Each writer, for good or for bad, has their own style. For me, it is sort of a cadence as well as the author’s voice inside my head. Some sound as bombastic or as condescending as their words, others a lesson heard internally. Arthur C. Clarke’s books were so in tune with what I wanted from fiction. A story with a solid foundation in science, speculative science fiction for want of a better term was my very favorite type of book. His books showed me what kind I wanted to read before I consciously knew it.
Folks who have read all my recovery stuff knows that I do not blame my parents for anything. They were terrible with what money they made and true poverty had made a sizable impact on childhood, self-esteem, etc. Sitting by a lantern I read “Islands in the Sky”. This led to me reading ‘Tales from White Hart”. Then, at the back of a Bantam Science Fiction printing of ‘The Sentinel and Other Stories’ was a list of Arthur C Clarke’s books. Or at least the ones they printed. I could crawl into one and not come out until bedtime. Next on the list was ‘Rendezvous with Rama’, which is still my personal favorite to this day, even with the horrible (by ACC standards) follow up books churned out decades later. The soft, dry narration painted such perfect pictures for the mind. No magic warp drives, no sacred swords or bug-eyed monsters, just mankind making its first unsteady steps towards the sky. Oddly enough, I can remember Mr. Clarke better than Walter Cronkite when I search my memories of the Apollo missions.
As adolescence made my life, and everyone’s around me, a surreal nightmare I branched off into Heinlein, Asimov, and Lovecraft. It encouraged me to read even more and to write a little bit. More importantly, it allowed me to see that mankind had a greater purpose than it’s selfish wars and grab for riches. “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.” This gave me hope. We may have turned our backs on the Moon, but the skies were still wide open, at least to me. As high school lead to the Army in the early 1980s, I was lucky enough to watch the technology of our world take off and not look back. It was around this time that I bought a Heathkit, read “Imperial Earth”, and started to read “2001” on a weekly basis. Throughout the years, I had picked up some biographical details. Most I got from either “The View from Serendip” or the inside of the back cover of his paperbacks. Thanks to the long defunct Pittsburgh Playhouse Film Repertory, my little brothers and I got to see one of my favorite director’s make the ‘proverbial good science fiction movie’, based on my favorite writer’s work, on the big screen. Imagine my teen-age delight to hear my music idols Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons cite “2001:A Space Odyssey” as an influence on them.
I Always DID know he hailed from the UK, being where my dad’s family came from (Scot loyalists, long story). He was born in Somerset, England. I know he was into astronomy and science fiction, as I am and had been as long as I can remember. He was in the RAF during the battle of Britain, and got out as a Flight Lieutenant. This is where my knowledge gets fuzzy. I do my best to avoid plagiarism by reading nothing about a subject until after I submit the article. He was the Chair of the British Interplanetary Society and held some jobs until his writing could take care of him full-time. I am sure he married some woman for a super brief time. This continued fueling the ever-present speculation regarding his sexuality. I had put up with a good bit of good-natured (and some not so) ribbing about his preferences. Look, the Reagan Infantry was a bit less open-minded about such things. I also caught a lot of heat for my Gary Numan albums, too. The teasing crested with a Playboy interview sometime in 1986. Clarke was asked something like did he ever have a bisexual experience or something like that. The question was put forth tastefully or at least politely, if memory serves me well. Anyhow, he answered “Of course. Who hasn’t?” I wasn’t bummed or anything like that, it just sort of made sense. I bet a closet is a terrible thing to be stuck in but I imagine lots of money makes it look a little better than other folk’s closets. That is ALL I am going to write regarding my hero’s taste with indoor track meets.
Up to this time I had read The City and the Stars, Islands in the Sky, Childhood’s End, Earthlight, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous with Rama, Imperial Earth and a couple short story collections. As a new father I managed to read all he had put out from either 2010 of Fountains of Paradise up to the “NEW” Rama books. I guess this is a dandy time to introduce what is called Clarke’s 2nd law ” The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.” For whatever reasons, Arthur started doing many collaborations. I really did not enjoy a single one. I read them all but it was more out of a sense of duty.
The second Rama ship’s visit was such a stunning disappointment that I had to re-read 2001, 2010, and 2060 to remind me why I loved his work. As regular readers know, after my mother’s untimely demise I started a slow motion suicide by re-acquainting myself with heroin. It was not until I was clean that I was able to read anything that required better than 7th grade thinking. Maybe it was the timing, but I was horrified by the Rama series after the 1st on, done many moons ago. Gone was the quiet, stiff upper lip, and understated strength of men and woman of all his previous works. For whatever reasons, the human race as a whole or as individuals were not given much credit. Then again, it may have been my own feelings tainting my views. Maybe it is the optimism that returns whenever someone stays off of drugs for years and years. I dive into those books when I need to escape day to day existence in a safe and educational matter. Even with that all said, Arthur C Clarke’s worst books are still better than the best of many authors.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” also known as Clarke’s 3rd law is probably his best known quote. Maybe it is due to being a fanatic, but he said much more than just a very clever definition of “preternatural”. Maybe that is why I want to think of 3001 as his last book. It was a solo that used the most unlikely yet tantalizingly possible premise as a way to present the NEXT millennium to us as he saw it. I had not read such a novel from him in decades. Solid science, an exciting but sound storyline, and some jokes aimed squarely at the set of folks who think exploring our solar system should be mankind’s number one priority. It’s cool precision, slightly conservative estimates of where the human race will be in a thousand years may be right on the money. No magic space drive to bring the stars any closer but man had colonized our solar system. That is the Arthur C Clarke I know and love. As much as I respect Frederich Pohl, it may be a while before I read ” The Last Theorem”. This was his last manuscript, a collaboration with Fred.
This essay was a quick primer on Arthur C Clarke ‘s body of work and it’s influence on me. He obviously wrote hundreds of books and articles on almost everything. A brilliant man who showed 3 generations of engineers possible futures and whose mind was insatiable in the search for understanding. I have to make a quick mention about the ‘Clarkives’. Arthur’s brother Fred, still in the Somerset area of the UK, has everything Arthur wanted saved. None of that stuff is to be published until 30 years after his death. When queried as to the 3 decade freeze, his response was typical Clarke: “Well, there might be all sorts of embarrassing things in them”. Finally, Mr. Clarke got to make a video greeting that was included on the Cassini probe. It was broadcast when it passed the Jovian moon Iapetus. How cool is that?