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Table of Contents

Arthur C. Clarke...... by Bill Ware..Front Cover Tables of contents, artists, colophon,...... 1 Arthur C. Clarke...... Lan...... 2 I Don’t Understand What’s Happening Here...John Purcell...... 3 Arthur C. Clarke: The Prophet Vindicated...Gregory Benford....4 Of Sarongs & Science Fiction: A Tribute to Arthur C. Clarke Ben P. Indick...... 6 An Arthur C. Clarke Chronology...... Robert Sabella...... 8 Table of Artists A Childhood's End Remembrance...... Gary Lovisi...... 9 My Hero...... Mary Lou Lockhart..11 Paul Anderegg — 34 A Childhood Well Wasted: Some Thoughts on Arthur C. Clarke Sheryl Birkhead — 2 Andrew Hooper...... 12 PL Caruthers-Montgomery Reflections on the Style of Arthur C. Clarke and, to a Lesser — (Calligraphy) 1, Degree, a Review of 2061: Odyssey Three...Bill Ware...... 17 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, About the Cover...... Bill Ware...... 17 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, My Childhood’s End...... Kathy Mar...... 18 21, 22, 24, 28, 31 Childhood’s End...... Words & Music by Kathy Mar...... 19 Ravi Chopra — 11, 16 Arthur C. Clarke: Memories and Musings....Terry O’Brien...... 20 Greg Frederick — 23 The True and Strange Worlds of Arthur C. Clarke Teddy Harvia — 14, 18 Alan David Laska...21 30 Arthur C. Clarke: The Man Who Made the Monolith Tullio Proni — 27, 33 Alexander Bouchard.. .22 Peggy Ranson — 25, 32 HALlucination 9000...... Arthur C. Clarke...23 Tim Ray — 3 The Predictions of Arthur C. Clarke: A Limited Study Diana Stein — 7 Joseph Green...... 24 Bill Ware — Front Cover Arthur C. Clarke and Ben Bova...... Ben Bova...... 28 Clarke and Temple: The Fans behind the Pros....Harry Bond....29 Short Comments on Arthur C. Clarke...... David Thayer, Roy Hill, David Palter and Larry Nowinski....31 Contributors...... 33

To Maia, as usual, Why You Are Receiving This iWioittbn, and Arthur C. Clarke, You have a contribution who made this possible. (art, article) in this issue. Lan's Lantern #28 is published and edited by George You've sent me a contribu­ "Lan" Laskowski, 55 Valley Way, Bloomfield Hills, MI tion (to be published in a 48013 USA. Phone: (313) 642-5670. Lan's Lantern is future issue). available for articles, art, letters (calls or post­ Loc received (to be pub­ cards) of comment, even money (US$2), and the whim of lished in a future issue). the editor. The opinions expressed are those of the Trade o^You wanted one contributors, and may or may not be those of the edi­ We're In an apa together. tor. This is Lantern Publication #14, a division of "1 would like you to contri­ LanShack Press Unlimited. Lan's Lantern #28 is copy­ bute to the next special right (c) December, 1988, by George J Laskowski Jr., Issues In 1989: Isaac except where otherwise noted. Contributions (art, art­ Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, icles, reviews, letters) become the property of Lan­ Fritz Leiber, Ted Sturgeon, Shack Press, but will be returned upon request. All A. E. Van Vogt. rights return to the contributors upon publication. This is your last issue un­ less you send me something. 2 //Lan's Lantern #28 ^rom'Mc £/cutor-.

by Lan

I’ve known Arthur C. Clarke through his pert" about the film among the non-SF writing almost as long as I have been friends I had. reading science fiction. Harry Purvis be­ I reluctantly read "The Nine Billion came an old friend as I read and reread Names of God." I didn’t —no, couldn’t— the stories he narrated in Tales from the see Clarke writing much about religion and "White Hart”. Clarke’s A Fall of Moondust did not want to have the book of the same was read in a single night, as the master name in my collection. However, a friend story teller drew me from one chapter to in graduate school suggested that I indeed the next in this novel of rescue on the read it, and did so after finding the sto­ moon. The innumerable short stories I ry in one of my anthologies. I went out read, the few novels — far fewer than I and bought the book the day after I fin­ should have read — all painted a picture ished it, and read through the rest of the of a highly intelligent, very imaginative stories. I found the contradictory themes person. I have to admit that I did learn with "Nine Billion Names" and the final a lot of my science from him — and espe­ story called "The Star" rather interesting cially a love of the subject which even and knew then that Clarke was experiment­ now keeps me reading Science News every ing with ideas, just as he always had. La­ week. ter he did the same in his novel The Songs Of the many novels that Clarke has of Distant Earth where he postulated that written, I’ve only read seven. Maybe this good and evil did not exist; all we term is something I should not reveal in this as such was merely random chance. Thus special issue of Lan’s Lantern which cele­ "God" was unnecessary. brates his golden anniversary, but I do Childhood’s End was touted as a classic have a couple on my "to-be-read" shelf, in the field, but it took me some time to and the rest are out on the open shelves discover it as such. Friends urged me to and ready for reading. But I recall so remove it from the box in which it was re­ many of the stories I have read vivid­ siding at the time and read it. Religion, ly, and many times the circumstances a- again, with another twist. That got me to round which they were read. thinking a lot more about my own beliefs. "Rescue Party" was a short story in an So I laud Arthur C. Clarke for keeping anthology entitled Great Tales of Action me thinking, and promise that one day I and Adventure which I had to read for one shall take his accumulated novels and col­ of my high school English classes. (I have lections off my shelf and read them all. it in several other Clarke collections.) Long may he live and write! There were maybe two other people in that class who understood the story, and had § § § § § little trouble with it. Most of my class­ mates looked to me for an explanation. I In a note sent to me from Arthur, he happily provided them with one, especially points out that his "Golden Year was 1982 of that last line. — according to David Samuelson’s Biblio­ When I finally saw the film 2001: A graphy." My source was Brian Ashley’s The Space Odyssey, I was filled with questions Illustrated History of Science Fiction. about it. The novel clarified several Whichever it may be, just consider this things, and once again I became "the ex­ issue either on time or long overdue. Lan's Lantern #28// 3

No matter. The movie was still there, sc by John Purcell back I went. Okay. Now a lot of stuff made sense. The transposition from a Young Bowman to an Old Bowman and the Starchild made sense. The Dawn of Man disco scene now made more sense. But what hidden meanings Without a doubt everybody else in this were there in Bowman's voyage into the Arthur C. Clarke tribute issue will have monolith? So once again I reread the book. personal anecdotes about the man. I do And then it was back to the theatre to not. You see, England and Sri Lanka are check out my ideas. not exactly next door to Minneapolis where In two weeks I saw the movie 2001: A I live. All I can add here is to voice Space Odyssey three times and read the what I experienced through 2001: A Space book twice. And you know something? I Odyssey. still don't fully understand it all I fell in love with Clarke's writing — nearly 23 years later! with Against the Fall of Night, A Fall of Thank you, Arthur C. Clarke, Moondust, and other novels I had read in for thoroughly confusing a grade school and junior high. So when 2001 schoolboy's mind. came out in the theaters, I was ecstatic. I dearly loved science fiction movies. And this one was in cinerama, no less. Gosh- wow! My sensawondah kicked into high gear. So with unbridled excitement I dashed off to the Cooper Theater — alone — to see the movie. My first comment at the ending was "What?" A visually stimulating film, but what the heck did it all mean? The next day I bought the book. After reading it carefully, the movie began to make some sense. But I still had questions in my mind pertaining to Kubrick's visual interpretations of items in the book. 4 //Lan's Lantern #28 Arthur Qfartc : jfic 'Prcyhet Vindicated.

