of 10
The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
In these futuristic novels, Asimov imagines a universe on the brink of a thirty thousand year Dark Age, where the only hope for the survival of mankind rests on the ideas of mathematician Hari Seldon and his team of scientists, who ultimately turn their group into a religion. Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo also predicted the end of the world, and stated openly that they were using the series as a blueprint for their own plans. When the apocalypse didn’t come as planned, the organization released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people and injuring over 5,000.
===========================================================
The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order are Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.
The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.
Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. Seldon's psychohistory also foresees an alternative where the intermittent period will last only one thousand years. To ensure his vision of a second great Empire comes to fruition, Seldon creates two Foundations—small, secluded havens of all human knowledge—at "opposite ends of the galaxy".
The focus of the series is on the First Foundation and its attempts to overcome various obstacles during the formation and installation of the Second Empire, all the while being silently guided by the unknown specifics of The Seldon Plan.
The series is best known for the Foundation Trilogy, which comprises the books Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation. While the term "Foundation Series" can be used specifically for the seven Foundation books, it can also be used more generally to include the Robot Series and Empire Series, which are set in the same fictional universe, but in earlier time periods. If all works are included, in total, there are fifteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and six novels written by other authors after his death, expanding the time spanned in the original trilogy (roughly 550 years) by more than twenty thousand years. The series is highly acclaimed, winning the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.[1]
Foundation was originally a series of eight short stories published in Astounding Magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas set forth in Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and was invented spontaneously on his way to meet with editor John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concept.[2][edit]Publication history
[edit]Original trilogy
The first four stories were collected, along with a new story taking place before the others, in a single volume published by Gnome Press in 1951 as Foundation. The remainder of the stories were published in pairs by Gnome as Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the "Foundation Trilogy", as the series was known for decades.[3]
[edit]Later sequels
In 1981, after the series had long been considered one of the most important works of modern science fiction,[1] Asimov was persuaded by his publishers to write a fourth book, which became Foundation's Edge (1982).[4]
Four years later, Asimov followed up with yet another sequel, Foundation and Earth (1986), which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) andForward the Foundation (1993). During the lapse between writing the sequels and prequels, Asimov had tied in his Foundation series with his various other series, creating a single unified universe.
[edit]Plot
[edit]Prelude to Foundation
Main article: Prelude to Foundation
Prelude to Foundation opens on the planet Trantor, the empire's capital planet, the day after Hari Seldon has given a speech at a conference. Several parties become aware of the contents of his speech—that using mathematical formulas, it may be possible to predict the future course of human history. Seldon is hounded by the Emperor and various employed thugs (working surreptitiously) and is forced into exile. Over the course of the book, Seldon and Dors Venabili, a female companion, are taken from location to location by an aide, Chetter Hummin, who introduces them to various walks of life in his attempts to keep Seldon hidden from the Emperor.
Throughout their adventures all over Trantor, Seldon continuously denies that psychohistory is a realistic science and that, even if it were feasible, it may take several decades even to develop. Hummin, however, is convinced that Seldon knows something and, as a result, continuously presses him to work out a starting point to develop psychohistory.
Eventually, after much traveling and introductions to various, diverse cultures on Trantor, Seldon realizes that using the entire known Galaxy as a starting point is too overwhelming to try to accomplish and decides to use Trantor as a model to work out the science, with a goal of using the applied knowledge on the rest of the galaxy.
[edit]Forward the Foundation
Main article: Forward the Foundation
Eight years after the events of Prelude, Seldon has worked out the science of psychohistory and has applied it on a galactic scale. His notability and fame increase and is eventually promoted to First Minister to the Emperor. As the book progresses, Seldon loses those closest to him, including his wife, Dors Venabili, as his own health deteriorates into old age. Having worked his entire adult life to understand psychohistory, Seldon instructs his granddaughter, Wanda, to set up the Second Foundation.
