Isaac Asimov

== Foundation series == After writing the original :Foundation Trilogy, Asimov abandoned the story, and didn't come back until the 1980s, where a considerable monetary offer from the publishing house was his main incentive (or at least so he tells in the Preface to the book). In this and later books, Asimov tries to bind together in a coherent whole a great deal of his fiction output, creating a future history of humanity. ... but creating rather sloppy and contrived joins between his older books, in the opinion of many readers. I think ''Asimov's Mysteries'' deserve some sort of a mention too. -- user:Tarquin == Martian Way == Resolve Martian Way link as it provides a route back to McCarthyism. User:Alan Peakall 17:55 Oct 25, 2002 (UTC) == Nightfall == If Nightfall is so wellknown why have most people never heard of it and, unlike other Asimov writings, it doesnt even have an article? User:Vera Cruz :Nightfall is one of the most famous science fiction short stories ever. I am sorry you have never heard of it. User:Rmhermen 17:57 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) That is immaterial...it is pov to say such and such is the most famous, especially when he has a number of clearly famous writings. User:Vera Cruz I suspect that most people who have heard of Asimov are more likely to have heard of ''I, Robot'' or ''Foundation'' more than ''Nightfall''. but the first is a book of short stories, and the second is a series of books, so I don't think it's incorrect to say that ''Nightfall'' is his most famous single story. It seems ludicrous to have an edit war over such an issue, if another editor comes along and suggests some other story is more famous then it might be worth of debate. I suppose books sales could confirm or deny the fact, but it seems appropriate to bow to the experience and knowledge of Tarquin, Rmhermen and Tannin on this issue. User:Mintguy Why would it seem appropriate to bow to pov? User:Vera Cruz Stop being silly, Lir. Unless it's contested, it's not POV. --User:Eloquence 18:10 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) :Uh, not that I want to but in, but: I do not entirely agree with Eloquence that something is NPOV unless it is contested. I do agree that it is NPOV if there is a consensus, but I think VC is asking for evidence of that consensus which is fair. I believe that IA himself wrote somethere that Nightfall was either the most widely reprinted of his stories, or the one most often refered to in fan letters, or something like this. Surely, such a quote form IA would make this part of the article stronger. So: Does anyone know what I am talking about? If anyone has any of the various collecxted stories of IA in which he wrote introductions or afterwards (I do not) could you please check and see if he wrote anything to this effect? Thanks, User:Slrubenstein ::Something like that would be nice, but could be very hard to find, and shouldn't be required. If Nightfall is his most famous short story, then lets just say so. That's not being un-neutral, that's just stating the way things are. --User:Camembert :You're kiding, right? You say , "''if'' Nightfall is his best story," and that "if" is what all this discussion is about. How do we know that it was his most famous? This is not a trivial question. User:Slrubenstein :::I did not say anything about it being his "best" story. If the article had claimed that it was his best story, then I'd agree such as statement is inappropriate. I'm talking about it being his most famous, which is a different thing. And I'm not kidding. What about a statement like "The most famous person called Beethoven ever to have lived was the composer, Ludwig van"? Is that neutral? I think it is. It's certainly true. Can I prove it is true? Probably not without a lot of money and a big team of market reseachers - maybe there's a tremendously popular Russian footballer called Sergei Beethoven. I agree it's better to give some backup to these things where possible, but I don't think it's useful to demand such backup and remove such statements without it unless there is some evidence that the statement in question isn't true (and there doesn't seem to be any evidence in this case). --User:Camembert The frontpage of the official site doesnt mention Nightfall, although it does mention Foundation and I Robot several times. :But somebody already said that I Robot and Foundation are not short stories, so I don't see what relevance that has. -User:Camembert :Nightfall was included in the the anthology ''Scinece Fiction Hall of Fame'', which was compiled by a vote of the Science Fiction Writers of America. (Or whatever it is called: I have the book at home, & I'm at work, where I'm not supposed to be surfing the web.) I'd say that justifies stating "Nightfall" is the most famous story he has written. -- User:134.134.136.1 :The issue at hand is whether Nightfall is Asimov's best-known short storry. This