by Gregory Benford

In 1957 I was sitting on the chilly the bounds of scientific law, with elegant deck of the America when news of the Sput­ brevity which brimmed with unstated impli­ nik launch arrived: a lone paragraph in cations, ready-made for extrapolation. the ship’s newspaper. I ground my teeth, Books on futurology date notoriously, yet wanting more information, and thought, this one has not, principally because ”1’11 bet Arthur is beside himself.” Clarke was unafraid of being adventurous. He was. As Arthur Clarke remarks in one In a new introduction, he mentions of the essays in Ascent to Orbit (John reading a review of a Russian book about Wiley, 1984), he had no reason to believe the twenty-first century. The distin­ his meticulously sketched dreams of space guished British scientist reviewer found flight would occur in his lifetime. He has the work extremely reasonable and the ex­ become the luckiest of prophets, a vindi­ trapolations quite convincing. Remarks cated sage in his own time. Clarke, ”1 hope this charge will not be While clearly the most famous and in­ levelled against me. If this book seems ternational of all science fiction writ­ completely reasonable and all my extrapo­ ers, he is not a unique type. He stands in lations convincing, I shall not have suc­ the tradition of English futurists who ceeded in looking very far ahead; for the have used fiction or nonfiction to spread one fact about the Future of which we can their visions — H. G. Wells, J. D. Ber­ be certain is that it will be utterly fan­ nal, Olaf Stapledon, Freeman Dyson. They tastic . ” were convinced that only in scientific Clarke’s cool, analytical tone pervades areas is reliable prediction possible; as all his writing. He prefers a pure, dis­ Clarke says, ”there are some general laws passionate statement of facts and rela­ governing scientific extrapolation, as tionships, yet the result is not cold. In­ there are not (pace Marx) in the case of stead, he achieves a rendering of the politics and economics.” scientific aesthetic, with its respect for It is worth the while of any hard SF the universal qualities of intelligence, writer to study Clarke’s career, for it its tenacity and curiosity. His fiction describes the most nearly perfect trajec­ neglects the conflict and the broad spec­ tory — from Astounding obscurity to world trum of emotion which gives it a curiously fame, while remaining true to his earliest refreshing honesty; many have been poked interests and devotions. His attention and jarred quite enough by superheated focused on technical possibilities, he a- prose of the Mailer school, thank you. voided high drama and melodramatics wher­ Even the virtual absence of sex in his ever possible. Born of pulp, he rose above novels is not greatly limiting — writing it by never abandoning his cool, distant about sex is easier to do than the strange manner. landscapes of SF, and for Clarke’s pur­ It was a pleasure to see reissued sev­ poses, pointless. eral years ago Profiles of the Future, an Indeed, his vision carries precisely elegantly phrased ’’inquiry into the limits because he remains almost obliviously a- of the possible” which was immediately in­ bove the fray: ’’Politics and economics are fluential. It served for decades as a fun­ concerned with power and wealth, neither damental text for SF writers who wanted to of which should be the primary, still less think seriously, even systematically about the exclusive, concern of full-grown men.” the future. It details Clarke’s expecta­ Clarke’s wry wit often skewers the tions about what might be achieved within short-sightedness of such men. In discus- Lan’s Lantern #26// 5 sing the space program, he quotes one of rockets and warfare, satellite communica­ the early explorers of Australia ’’report­ tions, the ’’space elevator,” and the im­ ing proudly to his mission control, back plications of computers. His principal in Whitehall, ’I have now mapped this con­ contribution was suggesting that satel­ tinent so thoroughly that no one need ever lites could serve as economical radio go there again.*” There are echoes of this relays. blinkered pioneer in current discussion of This came at a time when learned socie­ our space station project. ties devoted to astronautics strove to Futurology has expanded enormously appear sober and earnest. Without having since Profiles first appeared, probably even seen Clarke’s earlier paper, John because now most people have seen a half Pierce (”J.J. Coupling” is SF) published dozen major revolutions happen in their his ’’Orbital Radio Relays” in Jet Propul­ own lives. The effects of this on politics sion magazine, so named because ’’Even the will be vast; most problems today are word ’rocket’ was avoided as too Buck posed in the formula ’’What if...?” and ”If Rogerish; only ’jet propulsion’ was re­ this goes on...” — our staple openings. spectable...” Pierce’s development of the Along with the figures of the Golden idea from a mere suggestion demonstrated Age (post 1940), he saw that there was no how Clarke’s publicizing of it had slowly contradiction between fidelity to facts made these ideas seem natural. He had wide and narrative interest: ”It should never influence, though as Clarke himself ad­ be forgotten that, without some foundation mits, the idea was so obvious that half a of reality, science fiction would be im­ dozen others would probably have come up possible, and that therefore exact know­ with it at about the same time, 1945. ledge is the friend, not the enemy, of Though he says ”1 suspect that my early imagination and fantasy.” disclosure may have advanced the cause of Getting from speculation to hardware is space communications by approximately fif­ a long voyage, often taking centuries. teen minutes,” in fact his ceaseless pro­ Clarke has contributed to this journey, as motion of it did what good hard SF is sup­ the collected speeches and essays in 1984; posed to do — render the future seemingly Spring underline. He points out that while inevitable, overcoming the usual conserva­ gradual progress is essential, great fig­ tism. ures like von Braun sometimes spur devel­ He was no less right about even larger opment long before it is obviously neces­ issues. His 1946 essay, "The Rocket and sary. ”If there had been government re­ the Future of Warfare,” anticipated the search establishments in the Stone Age, we essentials of ICBM nuclear war, and called would have had absolutely superb flint for measures to avoid it. Though many were tools. But no one would have invented concerned with ’’atom war” then — the US steel.” If Heinlein’s Man Who Sold the made its proposal of international regula­ Moon was more like Howard Hughes, at least tion of nuclear weapons to the USSR and the instinct was right. was turned down — few saw the fateful Even the great inventors do not often mating of the bomb and the rocket. Nota­ understand the full implications of their bly, most of those who did were science work. The Satellite-linked communicators fiction writers who had long believed that and fast information networks of our im­ rockets were the next big step in aeronau­ mediate future will change office work, tics. (They had long before gotten bored certainly, but what of the wider uses? Na­ with jet planes.) tional frontiers will present less of a The oddments collected in 1984: Spring barrier to the free flow of information, do not shape into a definitive argument; even in such benighted prisons as the the book is obviously scraped together to USSR. The debate about information con­ capitalize on Clarke’s spurt in recogni­ trol, from Orwell on, ’’will soon be set­ tion, following 2010. Still, it gives us tled — by engineers, not politicians. oblique views of a man whose life has been (Just as physicists, not generals, have focused on the grandest perspectives. Sta- determined the nature of war.)” pledon, whom Clarke idolized, dragged the Dip into Ascent to Orbit, his collec­ conflicts of his era into far-future vi­ tion of scientific papers, mostly from the sions, attributing Marxist — indeed, 1940s, with autobiographical introduc­ Stalinist — dynamics to even alien, in- tions. It details his early thoughts on sectoid races. This riddles some of Sta- pledon’s work with anachronisms. 6 //Lan’s Lantern #28

Clarke never loses his bearings this bothered about passing issues) or the mud­ way, and his work will probably wear well. dy irrelevance of science fantasy. He has always played to his strengths, Clarke is an original. He comes across minimizing areas which don’t naturally as occasionally exasperated at the stupid­ appeal to his own innate emotions. Of ity of humankind, but still involved, car­ course, this is what any writer should do, ing. Against the anti-technological bias but it’s a damned hard lesson to learn. It of our recent times, he remains impressed requires more self-knowledge than we (or with the enormous possibilities science anyway, I) typically have. Hard SF can holds out to us. In the end, "...whatever gain a distance from the present in the other perils humanity may face in the fu­ "high church" form Clarke espouses, which ture that lies ahead, boredom is not among gives it a rather longer shelf life than them." sociological SF (which often seems hot and Hear hear!

OfSarvrup

A Tribute to Arthur Q.

by Ben P. Indick

Some time over a decade ago, I received a British fanzine which featured an inter­ view with Arthur C. Clarke. It had been conducted in his own Sri Lanka, and con­ tained some photos and a lengthy, genial The letter was printed in the following chat. I do not recall the particular fan­ issue, which I have also lost somewhere in zine, as I did not save it. Clarke commen­ time. A short time later, to my surprise ted in it that he enjoyed the simple life and delight, I received an airmail letter on the island, his adopted home, and en­ from Sri Lanka, of all places — and this, joyed going about his home in a sarong. you can bet, I still have — containing I am an old-timer and I recalled seeing only a photograph. It portrays an intense, (ca. 1940) movies with Dorothy Lamour clad ascetic looking gentleman sitting most in what was billed as a sarong. It was, comfortably in a book-lined den, radio/ apparently, a long cloth draped form-fit- phonograph behind him, either in sandals tingly about the body. She looked very or barefoot (I cannot make it out), but luscious in a few of the Paramount "Road" wearing, indisputably, something other movies and Hurricane, Hawaiian and Poly­ than trousers. The wide, skirt-like gar­ nesian fantasies. Clarke’s statement sur­ ment is blue with a print of large fish prised me. Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Jon swimming gently across its width. On the Hall never wore sarongs; only the curva­ floor is a brightly colored, broadly ceous Dorothy did! I wrote to the editor striped throw rug in bands of blue, yellow expressing my surprise. I did not neces­ and possibly more just out of camera sarily state the great SF author was wrong range. On the verso is a brief note: but I did stand up for Dorothy Lamour and her inalienable right to be sexy. Heck, I was certain that, while Clarke could write rings around her, he would never look as good! Lan’s Lantern #2c// ?

or goodness knows what else, on my money! 20 Sept 76 I don’t care about the rest of those two issues, but I feel much deprived not to be Dear Ben — able to see those letters with such land­ mark fantasists. In Sri Lanka the men wear sarongs, Sri Lanka is no longer the island para­ the women wear saris! dise a young Clarke chose to live in. He is himself in what he calls retirement, Best, but meanwhile has plans for much travel, (And with a fine flourish, his to deliver talks and receive honorary de­ signature.) grees. And, of course, he continues to write vigorously and lovingly of his (n.b. carpet — see Imperial Earth) dreams of a universe whose individual mem­ bers respect each other. Violence is not a Well, Need I state the extent of my as­ part of his work, nor even has been. Who tonishment, even excitement, at this let­ can forget his irony in "The Star," that ter. Arthur C. Clarke, one of my idols for an event of unparalleled importance on many years, a great scientist as well as a Earth must be commemorated by the death by great and original science fiction author, nova of a vast star system far off in writing a letter to me, an overweight fan. space? The beneficent space travelers of Obviously the gentleman was a man of hu­ "The Sentinel" and its offspring 2001, of mor, even if he and Dorothy Lamour’s writ­ Childhood’s End where a race must at last ers spoke different languages. In all mature. Scores of stories and novels mak­ fairness I must point out that what the ing his name one to treasure. Humbly I am sarong did for Dorothy it came nowhere grateful for knowing him even to so slight near doing for Arthur! an extent, and for his sharing his grace Subsequently, I would on occasion drop and kind nature with me. I wish him all him a note, although I do not believe in the time and energy he requires to stay as wasting the commodity a writer needs most busy as ever in his "retirement." His — his time. Once, I wished to surprise my Fountains of Paradise are surely those of clerk who was a SF fan. He liked Clarke as Ponce De Leon. much as I did, so I wrote requesting a signature for him to paste into one of his Clarke books. Very graciously Arthur com­ plied, inscribing it to the young man’s full name, and it was Mark’s turn to be astonished and delighted now. Years later I did the same for my daughter and her husband, to put into a beautifully leath­ er-bound edition of 2001. They were ecsta­ tic. A man of graciousness indeed. Clarke wrote me on another occasion, hoping I might know whether Willis Conover was ready with the long delayed second is­ sue of his Science Fantasy Correspondent. Willis had sold subscriptions at 3 issues for $25 and many fans besides myself are, after more than a decade, slowly giving up hope of ever seeing the 2nd and 3rd. Con­ over was to have been "editing [Clarke’s] considerable correspondence with [Lord] Dunsany [and C.S. Lewis]." I had met Con­ over several times but knew nothing of his plans. The erstwhile Lovecraftian is ap­ parently off enjoying his jazz interests, 8 //Lan's Lantern #28

An Arthur ChronaCyy

by Robert Sabella

1917 Born Arthur Charles Clarke on Decem­ 1950 Second term as chairman of British ber 16 in Minehead, England -53 Interplanetary Society

1931 Discovered Amazing Stories and As­ 1951 Served as Chairman of International tounding Stories, commencing a Astronautical Federation Congress lifelong love of science fiction in London

1934 Joined the British Interplanetary 1952 Won the International Fantays Award Society (Nonfiction category) for The Ex­ ploration of Space 1936 Moved to London and became friendly with William F. Temple, Walter 1953 Publication of Childhood’s End; Gillings, John Wyndham, Eric Frank Chairman of the Hayden Planetarium Russell and C.S. Youd (John Chris­ Symposium of Spaceflight in New topher) ; York City published frequently in British fanzines 1956 Moved to Ceylon (later called Sri Lanka); 1938 Published his first article, ’’Man’s publication of The City and the Empire of Tomorrow,” in Tales of Stars, an expansion of Against the Wonder Fall of Night; Served as Guest of Honor at the 1941 Entered the Royal Air Force Fourteenth World Science Fiction Convention in New York 1945 Published his article ’’Extra-Terres­ Won the Best Short Story Hugo Award trial Relays” in Wireless World for ’’The Star” which postulated the existence of orbiting satellites for use in 1957 Publication of Tales from the VThite global telecommunication Hart

1946 Published his first science fiction 1962 Awarded the Kalinga Prize by UNESCO story, ’’Loophole,” in Astounding for his popularization of science

