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Author Arthur C. Clark Dies Aged 90

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Sci-Fi Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies

 

Updated:22:20, Tuesday March 18, 2008

The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote more than 100 books including 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90, according to an aide.

 

Clarke, who had suffered since the 1960s from debilitating post-polio syndrome and sometimes used a wheelchair, died after suffering breathing problems, said the aide, Rohan De Silva.

 

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka, where he moved in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef.

 

He was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

 

He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality.

 

Space expert Robin Scagell told Sky News: "He was very much a scientist and science was at the heart of his work.

 

"As well as predicting satellites, he saw that rockets would go into space."

 

Credit Sky News

Edited by Unadopted Angelic

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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008[2]) was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name.

 

Biography

Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England. As a boy, he enjoyed stargazing and reading old American science fiction pulp magazines (many of which made their way to the UK in ships with sailors who read them to pass the time).

 

During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defence system which contributed to the RAF's success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke actually spent most of his service time working on Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar, as documented in his semi-autobiographical novel Glide Path. Although GCA did not see much practical use in the war, after several more years of development it was vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949. He was demobilised with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After the war, he earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at King's College London.

 

In the postwar years, Clarke became involved with the British Interplanetary Society and served for a time as its chairman. Although he was not the originator of the concept of geostationary satellites and communicating with them, one of his most important contributions may have been propagating the idea and recognizing that they would be ideal telecommunications relays. He advanced this idea in a paper privately circulated among the core technical members of the BIS in 1945. The concept later was published in Wireless World in October of that year. Clarke also wrote a number of non-fiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be The Exploration of Space (1951) and The Promise of Space (1968). In recognition of these contributions, a geostationary orbit is officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union as a "Clarke orbit".

 

While Clarke had a few stories published in fanzines between 1937 and 1945, his first professional sales appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in 1946: "Loophole" was published in April, while "Rescue Party", his first sale, was published in May. Along with his writing, Clarke briefly worked as Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts (1949) before devoting himself to writing full-time from 1951 onward. Clarke also contributed to the Dan Dare series published in Eagle, and his first three published novels were written for children.

 

Clarke corresponded with C. S. Lewis in the 1940s and 1950s, and they once met in an Oxford pub, the Eastgate, to discuss science fiction and space travel. Clarke, after Lewis's death, voiced great praise for him, saying the Ransom Trilogy was one of the few works of science fiction that could be considered literature.

 

In 1948, he wrote "The Sentinel" for a BBC competition. Though the story was rejected, it changed the course of Clarke's career. Not only was it the basis for A Space Odyssey, but "The Sentinel" also introduced a more mystical and cosmic element to Clarke's work. Many of Clarke's later works feature a technologically advanced but prejudiced mankind being confronted by a superior alien intelligence. In the cases of The City and the Stars, Childhood's End, and the 2001 series, this encounter produces a conceptual breakthrough that accelerates humanity into the next stage of its evolution.

 

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, emigrating there when it was still called Ceylon. Clarke held citizenship of both the UK and Sri Lanka. He was an avid scuba diver and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club; living in Sri Lanka afforded him the opportunity to visit the ocean year-round. It also inspired the locale for his novel The Fountains of Paradise, in which he first described a space elevator. This, he believed, ultimately will be his legacy, more so than geostationary satellites, once space elevators make space shuttles obsolete.

 

His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of essays in various magazines that eventually became Profiles of the Future, published in book form in 1962. A timetable up to the year 2100 describes inventions and ideas including such things as a "global library" for 2005.

 

Early in his career, Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal, and stated that it was part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. He also said that he was one of several who were fooled by a Uri Geller demonstration at Birkbeck College. Although he eventually dismissed and distanced himself from nearly all pseudoscience, he continued to advocate research into purported instances of psychokinesis and other similar phenomena.

 

In the early 1970s, Clarke signed a three-book publishing deal, a record for a science-fiction writer at the time. The first of the three was Rendezvous with Rama in 1973, which won him all the main genre awards and has spawned sequels, which, along with the 2001 series, formed the backbone of his later career.

 

In 1975, Clarke's short story "The Star" was not included in a new high school English textbook in Sri Lanka because of concerns that it might offend Roman Catholics even though it already had been selected. The same textbook also caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with that of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Isaac Asimov.

 

In the 1980s, Clarke became well known to many for his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers.

 

In 1988, he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome and needed to use a wheelchair most of the time thereafter. On 10 September 2007, while commenting on the Cassini probe's flyby of Iapetus (which plays an important role in 2001: A Space Odyssey), Clarke mentioned that he was completely wheelchair-bound by polio, and did not plan to leave Sri Lanka again.

 

In December 2007, the occasion of his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video message to his friends and fans, bidding them good-bye.

 

Clarke died in Sri Lanka at 1:30am on March 19, 2008 local time after suffering from breathing problems, according to Rohan de Silva, one of his aides.

 

Themes, style, and influences

Clarke's work is marked by an optimistic view of science empowering mankind's exploration of the solar system. His early published stories would usually feature the extrapolation of a technological innovation or scientific breakthrough into the underlying decadence of his own society.

