The Mat-Cave

The Incredible Non-Fiction of Arthur C. Clarke

[An essay I wrote in my English 101 class.  An informative exploration into Clarke’s non-fiction works and how they affected society]

The Incredible Non-Fiction of Arthur C. Clarke

            In 2001: A Space Odyssey, he lead a mission to the moon and explored the creation of mankind and the things they, in turn, create.  Childhood’s End introduced readers to the visually demonic, yet spiritually enlightening Overlords.  And in Rendezvous with Rama, the readers meet up with a mysterious cylindrical spaceship that stops by our solar system for a brief time before propelling itself back out into the unknown.  With a robust series of work under his belt, Sir Arthur C. Clarke is easily one of the Masters of Science Fiction.  What most readers overlook, however, is his work in non-fiction and how it helped to shape the world as we know it today.

            Even as a boy, Clarke had a love for science.  It was well known that he would fire homemade rockets from his mother’s farm in his native Somerset County in England [Robinson 1].  This fascination would follow him well into adulthood, where he had the opportunity to serve as the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society.  Most of his fiction started out as scientific theories and predictions discussed with his colleagues there [Dunnet 516].

            For the most part, Clarke’s non-fiction, such as his 1950 work, Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics, deals with the outer reaches of space and its untapped potential.  However, some of his later works include another, mostly unexplored region, the world under the ocean waves.  His aquatic collection includes such titles as Boy Beneath the Sea and Voice Across the Sea.

Of all his works, Clarke’s most important was developed in a much different environment than his native farmland.  During World War II, he served as a radar technician in the Royal Air Force.  Clarke spent a good amount of his free time during his service conducting personal experiments.  This eventually led him to an idea that would shape the entire future of our species. 

He gave thought to the potential for satellites in geostationary orbit to communicate with one another through various means.  It is important to point out that Clarke did not invent the idea of geostationary satellites; he merely popularized it when he wrote about his ideas in a 1945 article to Wireless World entitled “Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?” [Robinson 2].  For his contributions to the this field of science, geostationary orbit is now commonly referred to as the “Clarke Orbit”, or, if something is in geostationary orbit, it is considered to be within the “Clarke Belt”.

In the modern age, the world has a vast network of satellites in geostationary orbit that transmit television, radio, even the internet.  All of this can now happen in the span of moments.  By utilizing space, humanity is now interconnected in a way that it had never been in all of history.  This was all thanks to boy who liked to fire rockets from his mother’s farm.  Although, he always humbly claimed that if he hadn’t written that paper, someone else would have in the next year or so [Robinson 2].

Before his death at the age of ninety in 2008, he asked that the world always seek three things:  extraterrestrial life, cleaner energy sources, and lasting peace [Cordeiro 1].  As always, he believed that all of these things could be found in the stars.  Although he will forever be remembered for his accomplishments in fiction, Clarke’s impact on the world through his science will outlast any of his printed books.