Read Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) Online
Authors: James Gunn
Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) (35 page)
But the scientific emphases of the juvenile novels, with sizable chunks (attractive and digestible chunks) of scientific description dropped into the middle of them, were leading Asimov out of science fiction into science writing. He wrote in
Opus 100
:
Opus 100
:
One of the special delights of writing science fiction is mastering the art of interweaving science and fiction; in keeping the science accurate and comprehensible without unduly stalling the plot. This is by no means easy to do and it is as easy to ruin everything by loving science too much as by understanding it too little.
In my case, I loved science too much. I kept getting the urge to explain science without having to worry about plots and characterization.
First, however, Asimov finished
The End of Eternity
(1955). This novel and
The Naked Sun
(1957) were the last novels of his nearly twenty-year career as a science-fiction writer until he returned in the 1970s with
The Gods Themselves
and in the 1980s with his bestsellers. His 1960s and 1970s novels were to be surrounded by oceans of nonfiction books.
Fantastic Voyage
(1966) was a better-than-competent novelization of a screenplay, but the creative act was the screenplay, and even that was a collaboration. It was written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and sometime science-fiction writer and editor of
Planet Stories
Jerome Bixby and adapted by sometime science-fiction writer David Duncan.
The Gods Themselves
(1972) was an important afterthought that will be taken up in Chapter 7.
The End of Eternity
(1955). This novel and
The Naked Sun
(1957) were the last novels of his nearly twenty-year career as a science-fiction writer until he returned in the 1970s with
The Gods Themselves
and in the 1980s with his bestsellers. His 1960s and 1970s novels were to be surrounded by oceans of nonfiction books.
Fantastic Voyage
(1966) was a better-than-competent novelization of a screenplay, but the creative act was the screenplay, and even that was a collaboration. It was written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and sometime science-fiction writer and editor of
Planet Stories
Jerome Bixby and adapted by sometime science-fiction writer David Duncan.
The Gods Themselves
(1972) was an important afterthought that will be taken up in Chapter 7.
The End of Eternity
had its origin in an advertisement in a pre-1945
Time
magazine. Typically, Asimov had been checking out bound copies of the magazine from the Boston University library and leafing through them nostalgically. In one he noticed an advertisement that for a moment looked like "the familiar mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb." Then, as he looked closer, he recognized it as Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Asimov began to wonder under what circumstances a drawing of a nuclear bomb might be published in a magazine many years before 1945.
had its origin in an advertisement in a pre-1945
Time
magazine. Typically, Asimov had been checking out bound copies of the magazine from the Boston University library and leafing through them nostalgically. In one he noticed an advertisement that for a moment looked like "the familiar mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb." Then, as he looked closer, he recognized it as Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Asimov began to wonder under what circumstances a drawing of a nuclear bomb might be published in a magazine many years before 1945.
On December 7, 1953, he began work on a novelette titled "The End
of Eternity." He finished it on February 6, 1954, and sent the 25,000-word story off to Horace Gold at
Galaxy.
Three days later Gold called him and wanted a complete revision. Asimov refused, and on March 17 he left the manuscript with Bradbury at Doubleday to see if it had possibilities as a novel. On April 7 Bradbury offered a contract. By now, the advance had climbed to $1,250.
of Eternity." He finished it on February 6, 1954, and sent the 25,000-word story off to Horace Gold at
Galaxy.
Three days later Gold called him and wanted a complete revision. Asimov refused, and on March 17 he left the manuscript with Bradbury at Doubleday to see if it had possibilities as a novel. On April 7 Bradbury offered a contract. By now, the advance had climbed to $1,250.
The End of Eternity
is about reality manipulation. In the 24th century Vikkor Mallansohn discovered the Temporal Field that made possible existence outside time and travel between times. In the 27th century, an organization was created to travel outside of time, in what was called "Eternity." At first, the organization existed mostly to handle trade between Centuries, but gradually it began to alter Reality by changing key events that were calculated to improve the general good of humanity. "The greatest good of the greatest number" became the working principle of Eternity.
is about reality manipulation. In the 24th century Vikkor Mallansohn discovered the Temporal Field that made possible existence outside time and travel between times. In the 27th century, an organization was created to travel outside of time, in what was called "Eternity." At first, the organization existed mostly to handle trade between Centuries, but gradually it began to alter Reality by changing key events that were calculated to improve the general good of humanity. "The greatest good of the greatest number" became the working principle of Eternity.
Asimov imagined the system in thorough detail. He peopled Eternity with maintenance personnel, who keep physical facilities operating, and administrators. The emphasis of the novel, however, is upon a third group, those Eternals, as they are called, who actually operate upon Reality: Observers, who gather data about the various Times; Sociologists, who calculate the effects of change on society; Life-Plotters, who calculate the effects of change on individuals; Computers, who analyze the individual acts that will produce the desired changes; and Technicians, who effect the changes in Reality. The ideal is the Minimum Necessary Change (MNC) for the Maximum Desired Response (MDR). The Technicians are the scapegoats of Eternity. Reality-changing results in guilt feelings among the Eternals, and they displace this onto the Technicians who actually accomplish the changes.
