Begin forwarded message: > From: "Alyson L. Abramowitz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:35:29 PM US/Pacific >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/books/18cnd- >> clarke.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin >> >> March 18, 2008 >> Arthur C. Clarke, Premier Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90 >> By GERALD JONAS >> >> Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific >> expertise >> and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early >> Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He >> was 90. >> >> Rohan de Silva, an aide to Mr. Clarke, said the author died after >> experiencing breathing problems, The Associated Press reported. Mr. >> Clarke had post-polio syndrome for the last two decades and used a >> wheelchair. >> >> From his detailed forecast of telecommunications satellites in 1945, >> more than a decade before the first orbital rocket flight, to his >> co-creation, with the director Stanley Kubrick, of the classic science >> fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Mr. Clarke was both prophet and >> promoter of the idea that humanity’s destiny lay beyond the confines >> of >> Earth. >> >> Other early advocates of a space program argued that it would pay for >> itself by jump-starting new technology. Mr. Clarke set his sights >> higher. Paraphrasing William James, he suggested that exploring the >> solar system could serve as the “moral equivalent” of war, giving an >> outlet to energies that might otherwise lead to nuclear holocaust. >> >> Mr. Clarke’s influence on public attitudes toward space was >> acknowledged >> by American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts, by scientists like the >> astronomer Carl Sagan and by movie and television producers. Gene >> Roddenberry credited Mr. Clarke’s writings with giving him courage to >> pursue his “Star Trek” project in the face of indifference, even >> ridicule, from television executives. >> >> In his later years, after settling in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Mr. >> Clarke >> continued to bask in worldwide acclaim as both a scientific sage and >> the >> pre-eminent science fiction writer of the 20th century. In 1998, he >> was >> knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. >> >> He played down his success in foretelling a globe-spanning network of >> communication satellites. “No one can predict the future,” he always >> maintained. >> >> But as a science fiction writer, he couldn’t resist drawing up >> timelines >> for what he called “possible futures.” Far from displaying uncanny >> prescience, these conjectures mainly demonstrated his lifelong, and >> often disappointed, optimism about the peaceful uses of technology — >> from his calculation in 1945 that atomic-fueled rockets could be no >> more >> than 20 years away to his conviction in 1999 that “clean, safe power” >> from “cold fusion” would be commercially available in the first years >> of >> the new millennium. >> >> Mr. Clarke was well aware of the importance of his role as science >> spokesman to the general population: “Most technological achievements >> were preceded by people writing and imagining them,” he noted. “I’m >> sure >> we would not have had men on the Moon,” he added, if it had not been >> for >> H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. “I’m rather proud of the fact that I know >> several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books.” >> >> Arthur Charles Clarke was born on Dec. 16, 1917, in the seaside town >> of >> Minehead, Somerset, England. His father was a farmer; his mother a >> post >> office telegrapher. The eldest of four children, he was educated as a >> scholarship student at a secondary school in the nearby town of >> Taunton. >> He remembered a number of incidents in early childhood that awakened >> his >> scientific imagination: exploratory rambles along the Somerset >> shoreline, with its “wonderland of rock pools;” a card from a pack of >> cigarettes that his father showed him, with a picture of a dinosaur; >> the >> gift of a Meccano set, a British construction toy similar to the >> Erector >> sets sold in the United States. >> >> He also spent time “mapping the Moon” through a telescope he >> constructed >> himself out of “a cardboard tube and a couple of lenses.” But the >> formative event of his childhood was his discovery, at age 13 — the >> year >> his father died — of a copy of “Astounding Stories of Super-Science,” >> then the leading American science fiction magazine. He found its mix >> of >> boyish adventure and far-out (sometimes bogus) science intoxicating. >> >> While still in school, Mr. Clarke joined the newly formed British >> Interplanetary Society, a small band of sci-fi enthusiasts who held >> the >> controversial view that space travel was not only possible but could >> be >> achieved in the not-so-distant future. In 1937, a year after he moved >> to >> London to take a civil service