And on the sixth day, Karellen, Supervisor for Earth, made himself known to the world in a broadcast that blanketed every radio frequency.

"My name is Karellen, I am the overlord of Earth."

In December for three days -- Arthur C Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END.

One of my favorite author's best stories.

It's one of the most haunting stories I've read and I read it early in life - like about 16 years old and only years later (remembered when I was in college) that I began to understand and appreciate all of the metaphysical and philosophical implications.

SyFy channel has it on December 14 for three days.

http://www.syfy.com/childhoodsend

grok

we all must, grok

That is from "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein.

Never read CHILDHOOD'S END, Stranger in a Strange Land of course. I might need to put it in my to read list. Funny you should mention Heinlein, I just went back and read Time Enough for Love, and as much as I loved the book in my youth, it was/is a really bad book. I have reread some of the other Heinlein works and they were just as fun.

Dave (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:58 pm And on the sixth day, Karellen, Supervisor for Earth, made himself known to the world in a broadcast that blanketed every radio frequency.

"My name is Karellen, I am the overlord of Earth."

In December for three days -- Arthur C Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END.

Remind us closer to the air date. My DVR won't let me schedule that far out, and it sounds interesting to watch.

--LT

Definitely going to watch that. I did read Childhoods End when I was a teen but I only remember reading it once. I was much more into Asimov, Andre Norton and especially Heinlein. I've probably read "Stranger" twenty times including the unedited edition issued by Virginia after Robert died.

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:25 pm Never read CHILDHOOD'S END, Stranger in a Strange Land of course. I might need to put it in my to read list. Funny you should mention Heinlein, I just went back and read Time Enough for Love, and as much as I loved the book in my youth, it was/is a really bad book. I have reread some of the other Heinlein works and they were just as fun.

I find that Heinlein doesn't age well. I think that it is his political situations in the books. I'm not quite sure of that but many of his novels were social criticism.

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND is, after all, a send up of the Catholic Faith. I found that out in High School when I read it for a book report. I asked the Nuns (Yes, I spent 12 years being taught school by Nuns) and the English teacher asked to read it first. WE had an interesting talk. That same year, the Pittsburgh Archdiocese tried a new religion catechism and text that presented different philosophies. SO I learned some of Nietzsche (Man and Superman), Camus (Existentialism), Fletcher (Situation Ethics), Simone DeBouviour (Feminism), Thomas Merton (progressive Catholicism) and a few others.

Curiously, that text had very little of Thomas Aquinas, DesCartes, or CS Lewis or Viktor Frankl, some other modern writers and philosophers who are very Catholic and very good. My class was the first and only class to use that book as a catechism.

Arthur C. Clarke takes a rather hidden and deliberately obscured Theological point and turns it into a breathtaking story.

Exactly why I say that may not be apparent until after SYFY presents it telling of the story.

There are great things out there that must be experienced and not explained ahead of time.

There are a few things to ask going into the story -- Who are the aliens? Why do they do what they do? What does the title mean by "childhood's end?" What is the fate of humanity? What does the future hold for all sentient beings?