logan said.

I still have a collection of Asimov's science essays, and I got into reading sci-fi on the strength of those three greats. They will all be dearly missed.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[robkelk]

(And if there isn't at least one webcomic that shows a flat-black 1:4:9 tombstone in the next few days, then there's no justice in this world...)

There's justice in this world.

--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012