1946 Chairman of British Interplanetary 1963 Awarded the Gold Medal of the Frank­ -47 Society lin Institute for his invention of communication satellites 1948 Graduated from King’s College in London with First Class Honors in 1967 Publication of The Nine Billion Physics and Mathematics; Names of God

Against the Fall of Night was pub­ 1968 Release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, lished in Startling Stories based on a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke 1949 Assistant editor of Physics Ab- stracts 1968 Served as expert commentator for CBS -69 Television’s coverage of three Apollo space missions Lan's Lantern #2S// 9

1969 Received an Oscar nomination for 1974 Received both Hugo and Nebula Awards Best Original Screenplay for 2001: for Best Novel for Rendezvous with A Space Obyssey; Rama Received a Hugo Award for Best Dra­ matic Presentation for 2001: A 1980 Received both Hugo and Nebula Awards Space Obyssey; for Best Novel for The Fountains of Paradise 1973 Received the Science Fiction Writers of America’s Best Novella Nebula 1984 Release of 2010: Odyssey Two Award for "A Meeting with Medusa" 1985 Received a Hugo Award for Best Dra­ matic Presentation for 2C10: Odyssey Two

A Qkttfaxxfa 'EntL ^mevrdyrwicc

by Gary Lovisi Copyright (c) 1987 by Gary Lovisi

I first read Childhood’s End by Arthur But before 2001 there was Childhood’s C. Clarke way back in September of 1977 in End, a novel filled with Clarke’s beauti­ an old Ballantine paperback edition that ful poetic dreams, and each one structured had a gorgeous Dean Ellis cover. I discov­ sharply and engineered by a man who is al­ ered this classic rather late, for it ac­ so a very competent scientist and scienti­ tually has been in print as a Ballantine fic thinker. Although seemingly contradic­ paperback since the olden days, way back tory terms, science and poetry do blend in August, 1953. well in Childhood’s End. They create a That first memorable encounter with synergistic "sense of wonder" that re­ this wonderful novel was over ten years sponds to our hopes and expectations for ago, and though I’ve not reread this book the future of Mankind. As the back cover since (although I still own that same 13th blurbs say, "the last generations of Man­ printing from January, 1975), I do take it kind on Earth." And, more importantly in out every once in a while and fondly look the novel, what is to come after. it over. It’s like meeting an old friend. Of course, the blurbs give a superfi­ When you discover a great book like this cial indication of the plot: one, just a flip of the pages or a peek at the cover can really start the images com­ ...without warning, giant silver ing to life and the memories to soar. ships from outer space appear in the Obviously that book made a profound im­ skies above every major city on pression on me. It’s an excellent novel, a Earth. They are manned by the Over- true classic, in or out of the SF genre, lords — mysterious creatures from and in it Clarke is at the height of his an alien race — who soon take con­ powers as one of our greatest spiritual trol of the world. humanist writers. Later on, with the film Within fifty years, these brilli­ of 2001: A Space Odyssey, his brilliant ant masters have all but eliminated visions would reach the silver screen and ignorance, disease, poverty, and the audience is deserved — a film that fear. But suddenly this golden age was a culmination of all that was good and ends, and the guardians of Mankind glorious and hopeful during the late six­ bow to the will of a superior intel­ ties . ligence . 10 //Lan’s Lantern #28

Early on in the novel I thought that sort of science fictional version of spir­ the Overlords themselves were the superior itual humanism, and is an excellent exam­ intelligence, but they are in fact only ple of that very special (and difficult to messengers of the "gods." They are rather write with success) sub-genre of litera­ tragic and lonely figures — we see by the ture. The book ranks right up there with end of the novel — not really capable of another classic which was first published achieving the great potential that Mankind in 1930, Stapledon’s Last and First Men. may be able to reach. In a way I believe part of what Clarke The Overlords initially are a very says in the book is a very straightforward fearful lot, literally incarnate devils as message to us all — that the greatness, with their Satanic appearance, yet posses­ majesty, and promise which was born as hu­ sing a gentleness and yearning for know­ man potential in each and every one of us ledge that makes them very interesting is ours to fulfill individually as well as characters. In a sense they are almost the collectively. And that the greatest exten­ eternal child — and rather than Peter Pan sion of that idea — and Mankind’s true who does not want to grow up — the Over­ destiny, it’s true collective growth and lords are incapable of growing up, or at­ maturity — lies in reaching the stars. taining that maturity which Clarke hopes There’s a lot of beauty and meaning in humanity will grow into. Unfortunately, that book. And though, as I say, I’ve not the Overlords have the apex of their evo­ read it in over ten years, certain images lutionary development, incapable of a­ and ideas have been burned indelibly upon chieving any higher levels, no matter how my memory. I’m sure that many of you share they try. They are, in fact, a stagnant some of these feelings about this classic species. They have the sad job of ferrying book, while those unfamiliar with this no­ other, younger and more energetic races to vel should not miss out on the experience maturity — even as the attainment of that of reading it. beloved goal is to be denied them forever. Of course, I’ll reread Childhood’s End, A truly ironic touch, and yet, one that probably after I finish this article, but the Overlords handle well, much to their memories being what they are, I thought it credit. One wonders that, were humanity to might be interesting to let them have a shoulder the full burden of the knowledge bit of free reign and see what came out in the Overlords’ possess, would we come off this rather unusual appreciation of a fa­ half as well? vorite Arthur C. Clarke book.

But these speculations are not to be. gpyph -jn pub--. cations box 2O9 ■ Brooklyn , n. y. 11228-5;:?

In Childhood’s End humanity is destined Proudly Announcer: Dl*ECTI.’E STORY MAGAZINE: a new quarterly digest devoted tc detect:.e for greater things — maturity, and the fiction of all mods, featuring works by both pro and new stars in the detective-mystery field. Each issue packed with stories by Jackson, Nclan, stars. And the attainment of the stars, Aval lone, Crawford, Blandford, Warner and many others. Issue 41 will ce o-t in April at $3, or sucscribe: 4 issues f $12, and be sure not tc miss shining as a beacon to draw on the race, out on any of the action. OTHER w~Pl.CS: the premiere issue of this semi-annual science fiction, is the message here. The stars can be ours science fantasy, sf horror digest magazine out in March, featuring all tie. articles and stories by some of the best writers in the small press today. — if we can but reach up and grasp them! A.ailatle at S3 a copy, or subscribe: 4 issues 9 $12 PAPERBACK PARAZE: The Magazine For Paperback Readers And Collectors, now Quite an inciteful and intuituve idea for publ i shed b; -n.ontnly, features 50* pages filled with news, articles, interviews, cover reproductions, ads, all about paperbacks and collecting. 1953, 6 years before Spuntik, and an amaz­ Future theme issues on SF, EPB, hardociled, pulps, artists, all appearing in pb. Issue lb will be out in Feb. at S3, or subscribe: 6 issues for S.6. ing 16 years before the Apollo moon land­ and be sure to receive every fun-filled issue. AMAZING PULP HEROES: by Frans Hamilton and Link Hullar. If you love tKe ing. Even back then Clarke was trying to pulps then you'll love this booklet. It's an attractive collection cf almost 2 dozen stunning full-page illustrations by Fran* Hamilton tell us something; it was a universal mes­ featuring about SC different hero pulp characters, accompanied by capsule descriptions of each hero by pulp historian Link Hullar. A special First sage of the importance of space explora­ Edition Imited tc only 50C copies available in Feb. f S5. • THE NEMESIS by Gary Lovisi. Harry Turner fights back aoainst the Kingdon tion to the future of Mankind. Clarke was : of crime, he dons the nightblack and becomes The Nemesis: In the classic j Shadow Spider tradition. The Neresis fights crime as a modern-day, hunted. doing some pretty heavy dreaming in Child­ | vigilante. Cover and interior art by Steve Siryk. This First Edition of I 500 copies available in Feb. R $4. hood’s End, some really beautiful dreaming THE SINISTER PAY by Lester Dent. Pulp action comes alive when the creator o? Doc Savage g;.es us 3 fantastic tales about Lynn Lash, "the scientific that hopefully will not be in vain, now , detective.* This First Edition, 500 copy, trade-size paperback. is wondrcusly illustrated by Ron Wilber, and features an important that our space program seems to be on per­ introduction by Will Murray. Available now at $9.95 PRINCE RAYNZF by Henry Kcttner, a.n attractive booklet of great swctd and manent hold after the Challenger tragedy, sorcery tales f. on. one of the masters of heroic fantasy. Handsomely illustrated, featuring a special introduction by L. Sprague deOan.p. A and as Washington politicos try to hack First Edition, limited to only 50? copies, available now 9 $5.95 SCIENCE FICTION DETECTIVE TALES by Gary Lovisi, is a First Edition, non­ the space budget and use it to add to the fiction, trade-size paperback Featuring lists and info about futuristic detective fiction in paperback, including many fine cover repros, f S’.®5 cesspool of waste in government programs. RELICS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Cary Lovisi, is a 50 page booklet listing recent Holmes material from aone of the more uncommon sources, f S3 The stars are there — and they are there THE MONKEY'S PAW by W. W. Jacobs, an attractive 32pp booklet of classic horror, featuring a fine 2 color cover and interior illos by Hugo Award­ for us! winning artist Brad W. Foster, available f $3 DOCTOR DEPARTURE AND OTHERS by Alan Nelson, a First Edition booklet Childhood’s End is full of religious collecting many wacky and wonderful fantasy tales, available in June 9 $5 THE SAGA OF FILSTER STEIN by Cary Lovisi, sf-satire strikes the funny bone overtones which Clarke transposes into a in this booklet i11ustrated by Allan Freeman, available in June R $4 ELAK OF ATLANTIS by Henry Kuttner, sorry, SOLD OUT.

