RIP: Sir Arthur C Clarke is dead :-(

[matgb]

Undoubtedly my favourite author as a teen, and still someone I like to remember now (and who I'll doubtless bring up the reread list now), AP reports that Arthur C. Clarke passed away earlier today. He already had his own tag on here and deservedly so, not only did he predict satellite communications, mobile phones and similar, but he also proved that magic does exist and wrote some of the most iconic moments in SF film history ever. If you haven't watched 2001, do so, I suspect you'll get a chance very very soon. If I get to live to 90 and acheive half what he managed, I'll be fairly happy with my lot.

RIP Sir Arthur.

ETA: More linkage. drjon has a linkdump, and innerbrat has this video he released on his last birthday, which includes his assesment of the future—commercial spaceflight and holidays to Mars to happen within the next 50 years, rather moving:

The CNN tribute contains a bit on his communication satellite idea and the essay How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time, the BBC has a standard Obit and a tribute written by Pratchett which includes this gem:

What I particularly recall was Arthur complaining the reason the apes [in 2001] never won the Oscar for best make-up was they were so good the judges thought they really were apes.

And finally, if you haven't read it before, one of my favourite short stories of his, the 9 billion names of god. Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.

Thus Spake Zarathustra

Comments

[wieselkind.livejournal.com]

Wait what? Anthony Minghella and Arthur C Clarke dead on the same day?
I call CONSPIRACY!

[ginasketch.livejournal.com]

That's not fair. I hate 2008 already.

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

CRAP *wails*

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

Terribly, terribly sad. A real hero of mine - RIP.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

Whilst I didn't think he'd make 2061, I thought he'd make 2010.

A genuine shame. Who gets his belt?

[caseytalk.livejournal.com]

I have had the good fortune to have met Clarke in Sri Lanka, Isaac Asimov in New York, and Ray Bradbury in Long Beach, California. I snagged autographed books from each.

Arthur C. Clarke was very generous with his time to those fans who actually sought him out in Sri Lanka. He was a frequent visitor to the swim clubs and other haunts of the ex-pats, but he was also well known to the locals. He said that the future both is and is not shaping up as he had envisioned it and that is how it should be.

Now he knows if HAL dreams.