Under the Sea

This chapter describes how Clarke’s fascination with the oceans predates his skin diving career, as early stories convey that humans are drawn to and inspired by the sea, which played a key role in human development. Later stories draw upon Clarke’s underwater experiences to rapturously describe undersea wonders; he occasionally argues that undersea creatures like dolphins and squids may be developing human-like intelligence; and he perceives similarities between life in the seas and life in space. In Clarke’s major novels about the oceans, the former astronaut of The Deep Range (1957) finds fulfillment in protecting Earth’s whales and other sea creatures, but The Ghost from the Grand Banks (1991) instead emphasizes how humans may never be able to fully understand, or master, this strange environment.