1st August 1941. 21-year old Isaac Asimov was writing short stories for the science fiction magazine Astounding. Recently, the editor of the magazine John Campbell had accepted his short story called Nightfall, along with five others. Today, Campbell had called him to discuss a new story. However, there was a small problem. Asimov had no idea what the subject of the new story was going to be. What was he going to tell Campbell?
Finally, Asimov opened a book of Operas by Gilbert and Sullivan and tried ‘free association.’ The page that he opened had a picture of a queen. Queen – Kingdom – Soldiers – Roman Empire – Galactic Empire! Bingo!! Asimov had found his subject. He had read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon not once but twice. Why not write a similar story of the Galactic Empire?
By the time he reached the office of John Campbell, his mind was overflowing with ideas. Campbell loved the story. For the next hour the finalised 1000 years of Galactic Empire history. The stories were published in due course of time and after ten years they were combined to form three books – The Foundation Trilogy – that gained immense popularity in the readership of science fiction. The Hugo Award in International Science Fiction conference was given to The Foundation Series.
There are many interesting ideas in The Foundation Series. The protagonist is a mathematician called Hari Seldon. He has discovered a new branch of mathematics called psychohistory that predicts the fate pf various empires in the galaxy. Psychohistory is a combination of sociology and mathematics. The bigger the population, the better predictions of psychohistory. This concept has its basis in statistical mechanics.
Seldon has also made some arrangements to save the Galactic Empire in case it faces any threats. He has established two institutions at the two ends of the galaxy for this purpose. The fate of the galaxy depends of these two institutions – Foundation. Initially, the stories spanned a mere five hundred years that eventually grew to twenty thousand years. During this time, many planets had different kingdoms, new enemies emerged, unexpected things happened and yet, during all this two things remained unchanged – Hari Seldon and his predictions about the Galactic Empire.
Asimov has a unique style. He does not go deep into the psychologies and complexities of the characters. Similarly, no descriptions about how the weather was that day or who was wearing what. For this reason, those who are used to reading detailed characterisations – in the works of Charles Dickens for instance – may find these character one dimensional or flat. They are missing the point.
In Asimov’s stories – and in many science fiction stories in general – the main characters are not human beings but scientific ideas! In Foundation Series, you will not find any three headed genetically modified creatures or not even detailed descriptions of the wars. All of the conflict is depicted through conversations and often, it is a conflict of ideas. Which scientific ideas have a broader scope, which ones are capable of describing a situation logically – all of the plot depends on concepts such as these. So sometimes it’s a concept of Turing machine. Or a question like : what will a robot choose? Well being of one human being or that of the whole humanity? This is Asimov’s specialty. You can never find any logical flaw in his novel concepts. He may have dragons to demons in his stories, but they never disobey the laws of physics and thermodynamics.
The first three novels of The Foundation Series were immensely popular and Asimov started getting requests for more books. Readers wrote to cajole and beg for further novels and some even threatened him of ‘dire consequences’ if he did not write. But just as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got sick of Sherlock Holmes, Asimov detested Hari Seldon. Then Doubleday, the publishers, also started asking for it. Asimov used to find some excuse every time. Once he said that he would rather write his autobiography than any more Foundation novels. Doubleday said go ahead. And he did.
After waiting for eight years, from 1973 to 1981, Doubleday finally lost patience. The called Asimov and handed him a check of $25,000 (his usual advance was around $3,000) and told him that it was for the new Foundation novel. A further $25,000 would be given after the novel was finished. Asimov said, “you will lose the money.” They said, “we don’t care.” After much back and forth, Asimov agreed to write the fourth novel in Foundation series. Foundation’s Edge was published after thirty years. Three more novels followed. After Asimov’s death in 1992, other authors contributed to the series. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is a great satire of the Foundation Series.
There is some confusion about what constitutes science fiction. Doris Lessing or Margaret Atwood have written remarkable stories about the future but there is very little science in them. They are science fiction mainly because they happen in future. Sometimes these are also called speculative fiction. This is not just a matter of compartmentalisation. Authors like Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke are not included in high literary circles. If your plot is based on a scientific concept, it is not considered serious literature. Moreover these authors are hugely popular so those who follow the logic that a popular work cannot be good enough to receive a prestigious critics award will never be swayed.
Later Foundation novels described how Hari Seldon came up with the idea of psychohistory. Like Star Wars, Prelude to Foundation that was written much later is actually the first novel in the Foundation Series. Every novel has a twist in the end that you will never see coming, no matter how careful you are. That is a signature of Isaac Asimov.
Apple TV has recently adopted the Foundation series for a TV show.