[edit]Foundation
Main article: Foundation (novel)
Called forth to stand trial on Trantor for allegations of treason (for foreshadowing the decline of the Galactic Empire), Seldon explains that his science of Psychohistory foresees many alternatives, all of which result in the Galactic Empire eventually falling. If humanity follows its current path, the Empire will fall and thirty thousand years of turmoil will overcome humanity before a second Empire arises. However, an alternative path allows for the intervening years to be only one thousand, if Seldon is allowed to collect the most intelligent minds and create a compendium of all human knowledge, entitled Encyclopedia Galactica. The board is still wary, but allows Seldon to assemble whomever he needs, provided he and the "Encyclopedists" be exiled to a remote planet, Terminus. Seldon agrees to set up his own collection of Encyclopedists, and also secretly implements a contingency plan—a second Foundation—at the "opposite end" of the galaxy.
Once on Terminus, the inhabitants find themselves at a loss. With four powerful planets surrounding their own, the Encyclopedists have no defenses but their own intelligence. The Mayor of Terminus City, Salvor Hardin, proposes to play the planets off against each other. His plan is a success, the Foundation remains untouched and he is promoted to Mayor of Terminus. Meanwhile, the minds of the Foundation continue to develop newer and greater technologies which are smaller and more powerful than the Empire's equivalents. Using its scientific advantage, Terminus develops trade routes with nearby planets, eventually taking them over when its technology becomes a much-needed commodity. The interplanetary traders effectively become the new diplomats to other planets. One such trader, Hober Mallow, becomes powerful enough to challenge and win the seat of Mayor and by cutting off supplies to a nearby region, also succeeds in adding more planets to the Foundation's reach.
[edit]Foundation and Empire
Main article: Foundation and Empire
The current Emperor of the Galaxy perceives the Foundation as a growing threat and orders an attack on it, utilising the Empire's still mighty fleet of war vessels. However, the degeneration of the Empire and the scientific advancements of the Foundation are not in sync and as a result, the Foundation's smaller fleet is mightier. Coupled with political back-and-forths within the Empire, the Foundation emerges as the victor and the Empire itself is defeated.
Meanwhile an unknown outsider known as The Mule has begun taking over planets belonging to the Foundation at a rapid pace. It becomes known that the Mule is, in fact, a mutant who retains the ability to psychically alter the emotions of people. Using this power to great advantage, the Mule conquers planets simply by visiting them in force, with his own army, instilling the inhabitants with great fear, then again with great loyalty to himself. When the Foundation comes to realize that The Mule was not foreseen in Seldon's plan, and there is no predicted way of defeating him, Toran and Bayta Darell, accompanied by Ebling Mis—the galaxy's current greatest psychologist—and a street clown named Magnifico (whom they agree to protect, as his life is under threat from the Mule himself) set out to find the Second Foundation, hoping they bring an end to the Mule's reign.
Eventually, working in the still functional Great Library of Trantor, Mis comes to learn of the Second Foundation's whereabouts. However, having worked out that the Mule is also attempting to find the secret of the Second Foundation, Bayta Darell kills Mis before he can reveal where the Second Foundation is. Bayta explains that she regrets her actions, but the secret had to be kept from the Mule at all costs. Magnifico reveals that Bayta's suspicions are correct and that he is the Mule and has been laboring to find the Second Foundation and conquer it along with the original Foundation. He leaves Trantor to rule over his conquered planets while continuing his own search.
[edit]Second Foundation
Main article: Second Foundation
As the Mule comes closer to finding it, the mysterious Second Foundation comes briefly out of hiding in order to face the threat directly. It is revealed to be a collection of the most intelligent humans in the galaxy. While the first Foundation has developed the physical sciences, the Second Foundation has been developing the mental sciences. Using the might of its strongest minds, the Second Foundation ultimately wears down the Mule. His destructive attitude is adjusted to a benevolent one. He returns to rule over his kingdom peacefully for the rest of his life, without any further thought of conquering the Second Foundation.
