Re: Arthur C. Clarke question

Martha Adams wrote:
> 
> "Chris Thompson" <cet1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:frc5ap$fok$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> In article <Xns9A608BF29ECFCgenewardsmithsbcglob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>> Gene Ward Smith  <gene@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> Sean O'Hara <seanohara@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in news:63thsgF292gujU1
>>> @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>>> "Against the Fall of Night" was the first novel Clarke wrote, and he
>>>> was unhappy with how it turned out, so when he felt he'd learned
>>>> enough of the craft, he went back to rewrite and expand it into "The
>>>> City and the Stars".
>>>>
>>>
>>> Of course, he forgot he was supposed to improve it.
>>
>> My, we are in a grumpy mood this year, aren't we?
>>
>> I don't think there is any clear concensus about which is the better
>> version. Most people seem to prefer the one they read first. That's
>> true for me, and it was tCatS. I didn't read AtFoN until many years
>> later, and found the differences interesting, but I'm fairly sure
>> that it wouldn't have made the impression[*] on me that tCatS did,
>> if only because Diaspar's Central Computer was a big hit with me
>> and is much less developed as an entity in the earlier work.
>>
>> [*] I've said before that tCatS was the turning point for me as
>> regards reading SF. Of course, it was the Golden Age [OK, plus a
>> couple of years - I must have been a late developer]. Little did
>> I know that I would still be reading the stuff forty-mumble years
>> later ...
>>
>> -- 
>> Chris Thompson
>> Email: cet1 [at] cam.ac.uk
> 
> Re Clarke's work, seems to me, he wrote *three* of
> those stories that were alike:
> 
> The Lion of Comarre;
> 
> The City and the Stars;
> 
> Against the Fall of Night.
> 
> I read those long ago.  I don't know what their
> publication order is; but seems to me I read
> Against the Fall of Night first; and it has
> always stood #1 of the three in my preference.
> 
> Titeotwawki -- mha    [rasff 2008 Mar 13]

 From introduction to "The Lion of Comarre" in the _Collected Stories of 
Arthur C Clarke_:

"'The Lion of Comarre' was written at around the same time as _Against 
the Fall of Night_ and shares the emotions of the longer work. Both 
involve a search, or quest, for unknown and mysterious goals. In each 
case, the real objectives are wonder and magic rather than any material 
gain. And in each case, the hero is a young man dissatisfied with his 
environment."

-- 
"The more persistently a government maintains silence on a given subject 
of discussion, the more the public talks about it, thinks about it. The 
longer and more stubborn the silence the guiltier it looks to the 
talkers and thinkers. In time of war the most morale-lowering question 
that can be asked is, 'What are they hiding from us now?'"
- _Wasp_ by Eric Frank Russell
<http://variety-sf.blogspot.com/2008/03/quotes-from-eric-frank-russell-wasp.html>