job, he began writing his first science >> fiction novel, a story of the far, far future that was later published >> as “Against the Fall of Night” (1953). >> >> Mr. Clarke spent World War II as an officer in the Royal Air Force. In >> 1943 he was assigned to work with a team of American >> scientist-engineers >> who had developed the first radar-controlled system for landing >> airplanes in bad weather. That experience led to Mr. Clarke’s only >> non-science fiction novel, “Glide Path” (1963). More important, it led >> in 1945 to a technical paper, published in the British journal >> “Wireless >> World,” establishing the feasibility of artificial satellites as relay >> stations for Earth-based communications. >> >> The meat of the paper was a series of diagrams and equations showing >> that “space stations” parked in a circular orbit roughly 22,240 miles >> above the equator would exactly match the Earth’s rotation period of >> 24 >> hours. In such an orbit, a satellite would remain above the same spot >> on >> the ground, providing a “stationary” target for transmitted signals, >> which could then be retransmitted to wide swaths of territory below. >> This so-called geostationary orbit has been officially designated the >> Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union. >> >> Decades later, Mr. Clarke called his “Wireless World” paper “the most >> important thing I ever wrote.” In a wry piece entitled, “A Short >> Pre-History of Comsats, Or: How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare >> Time,” he claimed that a lawyer had dissuaded him from applying for a >> patent. The lawyer, he said, thought the notion of relaying signals >> from >> space was too far-fetched to be taken seriously. >> >> But Mr. Clarke also acknowledged that nothing in his paper — from the >> notion of artificial satellites to the mathematics of the >> geostationary >> orbit — was new. His chief contribution was to clarify and publicize >> an >> idea whose time had almost come — a feat of consciousness-raising that >> he would continue to excel at throughout his career. >> >> The year 1945 also saw the launch of Mr. Clarke’s career as a fiction >> writer. He sold a short story called “Rescue Party” to the same >> magazine >> — now re-titled Astounding Science Fiction — that had captured his >> imagination 15 years earlier. >> >> For the next two years, Mr. Clarke attended Kings College, London, on >> the British equivalent of a G.I. Bill scholarship, graduating in 1948 >> with first-class honors in physics and mathematics. But he continued >> to >> write and sell stories, and after a stint as assistant editor at the >> scientific journal Physics Abstracts, he decided he could support >> himself as a freelance writer. Success came quickly. His primer on >> space >> flight, “The Exploration of Space,” was a Book-of-the-Month Club >> selection in 1951 >> >> Over the next two decades, he wrote a series of nonfiction bestsellers >> as well as his best-known novels, including “Childhood’s End” (1953) >> and >> “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). For a scientifically trained writer >> whose optimism about technology seemed boundless, Mr. Clarke delighted >> in confronting his characters with obstacles they could not overcome >> without help from forces beyond their comprehension. >> >> In “Childhood’s End,” a race of aliens who happen to look like devils >> imposes peace on an Earth torn by cold war tensions. But the aliens’ >> real mission is to prepare humanity for the next stage of evolution. >> In >> an ending that is both heartbreakingly poignant and literally >> earth-shattering, Mr. Clarke suggests that mankind can escape its >> suicidal tendencies only by ceasing to be human. >> >> “There was nothing left of Earth,” he wrote. “It had nourished them, >> through the fierce moments of their inconceivable metamorphosis, as >> the >> food stored in a grain of wheat feeds the infant plant while it climbs >> toward the Sun.” >> >> The cold war also forms the backdrop for “2001.” Its genesis was a >> short >> story called “The Sentinel,” first published in a science fiction >> magazine in 1951. It tells of an alien artifact found on the Moon, a >> little crystalline pyramid that explorers from Earth destroy while >> trying to open. One explorer realizes that the artifact was a kind of >> fail-safe beacon; in silencing it, human beings have signaled their >> existence to its far-off creators. >> >> In the spring of 1964, Stanley Kubrick, fresh from his triumph with >> “Dr. >> Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” met >> Mr. Clarke in New York, and the two agreed to make the “proverbial >> really good science fiction movie” based on “The Sentinel.” This led >> to >> a four-year collaboration; Mr. Clarke wrote the novel while Mr. >> Kubrick >> produced and directed the film; they are jointly credited with the >> screenplay. >> >> Reviewers at the time were puzzled by the film, especially the final >> scene in