is quite a claim and should be supported with evidence. I got the following off of someone's webpage, using a google search: ::OK, here we have the big "N". Asimov was always befuddled by this story's enormous success, and I must confess to sharing his befuddlement. It's among his most popular stories, it's been turned into a so-so novel (see Nightfall) and a horrible movie, it's been satirized in a Maureen Birnbaum story, it was voted the best sf story of all time in more than one poll—but it's far from Asimov's best. Sure, it's his best prior to about 1945 (which isn't saying much), and one of his better stories of his career—but I would rate quite a bit higher—"The Mule", "And Now You Don't", "The Last Question", "The Ugly Little Boy", "The Dead Past", "Evidence", "The Bicentennial Man" to name a few off the top of my head. :Clearly, whoever wrote this does not think Nightfall is Asimov's best or best-known story. But this mini-review does acknosledge that several polls name it as the best, and that it was enormously popular according to Asimov himself. This is not the evidence I would want to include in the article to support the claim, but for VC and all other doubters, take this as an indication that the claim that Nightfal iss Asimov's most famous is at least a plausible claim. User:Slrubenstein ::It's clear he doesn't think it's his best, but the article didn't make such a claim that I'm aware of. I doesn't seem to bring up the question of what his most famous story is (beyond recognising this as "among the most famous", which doesn't say much one way or the other). :A quick web search for Nightfall reveals such lines as: "widely considered the best science fiction short story ever" and "y early April, he finished the story, titled "Nightfall", and the history of science fiction was changed forever. With "Nightfall," Asimov triggered a spark of awareness in the publishing community that science fiction could be more than Buck Rogers comic books." Also "Nightfall is widely considered Isaac Asimov's first literary success. As Isaac Asimov recalls in the preface of his short anthology Nightfall and Other Stories, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'." Asimov himself republished Nightfall at least seven times and expanded it into a book with Siverberg. User:Rmhermen 18:31 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) I have no objection to "among his most famous stories" or "argued to be his most famous story" but "is his most famous" is nothing but POV, at the very least try to use, "his best-selling story". User:Vera Cruz :POV isn't a synonym for opinion if the opinion is the consensus. If the consensus opinion is that it IS his most famous story (as it certainly appears to be) then what the hell are you getting so het up about? User:Mintguy :::Mintguy, if someone is getting worked up about this, then ''by definition'' there is no consensus! User:Slrubenstein ::::I meant consensus of informed opinion. not a Wikipedian who can give no opinion of an alternative story. User:Mintguy ::It's not so much POV as it is careless writing, making an unproveable statement. Such wording as "one of the most ... " is almost always better than saying "most" "first" "best" "least" and other superlatives. Better to stick with comparatives. In a case like this, however, it might be even better not to make such a fuss.User:Ortolan88 :::Basically, I agree with Ortolan. In any case, it's not worth arguing this much over. --User:Camembert :I think it makes a lot of sense for an encyclopedia article to be clear about evidence and attribution -- sentences like, "according to x, Asimov's most famous story," or "according to y, Asimov's best story." User:Slrubenstein Why are we even wasting time over this? VC has managed to turn a non-issue into a page of debate, and even has a few of us semi-convinced! Talk about trolling! -- User:Tarquin 20:00 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) Talk about your POV regarding how famous something is...User:Vera Cruz : Vera, I have already asked you what the opposing POV, if any is: for the 2nd time, what is his most famous short story, according to you? And, according to who else? It's not enough to be a lone nutcase (TM). I can claim my POV is that Asimov was a bug-eyed space monster, it's still not going to make it into the article. You are wasting people's time. Either grow up or get lost. -- User:Tarquin 20:18 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) You continue to refrain from posting any sources to augment your assertation that the best-known work by Isaac Asimov is ''Nightfall''. User:Vera Cruz : Do you have sources for his date of birth? Because if not, let's remove them!!! The nightfall thing is not MY assertation. It was there long before you decided to wade in and muck around. You plainly do not understand what we are trying to do here; you don't understand what NPOV is, you've elsewhere been accused