Arthur C. Clarke short story question

Cafe Society
1

Click here [[link removed]] to read the short story if you don’t want to be spoiled, although it was written in 1949…

…anyway, the big surprise in the story “History Lesson” is the revelation that the historical documents that the Venusians were watching turned out to be a Disney cartoon. My question is: did Clarke have a specific cartoon in mind, or was he just describing a cartoon in general? Here’s the relevant passages:

Ring a bell for anyone?

2

I remember the story, but I don’t know if he was relating a specific cartoon. I’ve always assumed it was generic.

EDIT: Oh – I was always more of a Warner Bros. fan than a Disney fan.

.

3

I always assumed a simply generic cartoon or maybe a mishmash of memorable scenes of actual Disney cartoons (I can almost picture the car ride scene). Back in those days before Youtube or even video tape, I’m not sure how easy it would have been for Clarke to capture an exact Disney cartoon in that short story…surely perhaps not worth the effort given the construct of the story.

4

Note that the character in the cartoon is supposed to be Donald Duck.

5

The link in the OP is to the full story, “History Lesson.” The story is still under copyright and I’ll bet anything that the Russian whose site it is never applied for permission to reprint it.

This is simply a pirate site, no matter what else it contains.

If you see a full science fiction story online, in a place that is obviously not an author’s site, it is illegal. I’ve reported it because I think the link should be removed.

But I don’t care what the policy is here. There was no need to link to a pirated copy of the story. Wikipedia has an article on it that contains information about it, sufficient to make the point. And that would have been entirely legal and not an insult to Clarke.

6

That’s my bad. I had no idea a story that old would still be in copyright. Mods, please remove link.

7

Anything from before 1923 is public domain, but most things since then are still under copyright. That incidentally includes all of Disney’s cartoons (the copyright law was changed shortly before Steamboat Willy, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, would have gone public).

8

What indicates that the movie is a cartoon, let alone one with Donald Duck? I’ve always pictured it as a silent movie – Keystone Kops or Charlie Chaplin or something.

9

The story ends with the words on the screen-A Walt Disney Production.

10

And the story was written at a time when Disney had never done a full live-action movie. It was known only for cartoons.

11

Done. For the record we usually don’t break links to copyrighted material, we just make sure it isn’t posted here. But since you’re not comfortable supporting the other site’s copyright violation I’m happy to oblige.

12

Morbo, didn’t you like the answers you got to this question three years ago?: What Disney cartoon was Arthur C. Clarke referring to in this short story? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

13

I was about to answer this but then, I thought it looked familiar …

14

Whoa. That’s…I mean I don’t…remember…uh…wow.

Has anyone seen my glasses?

15

I note that in the linked thread, on post #2 ArchiveGuy links to the story as well. :wink:

16

Don’t worry about it - you’re not the only one to do this. :slight_smile: Hell, I even used the exact same title. I’m too embarrassed to see how closely the OP’s were worded. :o