Hal Clement

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Name: Hal Clement
Also Known As: Hal Clement Stubbs, Harry Clement Stubbs (legal name), George Richard, Хол Клемент?,
Occupation: Author, Artist, Commentator
Medium: Science Fiction
Works: Needle Series; Mission of Gravity
Official Website(s): Wikipedia; SFE
Fan Website(s):
On Fanlore: Related pages

Hal Clement (1922-2003) was a member of the First Fandom, who published his first science fiction story "Proof" in Astounding Stories in 1942. A science teacher by trade, he was a prolific writer, known for describing his approach to writing as a "game" between himself and readers.

...I don't know if you've ever encountered him at an sf con, but Hal Clement does a neat schtick where he'll take a glaring Impossibility off of Star Trek or the latest sf movie or whatever, and carefully show the audience-sometimes with instructional slides and sometimes with slides of his own paintings or with examples from the novels he's published over the years—just how in the real-world science we all have to live with, the author's postulate is simply impossible. Ridiculous. Absurd.

About halfway through the presentation, he'll have the audience in the palm of his hand, utterly convinced that the author of the goof made a HUGE mistake and really didn't do their homework. Then he says, "However ..." and you get this sinking feeling that you've been had. Half an hour later, you see clearly that of course the author had it right all along.

Harry calls this "playing the game." The "game" is the sf plausibility game, and he's been playing it since before I was born. He's First Fandom, thai elite group that started sf back in the thirties, and I didn't get involved until the fifties!

Harry (Stubbs = Hal Clement) taught me the game as I did panels with him at ST cons in the '70's. He critiqued my first novel. And we've been friends ever since. And I guess I've picked up some of his "high school teacher" style in my sf thinking. [1]

Clement was also an active participant in science fiction and Star Trek fandoms, contributing articles to various 'zines and attending conventions as a GoH. He also made many personal connections with the fanac community and attended some of the more infamous room parties.

"Stevie and Carrie and I all flew to New York City for the first Star Trek convention in 1972. It was a grand adventure. We met so many people that we had only known by name. ...We had infamous parties in our hotel room which included D.C. Fontana and Hal Clement. We served our cocktail invention, the "Pon Farr."

Judith Brownlee - Datazine #37 - 1985

After dinner I helped at registration for a while. Then we kidnapped Hal Clement into room 411 and talked until about 3am. (We knew we'd be all right exposing Hal to this, since he'd unflinchingly or should I say unblushlngly entered our room, where there was a dirty naked picture of Spock taped to the lampshade.) The evening was highlighted by a dramatic reading of "Star Dregs," with Sherna Burley as announcer -- a marathon part.

Devra Langsam - Star Trek Convention, or, how I spent my vacation, or What would I have done for aggravation if I hadn't been helping run a convention? - 1972


Clements won a number of awards for his work, including the 1969 Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (Skylark Award) awarded by NESFA for significant contributions to science fiction through work in the field AND good personal qualities; the 1986 Retro Hugo Award for his 1945 short story "Uncommon Sense". He was also named to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998 and named the 17th SFWA Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1999.

Conventions

Fan Clubs

Fanworks

Zines

  • "An Effort of Logic" - article, Triskelion #2 (1968)
  • "Warp in Logic" - article, Eridani Triad #3 (1972)
  • "The Followers" - article, Grup #1 (1972)
  • "The World of Short Winters" - article T-Negative #17 (1972)

Fan Perspectives

HAL CLEMENT:

Hal Clement, the pen name for Harry Stubbs, gave a very interesting slide show at this year’s International Star Trek Convention. The subject of the slide show and accompanying discussion was the solar system of Rigel, one of STAR TREK’s favorite star systems. He speculated as to the physical nature of the star itself and showed what its twelve planets would look like, using information derived from various episodes from the show and whatever factual information astronomers have garnered up to the present time as a starting point.

Clement’s discussion was incredibly detailed and was presented with such a straight face that, for awhile, I almost believed I was attending a 23rd century college lecture. His speculation was well thought out and it was obvious he had spent considerable time planning. The presentation was straightforward and believable and it would not surprise me in the least to find out that Hal Clement is a lecturer of much experience.

The slides themselves showed orbits of the twelve planets, possible landscapes, charts showing comparisons of mass diameter, the size of orbit, and other planetary statistics, such as the size of Rigel's radiation sphere, its complicated systems of five suns, and comparison shots of other stars, our own solar system, and distant galaxies.

Although in its entirety I found the slide display and companion analysis to be clever and intriguing, I would make one criticism. Some of the terms used, such as parallax magnitude, and parsec, would be unfamiliar to persons without any background in astronomy. One might expect Star Trek fans to know something about astronomy, but I did notice people who didn't seem to understand what Clement was talking about. However, that doesn't take away from the fact that the talk was interesting, well-planned, and certainly an excellent and clever idea. I look forward to further talks on astronomy, Star Trek, and whatever other interesting topics he can come up with at future cons. [4]

It is a pleasure to present the work of George Richard (known in other incarnations as Hal Clement and Harry Stubbs). Mr. Richard is famous for his "Design an Alien" discussion, in which the audience chooses the planetary conditions and environment and Mr. Richard designs an alien to fit those conditions.

BASH 1987 Program Book

Hal liked Star Trek a lot. He was a professional author, a well-known and respected professional author. He was also an artist, and he was a science teacher. The man was a real triple threat person...

Devra Langsam - Media Fandom Oral History Project Interview with Devra Langsam - 2017

References

  1. ^ Jacqueline Lichtenberg in response to a LOC in Ambrov Zeor #21 (1992)
  2. ^ Boskone 24 Program Book, page 40
  3. ^ Clement appeared at various meetings (see WARPed MIND v.3 n.26, 1975/76) and was involved enough with the club to name their mimeo machine (WARPed MIND v.4 n.31, 1976)
  4. ^ from Glenn Hochberg in John Dewey Science Fiction Club Newsletter v.3 n.1/2 (April 1973)
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