ALL BOOKS ARE MAILED POSTAGE PAID' DEALERS INQUIRE ON QUANITY DISCOUNTS Lan's Lantern #2o// 11

Finally, Lloyd Biggie came on stage and the airplanes stopped. Kids even listened politely as Lloyd gave a lengthy introduc­ tion of Clarke’s accomplishments without once referring to 2001. Then it was Ar­ thur’s turn and there he was, a tall, gan­ by Mary Lou Lockhart gly scholar with thick glasses and little hair and I started worrying again about Around 1972, the University of Michigan his handling 3,000 smarties. advertised a guest lecture by Arthur C. First he had to deal with the coot who Clarke in Hill Auditorium. Even back then, was still perched on the stage and who was it was billed as one of his last visits to now muttering to himself. Clarke looked this side of the world. Whether it would over the podium and simply said, "Would be the last or not I wanted to go. someone please escort this person from the I’d only been gone from the campus for stage?" No pleading or panic or anger. about five years, but I was long gone from Just a simple question, and quickly some the 60’s longhair who’d gone to Hill Audi­ student council types lifted the man by torium to hear the likes of Timothy Leary his elbows and escorted him out. It was so and Stokely Carmichael and Leonard Bern­ deft that everyone applauded. stein and the New York Philharmonic. Now I The kids didn’t realize it but Clarke was a teacher, minus the shaggy hair, and handled them just as smoothly. He wove a I was teaching science fiction so I wanted future with possibilities they wanted to to see Arthur C. Besides, I wanted to believe could be. He made us sound capable prove Thomas Wolfe wrong. of technical marvels that he said could The speech was scheduled for an odd not be bogged down by the morass of poli­ time, like 5:00 in the afternoon. I was tics. He went on for over an hour and the used to teaching afternoon high school time flew. He had those kids eating out of classes when kids O.D. on sugar or whatev­ the palm of his hand, and here I’d worried er makes them obnoxious that time of day. about his crowd control. I wish I were And this was no class of 30; this was Hill that good in the classroom. Auditorium with 3,000 seats, or so it After fifteen years, I can still see seemed, and it was filling. The teacher in Arthur C. Clarke that day in Ann Arbor. me started worrying for the gentle British What a great teacher! gentleman who had yet to appear. There were days with a class of 30 that I wanted January 24, 1988 a whip and a chair. What would he do with 3,000 of the biggest smart alecks in the State of Michigan? I used to be one; I worried. It was time to start and the natives were restless. The balcony bunch were con­ ducting airplane design and flight tests. Not your standard Engine School designs; these were definitely liberal arts models. The true smart asses. Oh God, Arthur, do you know what you’re getting into? Then this weird coot (not a kid — a bona fide coot) with stringy hair, scruffy clothes, and an unfocused look walked down the side aisle, climbed the stairs to the stage, and took a seat on the stage floor. Okay, this is Ann Arbor. People are freer here, and besides, he’s an adult and he’s not throwing airplanes so he must know what he’s doing. 12 //Lan's Lantern #28

Some 'fanufaz OTL Arthur Q. (Jurltc

by Andrew Hooper

I have been a fan of Arthur C. Clarke the door,” was written with readers like for a long time; as long as I have been Pete in mind. He picked up an empty en­ reading science fiction, in fact. I can velop with Ed McMahon’s face on the front recall reading one of those lovely, dur­ and drew a little triangular diagram. able Ballantine collections of his short ”1 learned this from Dick Russel,” he stories during fifth grade math class, and said. ’’Here we have the three legs upon being very impressed with the way that which SF is supposed to stand. In one cor­ they achieved their aims without taxing my ner is Plot, another Character, and in the attention span; I also recall that the in­ third, Setting. Now I like novels which structor, Mr. Anderson, did not appreciate lean most heavily on Plot, but I also pre­ my stealing time from his consideration of fer things that run toward strong Charac­ fractions, and that this constituted the ter as well. So, you remember when I was first attempt made by authority to dis­ reading Dying of the Light by George R.R. courage me from reading StF. Of course, Martin? Well, I thought the main charac­ this effort was not a successful one, and ter was a real wimp through the first half today, alas, I still have trouble with of the book, but the plot was interesting fractions and none at all with Arthur C. enough to carry me through. And then, in Clarke. the second half —” Unfortunately, not everyone has their ’’When the blood really starts to priorities as straight as this. Last week spurt,” I broke in. I was sitting in the smoking lounge at ’’Yeah, right, well, I found the charac­ Blear House, talking with my friend Pete ters much more interesting from then on.” Winz. Pete has the distinction of being I blew smoke at the ceiling and thought one of the five most dedicated readers of about it some more. ’’Actually,” I said, ”1 StF I have ever known, and had no shortage liked all those characters all the way of advice when the subject of Clarke came through. Thought it was a good book. Char­ up. I told Peter I was planning on trying acter is really what I get into. I mean, to make some sort of consideration of Hell, I read Delany. And I like it.” Clarke’s work for LL, and Pete offered the ’’Well, I mean, there wasn’t much to opinion that he could think of a vast as­ dislike about Dying of the Light anyway,” sortment of authors that he would rather he replied. ’’The setting was pretty strong see a retrospective of, and then made as well. Especially when they went out and rather nasty faces at me as well. visited all those abandoned cities. And This led to a fairly heated discussion George is a great guy, besides.” of what we thought worth reading, and I ”A very prince of a guy,” I agreed. felt it worthwhile to point out that Pete We sat in silence for a moment. has been known to read Mack Bolan-type ’’What does any of this have to do with books and Piers Anthony besides, but when Arthur C. Clarke?” I finally asked. we got down to the nub of the issue, it Pete snorted. ’’You tell me,” he said. was clear we were looking at a difference ’’Here you are telling me that you get off of stylistic taste. Pete’s a plot aficio­ on good characterization. Well, I’d say nado, first and last. Raymond Chandler’s that’s about his weakest point. I mean, dictum, ’’Whenever things begin to slow name me a Clarke character by name, any down, have a man with a gun walk through one you want.” Lan’s Lantern #2^ljr 13

I was thinking hard, and was about to ate that I make a new charge at Clarke’s say ’’Dave Bowman" when Pete broke in, "Any Rendezvous with Rama on such a trip, be­ character that hasn’t been in a movie, cause an injury suffered on a similar too. That’s too easy." journey back in 1975 had left me flat on I couldn’t. my back, and one of the novels I had vora­ ’’You see? His books are like Gas Giant ciously devoured to stave off galloping fly-by’s. The characters are out there boredom was the aforementioned Clarke performing functions that might as well be classic. It had taken me out of the air­ left to machine’s, so why mess around giv­ less infirmary where I was confined by in­ ing them a lot of dimension anyway? And as fection and transported me to a hazardous for his plots, well, I closed Childhood’s solar fly-by in search of an understanding End in the middle and never went back to of, if not contact with, one of the more it." mysterious alien presences in the history "That’s hardly fair, is it?" I asked. of the genre. The best therapy I got, I "I mean, Childhood’s End is hardly repre­ might add. sentative of Clarke at the height of his But events conspired against us. In re­ powers, is it?" ality, I had enough trouble meeting any of "Whatever," he said. "Clarke is all the trip’s official mission requirements, setting, pure and simple. Airless land­ let alone recover any of my fannish sensa- scapes, long centrifugal curves, weird wunder. Under the weight of such concerns zero-G perspectives that turn peoples’ as high winds, forgotten equipment, bad stomachs inside out. That kind of thing. tent sites and wet sleeping bags, I was That’s what you get when you read Clarke." only able to make a few short notes about "I suppose so," I admitted, "like that what, in serious critical terms, I thought long sequence in 2010 when he describes Clarke’s strengths and weaknesses were. the center of Jupiter as being a diamond Foremost in my mind was Clarke’s own as big as the Earth. It was a very inter­ oft-quoted statement that sufficiently esting and intricately drawn piece of de­ advanced technology is indistinguishable scription, but it didn’t do too much for from magic. This particular point will the book as a whole." probably be belabored unto death by other I didn’t feel like debating the point writers in their tributes, but I thought much further. One of the reasons I could­ it worthwhile to bring up because it lies n’t name any of Clarke’s characters was at the heart of what attracts me to his that I hadn’t read anything by him other work. Like Bob Shaw, I’ve never had the than 2010 in the past five years, and I opportunity to learn much about real sci­ couldn’t remember what it was that had ence, because I’ve spent all my time lying riveted me so firmly and single-mindedly around reading science fiction. What I back there in fifth grade math class. And know about the radiation of black bodies in sixth grade, and seventh, and up into and so forth, I’ve gotten from reading my high school years. Was the truth that Pohl and Clarke. So, when Clarke presents the reason I had such a positive image of the various unfolding events in Rama’s Clarke that I had come upon him at the short spring and summer as mysterious and nominative "Golden Age of Science Fic­ unfathomable conundrums, the products of a tion," to wit, the very height of my pre- technology far beyond our understanding, pubescent inquisitiveness? I’m very grateful that he does so. Any ex­ I resolved to pick up one of my favor­ planation made on technical grounds would ite works by A.C. once more, and put the be wasted on me, not to mention all those latter theory to test. people that buy fantasy trilogies about talking stoats and blind telepathic lep­ * * * * * ers. At the same time, my general scienti­ fic ignorance leads me to try and judge I felt I had a perfect opportunity in Clarke on his writing alone, and not on the trip I was planning to make to the the contributions which he has made to mo­ Northern Minnesota wilderness, to catch up dern technology, through his work with ra­ on some of the reading I had been letting dar, communication satellites, and the art slide in order to put out some fanzines of avoiding face-to-face meetings with ed­ and keep up with entirely too much apa- itors through emigration to the Indian hacking. It was also singularly appropri­ subcontinent. 14 //Lan's Lantern #28

RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA ARTHUR C. CLARKE Lan’s Lantern #2&// 15

