It brought great sadness to my heart today to hear of the death of the visionary author and dreamer, Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke is best known as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and collaborating on film of the same name with Stanley Kubrick.
I spent hours upon hours in Perkins and Denny’s in my early 20’s, discussing what the Monolith was, why HAL did what he did, what the Star Child is, analyzing every single shot of both movies, praising Clarke and Kubrick—obsessing, geeking, loving. Walking home from work today, thinking about the profound impact his work has had on my life, I realized just how deep in my psyche it runs. If you look closely, you’ll see references to 2001 and 2010 all over the place in my life: the inscription on my iPod, “Dr. Chandra—will I dream?”; my hard drives at home, all named after moons of Jupiter; my Powerbook, named TMA-1 (let’s see who else out there is geeky enough to get that). I never read 2061 or 3001; I guess it’s time.
I watched 2010 for the umpteenth time just a few days ago. David Bowman’s final transmission, “My God—it’s full of stars,” and the Monolith’s message of peace at the end still give me chills every time.
Among everything else, Clarke’s legacy includes his Three Laws:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Thank you. We’ll miss you.
More information: New York Times BBC News Wikipedia
Michael Smith said:
Hi David, I am a geek of a different order. I saw these movies when they came out but was focused on other things. I obviously need to file these works as items of literture not just films. I appreciate your words here. They have given me something new to read and re-view.
Thanks,
Michael
ps The quotes are fantastic.
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