Arthur C Clarke

Arthur Charles Clarke (Minehead, England, December 16, 1917-Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 19, 2008), better known as Arthur C. Clarke, was a British writer and scientist, author of popular science and science fiction works such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Sentinel or Date with Rama, as well as co-writer of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey based on his novel of the same name.

Biography

Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset. He already as a child showed his fascination for astronomy when, with a homemade telescope, he drew a map of the Moon. Finishing his secondary studies in 1936, he moved to London. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force (Royal Air Force) as a radar specialist, becoming involved in the development of a radar defense system, and serving as an instructor in the nascent specialty. In 1945, the war, published his technical article Extra-terrestrial Relays in the specialized magazine Wireless World, in which he laid the foundations for artificial satellites in geostationary orbit (named after him, Orbit Clarke), one of his great contributions to science of the XX century. This work won him numerous awards, including scholarships and awards.

During this period he studied mathematics and physics at the prestigious King's College London, studies which he completed with honors. He also served for several years as president of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS), a fact that demonstrates his great fondness for astronautics. In 1957, as part of the British committee, he went to Barcelona for the VIII International Congress of Astronautics, a moment that coincided with the launch of Sputnik I by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

His worldwide fame was consolidated by his appearances on television: in the 1960s, as a commentator for CBS on the Apollo missions; and in the 1980s, thanks to a couple of television series that he made.

His famous Clarke's laws are also known, published in his popular science book Profiles of the Future (1962). The most popular (and cited) of these is the so-called "Clarke's Third Law": All sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

In 1953 Clarke met and married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old divorcee with a young child. They separated after six months, although the divorce was not finalized until 1964. Clarke never remarried but was a very close friend of Leslie Ekanayake, who died in 1977.

From 1956 until his death, he lived on the island of Sri Lanka, (formerly Ceylon), partly because of his interest in photography and underwater exploration, and partly because of his fascination with Indian culture.

He was awarded a Knighthood of the Order of the British Empire in 1998. An asteroid, (4923) Clarke, and a species of ceratopsian dinosaur, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei, were also named after him. /i>, discovered in Inverloch (Australia).

Clarke died early on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 01:30 local time (21:00 GMT on Tuesday) in Colombo (Sri Lanka's capital), due to cardiorespiratory arrest. She was 90 years old.

Literary career

He began writing science fiction at the end of World War II. His first published short story of his was Rescue Party, which appeared in the May 1946 issue of Astounding magazine and served as the starting point for a fruitful career. Among his early stories, El sentinela (The Sentinel) stands out, which served as the basis for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and for the film of the same name by director Stanley Kubrick.

Three stages can be clearly distinguished in its production:

• The utopian/humanist novels of the 1950s, mainly The end of childhood, The city and the stars and self 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• The scientific rigor of the 1970s, by which it will be included among the authors of hard-fiction science, with works like Quote with Rama and above all The fountains of paradise.
• One final stage at the end of the 1980s and 1990, where Clarke shares the co-authorship of his main titles, closing great sagas (RAMA and 2001) and seeing a clearly political/social profile as in Detonating factor or Sismo Grade 10without losing the character of science fiction.

Style

Many of his early stories revolve around a scientific plot, which he liked to embellish with a surprising ending. He solves most of his works with a generally aseptic tone, without frills or artifice, leaving the enclosed ideas to hold the reader's attention. This style is only broken to allow for a degree of finely crafted humor.

As for its themes, they revolve around two fundamental ideas: optimism for the benefits of scientific progress (for which it stood out in a time of certain discouragement after the dropping of the atomic bombs), and the encounter with species and superior cultures (always in a very paternalistic tone). In the Odysseys quartet he calls the higher culture "the first-born", tillers in the field of stars, who left their 'seed' in the sky. in our solar system in the form of monoliths, like the one seen in Stanley Kubrick's tape. As a scientific popularizer, he has always been compared for his clarity and amenity with another contemporary, Isaac Asimov.

