Asimov & Clarke: similar styles???
Soh Kam Yung
Asimov, especially, said that people who like his books also usually like
Clarke's books, even to the point of confusing who wrote what (ex: the
'infamous' _Childhood's End_ joke).
IMHO, there are significant differences in styles between them. Asimov tends
towards dialogue and character interaction, whereas Clarke seems to
concentrate more on the description of technology.
How do you feel? Could you confuse a Clarke and Asimov book
if you were just given the book with no author mentioned? And what about
with other writers?
--
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Soh Kam Yung | sau...@ee.nus.sg | engp...@leonis.nus.sg +
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ Isaac Asimov, looking at the moon through a telescope for the first time. +
+ "My goodness, it DOES have craters." +
+ - In Joy Still Felt, Isaac Asimov +
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
A.M.T. Bell
I am a great fan of Isaac and Arthur but I should be able to tell the difference
betwen the two. I tend to prefer Arthur's SF and Isaac's science writing although
both are/were excellent writers of SF and popular science articles. Arthur's SF
has great ideas (sense of wonder) but not much characterisation, it is said that
the only villian Arthur ever made was a computer (HAL) :-) Isaac had better characters
but he didn't think quite as big as Arthur does. This reminds of me of the Clarke/
Asimov treaty where each one was to refer to the other as the best SF writer with
himself as number 2. Arthur's "Report on Planet Three" has the dedication:-
"Under the terms of the Clarke/Asimov treaty the second best science writer dedicates
this to the second best fiction writer".
tony bell ! keep on running live long and prosper
serc daresbury laboratory ! "back off man, i'm a scientist"
A.M.T...@uk.ac.daresbury ! bill murray - ghostbusters
Antony M Hammitt
Soh Kam Yung writes:
>How do you feel? Could you confuse a Clarke and Asimov book
>if you were just given the book with no author mentioned?
>And what about with other writers?
Not that this is necessarily on the same topic, but Asimov
wrote/edited a book called 'Whodunnit' in which you are given
a list of authors and a set of stories, and are supposed to
try to match them up after reading.
If you correctly guess all the authors, you must know enough
about comparative fiction to get a BS (=-]) in English.
Have Fun
Tony
Bill Clinton is a Romulan
Ed Seiler
Yung) wrote:
> I've always wondered how people view Asimov and Clarke's writing styles.
> Asimov, especially, said that people who like his books also usually like
> Clarke's books, even to the point of confusing who wrote what (ex: the
> 'infamous' _Childhood's End_ joke).
>
> IMHO, there are significant differences in styles between them. Asimov tends
> towards dialogue and character interaction, whereas Clarke seems to
> concentrate more on the description of technology.
>
> How do you feel? Could you confuse a Clarke and Asimov book
> if you were just given the book with no author mentioned? And what about
> with other writers?
I have to agree that if you like one of them that you will probably like
the other. I agree that there are differences in style, though I would
characterize the difference as the nebulous quality known as the writer's
voice. It seems to me that one difference is that although they both are
known to be writers of "hard science" fiction, ironically Clarke sometimes
relied on themes involving supernatural phenomena (e.g. Childhood's End),
while Asimov was less likely to do so. I don't think Clarke concentrated
much more on technology, though he often included big
spaceships/cities/etc. in his stories, the technology of which were
described in order to give us a clearer picture of the setting. I think I
could distinguish between the two in your scenario. As for your last
question, I would rephrase it as "Can you think of any other writer more
similar to either Clarke or Asimov than they were to each other?" I cannot.
--
Ed Seiler
sei...@nibbles.gsfc.nasa.gov
"If puns are outlawed, only outlaws will have puns."
Jamal A Wills
>I've always wondered how people view Asimov and Clarke's writing styles.
>Asimov, especially, said that people who like his books also usually like
>Clarke's books, even to the point of confusing who wrote what (ex: the
>'infamous' _Childhood's End_ joke).
>
>IMHO, there are significant differences in styles between them. Asimov tends
>towards dialogue and character interaction, whereas Clarke seems to
>concentrate more on the description of technology.
I agree. They definitely have different styles.
Asimov likes drama and Clark likes detail. Both are extremely good at
what they do.
>
>How do you feel? Could you confuse a Clarke and Asimov book
I don't think so. Unless I read it many years ago and forgot the story.
>if you were just given the book with no author mentioned? And what about
>with other writers?
( How 'bout Douglas Adams? :) )
Jamal A Wills
Earth/Robots/Empire/Foundation universe? I mean from the 1930's
(from _End of Eternity_) to Gaia.
-Jamal
wi...@cps.msu.edu
(Over worked grad student taking a break.)