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Tuesday, 25 December 2012 |
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2. After his glimpse of Colombo, he continued his long ship journey at the end of which the then 36-year-old writer joined up with his friend Mike Wilson on an diving expedition in Australia. What was the location of this expedition, which resulted in their travel and exploration book titled The Coast of Coral? 3. Clarke and Wilson arrived in Ceylon in January 1956 for their first expedition. Living at an apartment in Bambalapitiya, they travelled around and explored the seas on the west and eastern coasts of the island, as well as the cultural sites inland. During this time, Clarke also read a great deal on the island's long history and heritage. Their first expedition of Ceylon lasted for several months, and resulted in Clarke's first ever book on Ceylon, published in 1957. What was the title of this travel and exploration book? 4. Both Arthur C Clarke and Mike Wilson decided to settle down in Ceylon after their first expedition. During 1956, Clarke also wrote a science fiction novel, the first of many he would write while being based in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. This novel had as its backdrop the ocean, and ocean farming and whale ranching in the 21st century as its theme. With his new impressions of Ceylon still fresh in his mind, Clarke worked into the story many references to the island's people and Buddhist culture. A key character in the story was the Chief Buddhist Monk of Anuradhapura, a pragmatic and articulate scholar who is promoting the virtues of kindness to animals and vegetarianism. What was this novel, first published in 1957?
5. Arthur C Clarke wrote both science fiction novels and short stories. His stories are especially admired for their scientific basis and imaginative story telling. A short story he first published in 1953 has been recognised by critics as one of his best science fiction short stories. The story takes place at a Tibetan monastery, where the Buddhist monks install a computer to accelerate a task that they have been working on manually for several generations, i.e. to generate all the possible names of God. The story ends with the famous line: "Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out." What was this story? 6. In 1962, Clarke wrote a short story that pointed out how Sri Lanka's deep water natural harbour of Trincomalee would be well suited for generating electricity using the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) method. OTEC uses the temperature difference between the ocean surface and the deeper layers of the ocean, which are much colder. In the story, the OTEC project is frustrated by a species of giant squid. What was the story's title? 7. From 1964 to 1968, Clarke collaborated with film director Stanley Kubrick to make 2001: A Space Odyssey, considered by many to be the best science fiction ever. All of its special effects were manually done: not a single computer was involved. Clarke invited and involved to create the movie's special effects an accomplished Lankan engineer, painter and sculptor and a retired director of the Ceylon Department of Public Works. This person worked with British and American set designers and special effects specialists at the Borehamwood Studios outside London. Although he was listed as a member of the full production crew, he was uncredited in the movie itself (as were dozens of others). Name this individual, who later served as Sri Lanka's Ambassador to Burma concurrently accredited to Thailand, Laos and Singapore (1974-78).
8. Arthur C Clarke's 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise popularized idea of the Space Elevator, an "orbital tower" rising from the ground and linking with a satellite in geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers (approx. 22,300 miles) above the Earth. The idea, first proposed by a Russian engineer, is now being taken seriously as a future alternative to expensive rockets to travel to Earth orbit. The story is set in the 22nd century on a fictional equatorial island of Taprobane, which Clarke has described as "about 90 per cent congruent with the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka". A key location is thinly disguised Sigiriya, one of Clarke's favourite places in Sri Lanka that he has called the 'Eighth Wonder of the World.' By what name is Sigirya called in the novel? 9. In a literary career spanning over six decades, Arthur C Clarke wrote 100 books and more than 1,000 short stories and essays. Among his best-selling novels are Childhood's End, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. But the author's personal favourite was a novel he wrote in the 1980s which he called his most memorable piece of writing saying, "It's got everything in it that I ever wanted to say." What is this novel, which describes an inter-galactic spaceship that carries chosen human beings who left before the Sun went nova around 3,600 Anno Domini (AD) destroying Earth and other planets in the Solar System?
10. "Greetings, Carbon-based Bipeds!" was the overall title of Arthur C Clarke's collected non-fiction essays written during the period 1934 to 1998, covering a broad range of scientific, literary and exploration related topics. The collection, first published in 1999, was dedicated jointly "to the children of Sri Lanka's lost generation, remembered only by those who loved them" and to a former Vice Chancellor at the University of Moratuwa (where Clarke was Chancellor from 1978 to 2002), "killed while serving his students." Who was this academic and university administrator, who served twice as vice chancellor before he was assassinated during the southern insurgency in 1989? 11. The Last Theorem was Arthur C Clarke's last novel, published posthumously in August 2008. He started writing it as a solo novel in 2003, and due to ill health, later collaborated with the American science fiction writer Frederick Pohl to complete it. The story is set in a post-war Sri Lanka in the early- to mid-21st century and follows the life of a brilliant Lankan mathematician who finds a short and elegant method to solve Fermat's Last Theorem, a 350-year-old challenge in mathematics. The story begins in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, but then moves around the world. Who is the protagonist, the Lankan prodigy?
12. Clarke was a grandmaster of one-liners. He had a knack for expressing original ideas or for summing up heated debates in a handful of everyday words. His own chosen epitaph has just nine words but offers much food for thought about a life well lived for nine decades. What is his epitaph, now on his tombstone at the Colombo General Cemetery? 13. The Panchatantra of India is probably the oldest children's stories that were written which survive to this day. It was first published in Sanskrit in the fourth century AD, and originally intended to instruct a young prince in conduct that would ensure his worldly success. The Panchatantra stories are fables based mostly on animals, and they always end with a moral. The animals in these stories portray a constant characteristic, e.g. the lion is always strong, the fox is always cunning, etc. These fables commenting on human nature are as relevant today as they were when first written. Who wrote Panchatantra? 14. In 451 AD, this leader of the Huns, called the "Scourge of God," after ravaging Europe for long years, was finally defeated at the battle of Chalons, France. The place is also known as the Catalonian Plains - Campi Catalaunici. He was beaten by a coalition of Roman Forces of Aetius, Burgundians, Alans and the Visigoths (Germanic Tribes). Who was he? 15. The Far Eastern civilization consisting of Japan and Korea began in AD 645. One of the most powerful rulers of this civilization was Tokugawa Leyasu, who assumed a title which is often translated as "military dictator," in 1603. What was the title? Last week’s answers1. Franz Oster (1869 - 1933)
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