of not understanding what is suitable material for an encyclopedia. The question is: are you doing this on purpose to annoy people, or are you genuinely confused? Since any attempt to try and explain matters to you leads to irritation and circular arguments, a growing body of Wikipedians are tending towards the former. -- User:Tarquin 20:31 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) Getting upset? Unfortunately, POV has no place here. It is an opinion that ''Nightfall'' is the most famous. Thank you for your threats and insults, they greatly increased the validity of your position. Plz call me a troll again, that way nobody will take me seriously and you won't have to actually discuss the issue. User:Vera Cruz : How do you propose we measure and quantify "fame"? We could write "widely held to be his most famous", but really, that just sounds insipid. Again -- you do not understand what the NPOV policy actually means. -- User:Tarquin 20:42 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) :: How about "perhaps his most famous..."? It's what I used on the Larry Niven page. I don't think it really matters, except that I happen to agree with Ortolan's point above that we should avoid sweeping statements without proof. Short of polling everyone in the world, we should hedge. For the record, I think that his "The Last Question" is at least as famous as "Nightfall". -- User:DrBob 20:57 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) :::Indeed... User:Vera Cruz How does one measure and quantify fame? No wonder I deleted the statement as POV! If you would like to speak about books sold or profits earned, that is one thing, but I doubt you or anyone else has ever done a global polling of who is familiar with what story by Asimov. User:Vera Cruz : Try Google. It gives a good impression of awareness when the titles are reasonably unique. --User:Eloquence 20:56 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) So you want the article to say, "According to Wikipedia's interpretation of Google's raw data, Asimov's best known story was ''Nightfall''?" User:Vera Cruz ---- Everybody agrees that "Nightfall" is the most famous writing of Asimov. User:Ericd But obviously everybody doesn't... Everybody agrees except VC who can't give an alternative. User:Mintguy Not so! The title rings only a vague bell for me, too, to be honest, and I've read a few dozen short stories by Asimov. No, seriously! Admittedly I haven't got a very good memory, but even so... I'd have guessed "The Bicentennial Man", myself. Maybe which story is most famous depends on one's nationality, age group, and so on. It would depend on what books were being talked about during one's youth, and so on. And, oh look! I've just got an e-mail from my brother. He says "The Bicentennial Man" too. Independent confirmation. ;) Can't we just say, "His best-known stories include..."? -- User:Oliver Pereira In fact, if I may interject, I completely disagree that "Nightfall" is famous ''at all''. There is no doubt in my mind that "I, Robot" or "Foundation" would come ''much'' ahead of "Nightfall" in any poll of the general population. Quoting a magazine article or similar bragging about how Nightfall is great is one thing, but asserting that it's most famous is patently false. User:Loisel 21:18 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) :As I already stated. I robot is a book of short stores and Foundation is a series of books. User:Mintguy ::so? Dividing his books into categories based on length and then by popularity is a ridiculous notion. User:Vera Cruz ::Dude, ''anything'' in the Foundation trilogy or the Robots trilogy would come ahead of Nighfall. User:Loisel 21:24 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) ::Also hold on a minute mr wiseguy, the first book in the trilogy is in fact called Foundation. User:Loisel 21:28 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) Yes I agree, my guess is Foundation would come out on top. User:Vera Cruz === Uncle Ed's compromise === ''his perhaps best-known story is "Nightfall" (1941), which is described in Bewildering Stories, issue 8, as one of "the most famous science-fiction stories of all time" '' Now see how that is NPOV...? User:Vera Cruz :It meets the NPOV criteria, if (and only if) no one disputes that ''Bewildering Stories'' called it "one of the most famous, etc." Just like an article about any of several recent U.S. Republican presidents could say: "many people regard him as having caused irreparable damage to the world". The Wikipedia wouldn't be labelling him as a damage-doer; rather, it would report that ''many people'' consider him a damage doer. This is a key point, and can be used to "unlock" many future situations where Wikipedians feel locked into an edit war. --User:Ed Poor "His best-known story" is superior to "his perhaps best-known story" in every case save where actual and reasonable doubt exists. It is important not to