From John Derbyshire:
It is plain from his life and his work that Clarke was deeply in love with the idea of space. In 1956 he went to live in Sri Lanka so that he could spend his spare time scuba diving, the nearest he could get to the silence, weightlessness, and mystery of space. That profound imaginative connection with the great void is one of the things that separates science fiction writers and fans from the unimaginative plodding mass of humanity -- the Muggles. Clarke had it in spades. The other thing he dreamt of, and wrote about, constantly was alien civilizations: how incomprehensibly magical they will appear to us when we encounter them, and how they will deal with us.
He mentions Bradbury in his remembrance. Some thought of them as four: Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, and Bradbury. I never did. I like Ray Bradbury, both as an author, and personally (I met him occasionally when I lived in LA), but I never considered his work science fiction, at least not hard science fiction. It was more in the realm of fantasy and poetry to me (and of course, Fahrenheit 451, which was a political dystopia).
[Late morning update]
Bruce Webster agrees:
I'm not sure I've ever met, talked to, or read of an engineer or scientist who was inspired to become such because of something Bradbury wrote. I'm not saying they're not out there -- I just think it's a very small number, especially when compared to Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein.
Yes. I enjoyed some (though not all) of Bradbury's work, but I was never inspired by it. It just seemed too far from an attainable reality to me.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Even Bradbury himself agrees:
First of all, I don't write science fiction. I've only done one science fiction book and that's Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it's fantasy. It couldn't happen, you see? That's the reason it's going to be around a long time--because it's a Greek myth, and myths have staying power.
Rand,
If you didn't already know it seems your RSS feed came unstuck. I just received 15 posts (up through "The last of the giants") in my inbox this morning.
If you didn't already know it seems your RSS feed came unstuck.
I didn't know. I have no idea why. I haven't done anything to even attempt to fix it. Just another mystery of wonderful MT 4.
I think Poul Anderson would be a strong contender for the fourth giant, if not from the general public, at least among sf readers themselves.
Rand, I have to agree about Bradbury and knew that he did too. A reader and I are doing almost what amounts to a joint post on Clarke over at my site, which is still up and running...
That profound imaginative connection with the great void is one of the things that separates science fiction writers and fans from the unimaginative plodding mass of humanity -- the Muggles.
I really hate to see science fiction fans congratulating themselves on their superiority to the "unimaginative plodding mass" of their fellow human beings this way.
I really hate to see science fiction fans congratulating themselves on their superiority
The text you quoted said 'separate' not 'superior', but then I only have a feel for what a muggle might be.
Imagination can go very wrong, though. Arguably, that has happened to conventional science fiction.
Another description by Bradbury of his work:
"I wasn't trying to predict the future. I was trying to prevent it."