I’m sitting in the waiting room of a an imaging center in Brookline waiting for auntie to get an MRI of her knees. There’s a giant screen television blaring daytime shows, which listening to for a few minutes and then given a little thought is rather depressing. Fortunately, I found a way to piggyback onto web access and have just read the headlines at the New York Times.
Where I learned that Arthur C. Clarke has died.
He is probably best known for 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey. But for me as a youngster stretching his brain and spirit, it was a reprint of his 1953 novel Childhood’s End that profoundly marked my thinking with its exploration of how misleading appearances can be as well as what the true cost of advancing to next stages might be. That and, as I was reminded looking at Boy in the Bands, his short story “Nine Billion Names of God.”
I, for one, will miss him…
And always be grateful!
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