cave into pig-headed idiocy from a known and deliberate troll. By insisting on removing an informative and non-controversial statement, we would be (by a very small but measurable amount) reducing the quality of Wikipedia. Despite having read a great deal of science fiction in my misspent youth, I couldn't care less about which which is Asimov's most famous short story. I do care about the quality of Wikipedia articles, and about the deliberate waste of large amounts of my time, your time, and the time of many other useful contributors who could be doing edits of real value instead of responding to this idiocy, which is merly the most recent of a long, long series of mindless trolls. User:Tannin 21:32 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) PS: Loisel: the other works you mention are indeed more famous, but they are not short stories. User:Tannin *Tarquin you are very rude. User:Vera Cruz ** Vera, since you're replying beneath ''Tanninn'''s text, I wonder if you've got the two of us mixed up. (I do too. I skim-read Recent Changes and when I see "Tannin" in the list I think "when did I edit that?"...) But anyway ... it seems Tannin and I ''both'' think you're a pig-headed idiot. And I suppose that makes us ''both'' rude ;-) -- User:Tarquin 23:26 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) I Robot is made of several short stories. User:Ericd ---- I haven't followed the entire discussion in detail, but I do observe that Nightfall is mentioned in the article twice. The first mention seems fine, the second mention seems out of place and a duplicate somehow. - Why not remove the second mention? -- User:SGBailey 22:08 Jan 17, 2003 (UTC) I agree with you. User:Ericd == Quotes == I think the Asimov quotes should be moved to [http://quote.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov the Wikiquote page for Asimov], with a link in the External links section. User:Ausir 18:30, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC) : I added those back (perhaps the list should be shorter, though I'm happy with the current length). The reason is that wikiquote and the encyclopedia are different works and someone with a copy of the encyclopedia may not have a copy of wikiquote available (notably places like the school in South Africa which has an offline mirror of Wikipedia, or others with similar cost considerations or who just have only the encyclopedia CD or book). Linking to our related works for more information is good, removing things completely from here when they belong here, isn't. While most of us have excellent internet links, we do need to remember that the links aren't always as easy to follow as they are for us. User:Jamesday 21:36, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC) == Science fiction and science fact == IMO all listed books are popular science. If you think some of them are not of this category, please put them into, e.g., other. Asimov's contribution in popularizing science is considerable, and deserves separate sections. User:Mikkalai 23:38, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC) :The problem is that many of his books are collections of short non-fiction pieces originally published separately. Some are on science, but some aren't. He also wrote biography, history, and other subjects. I've read ''Opus 100'', for example, and it is definitely a hodge-podge created to celebrate the fact that it was Asimov's 100th published book. Now that I think about it, I don't even think ''Opus 100'' is all non-fiction. From the title, I strongly doubt that ''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts'' is only about science. :The problem is that I can't tell which are which without picking them all up and looking through them. That's why I wanted to change the heading back to "Non-fiction." User:Isomorphic 20:02, 7 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::IMO, Opus 100 is the only suspicious book in the present list. If someone can move some other to "Other", he is welcome. But to leave the article without mentioning that Asimov was an outstanding author in popular science as well was really bad thing. User:Mikkalai 02:17, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC) == Grammar gripe == "Took a Ph.D." seems like bad english, and usually you say what you got your doctoreate in philosophy in, i.e. a Ph.D. in economics, a Ph.D. in psychology etc. As well I compiled a seemingly complete list of his works, if someone would like to format it also here: Isaac_Asimov_Complete_Bibliography . --User:ShaunMacPherson 20:27, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC) In point of fact, it isn't bad English and it is a commonly used phrasing in the United States. I have also seen it many times in writings from Britain, and suspect it is more a more common usage in the U.K. than the U.S. It occasionally sounds slightly pretentious. Especially when speaking about one's self and omitting the