 

The Sentinel (1948) introduced a religious theme to Clarke's work, a theme that he later explored more deeply in The City and the Stars. His interest in the paranormal was influenced by Charles Fort and embraced the belief that humanity may be the property of an ancient alien civilisation. Surprisingly for a writer who is often held up as an example of hard science fiction's obsession with technology, three of Clarke's novels have this as a theme[citation needed]. Another theme of The Sentinel was the notion that the evolution of an intelligent species would eventually make them something close to gods, which was also explored in his 1953 novel Childhood's End. He also briefly touched upon this idea in his novel Imperial Earth. This idea of transcendence through evolution seems to have been influenced by Olaf Stapledon, who wrote a number of books dealing with this theme. Clarke has said of Stapledon's 1930 book Last and First Men that "No other book had a greater influence on my life ... [it] and its successor Star Maker (1937) are the twin summits of [stapledon's] literary career".

 

Adapted screenplays

2001: A Space Odyssey

Clarke's first venture into film was the Stanley Kubrick-directed 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick and Clarke had met in 1964 to discuss the possibility of a collaborative film project. As the idea developed, it was decided that the story for the film was to be loosely based on Clarke's short story The Sentinel, written in 1948 as an entry in a BBC short story competition. Originally, Clarke was going to write the screenplay for the film, but this proved to be more tedious than he had estimated. Instead, Kubrick and Clarke decided it would be best to write a novel first and then adapt it for the film upon its completion. However, as Clarke was finishing the book, the screenplay was also being written simultaneously.

 

Clarke's influence on the directing of 2001: A Space Odyssey is also felt in one of the most memorable scenes in the movie when astronaut Bowman shuts down HAL by removing modules from service one by one. As this happens, we witness HAL's consciousness degrading. By the time HAL's logic is completely gone, he begins singing the song Daisy Bell. This song was chosen based on a visit by Clarke to his friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility. A speech synthesis demonstration by physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr was taking place. Kelly was using an IBM 704 computer to synthesise speech. His voice recorder synthesiser vocoder reproduced the vocal for Daisy Bell, with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke was so impressed that he later told Kubrick to use it in this climactic scene.

 

Due to the hectic schedule of the film's production, Kubrick and Clarke had difficulty collaborating on the book. Clarke completed a draft of the novel at the end of 1964 with the plan to publish in 1965 in advance of the film's release in 1966. After many delays the film was released in the spring of 1968, before the book was completed. The book was credited to Clarke alone. Clarke later complained that this had the effect of making the book into a novelisation, that Kubrick had manipulated circumstances to downplay his authorship. For these and other reasons, the details of the story differ slightly from the book to the movie. The film is a bold artistic piece with little explanation for the events taking place. Clarke, on the other hand, wrote thorough explanations of "cause and effect" for the events in the novel. Despite their differences, both film and novel were well received.

 

In 1972, Clarke published The Lost Worlds of 2001, which included his account of the production and alternate versions of key scenes. The "special edition" of the novel A Space Odyssey (released in 1999) contains an introduction by Clarke, documenting his account of the events leading to the release of the novel and film.

 

2010

In 1982 Clarke continued the 2001 epic with a sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. This novel was also made into a film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, directed by Peter Hyams for release in 1984. Due to the political environment in America in the 1980s, the novel and film present a Cold War theme, with the looming tensions of nuclear war. The film was not considered to be as revolutionary or artistic as 2001, but the reviews were still positive.

 

Clarke's email correspondence with Hyams was published in 1984. Titled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010, and co-authored with Hyams, it illustrates his fascination with the then-pioneering medium and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the film while living on different continents. The book also includes Clarke's list of the best science-fiction films ever made.

 

Rendezvous with Rama

A movie interpretation of Clarke's award-winning 1972 novel Rendezvous with Rama is currently in pre-production. Acclaimed director David Fincher is assigned to the project together with actor Morgan Freeman. According to IMDb, the movie is expected to be released sometime in 2009.[25]

 

Essays and short stories

Most of Clarke's essays (from 1934 to 1998) can be found in the book Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (2000). Most of his short stories can be found in the book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001). Another collection of early essays was published in The View from Serendip (1977), which also included one short piece of fiction, "When the Twerms Came". He wrote short stories under the pseudonyms of E. G. O'Brien and Charles Willis. He also wrote a story called "The Secret."

 

Concept of the geostationary communications satellite

Clarke's most important scientific contribution may be in propagating the idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He described this concept in a paper titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?", published in Wireless World in October 1945. The geostationary orbit is now sometimes known as the Clarke Orbit or the Clarke Belt in his honour.

 

However, it is not clear that this article was actually the inspiration for the modern telecommunications satellite. John R. Pierce, of Bell Labs, arrived at the idea independently in 1954, and he was actually involved in the Echo satellite and Telstar projects. Moreover, Pierce stated that the idea was "in the air" at the time and certain to be developed regardless of Clarke's publication. Nevertheless, Clarke described the idea so thoroughly that his article has been cited as prior art in judgements denying patents on the concept.[citation needed]

 

The idea of communication using satellites in geostationary orbit itself had been described earlier, for example first the concept of geostationary satellites was in Hermann Oberth's 1923 book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen[26](The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) and then the idea of communication with those satellites in Herman Potočnik's (written by pseudonym Hermann Noordung) 1928 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums — der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel — The Rocket Motor) section: Providing for Long Distance Communications and Safety [27] published in Berlin.