Mindful of the triune critical distinc­ of wirecutters. That’s all it takes; SDI tions which Pete had made to me earlier, I planners take note. Then there is also the tried to be extremely critical of Clarke’s plight, however brief, of the brave lef- plotting and characterization, with mixed tenent Pak, who is sent out to Investigate results. It is true that most of his char­ the southern end of the great cylinder of acters tend to be square-jawed types, who Rama on a vehicle that makes the Gossamer owe more to the Mercury Seven than to any Condor seem solidly built; to no one’s realistic model of what the future working surprise, a stiff breeze destroys the space professional is likely to resemble. thing, and Pak is left to survive a sever­ But there is some skill in this level of al kilometer plunge to the floor of Rama, characterization as well. People move in without a parachute. The light gravity en­ and out of the narrative with specific ables him to do this, natch, and his sub­ functions and contributions to make the sequent adventures lead him to the discov­ story, defined more by their job than by ery of Rama’s amazing ’’biots,” who pursue any personal quirks or traits, leaving us unfathomable tasks with maddening aloof­ to supply a lot of the detail with our own ness. These revelations are essential to imagination. By and large, this is only the story, but it’s awfully hard to forget appropriate, as dwelling further on the the fact that only an idiot would have appearance, thoughts, histories and goals sent him out there in such a vehicle in of the characters would slow down Clarke’s the first place. narrative. And Clarke’s pacing is a very This book is about a struggle for un­ delicate thing indeed. derstanding, between man and the unknown I had the feeling, while paging through and possibly the unknowable. Today, most the short chapters of Rendezvous with skiffy is about struggles between differ­ Rama, that each must have begun life as ent factions of humanity, broken down a- nothing more than a sentence typed on a 3 long sexual, religious, regional and in­ by 5 card and stuffed in a file box on tellectual lines; there’s something infin­ Clarke’s desk. Each chapter is like a itely more uplifting about Clarke’s vision small boy sent out on stage at the annual of the future, divided by distance, eco­ Christmas pageant who recites his single nomics and ideals, but capable of acting verse and is heard no more. Once more, I in concert toward some very lofty goals was struck by the brilliance of this tech­ indeed. nique, as I rifled through ’’just one more And then, considering the question of chapter” again and again; in no way could setting, I had no choice but to agree with the progress of this plot be taxing to Mr. Winz that this is without question the even the shortest attention span. And area in which Clarke excels. The rigors whereas I once might have been unable to of space travel as presented by Clarke maintain my interest any longer than the seemed well within my ability to extrapo­ five or six pages that each scene takes to late from the technologies we possess to­ unfold, now the book seemed ideally laid day; this made the numbing size and mys­ out for me to snatch a chapter at a time tery of Rama itself all the more compel­ out of the hectic pressures of the day’s ling, for the reasonable fashion in which travel. the rest of the background was presented. Alas, for those enamored of such things, the book has very few men coming ***** through the door with guns in their hands. At the end, with Rama getting ready to go Last Saturday night on an island in the back into deep freeze at the same time as middle of the Basswood River, I found fit­ those Hothead Hermian Halfwits have fired ful sleep in a tent that had been pitched off the Biggest-Bomb-They-Have to deal at about a sixty degree angle. I dreamt with the threats of aliens taking their about the cyclopean stairways of Rama, jobs and watching HBO for free, there is which in my dream I was trying to descend; some promise of a big finish; unfortunate­ I awoke to find that I was sliding down ly, Clarke deals with these problems in as into the bottom corner of the tent, and workmanlike a fashion as he had everything that the night was being split open by a else that has happened in the novel, and thunderstorm of surpassing violence. sends out a religious fanatic who presuma­ It wasn’t a very pleasant feeling, ly­ bly doesn’t mind dying anyway, with a pair ing there in an S-curve, trying to keep 16 //Lan’s Lantern #28 the rocks from burrowing into my kidneys, fuel. In reading those pages, I once again while rain drummed on the fly of the tent appreciated Clarke’s ability to paint like falling bricks. After a while, I de­ things on the grand scale. He might not be spaired of sleeping through it, but I very skilled in the depiction of what fu­ found to my delight that the grade of the ture society is actually going to be like, place where I had had to pitch my tent he might not be able to tell us what the meant that I was in no danger of being well-dressed rocket jockey of the twenty- soaked by water gathering on the ground third century will be wearing as exhaus­ outside; rather, it was flowing quickly tively as some writers, but when it comes down into the river. to evoking the wonder and rigor of what And so I cracked open my old friend space travel is really like, or at least Clarke, reading from chapter nineteen all what we hope it’s really like, he has no the way* to the end, by the light of my equal. Left behind by various "new waves" torch and the flashes of lightning in the over his career, there is still no author tortured sky overhead. In those latter I’d rather pick to introduce a neo to what chapters, as Rama seeks to cheat the tiny I think science fiction ought to be like. humans crawling over its surface of any Considering the number of sequels which clue to its ultimate purpose or origin, I have been pumped out on the market in the found myself swept away in the narrative, last ten years, I can only lament that we to the point where I forgot my fears of have never been taken as far into this being literally swept away; and the novel future as we have into that of 2001 and transported me in several directions at years beyond. once into the warm reaches near our own When I finished the book, the storm had sun, and back into that dusty infirmary passed off to the east, and the lightning where I first read those chapters many had subsided. I was able to return to years ago. sleep, and was visited by the same dreams There is a moment near the end when as Clarke’s Dr. Perera: The Ramans do Rama turns on what seems to be the fabled everything in threes. "Star Drive," using means well beyond the In which case we must presume their ability of the characters to understand, publishing industry is much like our to actually bend space around itself, in own... preparation for a jaunt right through the Shandwick Hall sun’s outer reaches, apparently to skim 6/30/1988 Lan's Lantern #2c// 17

I^Ucticnxs oyl , tftCftyCc ArtfutrQ. Q,Carbc tout, tb a Cesser Scarce, a. "^ow cfr 20611 Odyssey j/ircc

by Bill Ware

Arthur C. Clarke writes science fiction ter), turns out to be a somewhat benign with a capital Science. His attention to bluff to insure the private evolution of scientific detail and accuracy sometimes an exclusive environment for a still in­ results in characters who are merely inef­ cognito civilization. fectual observers, albeit contrived inter­ At the risk of taking a personal di­ preters of cosmic phenomenon. While this gression, I find it pertinent to mention a is generally not a trait of great litera­ passing opinion expressed by Kara Dalkey ture, it doesn’t necessarily lessen the (author of Curse of the Sagamore) in some power of his mental exercises and the re­ personal correspondence with me. In one sulting entertainment value (for those who letter she stated that the "core idea" of find thinking to be entertaining). Al­ Asimov’s and Clarke’s stories were "always though Clarke owes much of his popular ap­ interesting, but they don’t handle plot peal and acceptance to Stanley Kubrick and characterization well enough to carry (Clarke has long passed that point in his a novel." If you put the same premium that career where his name appears first and Dalkey does on plot and characterization, largest on his books’ covers), his writing you will find the same inadequacies in transcends the glitz and fantasy of popu­ 2061. lar science fiction. Clarke stays true to I remain loyal to Clarke for the the original charter of science fiction by thought he provokes and the extended poss­ extrapolating reality without resorting to ibilities based on current scientific fantasy. knowledge that he explores. And he usually 2061: Odyssey Three is no exception. does it on a level that the layperson can But it is somewhat anticlimactic in the understand. But even when he examines civ­ wake of 2010’s "Attempt No Landings Here." ilization on a colonized planet, as in The The warning, presumably from an ancient Songs of Distant Earth, fictional charac­ powerful intelligence capable of trigger­ ters (human and alien) are merely an in­ ing the formation of a new star from a terface to the reader. planet with the right ingredients (Jupi­

About the Cover

by Bill Ware

In the painting, I tried to combine Clarke’s likeness with symbolic representations of his Sri Lanka residency, his pioneering proposal of communication satellite relay systems, and the monolith of 2001 and 2010. 18 //Lan's Lantern #28

by Kathy Mar

Some of my earliest memories of my many years of SF reading are associated with Some of his writings haunt me still in Arthur C. Clarke. Long before the librar­ ways I can’t pretend to even understand. ians granted me permission to prowl the City and the Stars, Rendezvous with Rama, adult stacks in fifth grade, I can remem­ Tales from the White Hart, so many differ­ ber eagerly absorbing whatever my mother ent voices raise a paean to the glory and had checked out. Clarke was one of her fa­ greatness of roan and the universe. All of vorites and quickly became one of mine as them were, finally, the voice of one very well. special man. As a fervent Catholic pre-adolescent, I’ve left behind my childhood now, but sure of my calling to the sisterhood, I not my sense of wonder. It imbues my out: was profoundly moved by Childhood's End. writing and singing. It embellishes the It differed so dramatically from dogma, universe wherein I live. It gives me one and yet rang true when compared to my own more priceless legacy to pass on to my intangible mystical experiences. As I fin­ children. I think I owe that to all the ished the last page, I really felt I had fine dreamers, but Arthur C. Clarke truly been granted a brief but absolute glimpse shines on as one of the finest and rarest of the eternal and infinite face of God. stars in the firmament of wonder! Arthur Clarke became one more small ob­ session and soon I was devouring every­ thing of his I could find. His characters leaped from the pages as dear friends that dwell in my memory to this day. It is still overwhelming to realize that the many eyes I looked through in his stories were explorations of the unique perspec­ tive of one man. No matter how far his protagonists tra­ veled from the where and when I knew, they always carried the bedrock of their Earth heritage with and in them. Clarke’s expan­ sion into near space is blended inextrica­ bly in my thoughts with the real thing; not only because he was so accurate in his portrayal, but his presence in the news coverage from mission control was so inte­ gral and informative that it is difficult to imagine it without him. In my opinion, that crossover between the sciences and science fiction marked the beginnings of CHILDHOOD'S END our respect for ourselves as dreamers of ARTHUR C. CLARKE the future. Lan’s Lantern #26// 19

Chorus: I’ll look upon the face of God And through a billion eyes And take the planet of my birth Beyond the endless skies And sing the universal song Above the reach of right and wrong And find the devil is my friend When I have come to childhood’s end.

They touched our world and changed our bloody history They gave us peace and always dwelt in mystery They eased the hunger of the endless realms of men And taught us how to love each other once again.

They promised they would walk among us on the day When all their ministrations had prepared the way And when the work was done and fifty years had passed They left their ships to show themselves to us at last

Chorus

The horns and wings and tails no longer brought us fear Our minds were now unclouded and our eyes were clear No longer would we judge things for the way they seem And on that day the children would begin to dream

The dreamers were the promise of a new mankind They soon would touch the universal overmind And as they pondered what that touch would someday bring In all our thoughts their hopes would brightly dance and sing

Chorus

The Devils were the guardians of our infant Earth They supervised the circumstances of our birth In loneliness they cross the seas of stars alone And never share the song that calls us all back home

Words: Kathy Mar On cassette tape: Songbird by Kathy Mar Music: Kathy Mar Available from: Off-Centaur Publications P.O. Box 424 El Cerrito, CA 94530 20 //Lan's Lantern #28 Arthur Q. Qlarke -Memories ^jltusuup

by Terry O’Brien

For many years, and still today, there exists the basic ABCs of science fiction: Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. For ideas, we have Asimov. For poetry, we have Bradbury. And for scope we have Clarke. Granted, there are other writers today who can be favorably com­ pared with them, but these three will re­ main the giants against whom most everyone and then I remember a part from the book. else is measured. Among everything else he is known for, Starting with such works as Childhood’s Clarke should be well known as a memorable End and The City and the Stars, through writer. his Odyssey series, Arthur C. Clarke has I can still remember my brother reading written about the wonders and majesty of out loud from Childhood’s End to the fam­ the universe without having to leave the ily one afternoon. I had just purchased it solar system, all taking place in our own while he was visiting them, and he had backyard, so to speak. Whether it be man­ picked it up and started glancing through kind’s grand and glorious destiny, as in it. He read the part where the Overlords Childhood’s End, or something far more had placed the two polarizing fields over mundane, as in ’’The Nine Billion Names of a city in South Africa, cutting off all God,” Clarke has taken and stretched our sunlight, in response to the discrimina­ imaginations to the human limit and be­ tion of the white minority. Twenty years yond . later that same brother gave me a copy of You can say that Clarke was one of the 2061: Odyssey Three; one wonders if he re­ major influences in my early SF reading. membered as well. In my sixth grade class every student had And can you believe it? I can still re­ to write a book report, and I chose A Fall member the catalogue number of the Over- of Moondust, not one of his best, but one lord’s star: NGS 549672. that had impressed me at the time. At I was somewhat saddened when Clarke was least it impressed me enough to work extra unable to attend CONSPIRACY; one of the hard on the report because I got an A on reasons I had attended was to meet one of it. I can still remember seeing the report the writers whose works had greatly influ­ hanging up in the kitchen, and every now enced me in my youth, but I could under­ stand his reasons for not attending. At least he has not stopped writing. And one thing I did do was discover the White Hart while wandering through London after CON­ SPIRACY. So, unless I meet him sometime, I will have my memories. And that will suffice. Lan's Lantern #28// 21