field of specialty. But most of all it is very much in keeping with how Asimov would often write about himself. He would have been the last to deny he had a large ego and often featured this aspect of his personality in a breezy and self deprecating way that was simultaneously self promoting. He somehow managed to make this come off as charming, although from many other people it would have seemed grating and repulsive. == Quantity of output == I believe I heard that Asimov had more words published than any other author in the English language. Is this verifiably true? *Bob Silverberg, another S.F. writer, probably rivals Isaac's word count, or exceeds it, as he wrote hundreds of semi-porn novels under various names, as well as other stuff that is basically unknown to his regular readers. I've also read obits over the last 10 years of two or three other writers who were unknown to me but who wrote close to a thousand pulp novels in various fields. It may well be that no one else has written as many serious words as Isaac, though....User:Hayford Peirce 20:01, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC) ==Mensa== Asimov was a reluctant member of mensa? Then he was almost certainly a "termite", one of the participants in Lewis Termans grand study of high-iq people. Lewis Terman never revealed their identities, but he revealed some of their occupations, and one was "a famous science-fiction writer". Couldn't really have been anyone else at that time, could it? This would also explain his membership in an organization he disliked. -- User:158.38.141.11 :In his autobiography, he described them as intellectually combative - he was famous, so everyone decided to take a run at him. That's why he didn't enjoy it. User:Raul654 13:25, Aug 24, 2004 (UTC) :I was invited to a Mensa "party." Intellectually combative is an astute description of about 99% of the people I met there. In fact the only guy there that I had any fun with roamed through the crowd and could often be heard saying (loudly) "I'm sooooo impressed." It was as if I had to prove to each and every one of them that I merited the invitation. I declined to join on those very grounds. I'm happy to hear that Isaac Asimov came up with such a succinct description of that bunch. :Fantastic article by the way. Absolutely beautiful!--User:Wjbean 05:20, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Book count== Asimov's books counts are somewhat artificial; his publishers knew they had a good thing. So we get a lot of different, recycled collections. However, the one which really made me angry was the book (but at least 4 books in his book count) published as ''Understanding Physics, Volume 1'' and ''Understanding Physics, Volume 2'' and ''Understanding Physics, Volume 3'' ; then it was all cobbled together and republished as ''Asimov on Physics''. What really made me see red about this was the fact that all of these books were liberally laced with cross references. Not only would you have "see p. 37" as a cross-reference entirely within one of the volumes of ''Understanding Physics'', but you'd als have things like a cross-reference in volume 1 saying "see vol. 3 p. 48" (this isn't necessarily the exact format which appeared there, but it was along those lines). However, when they slammed them all together into ''Asimov on Physics'' the pages (at least the ones that were in vol. 2 and 3) got new page numbers. But guess what! The publishers had been in such a hurry to push up that book count, that they hadn't bothered to go back and fix all those internal cross-reference so that they worked with the new pagination in the new book. User:Gene Nygaard 07:57, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC) Does anyone notice that it says he published works in every dewey decimal section but philosophy on the top, but then says just ''every'' section at the bottom? :I have removed the latter (because I know for a fact that the former is correct). User:Raul654 03:23, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC) ==Turning pages carefully== Anyone else think the comment on Asmiov learning how not to damage magazines that were to be sold in his parents' shop is interesting enough to be re-included? (assuming it's true; not something I've come across before). User:AdamW 12:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) I recall reading some autobiographical material about his boyhood; he talked about reading pulp fiction in his parents' shop -- carefully, of course. Mmmm, that was in an anthology he lent his name to, of pulp fiction of that era, interspersed with said autobio; wish I could remember the name... something Golden Age something... — User:Xiong (User talk:Xiong) 07:35, 2005 Apr 1 (UTC) ==Asmiov was a biochemist== This was removed on the grounds that just studying biochemistry at university didn't make him a biochemist. Didn't he start out as a professor but leave to pursue writing full time? And