The First Foundation, learning of the implications of the Second, who will be the true inheritor of Seldon's promised future Empire, greatly resents it - and seeks to find and destroy it, believing it can manage without it. After many attempts to unravel the only clue Seldon had given as to the Second Foundation's whereabouts ("at the other end of the Galaxy"), the Foundation is led to believe that the Second Foundation is located on Terminus. By developing a technology which causes great pain to telepaths, the Foundation uncover a group of 50 such, and destroys them, believing that it has thereby won. However, the Second Foundation has planned for this eventuality, and has sent 50 of its members to their deaths as martyrs in order to regain its anonymity.
[edit]Foundation's Edge
Main article: Foundation's Edge
Believing that the Second Foundation still exists (despite the common belief that it has been extinguished), Golan Trevize is sent by the current Mayor of the Foundation, Harla Branno, to uncover the group while accompanied by a scholar named Janov Pelorat. After sharing a few conversations with each other, Trevize comes to believe that the Second Foundation lies on a planet in which Pelorat is an expert—the mythical planet of Earth. No such planet exists in any database, yet several myths and legends all reference it, and it is Trevize's idea that the planet is deliberately being kept hidden.
Meanwhile, Stor Gendibal, a prominent member of the Second Foundation, discovers a simple local—who lives on the same planet as the Second Foundation—has had a minor alteration made to her mind. This alteration is far more delicate than anything the Second Foundation can do and, as a result, he determines that a greater force of Mentalics is operating in the Galaxy—a force as powerful as the Mule himself. Having shown interest in Trevize earlier (as he is an individual who has spoken out against the Second Foundation frequently), Gendibal endeavors to follow Trevize, reasoning that he should be able to find out who has altered the mind of the native.
Using the few scraps of reliable information within the various myths, Trevize and Pelorat discover a planet called Gaia, which is inhabited solely by Mentalics, to such an extent that every organism and inanimate object on the planet shares a common mind. Having followed Trevize by their own means, Branno and Gendibal both reach Gaia at the same time. Meanwhile, Trevize is made to decide between three alternatives for the future of the human race: the First Foundation's mastery of the physical world and its traditional political organization (i.e., empire), the Second Foundation's mentalics (and probable rule by mind control), or Gaia's absorption of the entire Galaxy into one shared, harmonious intellect.
After Trevize makes his decision, the intellect of Gaia adjusts Branno's mind so that she believes she has become victorious and conquered the planet (but that she will also continue to leave it alone) and Gendibal is sent back to the Second Foundation under the impression that the Second Foundation is victorious and should continue as normal. Trevize remains uncertain as to why he has chosen Gaia as the correct outcome for the future.
[edit]Foundation and Earth
Main article: Foundation and Earth
Still uncertain about his decision, Trevize continues on with the search for Earth along with Pelorat and a local of Gaia, advanced in Mentalics, known asBlissenobiarella (usually referred to simply as Bliss). Eventually Trevize finds three sets of co-ordinates which are very old. Adjusting them for time, he realises that his ship's computer does not list any planet in the vicinity of the co-ordinates. When he physically visits each location, he discovers an uncharted planet:Aurora, Melpomenia, and finally Solaria. After searching each, none have given him the answers he seeks.
The first two planets are long deserted, but Solaria contains a small population which is extremely advanced in the field of Mentalics. When their lives are threatened, Bliss uses her abilities (and the shared intellect of Gaia) to destroy the inhabitant who is about to kill them. Discovering that this leaves behind a small child who will be put to death if left alone, Bliss makes the decision to keep the child as they quickly escape the planet.
