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The Foundation Trilogy 
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Heinlein Nexus
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Post 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
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Post 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
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Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:36 pm
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In the end, I found Heinlein is finite. Thus, finite analysis is needed.


Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:13 am
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Heinlein Nexus
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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
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Thu Oct 01, 2009 5:37 pm
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Fri Oct 02, 2009 8:01 am
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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
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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
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Heinlein Nexus

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Post 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
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Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:53 am
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Lol...yes, Maestro...


Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:54 am
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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
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Post Re: The Foundation Trilogy
meaning the mule was from the planet ork ? ;)


Thu Sep 26, 2013 5:33 pm
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Heinlein Nexus
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I guess when he did Bicentennial Man, it may actually have been his own idea.


Thu Sep 26, 2013 8:06 pm
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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.

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Mon Sep 30, 2013 10:55 am
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Sat Oct 19, 2013 10:20 am
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