Thursday, March 20, 2008

Arthur C Clarke has gone to the geo-stationary satellite in the sky

(Masuro, that's how you use a metaphor)

Its strange. I am a big fan of science fiction and have the scientific background to appreciate hard S-F but have not read one of Clarke's books and have read only one of his short stories*.

I will read another one soon. Trip has a link to one available online (also here).

Here is a funny story about me that very slightly relates to ACC. Nearly twenty years ago, I travelled around the world with a long stay in India. I remember (and I know how ridiculously naive (or worse) this sounds) that I wondered about travelling to Sri Lanka and knocking on ACCs door. I reasoned that few foreigners go to Sri Lanka, and even fewer of them would be Science Fiction fans, that he would welcome my visit and invite me into his home. Imagine if I had gone to that much trouble and met the man and had him ask, "Which book do you like best?"
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* The story I read involved a character, also named Arthur Clarke, living in Sri Lanka and the story involved the Russians putting satellites above the US and beaming high quality TV, including pornography (I think) to defeat the Americans...somehow.

4 comments:

Marcus Peddle said...

I might not be good at metaphor but at least I've read some of ACC's books. :)

kwandongbrian said...

Ya got me there.

gordsellar said...

Hell, I'm an SF writer and I was reading my first book of ACC stories when he passed on. (Tales of Ten Worlds.) Still am. Haven't gotten to any novels yet, aside from the collaborations with Baxter, which I suspect are heavily Baxter...

kwandongbrian said...

I've read interviews of a few S-F and Fantasy writers and they tend to not read in the genre.

Tim Powers stated that his eyes are failing so he only allows himself to read research material. I think that Alan Dean Foster is in a similar state. David Drake doesn't bother reading in the genre either, I think.

Granted, they are somewhat older than you but still...