Celebrate Everything! 2013: Prelude to Foundation

As a proud bibliophile, I get through a lot of books at quite a fast pace. Although I try to avoid some sub-genres - particularly the omnipresent misery memoirs that seem to have appeared in every bookshop display for the last five years - I will generally read pretty much anything someone puts into my hands, whether it be an 800 page history tome or a shampoo bottle. I do have my preferred genres, however, and I tend to go for historical biography, historical fiction and fantasy predominantly. Fantasy and science fiction are often lumped together, presumably because of the fantastical otherworldly elements of both, but as any fan of either genre will be able to tell you, there are at least as many differences between them as there are similarities.

In short, I have read and watched quite extensive amounts of fantasy but a very limited amount of science fiction. My Dad was a bit of a trekkie so I watched a lot of Jean Luc Picard & Co in the nineties (n.b. tribbles OWN), and I think I managed to get through most of the Dune novels about ten years ago, but aside from this and the music video Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys, that's about it. I am usually enthusiastic about trying new things (it's kind of the whole point of this blog) so I was quite excited to have a nosey around this distorted mirror of one of my favourite genres.

Asimov in 1965

January 2nd was chosen to be science fiction day in honour of Isaac Asimov, a science fiction writer who chose this date to be his 'official birthday'. Whether this was his real birthday or not is unknown (to me, at least.) Having now researched Asimov quite thoroughly, I feel almost ashamed that I had never known of his existence before now. As it turns out, Asimov was a bit of a dude, and I thoroughly recommend researching him a little yourself, as there is a wealth of information out there and he was a fascinating man that achieved a hell of a lot for just one lifetime;

Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.^[3] His works have been published in all ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (although his only work in the 100s—which covers philosophy and psychology—was a foreword for The Humanist Way).^[4]

Even if you have never heard of Asimov, you have more than likely seen at least one interpretation of his work, the most famous of which are the films I, Robot (sponsored by Converse) starring Will Smith and based on a book of the same name, and Bicentennial Man, a Robin Williams film based on one of Asimov's short stories that I remember watching when it originally came out in 1999 but I don't think I've seen again since. These are the only two notable film adaptations of Asimov's works, which is actually quite surprising given his reputation as one of the 'big three' science fiction writers of the 20th century and indeed the sheer volume of his work.

As previously mentioned, Asimov has an extensive library of works. Even after narrowing it down to purely his science fiction novels, I was spoilt for choice. Foundation seemed to be his most lauded work, so I turned towards the Foundation saga, and eventually decided to start at the beginning - not with the original Foundation novel, but with the prequel, written much later. Similar situations crop up in fantasy series, usually when a writer has written a much loved book and feels the need to go back and fill the reader in on some the early back story only hinted at in the original books. When given the option I much prefer to read the tale in chronological order according to the novels themselves, as opposed to chronologically according to publication date. When the book arrived, however, I was surprised to discover that it wasn't the first chronologically. In Asimov's foreword, he explains how he has pulled all of his different story arcs together into one timeline, meaning that Prelude to Foundation is the ninth book, not even close to the beginning. Oh well, I tried. It's the first in this particular story arc, at least.

Spoiler alert - sparse plot details; Dr Hari Seldon, a Mathematician from the backwater planet Helicon publishes a paper positing that with complex enough mathematical formulae, and with enough time & data it is theoretically possible to loosely predict the future. He calls this 'psychohistory.' Although Seldon does not at all suggest that this is practical, the paper attracts the attention of numerous important people and organisations across the Galactic Empire, and he is called to the central planet Trantor for an audience with the emperor. Soon afterwards, Seldon finds himself chased through a number of the 800 different sectors of this domed city planet, trying to escape the grasping hands of the empire and it's enemies while also attempting to develop psychohistory into a practical idea that can be implemented to 'save the galaxy'. Asimov begins each section of chapters with an entry from the Encyclopaedia Galactica , a fictional document supposed to exist within the world of the novel. It is a good technique for hinting at the events about to unfold, and an ideal way to draw the reader's attention to a specific character or place in the upcoming section of chapters.

It is a very interesting and quite surreal experience reading old science fiction, as it is essentially a past conception of what the author imagines the future to be. I shall give some choice examples that gave me a start whilst reading. This book was first published in 1988, the year after my birth, and in it Asimov predicts stylus-operated tablet computers, or microcomputers as he calls them (please excuse my poor quality photography...)

...and also Facebook, or something akin to Facebook. In Asimov's world many thousands of years into the future being searched for online is seen as an invasion of privacy that could easily cause offence. It is interesting to compare that mindset to all the personal information that billions of people choose to share today, less than 30 years after Prelude's publication.

There is also some racial profiling. In a Galactic Empire encompassing thousands of planets, there are still easterners, westerners and I believe southerners, although the meaning of these epithets are lost in time, they are still apparently also capable of causing discomfort when used.

Considering Asimov was writing in the not-particularly politically correct eighties, he's not done too badly, and there is nothing really bad in this paragraph unless you are to count the 'overachieving Asian' stereotype insulting. As I said previously, the book is a very interesting read for a number of reasons. Considering the amount of things that happen, there is not actually that much action, and possibly an overabundance of explanation. There is a tendency for Seldon in particular to repeat himself over and over saying the same thing to different people. I understand it serves the purpose of reasoning out the plot but it's not really my cup of tea. I remember what was said twenty pages ago in that other sector, thank you, I don't need it reiterating now. All in all though, I enjoyed reading the book. I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I was intrigued by many of the concepts Asimov posits, and I do now intend to find out more about Asimov himself, and read more of his works. Thus I declare today a success; it has kindled within me curiosity for this cult genre.

As Asimov himself said; The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.