Eventually Trevize discovers Earth, but it, again, contains no satisfactory answers for him. However, it dawns on Trevize that the answer may not be on Earth, but on Earth's satellite—the Moon. Upon approaching the planet, they are drawn closer and then to inside the Moon's core where they meet a robot by the name of R. Daneel Olivaw. Olivaw explains that he is at the end of his run-time and that, despite replacement parts and more advanced brains (which contain 20,000 years of memories), he is going to die shortly. He explains that no robotic brain can be developed to replace his current one and that to continue assisting with the benefit of humanity—which may come under attack by beings from beyond our Galaxy—he must meld his mind with an organic intellect. Once again, Trevize is put in the position of deciding if having Olivaw meld with the child's superior intellect would be in the best interests of the galaxy. The decision is left ambiguous (though likely a 'Yes') as it is also implied that the melding of the minds may be to the child's benefit and that she may have sinister intentions about it.
[edit]Development and themes
The early stories were inspired by Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The plot of the series focuses on the growth and reach of the Foundation, against a backdrop of the "decline and fall of the Galactic Empire".
The focus of the books is the trends through which a civilization might progress, specifically seeking to analyze their progress, using history as a precedent. Although many science fiction novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four or Fahrenheit 451 do this, their focus is upon how current trends in society might come to fruition, and act as a moral allegory on the modern world. The Foundation series, on the other hand, looks at the trends in a wider scope, dealing with societal evolution and adaptation rather than the human and cultural qualities at one point in time.
Furthermore, the concept of psychohistory, which gives the events in the story a sense of rational fatalism, leaves little room for moralization. Hari Seldon himself hopes that his Plan will "reduce 30,000 years of Dark Ages and barbarism to a single millennium," a goal of exceptional moral gravity. Yet events within it are often treated as inevitable and necessary, rather than deviations from the greater good. For example, the Foundation slides gradually into oligarchy and dictatorship prior to the appearance of the galactic conqueror, known as the Mule, who was able to succeed through the random chance of an empathic/telepathic mutation. But, for the most part, the book treats the purpose of Seldon's plan as unquestionable, and that slide as being necessary in it, rather than mulling over whether the slide is, on the whole, positive or negative.
The books also wrestle with the idea of individualism. Hari Seldon's plan is often treated as an inevitable mechanism of society, a vast mindless mob mentality of quadrillions of humans across the galaxy. Many in the series struggle against it, only to fail. However, the plan itself is reliant upon the cunning of individuals such as Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow to make wise decisions that capitalize on the trends. The Mule, a single individual with remarkable mental powers, topples the Foundation and nearly destroys the Seldon plan with his special, unforeseen abilities. To repair the damage the Mule inflicts, the Second Foundation deploys a plan which turns upon individual reactions. Psychohistory is based on group trends and cannot predict with sufficient accuracy the effects of extraordinary, unforeseeable individuals; and, as originally presented, the Second Foundation's purpose was to counter this flaw. Later novels would, however, identify the Plan's uncertainties that remained at Seldon's death as the primary reason for the existence of the Second Foundation, which (unlike the First) had retained the capacity to research and further develop psychohistory.
Asimov unsuccessfully tried to end the series with Second Foundation. However, because of the predicted thousand years until the rise of the next Empire (of which only a few hundred had elapsed), the series lacked a sense of closure. For decades, fans pressured him to write a sequel.
In 1982, Asimov gave in after a thirty-year hiatus, and wrote what was at the time a fourth volume: Foundation's Edge. This was followed shortly thereafter byFoundation and Earth. The story of this volume (which takes place some 500 years after Seldon) ties up all the loose ends, but opens a brand new line of thought in the last dozen pages. According to his widow Janet Asimov (in her biography of Isaac, It's Been a Good Life), he had no idea how to continue after Foundation and Earth, so he started writing the prequels.
[edit]The Foundation Series
[edit]Merging with other series
The series is set in the same universe as Asimov's first published novel, Pebble in the Sky, although Foundation takes place approximately ten thousand years later. Pebble in the Sky became the basis for the Empire Series. Then, at some unknown date (prior to writing Foundation's Edge) Asimov decided to merge the Foundation/Empire series with his Robot series. Thus, all three series are set in the same universe, giving them a combined length of 15 novels, and a total of about 1,500,000 words. The merge also created a time-span of the series of approximately 20,000 years.