Eternals are recruited from various Centuries after the creation of Eternity. They are men, always men because women have ten times the impact on Reality and men's absence from Reality will cause the least effect. They are recruited into Eternity as fifteen-year-olds, educated for ten years, spend an indefinite period of time as Observers (physiotime it is called, to distinguish it from Time in Reality), and then, if successful, become Specialists. If they are not successful, they become maintenance men. As Andrew Harlan reflects at one point, "The life of an Eternal may be divided into four parts: Timer . . . Cub . . . Observer . . . Specialist."
Eternity started with only a few Centuries. Maintenance of its existence outside Time requires great expenditures of power; it became possible only by tapping the nova that the sun eventually becomes.
Gradually, Eternity expanded "upwhen" until it discovered in one Century, later altered, a matter duplicator that allowed it to re-create itself throughout upwhen. From 70,000 to 150,000 upwhen Eternity, for reasons it cannot discover, cannot enter Time. These are called the Hidden Centuries. After 150,000 Earth still has living creatures, but humanity has disappeared. Eternity cannot discover why this is so, nor can it do anything about the situation until it can enter the Hidden Centuries.
All this background is revealed gradually through the tightly controlled viewpoint of Andrew Harlan. After serving his ten-year stint as Cub and four years as Observer, Harlan became Senior Observer to Assistant Computer Hobbe Finge in the 482nd. They do not get along, but Harlan's reports are good and within three months he becomes a Technician, the personal Technician of Senior Computer Laban Twissell, an important member of the Allwhen Council. One of Harlan's first assignments is to teach a Cub, Brinsley Sheridan Cooper, about Primitive history, that period before the creation of Eternity. Primitive history is Harlan's hobby, and he has assembled a number of references, including a complete bound set of a news magazine of the 20th. Cooper is an unusual Cub: he was taken into Eternity at the age of twenty-three and after he already was married.
After two physioyears, Harlan once more is assigned to Finge at the 482nd and meets Finge's secretary Nos Lambent, who has been recruited from the permissive society of the 482nd to fill a minor position. Harlan suspects that she is involved in a sexual liaison with Finge and dislikes her. Thus, a bit later, he finds himself in a difficult situation when he is assigned to her estate to make some observations of her time. When they are alone, Nos gives him an intoxicating drink, whispers to him, and they make love. Harlan discovers that he not only enjoys the experience, but that he is in love with Nos.
On his return, however, Harlan is forced to reveal to Finge all that has happened. Finge taunts him with the information that aristocratic women of the 482nd believe that Eternals are immortal (which isn't true) and that intercourse with an Eternal will make them immortal. But Harlan persuades himself that it doesn't matter why Nos loves him. He searches until he finds a proposed Reality Change that is inexpertly computed; with this as blackmail, he persuades the Sociologist responsible and a Life-Plotter to perform a Life-Plot for Nos in the Reality Change planned for the 482nd. To his joy he discovers that Nos doesn't exist in the new Reality (and thus can be removed from the present one
without notice). The Life-Plotter doesn't quite see how she fit in the old one.
without notice). The Life-Plotter doesn't quite see how she fit in the old one.
Harlan smuggles Nos into Eternity and hides her far upwhen in the untenanted 111,394th. He does mathematical research on an aspect of Eternity that came to him during his sexual experience with Nos. In going back several times to her estate in the 482nd to obtain clothes and books (films) for her, he is shaken to hear someone in the same house with him and then, on a second occasion, to see himself. It is the kind of paradox that some Eternals believe Time cannot endure. On his return to his room, Twissell relays a message from Finge that the 482nd Reality Change has been completed, and then Twissell tells Harlan that he has something to tell him the next day. Harlan tries to rejoin Nos but finds a block at the 100,000th that he cannot go beyond.
Harlan obtains a neuronic whip and makes Finge confess that he has known about Harlan and Nos's activities and has sent a report about them to the Allwhen Council. Harlan is willing to bargain with Eternity for Nos and thinks he has secret knowledge that will protect them. The next day he meets at lunch with a subcommittee of the Allwhen Council and believes he is being taunted by one member. Afterward he faces Twissell with his supposition about what has been happening: Vikkor Mallansohn, he says, could not have built a Temporal Field without equations that were not invented until the 27th. Cooper, he thinks, had been educated to go back to the 24th and teach Mallansohn the equations so that Eternity can be invented. Twissell says that he knows about Harlan and the girl and that everything will work out all right. Twissell has more important matters on his mind.
Harlan is partly right, Twissell says. Mallansohn left a record of his life in a Time-stasis. It was opened by the first of the great Eternals and passed along in strictest security until it reached Twissell. The memoir reveals that Cooper did go back to teach Mallansohn the equations, but Mallansohn died; Cooper took his place. At the end of his life, Cooper realized that he was the Mallansohn who invented the Temporal Field. All the preparations described in the memoir have been carried out so that Cooper can go back, do what Mallansohn was said to have done, and write his memoir so that it can be found and the cycle renewed.
Twissell takes Harlan to a room in which a time-travel machine stands. It is like the kettles used by all Eternals but enclosed and double-walled to contain its own Temporal Field. It must take Cooper back to the 24th, to Primitive history before Eternity. While Harlan is inspecting the control room, Twissell locks him in because Cooper's memoirs mention
that Harlan was at the controls. If Harlan does not pull the switch, someone outside the control room will pull it.
that Harlan was at the controls. If Harlan does not pull the switch, someone outside the control room will pull it.
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