Ahira's Hangar

taras said, "I will only make one further comment here, and IMO other discussion of politics in SciFi should go into Current Affairs forum and a message thread already exists there.

I have thought long and hard about this and, correct me if I'm wrong, the only topic I see of this kind in Current Affairs is the O. S. Card one. That topic seems to be Mr. Card's personal bent on politics. Yes I agree that "outside" of their works Current Affairs would be the place for such things. However when they raise political opinions or herald a particular political system(s) within their works it should stay in this forum. Actually a topic should be created (here) to discuss such matters-feel free to start one! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 3/6/04 1:31 pm
</i>

Oh, I think taraswizard was referring to the thread called "Hope this is the right place" in the Current Affairs forum, danlo.

I definitely think it's appropriate to bring up Clarke's politics in a Clarke thread, but yeah, I probably shouldn't have mentioned the other authors here. Sorry, just too lazy to start a separate thread. ******************

To seek the sacred river Alph, to walk the caves of ice ...<i></i>

As long as it's at least tangentially related to sci-fi lit, I think it's cool here. If it gets to a point where it isn't, though, I can always move it, leaving a shadow behind here (if I have this whole mod thing down right, anyway). Please feel free to make any suggestions to me via PM or e-mail. ________________
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and cleansing I've endured within my shadow. Change is coming. Now is my time. Listen to my muscle memory. Contemplate what I've been clinging to. -Tool, "Forty-Six & Two" <i></i>

I'm a little late coming here...just found this board today ACC is one of my all-time favs, def. a classic author. I read _Childhood's End_ a few years ago, and I literally had tears in my eyes at the end. Yeah, it is disturbing, but very moving as well. And just a reference to the comment about it offending some religious people, I can see that, but my ex's mother (wife of a Lutheran reverend) read it and loved it

As for the Rama books, I read the first one and adored it...the series went downhill from there IMHO. I couldn't even get through the third one, it just got so dumb I couldn't finish it. JMHO, though.

Jen <i></i>

Welcome to the Hangar Jen X! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Indeed, welcome. ________________
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and cleansing I've endured within my shadow. Change is coming. Now is my time. Listen to my muscle memory. Contemplate what I've been clinging to. -Tool, "Forty-Six & Two" <i></i>

Jen X welcome to the hangar and welcome to comment on Arthur C. Clarke. I got two comments to make about Childhood's End, and they are going to be seperate posts. The first one concerns this novel and religion.

The reasons I think many Christians would take offense to this story are basically two. IMO, the novel reduces God to this naturalistic phenomemna, the Overmind. To my way of thinking that is kind of a naturalistic view regarding theology, and not an orthodox Christian. And I know that Clarke has claimed several time to be an atheitist.

Secondly, the novel does not conform to the what AFAIK is the Christian viewpoint of the ultimate goal of humanity.

These are the two reasons I think many Christians might take offense to this novel. Maybe I'm just babbling incoherently here and not really knowing what I am talking about. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 3/15/04 1:52 pm
</i>

This is messed up. But I have my second comment about Childhood's End, that I promised two weeks ago. However this is what I planned to write then.

Allowing that the book is largely told through the POV of the Overlords. I have never got any sense of the awfulness of what the evolved beings (the human childern that changed prior to their joining to the Overmind) do. All their actions are awe (in all senses of the word) like.

I guess that's a really parochial way to look at this book. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i></i>

Not many people talk about Clarke any more these days, it seems. Has he fallen out of fashion? Hopefully, this will change if and when the Rama movie gets made (I'm assuming director David Fincher and actor Morgan Freeman are still developing the project).

I love Clarke's writing. Ever since I first read 2001: A Space Odyssey years ago, I've admired his concise style. Even though the novel 2001 was a hybrid creation of sorts (both an adaptation of the movie screenplay and a re-working of his own original short story that inspired the movie), it stood well on its own as a literary work, in my view. My username is the name given by Clarke in the novel to the man-ape who rises to greatness, as it were.

I've read only a meagre selection of Clarke's entire output, but so far my favorite single novel of his remains Rendezvous With Rama. I love the sense of awe and mystery about alien technology that is represented by Rama, and the way Clarke portrays human beings' reactions to it. Clarke puts us in our place in the cosmic scheme of things: humbled, but capable of wonder, which inspires us to surpass ourselves.

I also liked the "sequel" Rama novels in general, though I found the writing to be uncharacteristically turgid (and even inchoherent in places) for a Clarke work. This inconsistency I blame (mostly) on Clarke's collaborator for the sequels, Gentry Lee. However, both redeem themselves in the final book, Rama Revealed, which I think is an amazing, mind-blowing conclusion to the whole saga.

<i>Edited by: Moonwatcher at: 8/26/05 11:11 am
</i>

Four months after reading Childhood's End, I finally post my thoughts on it...

I read CE in the space of a day and an evening, which is insanely fast for me. It helped that it was a short book. It may be short compared to more verbose novels, but then Clarke's precise prose doesn't need padding.

CE is the most provocative story by Clarke that I've read (so far), in terms of its radical vision of humanity's future - the devastating finality of it. On the surface anyway, it's a depressing story, since it is essentially about the end of the human race. The entity that mankind has become is so far removed from what we would deem "human" that I personally can't take joy in the transformation. I'd be celebrating something that I can't relate to at the most fundamental level. Or maybe it's the manner of the transformation that really disturbs me - children losing their sense of individual self to become "cells" of a much larger whole, the cosmic "organism" called the Overmind. You don't have to be a parent to be unnerved by the thought of children turning into automatons. It's downright frightening. The loss of individual identity offends my basic sense of what it means to be human. A communal "beehive" mind is utterly alien to me (and that, of course, made the Borg of Star Trek so sinister...well, that and their cybernetic physiology.) Anyway, it strikes at a core belief that there is a human "soul." Without that, we're not better than a microbe.

Damn, that sounds horrifying. Losing their sense of self. I thought I'd read this one, but it seems I was mistaken.

--A

Oh, I don't worry about spoilers usually. I read the story for the story, not for the ending. Don't worry about having given anything away.

Personally, I think our hard-won progress is for nonthing, in the greater scheme of things. I think our world, our lives, our humanity, are pretty insignificant on a universal scale.

Agree with that last though...If there's still a me that I recognise as such, then it's me. Life without awareness of myself is the same as if I'd died.

(I think we've discussed this importance of self before and agree. If what survives doesn't know its you, then you didn't survive. )

--A

...just so you can see my new signature and tell me where it comes from..