didn't he write biochemistry text books? - User:AdamW 19:38, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :If he practiced biochemistry to any significant extent in his career, we can call him a biochemist. If not, well then why would you? I don't think writing books about a subject is enough. Am I a mountain climber if write books about mointain climbing, but never actually spend much time on a mountain? User:Ike9898 19:56, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC) ::Well, I would consider getting a PhD was a significant amount of time as a "practising" biochemist in itself. ::I'm almost certain he carried on (at Columbia?) for some years after getting his PhD. I'm sure somebody can confirm this (or otherwise). As for writing books, I agree that writing a book "about" biochemistry (a popular science book, say) doesn't require one to be a biochemist. After all, Asimov wrote at least one popular science book on mathematics and we wouldn't call him a mathematician. But to have the depth of knowledge to write a useful text book on biochemist would require one to be a biochemist in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't think much of a text book in any field I work in that was written by someone who had never worked in the field. Would you want to rely on a manual for mountain climbing written by someone who hadn't climbed a mountain themselves? User:AdamW 20:25, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :I agree with Adam. He not only earned his PhD, he taught biochemistry at Boston University. That certainly makes him a biochemist. So I am replacing the reference. --User:Blainster 22:55, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :If I remember correctly from ''Asimov's New Guide to Science'', he stated his contribution to the field in a footnote: Isaac Asimov was the first to recognize that Strontium 90 was the most dangerous isotope present in radioactive fallout, because strontium is absorbed into the bones just like calcium, and with a half-life of 28 years, will emit radiation at strong levels throughout the lifetime of the victim. I don't know if he ever wrote a scientific paper on this. User:McPoodle 05:18, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Public speaking== I was surprised to see not one word about his public speaking. It was apparently a large part of his professional life, if one is to believe the frequent allusions in his F&SF essays. User:Lefty 20:13, 2005 Mar 21 (UTC) ==Beliefs and politics== Quoting the article:

"Isaac Asimov was a humanist and a rationalist. He did not oppose genuine religious conviction in others but was against superstitious or unfounded beliefs."

The linked-to article on superstition says that faith-based beliefs are superstitious, so this comment seems to be claiming that faith-based religion is not "genuine", and that religious belief should be based strictly on evidence. Surely that's far from NPOV?User:66.141.42.56 21:00, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) :It is not at all far from NPOV if Mr. Asimov said it himself. And since the article is about Mr. Asimov...--User:Wjbean 05:25, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC) == FARC == I believe this article is good, but not quite complete enough to meet featured article standards. Top of my head, there are at least three topics that should be added. In no particular order. Asimov was a very influential SF editor as well as writer. His two-volume collection (he added several more volumes over later years) of The Hugo Winners circa 1970, with gossipy and funny introductions to each story was almost certainly the most widely read anthology of SF short stories for at least a decade, and possibly remains so to this day. The fact that he was chosen as the editor for the official anthologies of the stories that won the most important award in SF says a lot about the regard his fellow SF authors held for Asimov. (Okay, so either the Hugos OR the Nebulas or the most important award in SF, but my point still stands. :-) This article could use more information and emphasis on Asimov's achievements and influence as a writer of science and technology books for the lay audience. There isn't enough of this, compared to the larger weight of matter about his SF achievements. For instance, there's no mention of his dominance of the science sections of popular bookstores, nor of how frequently he was a guest on television news and talk shows about science, especially concerning space exploration (he was vigorously in favor of space exploration). Asimov was also very influential in SF writing circles (and mystery writing, AFAIK) in informal ways, through friendships and social networking. For instance, he was the de facto chief for many, many years of the Trapdoor Spiders Club, a monthly dinner gathering of a few dozen people - mostly SF writers, but some scientists and others. This group also served loosely as