Comments on: Eulogies

By: Justin Hensley

Justin Hensley — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:34:32 +0000

Matt has a valid point here. Eulogies definitely accentuate the positive, to the point of exaggeration as instanced here, and often gloss over the negatives.

Reagan went from mixed reviews to the ultimate conservative after his death. Hell, even Nixon got a pass when he died.

By: mattmaroon

mattmaroon — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:35:06 +0000

I find it equally insulting, for reasons similar to the ones I listed here, when this happens to my heroes too. A truly great man needs no exaggeration in his eulogy. Guys like me do. So though it may not have come across as such, I meant it as a compliment to Clarke. By exaggerating his contributions you belittle them.

(I also presume his quote in the article that claims geostationary satellites to be his greatest contribution to have been taken out of context, as I'm sure he knew they were not his brainchild and probably wouldn't have claimed otherwise. He probably meant that bringing the idea to the attention of the public was.)

In the very article on Clarke, it says that the movie/book were inspired by a short story of his. That is what I was referring to. I did know that the actual novel was written concurrently, mostly due to film trivia knowledge.

By: Kartik Agaram

Kartik Agaram — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:20:27 +0000

Hey, short story!? 2001 was a full-length novel. And it didn't come before or after the movie; both were made together in a quite unique collaboration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odys...

Re prediction accuracy: he was known for pretty decent prediction accuracy among scifi writers long before his death. I've heard before about that article in 1962 Telstar magazine, and it has a status comparable with Gordon Moore's 'Moore's Law' paper (which by the way predicted a lot more than the law and was amazingly accurate).

A modest suggestion: Since you haven't grown up reading him and being influenced by him, allow those who have had emotional contact to indulge a little. It insults nobody.