July 20, 2019 - CHAPTER 1 - Introduction
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:50 pm
The book's introduction is made up of two parts: a two-page preface and then the "Letter from Clavius." The preface offers a quote that says, "There are two futures," so off the bat Clarke was admitting that his book is a crapshoot.
The "Letter from Clavius" has Clarke himself writing in the year 2019, 102 years after his birth. He's made it to the moon, where the reduced gravity is a lot easier on his old frame. He's watching the 50th Anniversary celebration of the first lunar landing, and he laments that it took a generation to return to the moon after the Apollo missions. He likens the gap in activity to that which followed Amundsen reaching the South Pole. That was in 1911, and it was decades before the Antarctic was populated by scientists.
In a couple of places Clarke quotes from his first novel, Prelude to Space. I hope he tosses in bits from his prior works throughout this book. I've always liked his writing.
A couple of times in the introduction he's interrupted by "Hal" and told to stay on topic. HAL was the computer in Kubrick/Clarke's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Apparently the computer is a writing aid that's monitoring Clarke in the introduction.
The chapter ends with a quote from a resolution that Ronald Reagan signed in 1984. In the resolution, the US pledged to work cooperatively with the Soviet Union on space exploration.
Yes, the book will be dated but, to me, that will be part of the enjoyment.
The "Letter from Clavius" has Clarke himself writing in the year 2019, 102 years after his birth. He's made it to the moon, where the reduced gravity is a lot easier on his old frame. He's watching the 50th Anniversary celebration of the first lunar landing, and he laments that it took a generation to return to the moon after the Apollo missions. He likens the gap in activity to that which followed Amundsen reaching the South Pole. That was in 1911, and it was decades before the Antarctic was populated by scientists.
In a couple of places Clarke quotes from his first novel, Prelude to Space. I hope he tosses in bits from his prior works throughout this book. I've always liked his writing.
A couple of times in the introduction he's interrupted by "Hal" and told to stay on topic. HAL was the computer in Kubrick/Clarke's movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Apparently the computer is a writing aid that's monitoring Clarke in the introduction.
The chapter ends with a quote from a resolution that Ronald Reagan signed in 1984. In the resolution, the US pledged to work cooperatively with the Soviet Union on space exploration.
Yes, the book will be dated but, to me, that will be part of the enjoyment.