an inspiration for his series of mystery stories revolving around "The Black Widow Club". And of course, Asimov was a busy correspondent and friend with many figures in the SF world. I feel qualified enough to recognize the need for these additions, but not qualified enough to write them, else I would be bold and do so. FWIW, Asimov gets his wish of being remembered more for his entire corpus of work than for any single book or series of books, at least with me. :-> -L (01:47, 24 Mar 2005) == Image == Somewhere -- and since seeing it, I've forgotten where, found it again, and forgotten it again, sorry -- Somebody complained that this article did not have a nice image of the Good Doctor. (If anyone knows where that comment was made, please to copy it here where it belongs, before these words.) I got in touch with SF/F illustrator Rowena, who very graciously has licensed a small PNG of her painting of Dr. Asimov. I have preserved the former image and moved it to breathe a little life into the text at "Quotes". — User:XiongUser talk:Xiong 00:20, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC) ==Readings and references?== No offense, but that section title is entirely ambiguous as to which resources were properly used as references and which were not. If all sources were indeed used to fact check or add material to the article, the section should simply be called references. Readings could mean anything including a list of resources that were not consulted by the page's authors at all. This ambiguity is intellectually dishonest. What also led me to discuss this was the external links section was simply renamed to the above, making it unlikely, though certainly not impossible, that all were used properly. Please separate those that can be confirmed to have been used properly into a references section, and those that were not used as references into either further reading or external links. Also external links used as references should be formatted according to the rules for webpages (not from periodicals) as shown on Wikipedia:Cite sources. In summary I am inclined to vote remove on WP:FARC because there could be as few as 1 actual reference used. Thanks - User:Taxman 12:44, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC) :There are many articles with sections like this. The ambiguity is much more likely due to emulation of others or not being aware of the convention for references. The Wiki ''Cite Sources'' article even recommends identifying good references whether they are used or not. One needn't jump to the conclusion that anyone is being "intellectually dishonest". Better to educate than berate. --User:Blainster 23:52, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::Well, no intent to berate, sorry. But it is improper for the reasons above, and I've also given a way to sort out the issue. I was hoping someone could point out some that were used as references. If not it really should be renamed back and some of those or others should be properly used to fact check the material in the article. I will do that if no one knows for sure which of those resources were used as references. - User:Taxman 03:34, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC) :::A quick read-through indicates that all the books by Asimov himself (including those edited by family members) are cited in the article. The Gunn book is cited, but the Patrouch and White are not. I have read [http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/NonAsimov/White.html John Jenkins's summary] of the White biography, but not the book itself; maybe somebody who has the real thing (or who doesn't mind secondary secondary sources) can incorporate some of that material. User:Anville 20:19, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC) ==Categories== This article has too many categories. It becomes unweildy. I see that SimonP has put it into a :Category:Isaac Asimov which is a member of 3 other categories, and this is a good start to reducing the number. This could be taken further, by adding :Category:Isaac Asimov to a few more categories, but it isn't easy to see where to draw the line on this.-User:Gadfium 03:38, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Quotations == Shouldn't the quotations be left for Wikiquote? Especially considering how long the article is. I suggest deleting them all or maybe leaving only the "six minutes to live" one. —User:JerryFriedman 17:47, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC) : There ''are'' a lot of quotes, but then this was a prodigious author. I'd hate to see us get into a war over which go and which stay. There is no sensible way to debate each quote, one at a time. Here's what I've done: Below is a copy of the Good Doctor's ''bon mots''; please add a + sign before to the ones you think especially deserving of retention. We'll let this cook a little while, and when there's something of a distribution, we can divide the sheep