"Ken from Chicago" <kwicker1b_nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>For those not familiar with Clarke's solo work, might you cite examples
for
>those familiar with "modern" works so they might help?
You know, I don't think it's gone at all mentioned, but Clarke
around 1989 wrote an absolutely wonderful book, _Astounding Days_, which
is in part a memoir and in part a lovingly detailed review of the first
fifteen or so years of Astounding Science Fiction.
Reviewing it may offer some insight to what make Clarke's tone
so splendid: he would share a little dollop of his life, first in rural
England, then drifting into the Civil Service long enough to miss out on
the inconvenient parts of wartime London, then fall into a team trying
to prove that radar and radio could be used to guide pilots who couldn't
see their runways. And then that mixes with a bit of the plot or setting
or a striking image from an Astounding story -- maybe an editorial or
special feature -- put against bits of the actual science that they were
so badly abusing, or the history of some neat piece of technological
history, often that's come about since the story was first published.
And then he closes off with a generally warm-hearted conclusion. (``I
suppose anything is scary if it's large enough, but a giant platypus?'')
You come away having seen a lot of wonderful things and not
feeling that you'd ever been lectured to.
--
Joseph Nebus
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