Re: A Sad Asimov fan

Karl Johanson <karljohanson@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> [Arthur C. Clarke's] science is excellent, but his knowledge of
>> how people think and act is dreadful. For instance he often has
>> mankind making unanimous decisions.

> Often? Which stories are you thinking of. I remember a short story
> where mankind needed to act as one, or face destruction.

In _Songs of Distant Earth_, when Earth is destroyed by a long-
anticipated natural catastrophe, lots of information is deliberately
not saved. For instance no copies of the Bible are preserved. This
baffles me. Not that Clarke might think the Bible has done more harm
than good, or even that someone who thinks it has done more harm than
good would be glad to see it destroyed, but that not *one* person on
earth would try to save a copy.

In _The City and the Stars_ and _Against the Fall of Night_ everyone
not only abandons space travel, but ceases to want to leave the city
they're in -- for billions of years.

In _The Fountains of Paradise_ everyone agrees to abandon earth until
an ice age has ended.

And, hardest of all to believe, in _Childhood's End_ every adult
agrees to commit suicide.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.
.

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