Sir Arthur C. Clarke Enters Eternity at 90

In the annals of science fiction lie a great many hacks, several worth reading and a few who define the genre. H.G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Sir Arthur C. Clarke largely fill the last category. Sir Arthur was the last to go, earlier this week, at the age of 90.

As a subset of literature, science fiction doesn’t get taken seriously by very many who don’t live and breath the stuff. Quite why the unreadable Anthony Trollope is regarded as great, or most of the other Victorian hacks for that matter (Charles Dickens excepted, of course), while classics of sci-fi are sniffed at can only be explained by a relative lack of imagination on the part of mainstream literaturary criticism. After all, what casts the human condition into greater relief than imagining intelligent non-human life? Certainly not drawing-room romances and legal entanglements over necklaces.

Sir Arthur, of course, was much more than a writer of stories about outer space. Indeed, he is credited with creating the telecommunications satellite. He wrote "Extra-Terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?", published in Wireless World in October 1945, in which he proposed using geostationary satellites to bounce radio waves around the world. This was more than a decade before the Soviets launched Sputnik. Now, a geostationary orbit is sometimes referred to as the Clarke orbit, or the Clarke belt. Who named anything other than a Bed and Breakfast after Jane Austen?

In MSNBC’s obituary, it noted, “Clarke won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979; the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1976, and received British knighthood in 2000.” That doesn’t cover the half of it. The second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, said, “Sir Arthur's positive vision of the future excited generations about space exploration, and inspired millions to pursue scientific careers.”

Recently, Sir Arthur told the press, “Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered. I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these, I would like to be remembered as a writer.” That seems to be a pretty safe wager.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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