Author |
Message |
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
The Foundation Trilogy
(Exercising the "classic" part of this forum's charter...)
I just finished a periodic rereading of the trilogy. (I don't care for Asimov's later additions... at all... and for the additions by other authors even less...)
It's just so delightful, even knowing all the surprises in advance. What struck me this time was the writing style. Asimov was such a consummate expert writer, his vocabulary was amazing for its sheer range and yet he rarely used a word that I don't know. His style is so accessible, the grammar a model of clarity. His characters have distinctive voices without caricatured accents. I was reading this time from the perspective of a writer appreciating the skill of another and it certainly showed.
I never read the trilogy in its original form and it was years before I learned that it had appeared one small story at a time. So I don't know what it would have been like to experience it in that episodic form. But nevertheless, the stories work completely when combined into novels. It's remarkable how Asimov was able to switch the entire cast and set from one chapter to the next and yet maintain the continuity and hold the reader's interest and caring about the future of the Plan throughout all these changes. According to Faulkner, this is supposed to be impossible.
Well, f**k Faulkner.
The few signs of aging are easily forgivable: societies that have lost atomic technology can still run faster-than-light drives? The legend is that the trilogy was based on Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but it transcends that in so many ways, not the least of which is, being, like, readable. But also, Asimov goes way beyond Gibbon with the development of psychohistory, the rogue factor of the Mule, and the extra dimension of the Second Foundation. It deserved the award it got for for best series of all time.
|
Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:23 pm |
|
|
audrey
Centennial Attendee
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:11 pm Posts: 198
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Also one of my favorites. I do think it dates a little (not nearly as much as Gibbons though!) . Psychohistory is not as far-fetched as he made it sound I believe. The prediction of the behavior of large numbers of people actually is a serious science now, though a lot of it seems to be spent on how to make advertising more effective there are pretty reliable statistics about what percentage of a large group of people is likely to do x, y, or z under given circumstances... economics and other sciences also look at this. In fact some recent studies have made the news regarding how even small peer groups influence the likelihood that a person will smoke or even become overweight.
|
Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:35 pm |
|
|
sergeial
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:33 pm Posts: 14 Location: Wherever the Army sends me
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
_________________ Logic is a feeble reed, friend. -- Glory Road
|
Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:36 pm |
|
|
JamesGifford
PITA Bred
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:17 pm Posts: 2402 Location: The Quiet Earth
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
_________________ "Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders." - Luther In the end, I found Heinlein is finite. Thus, finite analysis is needed.
|
Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:13 am |
|
|
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Yep, definitely agree on advertising.
Now I come to think of it, the closest I have read to modern psychohistory is George Friedman's "The Next 100 Years" (q.v. elsewhere in this forum). He certainly appears to have the knack of extrapolating (primarily geopolitical/military) consequences in a thoughtful and logical fashion.
|
Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:12 pm |
|
|
BillPatterson
Heinlein Biographer
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:33 pm Posts: 1024
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
|
Thu Oct 01, 2009 5:37 pm |
|
|
DanHenderson
Centennial Attendee
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:21 am Posts: 786 Location: Sunnyvale, CA
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
_________________ “Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet.” –Abraham Lincoln
|
Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:01 am |
|
|
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
How timely that a few days ago on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, author of a new book called The Predictioneer's Game, during which Bruce said, "You must think I'm Hari Seldon." Seems that Bruce has developed predictive models that can tell things like, what Iran is going to do with nuclear weapons, twice as accurately as the CIA can...
|
Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:06 pm |
|
|
audrey
Centennial Attendee
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 6:11 pm Posts: 198
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Seems that Bruce has developed predictive models that can tell things like, what Iran is going to do with nuclear weapons, twice as accurately as the CIA can...
course 2 X 0 is still 0.......
|
Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:07 pm |
|
|
RobertJames
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:05 am Posts: 375
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Mr. Scott, can you provide a quote for the Faulkner comment, because I don't recognize that sentiment.
And how odd to discover you're a necrophiliac...
|
Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:54 am |
|
|
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
|
Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:53 am |
|
|
RobertJames
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:05 am Posts: 375
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Lol...yes, Maestro...
|
Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:54 am |
|
|
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
Who would have believed it - Robin Williams' (not even qualified as s-f) is the Foundation Trilogy. And his favorite character is The Mule.
Did not see that coming.
|
Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:50 am |
|
|
NickDoten
NitroForum Oldster
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 7:05 am Posts: 238
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
meaning the mule was from the planet ork ?
|
Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:33 pm |
|
|
PeterScott
Heinlein Nexus
Joined: Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:10 am Posts: 2236 Location: Pacific NorthWest
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
I guess when he did Bicentennial Man, it may actually have been his own idea.
|
Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:06 pm |
|
|
RobertPearson
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 2:10 pm Posts: 445 Location: Juneau, AK
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
I've also read that Paul Krugman grew up wanting to be Hari Seldon. As I , the abilities of the "social sciences" to predict and control human behavior, at both the individual and population level, have proven far weaker than Asimov (and Heinlein) anticipated.
_________________ "There comes a time in the life of every human when he or she must decide to risk 'his life, his fortune, and his sacred honor' on an outcome dubious. Those who fail the challenge are merely overgrown children, can never be anything else."
|
Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:55 am |
|
|
wdg3rd
Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:00 am Posts: 8
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
_________________ Ward Griffiths
Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. -- Denis Diderot
|
Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:20 am |
|
|
mostlyclassics
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2015 5:33 pm Posts: 131 Location: Evanston, IL
|
Re: The Foundation Trilogy
_________________ Tom Kendall www.mostlyclassics.net tom.kendall@mostlyclassics.net
|
Sun May 15, 2016 8:49 am |
|
|