The True & Strange Worlds of Arthur Q. Qiar£c

by Alan David Laska

Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote such class­ tic; on many others he has an open mind ic science fiction pieces like 2001: A about it. He will not take a position on Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, Rendezvous it until he gets and receives all the evi­ with Rama, and 2010: Odyssey Two, hosted a dence . couple of television shows produced by He does not have an explanation on Trident Television Group. These programs UFOs, but he is more interested in the dealt with the world of the supernatural, cases of reported landings where physical the occult, UFOs, sea monsters, Bigfoot, evidence is left. On the strange things ESP, ghosts, and topics of that sort. that fall out of the sky he believes that These sound like things that Stephen King the chunks of ice that fall in clear, or Steven Spielberg might do, but Clarke's cloudless days are ice from outer space show was not fiction or fantasy; it was left over from the creation of the solar based on fact, on actual true stories. The system. Clarke says he can't explain the two shows were entitled Arthur C. Clarke's hazel nuts or other things that fall from Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's the sky. World of Strange Powers. These programs are highly researched. The first program, Mysterious World, The producers went all over the world to handled the following phenomena: ’’The Mis­ get interesting film footage, and to in­ sing Ape Man,” ’’Monsters of the Deep” terview many people for these two pro­ (which dealt with sea monsters and giant grams. squids), ’’Circles and Standing Stones” There were two books based on these (which looked at ancient stone circles programs which are also interesting to like Stonehendge), ’’UFOs,” ’’Ancient Fires” read. You might be able to obtain them as (dealing with strange round rocks, 2000- your local bookstore or library. They are: year-old batteries), ’’The Great Siberian Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World (1980, Explosion” (a strange object that crashed A & W Visual Library, New York) by Simon with the force of an atomic bomb in Russia Welfare and John Fairley, and Arthur C. in 1908), ”0f Beasts and Snakes” (about Clarke's World of Strange Powers (1984, G. oversized reptiles and strange animals P. Putnam's Sons, New York) by John Fair- whose existence is yet to be confirmed), ley and Simon Welfare. Of course, Arthur ”A Cabinet of Curiosities” (ice, hazel C. Clarke has written introductions and nuts, frogs and fish falling from the sky and comments for each of these two books. without an airplane in sight), and ’’Ball I congratulate Mr. Arthur C. Clarke for Lightning.” In his program, World of taking the time to research this area usu­ Strange Powers, Clarke examined things ally ignored by the scientific community. like ghosts, dowsing, ESP, mind over mat­ One should not ignore or be a skeptic to ter, fire-walkers, and reincarnation. something without first at least taking On some of these subjects, Mr. Clarke the time to study it. takes a strong position of being a skep­ 22 //Lan's Lantern #28 Arrfuir Q (fiirlie. THE MAN WHO MADE THE MONOLITH

An essay by Alexander Bouchard

Undeniably, the primary image that wholly into the public bank of “laws” like comes to mind from the works of Arthur Murphy's Law, Cheops' Law, and O'Toole's Charles Clarke are two large black mono­ Commentary on Murphy's Law. The statement liths in the proportions of 1:4:9, one that reads “Any sufficiently advanced found buried in the crater Tycho, and the technology is indistinguishable from ma­ other found out by one of the moons of gic” is Clarke's Third Law. (The other Jupiter. two are more obscure; the one I remember These are not the only images from his is the First, “In order to make a new sci­ work; the Overlords from Childhood's End, entific discovery, consult the most emi­ with their undeniably demonic aspects; the nent scientists in the field, and find out first rise of the newly-ignited Deimos what they say can not be done. Then go do over Port Schiapparelli in The Sands of it." ) Mars; his stories of the first expedition I have enjoyed Arthur Clarke’s writing to the Moon, which was a joint American- for many years, and even more so after I Soviet-British venture, with its stories learned a pivotal fact; he, I, and Ludwig of brilliant, unlikely, but plausible im­ von Beethoven share the same birthday (the provisations, the given reasons (and the 16th of December). In this way, I feel real reasons) that the British crew agreed connected, if only peripherally, with two to be the last to leave the Moon, and oth­ immense talents. er amusing incidents; the chillingly sim­ Although Clarke is not as well appreci­ ple last line of the story, “The Nine Bil­ ated here as I feel he should be, his lion Names of God”; many others come to lifetime of achievement in the field mind. speaks well for him, and for us, who keep In addition, he has been a member of buying and reading his work. Clarke has the British Interplanetary Society for never been one of the slam-bang space op­ many years, was instrumental in the de­ era narrators, and the “New Wave" of velopment of radar (detailed in the novel psychologically-inspired SF was born well Glide Path), and figured out the proper after his debut. In such books as Rendez­ altitude and placement for geosynchronous vous with Rama, Imperial Earth, and communications satellites. He has written Against the Fall of Night, he limits his for motion pictures (2001 and its sequel, scope to one solar system — our own. The 2010, most notably), appeared on televi­ human race does not have the glittering sion as the host of a program several starships, or the completely united gov­ times, and has written of his other abid­ ernments of the pioneers of the field, ing interest, scuba diving. He has lived such as Doc Smith, early John Campbell, or in Sri Lanka, which was formerly Ceylon, the like. His characters have real moti­ for many years, and communicated with vations, real problems, even real religi­ Peter Hyams (the writer/director of 2010) ous dilemmas. In Rama, there is the mem­ by modem and e-mail during the preproduc­ ber of the crew of the Endeavour who is a tion stages. (A book of the transcripts member of the “Cosmo Christers” — the of the exchanges is out, with introduction First Church of Christ, Cosmonaut — who and commentaries by Clarke.) cannot allow the government of Mercury to He has not produced as many epigrams destroy Rama, the alien probe, with a as, say, a Heinlein or an Asimov, but he thermonuclear torpedo. has produced something that has passed Clarke has always been classified as a Lan's Lantern #28// 23

"hard SF" writer; this is primarily be­ Arthur C. Clarke is a soft-spoken, po­ cause he knows enough about science to get lite, gentlemanly giant in this, our field the scientific details right. This is of science fiction, and has been for many something we aspiring writers would do years. With any luck, he shall continue well to emulate. Unless it is necessary to be for many more to come. to your story that things are otherwise, learn and use the rules of science as they HALIucination 9000 are. Sweating the details makes for bet- ter thinking; you may never use any of the by Arthur C. Clarke background you're getting in the story, but someone reading it can tell that it's Even twenty years after 2001 first ap­ consistent. I know, when I read a bit of peared, I still receive several letters orbital mechanics, or physics, or other every month from SF fans and computer bugs scientific tidbit used as background in a (not to mention serious historians of sci­ book by Clarke, that it's been checked, ence) who suddenly "discover" there is a and it's as right as it can be in the strange "relationship" between the name HAL and IBM. It is still not widely known in the computer industry and SF circles that HAL stands for HeuriStically programmed ALgor- ithmic computer, even though I spelt this out carefully in Chapter 16 of the novel. I've spent the past two decades trying to disown the legend that HAL is derived from IBM by transposing one letter. But alas, like many convincing legends, it refuses to go away. I even had my characters in 2010: Odyssey Two contradict this canard (see Chapter 35). I'm now thinking of offering an attrac­ tive prize of a Computer Virus called HAL- lucination (which invades IBM and compati­ ble machines and makes them sing "Daisy, Daisy,...") for anybody who will come up 24 //Lan's Lantern #28 cfr Arthur Q. (farkz: A Livuttd5tuc^y

by Joseph Green

Three years ago, for reasons not perti­ tion to the age of the author when the nent here I did a study of the predictive books were written. Some of those he wrote capabilities of Verne, Wells, Clarke, and thirty-five to forty years ago are among Heinlein. The intent was to examine this the most imaginative of the lot. aspect of Science Fiction as a whole, and As a writer of science fiction, Clarke to contrast two old acknowledged masters is a superb imagineer. He spins tales of with two modern ones in the process. What the future that are intellectually inter­ follows here was excerpted from the larger esting and often emotionally gripping. His work, but rewritten, condensed, and (some­ technological background, in those areas times) added to as necessary to stand a- where my own level of expertise in science lone. Almost all of Clarke’s previously and technology enables me to be reasonably read major works were skim-read again for certain I understand the material, is usu­ the study; the few I had missed were read ally carefully worked out and quite accur­ for the first time. ate. His mistakes are normally attributa­ One of the problems encountered when ble to writing within the bounds of what studying the predictive capabilities of was known at the time, which later discov­ recognized masters of science fiction, in­ eries have since proven wrong. He is an cluding the contrasts between early and outstanding example of the type of science modern, is that the new draw upon the old fiction writer who first made the genre — and usually try to outdo them in imagi­ fascinating to technologically oriented native extrapolation. This has caused many ’’kids from nine to ninety." of the ideas and concepts in current sci­ According to the foreword in a later ence fiction to move so far into the fu­ edition, Clarke’s first novel was The ture that it is not possible at present to Sands of Mars, though Prelude to Space was state how accurate they are likely to actually published earlier. The first edi­ prove. tion appeared in 1952, long before space The ability to determine accuracy is flight was considered a serious possibil­ fairly clear when studying the works of ity by the general public. This book is a Verne and Wells. Today a great many of the fine example of the work of a careful and ideas of these two seminal figures in mod­ technically competent science fiction ern science fiction have either come true, writer who is working with incomplete or or been proven unlikely ever to become incorrect information. It contains many fact. This contrasts with most of the sto­ errors of fact, but incorporates the lat­ ries of Clarke and Heinlein, who are so est knowledge available at the time of far ahead of modern technology that only a writing. His several discourses that re­ small percentage of their predictions can late to basic scientific principles are be checked for accuracy. Nevertheless, usually right, if limited in scope. It is each author has written so many books, and with the then unknown details necessary to used his powers of extrapolation so freely flesh out this story of the exploration and so often, that their works still yield and colonization of Mars where his materi­ a respectable number of "hits” or ’’miss­ al does not match the now-known facts. es." Against the Fall of Night, Clarke’s It is interesting to note that the second novel, made his reputation, but it imaginative extrapolation involved in is set so far in the future it is of lim­ Clarke’s books seems to have little rela­ ited use for studying his predictive abil- Lan's Lantern #28// 25

