As a writer, Arthur C Clarke stood alongside Robert A Heinlein and Issac Asimov as one of the fathers of the science fiction genre. Although best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, famously adapted for film by Stanley Kubrick, Clarke had the prolific output common to many science fiction writers of the era, authoring over 30 novels and 13 collections of short fiction in a career of over five decades.
But Clarke was also the author of at least 40 non-fiction publications, covering deep space exploration, the communications revolution, fractal mathematics and a host of other subjects across the sciences, demonstrating a mind as flexible and imaginative as it was intellectually rigorous.
He is often credited as having propagated the concept of geostationary satellites, without which modern global communications would be impossible. He also became a noted deep-sea researcher, widely acclaimed for his work on the Great Barrier Reef. And whilst he may never have realised his dream to journey into space himself he was present alongside Walter Cronkite as a commentator on the Apollo moonlanding.
Clarke was the writer who introduced me and many others of my generation to the wonders of science fiction. I read Rendezvous with Rama in a single night, hidden under the sheets with a torch. No other writer before or since has conveyed the truly alien nature of the universe with such power. Childhood’s End may still prove to be his most prophetic novel as we emerge into a culture where young people are absorbed to such an extent in the alternate worlds of the internet and mass media that they may as well be under the influence of an alien intelligence. And of course 2001: A Space Odyssey and the movie it inspired are packed with some of the most influential ideas and images in modern culture.
My personal favourite among all his work is The Fountains of Paradise, the story of the construction of a giant space elevator that would forever link the Earth with space, thereby changing the course of humanity’s evolution, one of Clarke’s favourite themes. But the part of the story I love the most is Clarke’s insight into the ancient civilisation of Sri Lanka, a country he adopted as his own, and the mirror it put up to our modern society. Clarke’s stories were always packed to bursting with great ideas, but never lost sight of the human emotions that gave them heart and soul.
Although ill health limited his writing coming into the 21st Century, he still managed to complete a number of excellent novels. But perhaps his most intriguing later story was one that showed off his crisp sense of humour. Challenged to write a six-word story by Wired magazine, Clarke submitted a ten-word story from which he refused to remove a single word—
“God said, ‘Cancel Program GENESIS’. The universe ceased to exist.”
The Guardian