[edit]Timeline inconsistencies
Early on during Asimov's original world-building of the Foundation universe, he established within the first published stories a chronology placing the tales approximately 50,000 years into the future from the time they were written (circa 1940). This precept was maintained in the pages of his later novel Pebble in the Sky, wherein Imperial archaeologist Bel Arvardan refers to ancient human strata discovered in the Sirius sector dating back "some 50,000 years". However, when Asimov decided decades later to retroactively integrate the universe of his Foundation and Galactic Empire novels with that of his Robot stories, a number of changes and minor discrepancies surfaced—the character R. Daneel Olivaw was established as having existed for some 20,000 years, with the original Robot novels featuring the character occurring not more than a couple of millennia after the early-21st Century Susan Calvin short stories. Also, in Foundation's Edge, mankind was referred to as having possessed interstellar space travel for only 22,000 years, a far cry from the fifty millennia of earlier works.[citation needed]
In the spring of 1955, Asimov published an early timeline in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine based upon his thought processes concerning theFoundation universe's history at that point in his life, which vastly differs from its modern-era counterpart. Many included stories would later be either jettisoned from the later chronology or temporally relocated by the author. Also, the aforementioned lengthier scope of time was changed. For example, in the original 1950stimeline, humanity does not discover the hyperspatial drive until approximately the year AD 5000, whereas in the reincorporated Robot universe chronology, the first interstellar jump occurs in AD 2029, during the events of I, Robot.[5]
========================================================
My how time flies!
It is nearly the halfway point of The 2012 Science Fiction Experience and it is time for the first of our two-part discussion of the second book in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy, Foundation and Empire. The questions below are merely to act as discussion points and the various participants may or may not choose to answer them all. Please understand that there are potential spoilers in my answers as well as those of the other participating members. And as always, please feel free to join in on the discussion regardless of whether you are reading along with us or not. If you do, please restrict your comments to the part of the story we’ve already read and do not spoil anything for those who are reading this book for the first time.
And here we go!
1. In the opening chapters of Foundation and Empire we get to see things from the Imperial side. What are your thoughts on this part of the book? Were you surprised to find parts of the Galactic Empire that still seemed to be thriving?
It has been long enough since my first reading of Foundation and Empire that I had completely forgotten about this portion of the book. I am much more familiar with the story line that begins near the end of this first half of our reading and that portion of the book dominates my memories.
I was not surprised to see the Galactic Empire thriving per se, but in a way I was surprised simply because the first book,Foundation, concentrates so much on the planet of Terminus and its surrounding worlds that it is easy to become myopic and feel as if the universe is dominated by the growing Foundation, when in fact it remains a mere flyspeck with only a handful of the enormous galaxy under its influence.
I enjoy seeing things briefly from the heart of the galaxy where the Foundation is barely known, if known at all.
2. The examination of psychohistory continues in this book. What are your thoughts about the statement that was made: “Seldon’s laws help those who help themselves” in light of our previous discussions about Seldon, his predictions, and the interaction of the individuals that we are exposed to in the story?
One of the most entertaining things in this portion of the book was how much Barr’s conversations with Devers and others echoed the conversations we had when discussing Foundation regarding the role of the individual in the concept of Seldon’s psychohistory. Through both characters we get the sense of how the Foundation has changed in the years since trader Hober Mallow helped to bring about economic dependence upon the Foundation by the planets nearest Terminus. It makes things so much more interesting having this seemingly contradictory idea that history can be predicted based on scientific means that include the prediction of mass behavior and seeing how individuals make such an impact on that history. I look forward to seeing, or in my case being reminded of, how this plays out as we read the second half of this book and the final book of the trilogy.
3. How do you feel about Devers, Barr and Bel Riose? Did you like this section of the book and/or these characters? Was there anything about their stories that stood out to you, entertained you, annoyed you?
