I heard that Arthur C. Clarke died last night!

[duskyjewel]

Oh… I am so sad. He was the last of the three founding fathers of science fiction.

He has a special place in my heart, because his stories caught my mind at a young age and never let go. I ADORE reading his work. Childhood’s End was the first book that ever literally scared the YKW out of me!

Oh, we have lost a literary giant. He made the hardest of hard sci fi fanciful and easy to enjoy. His stories were scientific but never boring, human, and beautiful, and scary, and thrilling…

Am I just way too attached to books, or what?

 

[AnthonyM2]

I heard it about on the news yesterday also. I believe he was 90 years old. I’ve never read his books but I’m familiar with his work, especially 2001 A Space Odyssey, which was a great movie, from what I recall.

I also remember his TV show, Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers, which investigated claims of the paranormal, very interesting also. But I think he was an atheist or agnostic, if so, may the Lord have mercy on him.

 

[Dwyer]

I can’t say I was a fan, even of the much praised film 2001; I read some of his short stories and Childhood’s End (at an older sibling’s prompting), but I found traditional literature to interest me more, but that’s just my personal tastes.

I always wondered why this man lived on the island of Sri Lanka???

I know it is a former British Colony, but there is a lot of sectarian violence there between the Tamil Tigers (who are Hindu) and the Buddhists who control the island (its a major center of Buddhism; which shows that some Buddhists can be dogmatic and violent, contrary to how it is often portrayed in the West as being a religion without a God and of peace and tranquility).

(Well, Buddhism does have this concept of the great Void and everything being part of this Void or One which is some sort of spiritual force or presence; the other major branch of Buddhism from Chinese Buddhism and other Asian forms do see the Buddha as in fact being a god).

Was Arthur C. Clarke a Buddhist? An Atheist?

Why did he want to live on this island where violent clashes were often commonplace?? That always puzzled me.

 

[Mirdath]

I always wondered why this man lived on the island of Sri Lanka???

Scuba diving. And I think he just liked the place in general.

Was Arthur C. Clarke a Buddhist? An Atheist?

Atheist.

I haven’t read anything by him in ages, but it’s still sad to see the last of the big three go

 

[Newzie52]

He left instructions that any funeral of his was to have not the slightest hint of any religion whatsoever.

 

[duskyjewel]

Funny, one of my favorite stories is The Nine Billion Names of God. Admittedly, his main characters did usually seem to be dedicated Atheists, but that’s common in a lot of “futuristic” literature, so I usually ignored it. I didn’t sense a general ethic of hostility toward religion in his work, though some of his characters were that way. More like there was an absence of religion in his work.

I don’t think it’s necessary for everything I read to have a Catholic ethic or be written by Catholics. Boy, would that limit my library.

I pray he won’t have to spend too much time in Purgatory, and I really hope he didn’t buy himself a trip to Hell. God’s mercy is infinite… but you do have to accept it when offered for it to apply to you.