donn (12/19/82)
*** WARNING *** This discussion is not intended to be deep enough to
merit a full SPOILER WARNING but if you are easily annoyed by spoilage
you should skip over this...
Isaac Asimov didn't exactly tie up all the loose ends in FOUNDATION'S
EDGE; in fact he left the way wide open for yet another FOUNDATION
book. One of the interesting things about FOUNDATION'S EDGE is the way
in which earlier Asimov books are tied into the story-line. Three
things in particular are recalled but not developed in detail,
suggesting possible deeper treatments in future works:
o The Robots
o The Earthmen
o The Eternals
I assume that everyone is familiar with at least some of the classic
robot stories: I, ROBOT; THE REST OF THE ROBOTS; THE CAVES OF STEEL;
THE NAKED SUN. I understand from Asimov's remarks in IASFM that he is
working on a new robot novel; perhaps this will fill in some of the
necessary connections with the "Galactic Empire" universe of
FOUNDATION. THE BOOK OF FLIGHT (mentioned obliquely in EDGE as a
source of legends about Earth) apparently describes a resolution of the
problem which is presented in THE CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN: the
men of Earth overcome their agoraphobia but not their fear of robots,
and they start a new wave of settlement (`the Flight') which bypasses
the robot worlds and leads to the development of the Empire. Of course
we do meet a robot in EDGE, but it raises as many questions as it
resolves...
The Eternals and the Earthmen are less well known than the Robots.
Earthmen in Galactic Empire times are the subject of Asimov's very
first novel, PEBBLE IN THE SKY. I went back and re-read this book
recently to see how it might reflect on plot developments in FOUNDATION
V. A number of important things from PEBBLE are mentioned in EDGE:
There really is a planet called Earth in the Sirius Sector and
it really is considered to be the original home of humanity.
It was radioactive, either to begin with or eventually, and
this grew worse till the planet died. There was indeed a
mind-enhancing invention that came to nothing. All this is
considered history on the home planet of my ancestors. [p. 204,
EDGE]
PEBBLE takes place in the Year of the Galactic Era 827, back at the
beginning of the Empire's long history. Earth is a backwater planet
whose only distinction is that its surface is radioactive. The
archaeologist Bel Arvardan suspects that Earth is the original planet
of the human race and pays a visit to the planet to test his theory.
Unfortunately for him, Earth is a rebellious place which is held in
check only by an Imperial garrison, and the semi-secret Society of
Ancients is continually plotting vengeance on the oppressing
Galactics. Arvardan stumbles into an ugly scheme by the Ancients to
wipe out all other life in the Galaxy (I guess the Galaxy just isn't
Krikkit) and spends the book being alternately arrogant and humbled.
But that's not all--
Joseph Schwartz is a retired Chicago tailor who goes for a walk on a
pleasant morning in June of 1949 and never comes home. As a result of
a mysterious laboratory accident at the Institute for Nuclear Research
across town, he is thrown thousands of years into the future. The
farmer who eventually takes him in is annoyed by Schwartz's inability
to speak the language and is afraid to be caught out by the
ever-vigilant Society of Ancients for hoarding an elderly father-in-law
(everyone is supposed to submit to euthanasia at the age of 60), so
Schwartz is disposed of by being forced to act as a guinea pig for a
new mind-enhancing device, the Synapsifier. Schwartz develops mental
abilities equivalent to those of Stor Gendibal in EDGE and his
intelligence triples. The Ancients find out about Schwartz and attempt
to eliminate him, believing him to be an agent of the Empire...
PEBBLE isn't bad for a first novel. But Asimov never explains what
happens to Schwartz after the events in the book, nor what becomes of
the Synapsifier. In EDGE we never learn the reason why all references
to Earth have been deleted from the Imperial library on Trantor: you
don't suppose that the Synapsifier and perhaps even Joe Schwartz are
still around somewhere after thousands of years? Golan Trevize is
planning on visiting Earth, however... maybe we will find out in
FOUNDATION V.
The Eternals are described in THE END OF ETERNITY. A rather different
account is made of them in EDGE than what I remember of the original
book, though. Unfortunately my copy of ETERNITY was the victim of
a garage sale while I was an undergraduate so I can't make a direct
comparison; is anyone on the net willing to review this one?
There's all kinds of useful fuel for speculation about FOUNDATION V...
Does anyone remember whether THE STARS LIKE DUST or THE CURRENTS OF
SPACE have any interesting material?
Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn
(619) 452-4017 sdamos!donn@nprdcbstempleton (01/04/83)
I must admit (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) that I was surprised to find Asimov leaving loose ends in Foundation's Edge. After all the noise he made about how much he did not want to write more science fiction and in particular more Foundation, I was amazed to see him write a book that demands a sequel. As those of you have read it know (and will find out if you ignore my SPOILER warning) Earth is mentioned a lot in the book. As soon as I heard mention of this, I thought for sure that the people of Earth, with enhanced minds, were the secret foundation keeping the Seldon plan under control. The fact that all Earth records had been wiped from the Trantor library was a certain clue, and even more interesting was the statement that the Synapsifier experiments were a failure. If you read Pebble in the Sky, they were NOT, and Earth's plan was to set up a secret council of smart guys using the device. Clearly they have done so. Having read the foundation series, and knowing Asimov's habit of pulling surprises like who the mule was and who the Second Foundationers were, it was obvious to me that the Trantorian woman was not what she seemed. I was sure she was an Earthwoman, however, so Asimov did fool me in that respect. My bet is that somebody in that fray (perhaps the guy from the sirius sector) is in fact from Earth. I thought that the Gaia affair was a side-track, but I did find the planet fascinating, and one of the best examples of a group-conciousness I have read. You have to hand it to old masters like Asimov, they did not get their reputations for nothing. I must also stronly suggest people read 2010. It is a fine book, perhaps better written than Foundation's Edge. It leaves few loose ends, so there is less to talk about.