Arthur C. Clark

Here is something that someone else wrote that sums out my feelings pretty well:


Arthur C. Clarke, RIP

For me, Arthur C. Clarke was never defined by hard science; he was defined by the unknowable. Whatever lay on the other side of the monolith. The agenda of the aliens in Childhood’s End. And of course, what was for me his most resonant work, Rendezvous with Rama. These are not stories that offer understanding — they offer, instead, mysteries a bit too big to fit into one book, one story.

Sure, he may have invented the communications satellite, but what he may be best remembered for in the end is an aphorism: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. As we live in an increasingly magic world, it’s good to remember that there are always horizons — that any sufficiently familiar magic is merely technology — and that there are always new magic just over the horizon, barreling towards us and presenting new mysteries to attempt to resolve.


Thanks Raph for expressing what I was thinking, and thank you Arthur C. Clark for some wonderful stories that helped kindle my love for Science Fiction and Fantasy.