Vox recently posted on Arthur C. Clarke and the various accusations of pederastry against him.
As a teenager I read many of Clarke’s SF books. I enjoyed his stories far more than Asimov’s though I liked Asimov’s non fiction essays more.
It’s fair to say that he was, at the time, probably one of my favourite authors.
Then I read about the allegations of his using young Sri Lankan boys for sex shortly before a supposed knighthood.
I never touched another of his books again and never bought one again.
Vox is understandably embarrassed by having published two of Clarke’s short stories, but the journalist who wrote the article on Clarke arguing both for and against the allegations states that:
Even if the allegations against him are true, I don’t believe that we should engage in a phony cleansing act of burning all his books and writing him out of history. The fact is, Clarke, no matter how dark his hidden side, inspired a lot of genuine discussion about humanity’s potential future. This can’t be erased, nor should it. It’s the same with Gary Glitter. Removing his songs from radio play and refusing to stock his music in record shops didn’t change the fact that his music career brought a lot of enjoyment to a lot of people, as well as idolization. All of us are a mixture of light and dark and in these kinds of cases the two extremes can be so far apart it defies belief, but truth should always prevail over wishful dismissal.
It’s the typical moral relativity of the journalist. And that, upon cold and calculated consideration, I cannot, in any way agree with.
It goes back to how much sewage are you ok with in your ice cream.
The answer is obvious. None.
If the choice is to remember Clarke, or any other pedophile, for his “good” works and making light of, or at least not shining a broad spotlight of cleansing laser light on his being a filthy sexual pervert and rapist of children…
OR
Burn all his books, destroy his home and his grave site and blot his name from history, aside from the one fact, that he was a filthy pedophile, along with all his works, then consider me as the willing and conscious completely censorious and absolute inquisitor.
Now, there are people who will say, what about Stalin or Pol Pot, and so on, real monsters on a much grander scale than the mere raping of a few dozen children, right? In fact, those evil men were probably indirectly responsible for lots more child rapes too.
Sure, it is true, yet there are two or three points to make.
First, in the case of a Stalin or a Pol Pot, they affected the world far more than a SF writing pedophile, their deeds are necessary to be remembered as a warning. Their gigantic evil to be indeed recalled. And as much as possible, we should know about them; the whole truth of them.
But Clarke, despite supposedly coming up with the idea of geosynchronous orbits for satellites, didn’t change the world in any meaningful way.
Secondly, he was not only a pederast but an anti-christian occultist, as is evidenced from the short story or book (I forget), where the “saviours” of humanity who increase our technology gradually over time, never show themselves because in the end, they reveal themselves to look precisely like devils, bat-wings, hoofs, arrowed tails and all.
There was also the other book about all the children becoming some sort of singularity, which thankfully I read when young and still ignorant of Clarke’s proclivities, but I am sure it would make my skin crawl now with whatever perverse undertones were buried in it.
The point is that his evil deeds have a spiritually filthier and intrinsically more personally twisted darkness than those of a power-hungry madman.
Vlad Dracul, might embody both, with his penchant for impaling men women, children and babies. Supposedly to halt the Muslim invaders, which he did, but no man can do that and be considered anything but a human skin sack, host to a whole horde of demonic entities.
A Stalin or a Pol Pot are cruel tyrants and certainly fit to be called mass-murderers, but it’s not really “personal” for them. It’s just a means to an end. Sure it requires the murder of a few million people, but it’s done by others and it’s just so their greed and lust for power is sated. They are egomaniacs, and ruin entire ethnicities of people, yes. But their evil is more akin to that of a tsunami that wipes out a village than the one of a teenager that tortures the family cat to death.
The family cat torturer is more like the pedophile.
And as far as pedophiles go, my personal hope, is that every country on Earth will reinstate the death penalty for the rape of children. Preferably by burning them at the stake.
And I happen to believe that all normal men and women who have children, are likely to agree with me.
