Goodbye, Arthur C. Clarke

This entry was posted on
Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at
3:33 pm and is filed
under Geekage.

I once read a wonderful short story about Arthur C Clarke, and I wanted to share the guts of it with you, even though I can’t for the life of me recall the title or author…

It is the not-too-distant future. Arthur C Clarke is being presented with a lifetime achievement award atop one of his creations; a tower that is two (?) miles high.

His many inventions and achievements are listed and praised during the ceremony (I can’t recall them all, but just imagine every boy’s shopping list for the future minus the silver jumpsuits) but at the reception that follows, a guest notices Clarke gazing out of the window, in a bit of a funk and lost in thought.

The guest asks Clarke what he’s thinking. The response (to best of my recollection) is a deep sigh followed by this reply:

“You know, I’ve always wondered what my life would have been like if I had been a writer.”