©RAWsoaJ'FY ities. At the time of its first appearance It works both ways — you've told in 1948 it was a quite short novel, seri­ me that yourself. Our free exchange alized in the magazine Startling Stories. of information means swifter pro­ A few years later Clarke revised and ex­ gress, even if we do give away a few panded it into the definitive version, re­ secrets. The Russian research depart­ titled The City and the Stars. In either ments probably don't know what their form it is an excellent example of own people are doing half the time. thoughtful science fiction, but most of We'll show them that Democracy can its predictions cannot be verified today. get to the moon first. [1] Among the more interesting of these is one that is astonishingly prescient, in the This clear understanding of the import­ light of today's knowledge of solid state ance of free exchange to scientific pro­ physics. It is an epigram that appears gress has still not been grasped by many posted on an equipment room wall: Western politicians and military leaders! The second and longer statement starts "No machine may contain any moving parts." on page 19, where Clarke picks South Afri­ ca as the last bastion on Earth of racial prejudice, one he apparently expected to "The opinions expressed in this book are last for many, many years. [2] That one not those of the author." gives every indication of coming true. One of the strangest aspects of this Childhood's End was Clarke's most fa­ book is that the copyright page contains a mous book until the movie 2001: A Space statement found on most of the later edi­ Odyssey appeared, and made the movie nov­ tions, the statement what heads this sec­ elization of the same name a bestseller. tion: "The opinions expressed in this book This book deals with the growth and change are not those of the author." of the human species into something not One wonders why Clarke felt it neces­ recognizable today; fascinating as specu­ sary to add this tiny little disclaimer at lation, but not technological in its pre­ the front of reprints. Most readers do not dictions. The novel does contain two so­ ordinarily consider the varying ideas and ciological statements of high interest to beliefs expressed in a work of fiction to anyone who studies or is concerned with be directly representative of those held technological progress. The first deals by the author. (Good writers try to give with science: both sides of any question.) Did Clarke 26 //Lan’s Lantern #28 lose faith in what was probably his most ries his billfold. In that era everyone far-out vision of the ultimate destiny of uses them as personal record depositories humanity? Or did he simply decide the and business systems. We will have such a whole idea was ridiculous, and not to be capability far ahead of the time depicted taken seriously? It would be interesting by Clarke. to learn his reasons for adding this The Fountains of Paradise was Clarke’s strange note. first book after an announced period of The book 2001: A Space Odyssey contains supposed retirement. This is another of several predictions of interest, some of those interesting books that feature con­ which are either already here or on the cepts still far beyond the technology of immediate horizon. Clarke projects a ’’rol­ today. The primary one is of a tower on ling wheel” space station with centripetal the equator that reaches up to 22,238 gravity for the Western World, and we now miles above mean sea level, the correct know it will be rectangular in shape and altitude for geosynchronous satellites. operate at zero-G throughout. The head The physics of building such a tower are scientist, Dr. Floyd, reads the news by not a problem; what is lacking are suffi­ using a foolscap ’’Newspad,” which plugs ciently strong materials. In this book into the circuits of the spaceship to con­ Clarke projects such a material being de­ nect him with data bases on Earth. We can veloped and manufactured in zero-G, this do the equivalent now with home computers. making the orbital tower possible. This is The intelligent computer HAL 9000 which a good book, but a poor source to mine for Clarke projects is already on the way, and predictions of the future. it would be very Interesting to know how Clarke is also the science fiction many of today’s researchers in Al (Artifi­ writer who outshines all others in his cial Intelligence) were inspired by seeing factual books about space travel and the this demonstration of such a future possi­ development of near-space. His ’idea’ bility. books, such as Profiles of the Future, are At a certain point this story moves on the best and most likely scenarios of our into dimensions of science and technology technological future to be found. so advanced as to be useless in studying Profiles contains a listing of some of Clarke’s predictive abilities. It also be­ the most important scientific discoveries gan with a speculation that cannot be pro­ and inventions since 1800, followed by an ven, that intelligent beings tampered with extrapolation of progress into the future, protohumans to increase their intelligence as Clarke envisions it. Clarke predicted a and lead to the development of Homo sapi­ lunar landing by 1970, and was off by one ens . Throughout the central part, which is year. He also predicted translating ma­ set in the year 2001, there are many pre­ chines by 1970, and they came in about dictions of future capabilities we can see that time. (He called for efficient elec­ coming true around us today. But they are tric storage, and that didn’t happen.) He not yet established fact. predicted planetary landings by 1980, and Rendezvous with Rama is set in the year instead we retreated from even our closest 2131, and is so far advanced as to not of­ neighbor, the moon. Clarke believed that fer much material for predictive studies. artificial intelligence would arrive be­ The theme is the arrival in our solar sys­ tween 1990 and 2000, which seems reasona­ tem of an automated scouting vessel, and ble, but also colonizing of the planets by its exploration by a group from Earth. the latter year, which does not. Before Most of the action takes place inside Ra­ the year of 2100 Clarke thinks we will ma, and we see little of the Earth of that have attritions in human replication, im­ time. mortality, matter transmission, interstel­ Imperial Earth is another far future lar flight and a host of other triumphs — book, where Clarke has people living below all of which remains to be seen. the surface of the moon Titan. The year is Clarke crosses easily back and forth 2276, normally too far ahead for predic­ from future fiction to future fact in his tions to be expected. But one emerges that production of books, while normally keep­ is rapidly becoming possible today, and is ing both quite believable (as much so as of interest. It is a computer so small and possible when the fiction segments are of such large capacity that it can be car­ sometimes highly visionary). His engin­ ried in the pocket as a man of today car­ eering and physics background is unim- Lan's Lantern #2c// 27 peachable, and this expertise suffuses his As has been noted by others, any tho­ work. But it is interesting to note that rough study of Clarke's books confronts an his later works of fiction, like his fac­ enigma, as difficult to fully reconcile tual books, have tended to focus more on within his published works as if he were the near-future and less on the truly dis­ two different people. Any attempt to sum tant possibilities. up the meaning of the total corpus of One of Clarke's weaknesses as a writer, Clarke's work has to confront this contra­ and probably the one cited most often by diction between science and mysticism. readers, is that his characters tend to be Fortunately, the more limited scope of stiff and withdrawn people. He is a writer this article permits me to slide grace­ about ideas, and his people sometimes seem fully away from this problem. mere automatons, acting out their roles. For the purposes of this study, the In some of his later books, particularly conclusion that emerges from a detailed the final (we hope) third book in his most study of Clarke's books (and those of profitable effort, the Odyssey series, Verne, Wells, and Heinlein, for that mat­ Clarke's penchant for emphasizing ideas ter) is that the much vaunted predictive over people becomes overpowering. abilities of science fiction are a myth. Odyssey 3 is really a series of expli­ For every prediction that comes true, cations of ideas, thinly held together by there are a hundred that do not —and only an amorphous plot. Although warm, living, the selected vision of hindsight can point breathing human beings—people with warts, out the winner and ignore the ninety-nine BO, and pretensions to nobility—have nev­ losers. Unfortunately, at the time the er been one of Clarke's strong suits, his predictions are made it is usually imposs­ characters are usually recognizably human. ible to distinguish those that will come In this book they are only names written true from those that will not. on cardboard. The ideas revolve around the Arthur C. Clarke, although far better discovery of living beings on Europa, both technically qualified than most science before and after Jupiter becomes the star fiction writers, and with a well-earned Lucifer in Odyssey II. This is an idea not reputation for writing quality speculative likely to be tested for predictive ability non-fiction, is nevertheless no more ac­ within our lifetimes. curate than his peers in predicting the Strongly contrasted with this Clarke future. His books must be read for the who serves as the prophet of high techno­ enjoyment of good fiction, and their abil­ logy it that mystic who foresees all of ity to open up the human mind to the ac­ humanity maturing into an entity of pure ceptance of new possibilities—arguably a energy and mind-force (Childhood's End), far more valuable attribute of science which then leaves Earth forever to join fiction for most readers than a supposed the universal overmind. Clarke has also ability to predict the future. /*_\ written quite a number of stories in which humanity is saved from itself by a higher power, a concept not too different from a [1] Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End, belief in the omnipotent powers of a Ballantine Books, Inc. , 1953. Page 9. "God." 'This idea of beings and powers so far above us as to be completely beyond our comprehension owes its origins far more to religious belief than to scienti- fic inquiry 28 //Lan's Lantern #28 Qfartc aru£

by Ben Bova

Early in 1956 1 was working as a news­ and tell me what’s wrong with it. paper reporter in suburban Philadelphia, The man lived in Ceylon! But he smiled when I learned that the United States had and took the ten pounds of paper all the started a program to launch an artificial way back home with him, then wrote me a satellite — ’’man’s first step into long letter pinpointing all the problems space,” it was called then. with the novel (and returning the manu­ I talked myself into a job as a Junior script at his own expense). The letter was Technical Editor on Project Vanguard, with depressing, in a way; there was a lot the Martin Co. in the Baltimore area, the wrong with the novel. But Arthur worked a company that was building the satellite good deal of encouragement into his let­ launching rocket. I was thrilled with be­ ter, too. Enough to keep me going. ing a part of the fledging space program The novel was based on the idea that mainly because I had been reading science the Russians would get into space before fiction ever since my first trip to the the U.S., but then the Americans would Fels Planetarium, many years earlier. Now launch a crash program to put Americans on I was helping make those science fiction the Moon before the Russians got there. stories come true — at least a little Even with Clarke’s critique helping me, no bit. publisher would touch it. One editor, how­ One autumn day my supervisor (a Senior ever, told me that he thought it was good Technical Editor) told me that some Eng­ enough to publish, but that Senator Joe lish writer was going to visit the plant McCarthy, an anti-communist witch hunter, as part of the research he was doing on a would make trouble if he did. He advised book about Vanguard. I asked the writer’s me to write something else. name. I did, and the editor published it. My Arthur C. Clarke. first published novel is a source of great I had read Clarke’s science fiction, of anguish to me, for many reasons. But course, and even his non-fiction books that’s another story. about rocketry. When my boss asked me to I couldn’t help tinkering with the un­ spend the next few days escorting Clarke published novel. The characters in it — around the plant and answering his ques­ especially the protagonist, Chet Kinsman tions, I was ecstatic. But somewhat fear­ — kept nagging at me to let them see the ful, too. After all, this was not merely a light of day. I wrote other novels. I writer. I was a writer. This was an auth­ wrote short stories and magazine articles. or. One of his books had been in the Book I wrote nonfiction books. I became reason­ of the Month Club, for gosh sakes! ably well known in the science fiction Arthur turned out to be a genial, per­ world. Arthur and I became friends, even sonable, witty and extremely kind man. And though a half a world separated us. knowledgeable. He impressed the somewhat But Kinsman and his cohorts stayed with suspicious Martin engineers very favora­ me. And 20 years after I first met Arthur, bly, and he just simply awed me. He knew my novel Millennium was published. It was almost everything about everything. Even the logical (and artistic) outgrowth of when I was driving him through a pea-soup that shoebox manuscript I had foisted on fog along Rt. 40 back to his downtown Arthur so many years earlier. hotel, he discoursed pleasantly on what Through a mutual friend I learned that real fogs were like, in London. Arthur would be in Washingtin DC at the We passed a very busy and pleasant few time Millennium came off the presses. I days. When it came time for Arthur to flew down and presented him with the first leave, I did the unpardonable: I handed copy, properly inscribed, and thanked him him a shoebox full of manuscript (my first for his ancient kindness. novel) and asked him, please, to read it He professed befuddlement. ’’Read your Lanjs Lantern #28// 29 manuscript? I never read other people’s dition. I showed the slide of Arthur’s manuscript,” he proclaimed. Then he delved letter as I said to the jam-packed audi­ into his capacious briefcase and pulled torium: out a form letter, the all-purpose letter Now, if Arthur sends you a form letter he uses to answer mail from strangers. like this, don’t believe him. He does read There’s a long list of items on it, with manuscripts. He’s a very kind man.” a space on the margin to check off which From the darkened auditorium came a item this particular letter dealt with. single roaring voice-----Arthur’s: ’’You Arthur scribbled ’’Dear Mr. Bova” at the Rotter!” top, then checked off the line that read, We are still friends, despite distance. ’’Sorry, but I simply cannot read your man­ We speak now and then on the telephone, uscript.” Then he signed it with a flour­ using the communications satellites that ish and, grinning, handed it to me. he invented. Of all the writers who have Okay. A few years after that, Arthur worked in this field we call science fic­ was a Guest of Honor at the Worldcon in tion, I think Arthur best represents my Brighton. Lovely affair. Rain and gale­ personal ideal, my goal of blending scien­ force winds; temperatures in the low 40s tific knowledge with the poetic soul to all weekend. Oh to be in England in foresee how the world might be in the August! future. I was asked to give a speech. I pre­ And, despite his form letters, he is pared slides of Arthur’s letter and told the kindest of men. the story I just told here. With one ad­

