This thread inspired me to research Clarke a little bit on the net, and I was shocked to find he spent his last years vigorously denying and fighting claims by a British tabloid that he was a homosexual pedophile.

Apparently that tabloid printed an interview with Clarke that attributed such statements to him as "Sex with children is alright, it doesn't harm them a bit." and "Certainly they are ready for sex by the time they reach puberty." and "I enjoy having a boy now and again."

This all came out just as he was supposed to be knighted by Prince Charles. He still received the knighthood, but it was delayed because of the bad publicity.

When he died, after years of unsuccessful sting operations conducted on him by child welfare organizations, the Sri Lankan government issued a postmortem statement that no evidence of Clarke committing crimes against children had ever been uncovered and it now considered him to be innocent of the charges of pedophilia, a serious crime in Sri Lanka.

Knowledge is power, but I'm sort of sorry I came across this knowledge. Just as my enjoyment of Woody Allen's film is now compromised and diminished by my knowledge of the things he had done, I suppose I will never be able to read Clarke's works again without the thoughts of possible pedophilia running through my mind. (sigh) Pity. Even though he was posthumously cleared, I can't forget it.

Do you think the tabloid manufactured those quotes out of nothing? Do British tabloids do that as a rule?

Tabloids are capable of anything.

I don't know if he was homosexual or not, but some elements of that can be found in his novels, as far as I can remember. I think there is a passage which hints of it in Empire Earth, though I cannot really comment on him being an active homosexual or not, based upon passages in a novel.

As for his alleged preference for children, that is the first I have ever heard of it. It is easy to make allegations, and often reputations suffer needlessly because of unfounded and/or disproven ones.

The interview was done by the "Sunday Mirror" and I think it was taped. The age of consent in Sri-Lanka is 13...or was...maybe still is. I saw one story that claimed the whole thing was a setup to embarress the Crown. The so-called interview is online..or excerpts of it anyway. He was still an intelligent and imaginative man. That can't be taken from him. He was also an atheist from what I've read about him.

Aw, crap, it's on tape? I was nursing a hope that it was an outrageous slander. (sigh)



Well, I don't give a whiz about the atheism part, but if he buggered little boys I can't find a way to excuse it, no matter how brilliant and amazingly foresighted that I agree he was.

I hate it when someone I admire greatly is revealed to be so greatly flawed. I mean, little flaws are natural, but this one's a big one.

He did spend his last decade of life vigorously denying the whole thing and insisting it was all nonsense. If he said those things freely on tape, why would he waste his time, energy and money fighting something easily proved?

When he was in the RAF he predicted and designed the geostationary orbiting satellite system we know today as GPS, wrote, like Jules Verne, about seeming science fiction which spurred others to create out current reality and its myriad of blessings (and a few plagues) such as space travel, etc. (look up "Clarke belt").

"The good that men do is oft interr’d with their bones, the evil they do lives on."

All people are flawed, let's remember the +ves and not inter them with his bones.

Helice, What is Clarke's contribution to the world of science and literature? Isn't that the more important question? If he was gay, so what? It cannot be proven that he was a pedophile--and Sri Lanka's government has said that it has no evidence that he was. I'm sorry that you can't read his books without thinking of those unproven allegations presented by Google--which only lists published stories by other sites. There is so much more to what he wrote that you may deny because of what you read on Google.

Many of his themes involve evolution, Evolution oftentimes results in dead-ends and disappointments. I am an evolutionary dead-end. That's a fact of my life as it is a fact of a lot of lives.

I believe that Clarke went beyond that fact and suggested--particularly in 2001, The Next Generation that there are more ways of contributing to the advancement of the human race.

He should be remembered for that--

I will have to find the audio of the interview I guess, though even if my opinion of him as a person suffers a blow, I cannot deny my respect for his imagination.

I have gotten the impression from my research, that no audio of such an interview ever surfaced, but found out that on hearing of what was published in the Mirror Clarke said he disliked pedophiles and also said he had not been sexually active in 20 years. I also found out that the Mirror withdrew claims that three boys had come forward to claim Clarke molested him, while still saying the comments during the interview took place, so all we have here are unsupported claims and a damaged reputation.

Yes, I tried to find the interview. Not a single trace. Inquest proved that “victims” were paid. Clarke said that he is not gay, but asexual because of his illness. It also was a reason for his divorce.

Well, whether or not he was a pedophile, I am still capable of recognizing his genius and his brilliant work, but I would be so much happier if he wasn't.

In America, tabloids sometimes make outrageous claims, but because we have some very severe civil and criminal remedies for such outrageous slander as attributing confessions of crimes to prominent figures, they just stay clear of doing that. We have enough foolish young celebrities willing to go on drunken rampages and show off their naughty parts to satisfy the baser prurient cravings of the American public, the tabloid do not generally accuse public figures of anything embarrassing or criminal unless they can dead-on produce proof of it so they won't be sued or indicted. They'd have to produce a video or audio tape, or a signed statement to back up their claims.

It appears that although Interpol demanded the supposed interview tape from the Mirror, they were unable to produce it, so perhaps it's all outrageous slander after all. I certainly hope so.