 

Awards, honours and other recognition

Following the release of 2001, Clarke became much in demand as a commentator on science and technology, especially at the time of the Apollo space program. The fame of 2001 was enough to get the Command Module of the Apollo 13 craft named "Odyssey".

 

The 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter is named in honour of Sir Arthur's works.

 

An asteroid was named in Clarke's honour, 4923 Clarke (the number was assigned prior to, and independently of, the name - 2001, however appropriate, was unavailable, having previously been assigned to Albert Einstein).

 

A species of ceratopsian dinosaur, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei, discovered in Inverloch in Australia.

 

Clarke was a distinguished vice-president of the H. G. Wells Society, being strongly influenced by H. G. Wells as a science-fiction writer.

 

In popular culture

Clarke attempted to write a six word story as part of a Wired Magazine article but wrote ten words instead. ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The universe ceased to exist.") He refused to lower the word count.

 

At the start of the movie 2010, Dr. Heywood Floyd is engaged in a conversation in front of the White House. Clarke is the man feeding the pigeons to the left of the shot. Later on in the movie, in the hospital scene where Mrs. Bowman dies, the cover of Time shows a photograph of Clarke as the American president, and one of Kubrick as the Russian Premier.

 

He survived the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which did however claim his "Arthur C. Clarke Diving School" at Hikkaduwa, which has since been rebuilt.

 

Quotes: Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

 

Arthur C. Clarke"Life is just one big banana. Science fiction allows us all to peel open the reality and discover the yellow truth inside."

 

Clarke's three laws:

"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."

 

"The truth, as always, will be far stranger."

 

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering."

 

"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."

 

Of UFOs: "They tell us absolutely nothing about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, but they do prove how rare it is on Earth."

 

"Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what's over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without food than without information. Without information, you'd go crazy."

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This is definitely a huge loss to humanity and he will be missed, but through his outstanding works he will never be forgotten.

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Mr. Clark was and will always be one of the greatest science fiction authors, nay authors period of all time. His books were more than just science fiction but visionary about the future. I hope he is with Asimov and Heinlein right now righting the greatest science fiction novel ever dreamed of and we will get to read it in the hereafter. His contributions to all of our lives goes far beyond his writing fiction. His work in science led to things we still rely on today. He fought long and hard to overcome a debilitating disease, he should be an inspiration to us all. Rest in peace you earned it and shall be missed by all.

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Clarke funeral to be in Sri Lanka

By Rob Taylor Reuters - Saturday, March 22 10:27 amCOLOMBO (Reuters) - Visionary science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke will be buried on Saturday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, where his body has been visited by sci-fi pilgrims and the country's president since his death on Wednesday.

 

British-born Clarke, best known for his work on the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", died aged 90 of respiratory complications and heart failure that doctors linked to the post-polio syndrome that for years kept him wheelchair-bound.

 

The funeral at Colombo's main cemetery would be a private and "strictly secular" service, his secretary Nalaka Gunawardena said, with family members attending from Australia and Britain, including brother Fred and sister Mary.

 

Clarke left written instructions that his funeral be marked by "absolutely no religious rites of any kind" and apart from a brief family reading, Gunawardena said the main tribute would be the music to the 2001: A Space Odyssey film.

 

"Asked last year if there would be any monument to his passing, Sir Arthur said 'walk into any good library and you will see my legacy there'," Gunawardena told Reuters.

 

"He believed that the show must go on. He also wanted us to celebrate, not mourn his passage," he said.

 

Clarke's body, dressed in a suit and tie, has been on display at his Colombo home since Thursday, with thousands of locals including President Mahinda Rajapaksa lining to pay respects and lay wreaths for the island's most famous foreigner.

 

"We were all proud to have this celebrated author, visionary and promoter of space exploration, prophet of satellite communications, great humanist and lover of animals in our midst," Rajapaksa said earlier this week.

 

The president has asked for a minute's silence at 3pm (10:30 a.m. British time) across the nation, where newspapers headlines mourned the "final voyage of a titan".

 

Marking his "90th orbit of the sun" in December, the prolific British-born author and theorist made three birthday wishes: For E.T. to call, for man to kick his oil habit and for peace in Sri Lanka, where a civil war has raged for 25 years.

 

Clarke was born in England on December 16, 1917 to a farming family, and served as a radar specialist in the Royal Air Force during World War Two.

 

He was one of the first to suggest the use of satellites orbiting the earth for communications, and in the 1940s forecast that man would reach the Moon by the year 2000 -- an idea experts at first dismissed.

 

Clarke wrote around 100 books and hundreds of short stories and articles, and wanted to be remembered foremost as a writer. He was knighted in 1998.

 

(Reporting by Rob Taylor; Editing by David Fox) Copyright © 2008 Yahoo!

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Was he really knighted? I read another article where it said that it was offered to him but he turned it down saying that he's quite happy with the title of "Mr."

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