I enjoyed them, although not as much as Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow before them. Bel Riose makes a formidable enemy and perhaps the first one that seems that he has both the drive and the intelligence to go toe-to-toe with the type of character that helped the Foundation thrive during previous Seldon crises. Barr is a very interesting character who I will discuss more in a later question. Devers isn’t my favorite though he does have his moments. He is a bit restless and impatient though his personality does make a nice counterbalance to the devotion of Barr.
Although we only see this briefly, it was interesting to see Asimov bring about Bel Riose’s demise because of the power of the desire to remain in power. The Emperor’s devious cunning of making sure to eliminate any credible competition for his power not only echoes ancient times but can also be seen as an interesting commentary about how current Western political systems often resort to infighting, to eating their own young as it were, and how that behavior may keep power for the moment but is harmful in the long run. The Emperor’s behavior reminded me so much of Robert Graves’ excellent historical fiction of ancient Rome in I, Claudius and Claudius the God. If you desire to have the history of Rome and the time of the Caesars come alive, pick up these novels. They are gripping.
4. Perhaps continuing from Question 2, do you agree or disagree, and what are your thoughts on, Barr’s devotion to Seldon and his belief that the “dead hand of Seldon” was guiding the events that led up to Riose’s undoing.
4. Perhaps continuing from Question 2, do you agree or disagree, and what are your thoughts on, Barr’s devotion to Seldon and his belief that the “dead hand of Seldon” was guiding the events that led up to Riose’s undoing.
Barr’s devotion to Seldon and psychohistory is one of near religious devotion, his faith in Seldon’s “dead hand” guiding all things regardless of how bleak things look with Bel Riose’s successes is very interesting in contrast to the way that Hardin and Mallow saw did things. Maybe “contrast” is the wrong word because both of those men also had their own version of “faith” in Sedlon’s plan, but in Barr we see how so much time has turned Seldon into an almost religious figure in his own right, and not one brought about by a manipulation of people for control but brought about by time and legend and devotion.
As this is fiction we are talking about I find that I don’t have any issue at all with this idea that history is unfolding in an inevitable and predictable pattern. We as readers have been manipulated after a fashion to cheer for the Foundation, to want to see Seldon’s dead hand reach out and guide things the way the need to go for the Foundation’s success because the “good guys” in the story are the members of the Foundation. I did not focus on these aspects at all during my first read through and instead was just carried along on a wave of the good feeling of experiencing a story unlike anything I had previously read. This time I am getting a real kick out of the circular “logic” of Seldon’s psychohistory and the way in which Asimov’s hand is guiding things for us as readers. As Spock would say: “Fascinating”.
5. Did you think I was lying to you when I said in previous conversations that there are more female characters in books 2 and 3, LOL, since we didn’t get to Bayta until near the end of this portion of the read?
Yes, I began to wonder if I was lying to myself! As I mentioned earlier, I had completed blanked on this portion of the novel. Foundation and Empire, in my memory, was all about Toran and Bayta and the mysterious character known as the Mule. The fact that this first portion merely introduced us to these characters and little more was a complete surprise to me. Not an unpleasant surprise, necessarily, but one in which I kept thinking about my bold promises of more interesting female characters in the remaining books of the trilogy.
6. We haven’t spent much time with them yet, but talk about your initial impressions of Toran and Bayta.
I like Toran and Bayta. I am a sucker for romance in fiction and while I am not always conscious of the fact, I can look back over my reading in any given year and realize that I can’t go too long on any given reading pattern without working in some book that has some sort of romantic relationship in it. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes with Bayta “on screen” for me to become devoted to her. She appears, at least in these beginning chapters, to have a nice mix of self-sufficiency and devotion to her husband. I like seeing strong male and female characters who don’t have to eschew marital devotion to demonstrate their strength. I enjoyed Toran’s father’s reaction to Bayta and found these introductory sections stirred my excitement to press on with the story.
I don’t want to say much more about them as I would venture into spoiler territory. I’ll only say that I am excited about our discussion next Sunday!
Please link to your discussion post below so that we can all visit and chat about this section of the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment