[NCLUG] Arthur C. Clarke

Brian Wood bwood at beww.org
Wed Mar 19 15:57:29 MDT 2008


On Mar 19, 2008, at 2:03 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 05:43:36PM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>> Perhaps Off Topic, but I suspect of interest to most if not all here.
>>
>> Arthur C. Clarke has passed away, the last of the "Big 3" of SF.
>>
>> I managed to meet the other two, but not Arthur.
>>
>> I think I'll watch 2001 tonight.
>
> I tend to guess you mean Isaac Asimov and Robert A Heinlein by "the  
> other
> two".  Am I wrong?

You are quite correct. My Dad introduced me to RAH, who he had met at  
L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics School in Elizabeth, NJ in the 1950s. I met  
Asimov at a book signing in Brooklyn, NY, where I was just one of  
hundreds of attendees at a lecture/signing.

Note: I am not a follower of either Dianetics or its offshoot,  
Scientology. I did read "Dianetics", I was not very impressed.

> I find it interesting that you exclude Ray Bradbury.  Is it simply  
> that
> he isn't "hard SF" enough?

The "Big Three" have pretty much been named by many sources, including  
J.W. Campbell, founding editor of Astounding SF, which later became  
"Analog".

After RAH's death the Science Fictions Writers Treaty was developed,  
where by Asimoz and Clarke each claimed that "The World's Second Best  
SF writer dedicates this book to the Second Best SF writer", thus both  
claiming to be "second best".

I would consider Bradbury more of a Fantasy writer than a pure SF one,  
though the line is blurry. That is certainly not to denigrate his work.

beww




More information about the NCLUG mailing list