Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
-- Arthur C. Clarke

Image of Arthur C. Clarke by Charles Adams, Science &
Society Picture Library, London


There's definitely a part of my adolescence ending with the passing of Arthur C. Clarke today, a mere 90 years of age, such a great loss. I read "Childhood's End" by Clarke in high school, Soquel High (Santa Cruz), English 1B, a class obliged upon those of us who did not fair well enough on the english proficiency exam to be part of English 1A nor in the company of grand literature and scholars. I found myself in a class with other "literary dropouts" that had no desks and only beanbag chairs, a worn out couch and a whole wall of bookshelves heaving with nothing but Science Fiction on them. I thank the stars to this day, and often enough to realize that on that one percise moment in flunking english, I had the opportunity of a lifetime and a whole universe of discovery before me yearning to be read, written by Gods the likes of Clarke, Heinlen, Bradbury, Asimov, Herbert, Vonnegut and many many more for wanderlust mortals like myself. Thank you.

You will be missed.