Clarke and Temple

THE FANS BEHIND THE PROS

by Harry Bond

In common with many another writer of ample of a "slanshack" as is still remem­ SF in those days, and indeed of today, bered as an integral part of fannish his­ Arthur C. Clarke and William F. Temple tory. both started as fans. In fact, they began Sadly the Flat only lasted one year; their careers from a common base. just after Temple’s marriage in 1939 war Clarke (whose nickname in those days broke out, and first Clarke and then Tem­ was "Ego”, hence his use of an early pseu­ ple were conscripted. In a way this was donym "E. G. O’Brian") and Bill Temple fortunate, for a little later the Flat was (whose early amateur fiction bore the demolished by a direct hit from a bomb. distinctly transparent byline of "Temple The house to which Temple had moved in Williams") were probably the two leading Wembley was also hit, but Temple was now lights of pre-World War II London fandom. serving. Clarke, when he was forced to move due to During this period Temple had sold pro­ lack of space (the story runs that there fessionally to the only British profes­ wasn’t room in his apartment to wear a sional SF magazine, Tales of Wonder, and double-breasted suit), found that Temple also to several US magazines (his best was also looking for accommodations, and known story, The Four-Sided Triangle, ap­ suggested moving in together. They found peared in Amazing during 1938). Clarke too an ideal location; 88 Greys Inn Road, Lon­ sold to Tales of Wonder, but only non-fic­ don, was near the hall where early London tion articles. cons were held, and even nearer to the pub The war, of course, put paid to their where fans met in those days. The Flat, as writing: Temple gallantly kept trying to it became known, was the first British ex­ expand The Four-Sided Triangle into a nov- 30 //Lan’s Lantern #28 el, but the manuscript was first lost dur­ equals); and in their speeches references ing a battle in North Africa, and when it were invariably made to each other. was finally completed, the ship on which At one convention, in 1951, Temple gave it was sent home was sunk. He had more a speech on "the techniques of writing success with his fannish contacts, though: serials". So the programme said. In fact in a still-famous letter to Ackerman’s VOM he extemporized a serial by Arthur C. he said, "...The fan outlook is my idea of Clarke about the first space rocket. In vision...", and when the letter was pub­ this serial the first rocket launched con­ lished in 1944 it led to US fans increas­ tains Temple and Clarke as crew, and de­ ing their contact with British ones, which spite a successful takeoff proves a fail­ had lapsed during the War. ure; when it leaves the atmosphere it When the War was over and Temple and grinds to a halt because it has nothing to Clarke were demobbed, both began to sell push against (a common layman’s fallacy of professionally again (to the new British the day). A second attempt is made, in a magazines New Worlds and Fantasy), and giant onion which flies on Mitogenic Rays. again formed the nucleus of a revitalized Appropriately enough, this speech raised London fandom. tears of laughter. At this time Temple was best known as a Clarke was described at the time, by fannish cqmedian, and Clarke as his Walt Willis, as having "a dashing manner straight-man. They kept up pretenses of a — at least every time I saw him he was feud in print, though there were the best dashing somewhere. I expect that some day of friends still, and despite British fan­ when he is particularly excited he’ll zines of the day being few and far be­ reach escape velocity and that’s the last tween, they both managed to kill each oth­ we will see of him." Temple, it seems, was er off in various improbable ways in their "a small dark plumpish chap, very quiet pages. At conventions too, both were val­ spoken..."; but he was well-known for his ued as speakers (Temple being considered humorous remarks. At the close of another the fan comedian of the period, and convention, which Clarke and been unable Clarke’s scientific knowledge had no to attend because of an American trip, Temple walked out the door with Clarke’s

< Yeah. Let’s see. There’s Allah, Jahweh, Lord^ Supreme Being, < Almighty, Creator, s Vishnu...

THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD ARTHUR C. CLARKE Lan’s Lantern #26// JI

brother Fred and saw the moon shining Circle fan group through the 1960s until above. it was taken over (bodily) by Michael "My God!" cried Temple, "Arthur’s left Moorcock, Charles Platt and the New Wave it behind!" staff of New Worlds. Unfortunately he "He’s got an American edition," Fred recently suffered a stroke which left him reassured him. unable to type or write except in laboured Though their names are best known as capitals, but being Temple he still man­ professional writers, neither Clarke nor aged to get a laugh from it. In a letter- Temple has ever abandoned his fannish con­ of-comment he remarked: tacts. Clarke is only the honorary presi­ dent of the British Science Fiction Asso­ Since I estimate that 507 of my lit­ ciation, but according to Inside Sources tle grey cells were washed away by he still writes long and constructive let­ my brain hemorrhage, I who once had ters and tries to keep the somewhat mori­ a modest reputation as a wit, can bund organization going, as best he can now claim only to be a half-wit. from Sri Lanka on the other side of the Earth. You can’t help but like people like Temple remained a star of the London that. Comment^ on

David Thayer He moved later that year to what became known as The Flat at Gray’s Inn Road, Lon­ I never "enjoyed" the fiction of Arthur don. The weekly meetings of the London SF C. Clarke as much as I did that of some of Association were held there and on one oc­ others, but it forced me to think like casion Clarke was one of the teetotallers that of few others. It rarely convinced me who stayed behind while another group vis­ to suspend disbelief; it did convince me I ited the pub. On the drinkers’ return, needed beliefs. Reading Clarke is almost a they found The Flat barricaded by Clarke religious experience for me. and other defenders, and they only managed to storm the barricade after a battle with Roy Hill mops, brooms and a rolled umbrella.

I’ve several snippets on Arthur C. Clarke, gleaned mainly from Vine Clarke’s David Palter library, and THEN by Rob Hanson: ACC's fannish nickname was EGO. Arthur C. Clarke is perhaps the paragon He joined the British Interplanetary of "hard" SF writers; his work always puts Society as a young fan in 1934. In 1937, the science first in Science Fiction. He he was treasurer of the new London branch was one of the first writers, and still is and talked of its formation and the mem­ one of the best, to treat science serious­ bers’ hopes on practical research at the ly in a fictional context, rather than first SF Convention at Leeds. By 1948, he substituting pseudo-science, or inaccurate was BIS chairman and spoke at the first cliches which had proliferated in the pri­ British post-War convention, the WHITCON. meval days of pulp SF. Clarke's stature in ACC’s bedsit at Paddington, London, in the genre places him clearly among the Big 1938 was so small that legend says he once Three along with Asimov and Heinlein. wore a double-breasted suit and got stuck between the walls. 32 //Lan's Lantern #28

Larry Nowinski Lan’s Lantern #26// 33

CONTRIBUTORS

Paul Anderegg Andrew Hooper Tullio Proni address unknown Shandwick Hall I SHER ARTIFACTS 315 N. Ingersoll 530 W. Walnut St. Gregory Benford Madison, WI 53703 Kalamazoo, MI 49007 b Physics Department University of California Ben Indick Peggy Ranson Irvine, CA 92717 428 Sagamore 1420 Valmont & Teaneck, NJ 07666 New Orleans, LA 70115 Sheryl Birkhead 23629 Woodfield Rd. Alan David Laska Tim Ray Gaitbersberg, MD 20879 PO Box 832113 1450 Normandy Rd. Richardson, TX 75083 Royal Oak, MI 48073 Harry Bond 6 Elizabeth Ave. Mary Lou Lockhart Robert Sabella Bagshot, Surrey 52650 Ashley 2 Natalie Drive ENGLAND GUI 9 5NX New Baltimore, MI 48047 Budd Lake, NJ 07828

Alex Bouchard Gary Lovisi Diana Stein 23120 Tawas Gryphon Publications 1325 Key West Hazel Park, MI 48030 Box 209 Troy, MI 48083 Brooklyn, NY 11228-0209 Ben Bova David Thayer 207 Sedgwick Rd. Kathy Mar 7209 DeVille Drive East Hartford, CT 06107 1924 Keller Ave. No. Richland Hills, San Lorenzo, CA 94580 Texas 76180 PL Caruthers-Montgomery 2629 Norwood Ave. Larry Nowinski Bill Ware Anniston, AL 36201 Address withheld 1233 Surry Pl. by request Cleburne, TX 76031 Ravi Chopra Box #531 Terry O’Brien 5115 Margaret Morrison 7303 Tanbark Lane Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Ft. Wayne, IN 46815

Arthur C. Clarke David Palter "Leslie’s House" 137 Howland Ave. 25, Barnes Place Toronto, Ontario Colombo 7 CANADA M5R 3B4 SRI LANKA

Greg Frederick 3520 Franklin Park Sterling Hts., MI 48310

Joseph Green 1380 Holly Avenue Merritt Island, FL 32952

Roy Hill 8 Lansdown Road Canterbury, Kent, CT1 3JP ENGLAND jL //Lan's Lantern #28