I recently re-read *Rendevous With Rama* by Clarke, a book which I greatly enjoyed reading in my youth, and was able to identify sewage in the ice cream there. In chapter 30 we have a homoerotic scene involving Jimmy, one of the younger crew members, described as ‘slim’, ‘wiry’ and a keen athlete . He removes his clothes in order to squeeze through a latticework of narrow gaps in order to collect a flower (‘he squirmed uncomfortably along the narrow corridor of rods’, p.160 in my 1973 Bantam edition).
Plus there’s a zinger in the final couple of pages. The mission is over, the crew is returning home, and they celebrate *by having sex with each other*. The text refers to an ‘end of mission “orbital-orgy”‘ . This is despite the fact that Captain Norton is already married, albeit to two wives, neither of whom is present.
Clarke’s scientific and engineering imagination was magnificent. Importantly though it was coupled with a view of humanity which seemed so positive. His characters were on the whole highly competent, polite and optimistic. They loved science, technology, art and progress; they behaved and cooperated well with each other.
However I see now that any niceness built upon lies is implausible and certainly could not endure, any more than the early phase of the sexual revolution could endure (in the form of widespread heterosexual fornication and adultery without the horrors of abortion and divorce).
These days we still live in a cult of niceness (the kind of niceness which is only skin deep) but of course new lies have been added. Until this cult is removed from power we aren’t going to have the nice things or indeed the lasting civility which Arthur C Clarke hoped and wished for.
We are NEVER going to have the “nice civilisation” that the Star Trek perverts like to imagine is just around the corner, if only we get Communism right *this* time!
The height of civilisation was reached in 1095 when the Crusader marched on Jerusalem to reclaim the Outremer based on faith and justice.
“Burn all his books, destroy his home and his grave site and blot his name from history, aside from the one fact, that he was a filthy pedophile, along with all his works, then consider me as the willing and conscious completely censorious and absolute inquisitor.”
I beg to differ, but only because I hold out the hope that knowledge of the past can help avoid repeating the same mistakes and horrors. I want future generations to know *why* they must have the death penalty for sodomites and what-have-you, because when the voices of “tolerance” and “equality” speak up again (and they will), I want those who stand for the Good, the Beautiful, and the True to be able to point to an unimpeachable record of the villainy of today and say “THAT is why we not only reject your program, but are charging you with a capital crime.”
I think it’s also worth proving to future generations that evil can lurk in the hearts of good artists and so on. Make them acknowledge that dichotomy in order to help guard against it.
—–
On a completely different subject, I suggest taking donations for the right to set alight the child rapist up in the town square. There’d be a queue a mile long and the money raised could go towards the victims or just general public works. And as an added bonus, everyone gets to see justice being done.
Your pink-tinted and wholly unrealistic optimism is noted.
Have you been on a desert island retreat for the last 3 years? Can you send me the address, so I can join?
We have undeniable evidence that humans are extremely stupid, do NOT learn from their mistakes, do not study history, or logic, or much of anything else.
What WOULD work is a simple statement of fact:
“Arthur C. Clarke was a filthy pedophile and deserved burning at the stake. He wrote some books and di some things, but they don’t matter compared to his disgusting crime. His ashes were pissed upon before being scattered in a latrine pit.”
And that’s it. If that is the ONLY memory of the guy for everyone, there are likely going to be less pedophiles. That’s what works. Sticks, for the average moron. Carrots are for those with a functioning IQ.
Similarly, if the punishment for that crime is to be burnt alive in the town square, pedophiles will suddenly be able to curb their instincts.
Cases in point with regard to how humans behave: Singapore. Saudi Arabia. Etc.
I’m all for letting people be free to do as they like UNTIL they cross certain lines. Child rape is a death sentence as far as I am concerned. Blasphemy of Christian concepts should be a public whipping offence. And so on.
It would be an orderly society if I ever become emperor.