Re: ~ Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Author and Gay Man, Dies ~

In article <9vdEj.24204$R84.15236@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
mscottschilling@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Mike  Schilling) wrote:

> David Friedman wrote:
> > In article <2008031911111450073-kurt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
> > Kurt Busiek <kurt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >
> >>> And if they don't know the novel was based on Clarke's short
story
> >>> "The Sentinel", then they most certainly are not *SF* fans!
> >>
> >> That's an odd litmus test for SF fans, but it'll certainly exclude
> >> lots of people you can sneer at, which seems to be the point of
the
> >> exercise.
> >
> > I didn't know that before reading this thread, or if I did I had
> > forgotten it.
> 
> If you'd read the story (after seeing the movie) you knew it at 
> the time; it's impossible to miss. 

I read the story many years before the film came out.  When the film
did come out, I recognised that it was based on The Sentinel just from
the reviews.  (It took many months to get to my local cinema.  I saw it
the same week as Apollo 10 returned to Earth.)

A friend of mine tells of going to a Clarke signing with a copy of the
magazine - according to ISFDb 10 Story Fantasy from 1951 - that had the
original publication of The Sentinel, then called Sentinel of Eternity.
When Clarke saw it, he held it aloft and called out, "Look at this,
everybody!"  I think he signed it with a comment along the lines of "If
only I'd known where this would lead."