The Final Odyssey of Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008E. "Doc" Smithbyline‚ Mar. 21‚ 2008In 1968, I was a young lad of eleven, an avid reader of science fiction and desperate to see the latest and much heralded film of it's genre, Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey". The anti-grav Pan Am Space Clipper, the Moon-bus, the eerie black Monolith, the psychedelic space-scapes and that incredibly scary computer, HAL 9000, was something I just couldn't miss. This was my "Star Wars" and I begged my parents to let me go see it. My Mom paid the kid across the street to drive me to Washington, D.C.'s famed 70mm Uptown Theater, and after obtaining a ticket, I made my way to it's balcony seats. For the next several hours, I sat mesmerized by Kubrick's stunning cinematography and special effects. I knew I was watching something we had never seen before, but at age 11, there were things going on the film that just I couldn't quite comprehend. Undaunted, I decided to learn more about the story and the writer behind it. What I found was the mind of Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction genius and visionary whose tales have shaped the way we look at technology forever. |