Isaac Asimov - How I, Robot gets the science-fiction grandmaster wrong.

Slate ^ | 7/16/04 | Chris Suellentrop

[-YYZ-]

Yeah, but you bought them (presumably), didn't you? So they served their purpose which was to sell books to hard-core Foundation fans who wanted more. That's OK, I bought them, too. In fact, I've been re-reading the first two over the last couple of weeks. Good bed-time material zzzzzzzzzzzzz :)

[Sloth]

I have high hopes for Ender's Game. It'll be a few years, but Card's personally involved.

[FormerLib]

What happened to the talk of a movie ?? And what happened to the talk of reviving the series on the sci fi channel.

There was news on Yahoo movie news about a Firefly movie scheduled for 2005. Joss Whedon attempted to get the SciFi Channel to pick-up the series after Fox announced they were dropping it but that never came through. Perhaps the movie will re-awaken interest? Who can say?

[Ichneumon]

I heard Asimov speak. He insulted the school where he was speaking. He insulted the audience.

For example...?

Asimov was a gigantic EGO who delighted in insulting his audience at speeches while telling them how stupid they were.

I find this quite hard to believe, frankly.

While it's true that Asimov like to kid around about being an egomaniac -- just like Bob Hope liked to pretend to be a cowardly, selfish boob -- he also made it clear that it was just an act. Most of his "I'm the greatest" type of jokes were followed immediately by some form of self deprecation or other signal of "I don't really mean that", and all his personal writings, including his two massive autobiographies (covering two different portions of his life) are all very humble about his own abilities, accomplishments, and self-worth.

Nor have any of his many writings -- personal, fiction, or non-fiction -- had much in the way of insulting remarks towards anyone. As a strong believer in knowledge as the solution to most of mankind's problems, Asimov saw most interpersonal issues as misunderstandings, not as personal faults or failures worthy of insult.

[humblegunner]

Told you it had nothing to do with the book!

As may be, I want to see it because it has cool effects and
Will Smith and guns and things blowing up! Isaac would understand. ;-)

These are a few of my favorite things...

[RightWingAtheist]

Harlan Ellison's script for I, Robot would have made a great film, and personally think that it should still be done, only as an animated film, with different animators taking on each segment. Another interlinked story collection which would be well served by animation is Clifford Simak's City.

[valkyrieanne]

I, Robot was a pretty good sci-fi movie - far more humane and with better values than Asimov's original work.

[SteveH]

I believe they're also making Enders Game into a movie as well.

News about Ender's Game

[SteveH]

Any Arthur C. Clarke fans out there? ;-)

[Cronos]

R Daneel Olivaw......

[tang-soo]

Was "Feeling of Power" the one where they discovered the new science of "Graphitics"?

Sorry I took so long to reply. I don't remember the term but it makes sense. the gist of the story (published in 1957) is that a lowly tech working for the military of the future "discovers" simple math operations such as addition and multiplcation. He can't explain how it works - only that it does. the military then proceed to dream up ideas of how this could be used in weapons development. ie. kamma kaizee pilots on board missiles to compute trajectories in real time. The point is - by this time society has relied on electronic devices to provide all calculation, they no longer understand what it is behind the scene. Interesting story probably 10 pages long.

As a matter of fact, I just found it online here.

Enjoy.

[Cronos]

You must also consider the timeframes over which the novels were written -- the Foundation, Foundation and Empire and Second Foundation novels were written in the 50s/60s and the others came in the 80s

[DouglasKC]

Best sci fi novel-to-movie recently: Starship Troopers!

I hope you're joking! They totally ruined the book. The book was a personal story about the evolution of a man from a selfish person to one who was a self sacrificing citizen. The whole bug war was merely a backdrop to help the plot. They totally ruined it by making the bugwar the focus...and they didn't even do that right because they didn't even include the coolest thing...the suits they wore (I forget what they called them) in combat.

[pabianice]

I heard Asimov speak. He insulted the school where he was speaking. He insulted the audience.

For example...?

My university, 1966, Student Union. He said he wouldn't send his dog to our school and that we were not very bright.

Asimov was a gigantic EGO who delighted in insulting his audience at speeches while telling them how stupid they were.

I find this quite hard to believe, frankly.

Tough. I heard his insults.

While it's true that Asimov like to kid around about being an egomaniac -- just like Bob Hope liked to pretend to be a cowardly, selfish boob -- he also made it clear that it was just an act. Most of his "I'm the greatest" type of jokes were followed immediately by some form of self deprecation or other signal of "I don't really mean that", and all his personal writings, including his two massive autobiographies (covering two different portions of his life) are all very humble about his own abilities, accomplishments, and self-worth. Nor have any of his many writings -- personal, fiction, or non-fiction -- had much in the way of insulting remarks towards anyone. As a strong believer in knowledge as the solution to most of mankind's problems, Asimov saw most interpersonal issues as misunderstandings, not as personal faults or failures worthy of insult.

He was a small talent in a time of no talent. When other, far better writers came along, his star set quickly and he was revealed as basically an egomaniac and hack writer.