Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died.

Expatriate refugees to tropical climes may feel some commonality with this great man.

A good innings, well played sir.

He has returned to the stars.

The planet is the better for his visit.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

I'm actually waiting for a very close friend of Sir Arthur C.Clarke's to arrive in Pattaya for his regular visit on his way back to his homeland. Haven't been able to contact him but Sir Arthur's death was expected and he had become fairly senile in the past couple of years.

The false pedophile attacks upon him about 10 years back instigated by a UK newspaper and taken up by some crazed women's groups who had never met the man really took a terrible toll on Clarke. Far from being a pedophile-he has lived with the same Sri Lankan lover for 40 years now and treats his lover's extended family as his own. Hence the number of children - kids from his lover's brothers and sisters who flocked around the old man they lovingly treated as a grandfather type.

So incensed was the Sri Lankan government on the unwarranted attacks they hauled in the poor lads who made the original complaints who admitted they had been paid quite large sums to do so-nothing happened to them but arrest warrants were put out for the UK journalist and are still in force. They will never be able to set foot in Sri Lanka where Clarke is treated as an honored citizen.

But watch as groups crawl out of the woodwork again..it's suggested the original excuse was to embarrass Prince Charles who was to travel to Sri Lanka to present Clarke with his knighthood.

## Morgan Freeman has been visiting Clarke for several years now and has raised the finance to direct and act in a space epic nased on one of Clarke's book-a tribute to his work.

[elephantspike]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWnmCu3U09w[/youtube]

Along with Verne and Welles he is in that rare Pantheon of visionary writers who gave us amazing visions of the future.
As a kid of 8 I was as baffled as anyone by the movie "2001" but then I read that book (no, not read, devoured that book more eagerly than any kid nowadays reading the latest "Harry Potter" claptrap) and the whole of the universe opened wide.
Some of his stuff, like any writer's, was so-so. But when he hit the ball it really went outta the ballpark. Not just "2001" but works like "Childhood's End", "Rendezvous with Rama", "The Fountains of Paradise" and the forehead slapping denouement of his short story "The Nine Billion Names of God".
What really ment even more to me though was finding out he was "family" when I was still an impressionable pimply-faced nerdy teenager. Some gay magazine I surreptitiously bought (Blueboy or Playguy or Advocate or somesuch) had a panel interview with a bunch of writers and scientists about "The Future of Mankind", one of whom was Clarke. At the end of the article the editor added a note saying that along with Clarke's written answers to their questions was a handwrtten note from Clarke saying "Who blew my cover?" :cheers:

According to the AP story "....A statement from Clarke's office said that Clarke had recently reviewed the final manuscript of his latest novel. "The Last Theorem," co-written with Frederik Pohl, will be published later this year, the statement said...."

According to IMDB the movie is "Rendezvous with Rama" and the release is scheduled for 2009.
see www.imdb.com/title/tt0134933/

They are still working of the adaptation and only Freeman has been signed.

For those who don't know the work - just to whet your appetite- the synopsis....

" The story is set in the 22nd century. A thirty-mile-long cylindrical starship is detected traveling on a course to pass through our solar system. A group of human explorers are selected and dispatched to intercept the ship in an attempt to discover it's purpose, ascertain if there is any threat to Earth, and answer the mysterious questions regarding it's origins and purpose. Because all extant names for Roman and Greek gods have been used on other newly-discovered celestial objects at this point, the Hindu god Rama is invoked in naming the object, which is originally mistaken to be a comet. Arthur C. Clarke's novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and coming hard on the heels of "2001: A Space Odessey", "Rendezvous With Rama" is widely regarded as one of Clarke's best works, and is often cited as a quintessential example of "hard" science fiction"
From IMDB

[cottmann]

"Against the fall of night" and "A fall of moondust" were - and are - two of my favorite novels.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

IMDB is a great source but behind the times on this one...especially as the friend I speak of has been signed to be a scientific adviser on the film"Rendezvous With Rama" which is now in pre-production and far from Morgan Freeman being 'signed" he has raised $200M to produce, direct and star in the film which will be made at Peter Jackson's studios in New Zealand.

A fitting tribute to Sir Arthur.

Arthur was my friend. He managed to annoy lots of people which is what I loved most about him.
He was very open about what he did and how he lived, and anyone who knew him was treated to tales of countless escapades in his personal life. I loved listening to them all. The last time I saw him, only months ago, we watched the sun set from the road near the Kinross Club sitting in his old red Benz.

Not too long ago I took the attached photo of him. I have never known him to be anything but lucid and clear of mind. It was his clarity and bluntness that in fact annoyed so many, but which I considered to be his greatest virtue.

By the way, he was looked upon as god in Sri Lanka. The government even issued postage stamps with his portrait several years ago and if I can find them, I'll scan and post them here.

Attached is a scan I have made of the commerative postage stamps that Sri Lanka issued to Arthur in 1998. The first cancellation was done by none other than Sri Lanka's flamboyant Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of that period.