which an astronaut who has been transformed by aliens returns >> to orbit the Earth as a “Star-Child.” In the book he demonstrates his >> new-found powers by harmlessly detonating from space the entire >> arsenal >> of Soviet and American nuclear weapons. Like much of the plot, this >> denouement is not clear in the film, from which Mr. Kubrick cut most >> of >> the expository material. >> >> As a fiction writer, Mr. Clarke was often criticized for failing to >> create fully realized characters. HAL, the mutinous computer in >> “2001,” >> is probably his most “human” creation: a self-satisfied know-it-all >> with >> a touching but misguided faith in its own infallibility. >> >> If Mr. Clarke’s heroes are less than memorable, it is also true that >> there are no out-and-out villains in his work; his characters are >> generally too busy struggling to make sense of an implacable universe >> to >> engage in petty schemes of dominance or revenge. >> >> Mr. Clarke’s own relationship with machines was somewhat ambivalent. >> Although he held a driver’s license as a young man, he never drove a >> car. Yet he stayed in touch with the rest of the world from his home >> in >> Sri Lanka through an ever-expanding collection of up-to-date computers >> and communications accessories. And until his health declined, he was >> an >> expert scuba diver in the waters around Sri Lanka. >> >> He first became interested in diving in the early 1950s, when he >> realized that he could find underwater “something very close to >> weightlessness” of outer space. He settled permanently in Colombo, the >> capital of what was then Ceylon, in 1956. With a partner, he >> established >> a guided diving service for tourists and wrote vividly about his >> diving >> experiences in a number of books, beginning with “The Coast of Coral” >> (1956). >> >> All told, he wrote or collaborated on close to 100 books, some of >> which, >> like “Childhood’s End,” have been in print continuously. His works >> have >> been translated into some 40 languages, and worldwide sales have been >> estimated at more than $25 million. >> >> In 1962 he suffered a severe attack of poliomyelitis. His apparently >> complete recovery was marked by a return to top form at his favorite >> sport, table tennis. But in 1984 he developed post-polio syndrome, a >> progressive condition characterized by muscle weakness and extreme >> fatigue. He spent the last years of his life in a wheelchair. >> >> Among his legacies are Clarke’s Three Laws, provocative observations >> on >> science, science fiction and society that were published in his >> “Profiles of the Future” (1962): >> >> ¶“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is >> possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something >> is >> impossible, he is very probably wrong.” >> >> ¶“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to >> venture a >> little way past them into the impossible.” >> >> ¶“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from >> magic.” >> >> Along with Verne and Wells, Mr. Clarke said his greatest influences >> as a >> writer were Lord Dunsany, a British fantasist noted for his lyrical, >> if >> sometimes overblown, prose; Otto Stapledon, a British philosopher who >> wrote vast speculative narratives that projected human evolution to >> the >> furthest reaches of space and time; and Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick.” >> >> While sharing his passions for space and the sea with a worldwide >> readership, Mr. Clarke kept his emotional life private. He was briefly >> married in 1953 to an American diving enthusiast named Marilyn >> Mayfield; >> they separated after a few months and were divorced in 1964. >> >> One of his closest relationships was with Leslie Ekanayake, a fellow >> diver in Sri Lanka, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1977. Mr. >> Clarke shared his home in Colombo with Leslie’s brother, Hector, his >> partner in the diving business, Hector’s wife Valerie; and their three >> daughters. >> >> Mr. Clarke’s standard answer when journalists asked him outright if he >> was gay was, “No, merely mildly cheerful.” >> >> Mr. Clarke reveled in his fame. One whole room in his house — which he >> referred to as the Ego Chamber — was filled with photos and other >> memorabilia of his career, including pictures of him with Yuri >> Gagarin, >> the first man in space, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on >> the >> moon. >> >> Mr. Clarke’s reputation as a prophet of the space age rests on more >> than >> a few accurate predictions. His visions helped bring about the future >> he >> longed to see. His contributions to the space program were lauded by >> Charles Kohlhase, who planned NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn: “When >> you dream what is possible, and add a knowledge of physics, you make >> it >> happen.” >> >> >> Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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