6 Responses to “The Final Voyage”

1. #  Brian 3/18/2008 5:45 PM

   Also Anthony Minghella! What's up with really talented people dying lately?  

2. #  JayBandit 3/18/2008 5:50 PM

   I saw that too. Perhaps we're just at that age, but it seems like a lot of "important" people are going to die in our lifetime.
   
   That might just be our perspective, but then again, this is the first generation to have a constant barrage of television and internet, so we might just know about more people than those before us.
   
   I just think to myself, "who's the next John Lennon/Curt Cobain/etc."
   
   It just doesn't seem like that can happen anymore because we become increasingly disjointed and non-unified as a society.
   
   Yes, that was all inspired by Brian's comment.  

3. #  Buck B. 3/18/2008 5:54 PM

   Ah shit, that sucks.
   
   I don't know whether Clarke was more badass as a scientist or author.  

4. #  tet 3/18/2008 6:26 PM

   You do know that he invented the synchronous communications satellite and never bothered to patent it? By his calculations, he lost about a billion dollars by failing to do that. That alone makes him a better scientist than author, although not too astute a businessman.
   
   He was one of the first SF authors that I read as a high-school student. The school library had a copy of Across the Sea of Stars which had Childhood's End and Earthlight as part of the collection.
   
   He addressed both Hal's Birthday Party here at the UofI and the Heinlein Centennial last year by satellite link. At the end, he was so weak it took him an hour to cross a room.
   
   Rest in peace, man.
   
   Tom  

5. #  Billy Joe Mills 3/18/2008 7:07 PM

   nicely done jay, i think you covered this story before he actually even died.  

6. #  JayBandit 3/18/2008 9:21 PM

   I could just tell it was going to happen.
   
   Actually, the story first popped up on my Google Reader about 30 seconds before I posted it here.