R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke

[Bruce Appelbaum]

I spent many years working overseas in developing countries.  One of  
my best international experiences was meeting Clarke in Sri Lanka back  
in 1984.  I was there on a gig for USAID and was asked to give a  
presentation on energy efficiency at the university where Clarke was  
chancellor.  I traded my presentation for a meeting with Clarke.  The  
meeting was set to follow the university's convocation, with Clarke  
giving a speech in his ceremonial sarong.

After the ceremony, I was ushered past the velvet ropes to sit with  
Clarke in the lobby of the hall.  When he found out I was from NY, he  
regaled me with a story of his time at the Chelsea Hotel in NYC  
writing the 2001 screenplay with Kubrick.  He was personable, funny,  
and patient to give me 10 minutes of his time on that very busy day.


Bruce

"Buy the ticket, take the ride."
--- Hunter S. Thompson



On Mar 19, 2008, at 4:26 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> Clarke was one of the first and greatest masters of hard sci-fi.   
> His ability to predict where technology was headed was only hampered  
> by his inability to take into account the political and economic  
> forces that would hamper that technology. One of his saddest  
> statements, back in the 60s:  "I'd like to go to Mars some day and I  
> intend to go to the moon."  The technological, if not the economic  
> ability was there.
>
> He was the writer that first attracted me to sci-fi as a kid.  I  
> consider the film 2001: A Space Odyssey to be the greatest movie  
> ever made.  This wasn't merely based on his short story (The  
> Sentinel).  It marked an active collaboration between Clarke and  
> Kubrick.  In the Pan-Am space shuttle sequence we can see that the  
> rotating space station is still under construction.  Clarke always  
> tempered his visions of the possible with a realistic sense of what  
> was probable: no way there would be a finished space station by  
> then.  His predictions were certainly within the ballpark.
>
> Among the many writers he influenced were Gregory Benford and  
> Stephen Baxter.
>
> Anyway, I'm sad to hear of his passing.
>
> Laura

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