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Quote of the Day: The Prescient Prose Edition

Jan 7, 2009, 06:00 AM | by Annie Barrett

Categories: Books, Sci-Fi, Things That Make Me Die Inside

Childhoodsend_l "The world's now placid, featureless, and culturally dead: nothing really new has been created since the Overlords came. The reason's obvious. There's nothing left to struggle for, and there are too many distractions and entertainments. Do you realize that every day something like five hundred hours of radio and TV pour out over the various channels? If you went without sleep and did nothing else, you could follow less than a twentieth of the entertainment that's available at the turn of a switch! No wonder that people are becoming passive sponges -- absorbing but never creating. Did you know that the average viewing time per person is now three hours a day? Soon people won't be living their own lives any more. It will be a full-time job keeping up with the various family serials on TV!" -- The ever-prescient Arthur C. Clarke, in 1953's Childhood's End.

TRIVIA: Did you know Led Zeppelin's album cover for Houses of the Holy was based on Childhood's End? SO COOL. Plus, terrifying!


Alex Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:53 AM EST

Yeah, it was Listen 2 This. I liked those, but then they started not being exclusively about music, (they started to include video games & comic books too) http://cleaning.emenace.com/cleanroo93/13.html regclean undefined

Alex Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 08:31 AM EST

Yeah, it was Listen 2 This. I liked those, but then they started not being exclusively about music, (they started to include video games & comic books too) http://hardwood-floor.emenace.com/brucehar62/38.html basement flooring undefined

LizLemon Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 02:10 AM EST

Excellent quote!

Only happens if you let it...cancel cable and go make something.

Haven't figured out how to get off the internet though...does it at least count as less passive. :P

Luisa Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 05:08 PM EST

That kinda scares the hell outta me. Maybe I'm being overdramatic...

jcarla Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:53 PM EST

That part about becoming passive sponges, reminds me of the humans in Wall-E.

RTA Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:42 AM EST

What a great novel from one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. If you've never read it, do so ASAP.

Nix Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 08:32 AM EST

He told us so.


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