Utopian Studies

Though Arthur C. Clarke was one of the science fiction field's most eminent and influential figures, his work attracts surprisingly little scholarly discussion. In his new study of Clarke's extensive oeuvre, Gary Westfahl points out that few previous books have been devoted entirely to Clarke's fiction, and even those concentrate on what are regarded as a small number of major works. They overlook much of Clarke's short fiction, and most were completed before significant new works appeared in the last thirty or so years of his life. More importantly, Westfahl suggests, Clarke's literary skills are generally underrated by his critics, and his themes and dramatic intentions are widely misunderstood.

Westfahl has provided a valuable corrective to all this. Arthur C. Clarkeis comprehensive in its coverage, and it's heartening to read solid critical discussions of relatively late novels, such as The Songs of Distant Earth(1986) and The Ghost from the Grand Banks(1990), along with unusually thoughtful and extended readings of Imperial Earth(1975), The Fountains of Paradise(1979), and others that merit more attention. Westfahl provides useful analysis of Clarke's recurrent themes and interests, such as aliens (who usually visit our solar system rather than us visiting theirs), religion, invention and engineering, and the ocean. The book also includes a helpful biographical sketch [End Page 631]of Clarke's life, an entertaining and revealing discussion of his juvenilia, an extensive bibliography of his writing (and notable scholarly responses), and an appendix that examines the novels Clarke "co-authored" late in his career.

In almost all cases, the latter were written entirely by Clarke's supposed co-authors—among them, Gentry Lee, Mike McQuay, and Stephen Baxter—with minimal involvement from Clarke. Often, as Westfahl explains, these books go against the grain of Clarke's methods, style, and worldview, as revealed in his single-authored fiction and his voluminous body of nonfiction writing. Westfahl treats these collaborations, if that's what they should be called, with a certain disdain that is largely deserved. In particular, as he makes clear, the Rama trilogy-cum-travesty (1989–93), written by Lee, is a melodramatic sequel to Rendezvous with Rama(1973) that inverts much of what makes the original novel unique and attractive.

Westfahl sees Clarke's professional career as falling into two phases: the novels and stories of the 1940s and 1950s—and into the 1960s—which showed, in each case, a somewhat unitary thematic focus; and then, from the late 1960s, beginning with the film and book versions of 2001: A Space Odyssey(1968), a phase of episodic novels with brief chapters and references to several (or more than several) of Clarke's interests. For Westfahl, 2001"anticipates the episodic structure of later novels" but is not in any way "haphazard" (104) in its structure—here Westfahl disputes George Slusser's harsh assessment of Clarke's achievement. All of this shows significant insight, and I'd only add that we might wonder what drove this change in approach and whether it was always for the better. As to the latter, Westfahl is correct that 2001contains nothing haphazard, but things seem to be getting that way by 3001: The Final Odyssey(1997), where Clarke appears to be struggling to find a meaningful story.

Westfahl is also on the mark when he complains that numerous critics have "dubiously concluded that there were effectively two Arthur C. Clarkes" (4): a practical, hard-nosed version of the author, devoted to plausible depictions of near-future technology, and a more mystical version speculating about mysterious forces underlying our universe. Westfahl insists that there was only one Clarke and that he was always, in his fashion, hard-nosed and practical (as a disclaimer, Westfahl cites some past remarks of my own to the same effect). This theme runs throughout Arthur C. Clarkeand is both persuasive and important. [End Page 632]

As he must, Westfahl acknowledges that Clarke ventures into speculations about the universe millions...