Works

Novels

Space Odyssey

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• 2010: Odyssey dos (1982)
• 2061: Odyssey three (1987)
• 3001: Final Odyssey (1997)

Date with Rama

• Quote with Rama (1973)
• Rama II (with Gentry Lee) (1989)
• The garden of Rama (with Gentry Lee, 1991)
• Revealed branch (with Gentry Lee, 1993)

Other novels

• To the fall of the night (1946)
• The Lion of Comarre (1948)
• Prelude to space (1951)
• The sands of Mars (1951)
• The sentinel (1951)
• Islands in the sky (1952)
• The end of childhood (1953)
• Earth Course (1955)
• The star (1955)
• The city and the stars (1956)
• In the depths (also translated into Spanish as Terror under the sea1957)
• Shipwreck on the Selenite Sea (1961)
• Back to Titan (1975)
• The fountains of paradise (1979)
• Songs of the distant Earth (1986)
• Songs of the distant Earth (1987)
• Venus Prime (Series with Paul Preuss, 1987)
• Cuna (with Gentry Lee) (1988)
• After the fall of the night (with Gregory Benford) (1990)
• The Titanic Spectrum (1990)
• The Hammer of God (1993)
• Sismo Grade 10 (with Mike McQuay, 1996)
• Detonating factor (with Michael Kube-McDowell, 1999)
• Light of other times (with Stephen Baxter, 2000)
• The Eye of Time (with Stephen Baxter, 2007)
• The last theorem (2008)

Collections of short stories

• Expedition to Earth (includes The Sentinel(1953)
• Reach the morning (1956)
• Tales of the White Deer Tavern (1957)
• Ten world stories (1961)
• The Wind of the Sun: stories of the space age (1972)
• The sentinel (1990)
• Counts of Planet Earth (1991)
• Internal fires (1944)

Disclosure

• Interplane flights (1950)
• The Secrets of the Future (1962)
• Man and Space (scientific collection of the magazine "LIFE in Spanish") (1967)
• Mars and the mind of man (1971)
• The challenge of the spacecraft (1975)
• 20 July 2019 (1986)
• The world is one (1992)

Awards

• 1973 Nébula Award, Hugo, Locus and John W. Campbell Memorial 1974 to the best novel by Quote with Rama.
• Hugo Award 1980 to the best novel by The fountains of paradise.

Spanish edition

• Clarke, Arthur C.; Baxter, Stephen (2007). The Eye of Time. Madrid: The idea factor. ISBN 978-84-9800-352-9.
• Ten world stories. Barcelona: Edhasa. 2004. ISBN 978-84-350-2097-8.
• The city and the stars. Barcelona: Edhasa. 2004. ISBN 978-84-350-2099-2.
• The sands of Mars. Barcelona: Edhasa. 2002. ISBN 978-84-350-2075-6.
• The end of childhood. Barcelona: Minotauro Editions. 2001. ISBN 978-84-450-7021-5.
• The Titanic Spectrum. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. 2000. ISBN 978-84-01-49272-3.
• Clarke, Arthur C.; Baxter, Stephen (2000). Light of other days. Madrid: The idea factor. ISBN 978-84-8421-281.
• 2001, a space odyssey. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. 1999. ISBN 978-84-01-49274-7.
• 2061, odyssey three. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. 1999. ISBN 978-84-01-49273-0.
• Tales of the White Deer Tavern. Madrid: Alianza Editorial. 1998. ISBN 978-84-206-1687-2.
• 3001, final odyssey. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. 1997. ISBN 978-84-01-32696-7.
• Clarke, Arthur C.; Lee, Gentry (1997). Revealed branch. Barcelona: Editions B. ISBN 978-84-406-7030-4.
• The Hammer of God. Barcelona: Editions B. 1997. ISBN 978-84-406-7069-4.
• The world is one. Barcelona: Editions B. 1996. ISBN 978-84-406-6988-9.
• Songs of the distant earth. Barcelona: Editions B. 1996. ISBN 978-84-406-6042-8.
• Clarke, Arthur C.; Lee, Gentry (1995). The garden of Rama. Barcelona: Editions B. ISBN 978-84-406-4412-1.
• Clarke, Arthur C.; Lee, Gentry (1992). Cuna. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. ISBN 84-01-49170-3.
• Clarke, Arthur C.; Preuss, Paul (1992). Venus Prime V: The Diamond Moon. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés Editores. ISBN 84-01-32487-4.
• Counts of the planet Earth. Barcelona: Editions B. 1992. ISBN 978-84-406-3079-7.
• Return to Titan. Barcelona: Ultramar Editores, S.A. 1989. ISBN 978-84-7386-425-1.
• In the depths. Barcelona: Ultramar Editores. 1989. ISBN 978-84-7386-555-5.
• Quote with Rama. Barcelona: Ultramar Editores. 1989. ISBN 978-84-7386-190-8.
• 2010, odyssey two. Barcelona: Ultramar Editores. 1988. ISBN 978-84-7386-361-2.
• The sands of Mars. Barcelona: Edhasa. 1986. ISBN 978-84-350-2009-1.
• Sources of Paradise (The Fountains of Paradise). 1979.