from the goats, ''then'' talk about moving the goats to Wikiquotes. Okay? — User:Xiong熊">Special:Emailuser/XiongUser talk:Xiong 10:29, 2005 Apr 15 (UTC) : C'mon people, vote on your favorite quotes. The section is a bit overlong, but we don't have anything to discuss until there is some input. We've got anon editors picking and choosing now. Let's think about this. — User:Xiong熊">Special:Emailuser/XiongUser talk:Xiong*">User:Xiong/Metatalk 15:45, 2005 May 8 (UTC) :: Okay, okay... User:Sturgeonslawyer 13:19 PDST, 2005 May 8 : ''Then kew.'' This is a participatory project! — User:Xiong熊">Special:Emailuser/XiongUser talk:Xiong*">User:Xiong/Metatalk 13:40, 2005 May 27 (UTC) ---- * +"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live... * "Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem.... * +++"I prefer rationalism to atheism.... * "If I could trace my origins to Judas Maccabaeus or King David... * "In 1936, I first wrote science fiction.... * ++++"Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." * ++"Night was a wonderful time in Brooklyn in the 1930s.... * "No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it.... * +"True literacy is becoming an arcane art... * "Until I became a published writer... * "When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut... * +++"What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics.... ---- == Template == I wrote a template at Template:AsimovStory. It bases on the previous format as a table in the articles on the Complete Robot stories. I put it to the articles there, then, however, I found it to be inconsistent with the other story compilations, because it says "preceded: " and "followed by" but not in which compilation. It could be changed to incorporate all the information with "series" separate and pre- and successor boxes to link the stories. If somebody wants to take up this task... User:Male1979 User talk:Male1979 Special:Contributions/Male1979 02:59, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC) :I created other templates and put them to the The Complete Robot and I, Robot series. Cheers, User:Male1979 User talk:Male1979 Special:Contributions/Male1979 03:59, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC) ==Asimov's Name== I am hoping to find the spelling of Asimov's name in Cyrillic. Apparentli it is the transliteration of 'Azimov', but this does not help me find the actual Cyrillic spelling. I also discovered that the Yiddish spelling (in Hebrew) is "אזימװ". Any help that can be provided would greatly be appreciated. --Zippanova 03:03, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC) : Айзек Азимов (Ayzek Azimov). Some Russian sources claim that the original family name was Ozimov (Озимов) and a variant of his father name given is Yehuda (Иегуда), rather than Judah (Иуда). :I don't know about Yehuda, but "Ozimov" sounds plausible, since Asim/Asimov is a Central Asian name (but again, it could be than IA descends from khazars...). User:Mikkalai 06:13, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC) :BTW, Asimov's FAQ gives Yiddish spelling as aleph-zayin-yod-mem-aleph-vav-vav, which corresponds to Belarussian pronunciation: "Azimav" (his birthplace was belarussian). User:Mikkalai 07:40, 27 Apr 2005 (UTC) == The Greatest == Anon inserted: ''Asimov is generally considered to be one of the greatest of all science fiction authors.'' Before anybody jumps salty on this, I want to back it up, and say it is not a biased statement at all, but pure neutral fact -- the man ''is'' held to be very great indeed, a serious contender for the title of All-time Greatest. If I may be permitted a personal note, I'll say that when I was young, I considered the Good Doctor ''the'' greatest, by a couple of lengths. As I've grown older, I've enjoyed him less; his stories are heavy on ideas but short on human interest and character development. But I would never dare to assert that he is anything less than the very top rank, and I'm proud to have enthroned him here. — User:Xiong熊">Special:Emailuser/XiongUser talk:Xiong*">User:Xiong/Metatalk 13:45, 2005 May 27 (UTC) == Chronological order of books == I think that the Greater Foundation Series should be listed in the order in which the stories take place in the Asimov universe, rather than by publication date. The publication years can still be included in parentheses after each title. Anyone agree?

Isaac Asimov

[[Image:AsimovOnThrone.png|thumb|300px|right|Dr. Isaac Asimov enthroned with symbols of his life's work
(Rowena Morrill)]] Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992, International Phonetic Alphabet: ) was a Russian-born United States author and biochemistry, a highly successful and exceptionally prolific writer best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series, which he later combined with two of his other series, the Isaac Asimov's Galactic Empire Series and Isaac Asimov's Robot Series. He also wrote mystery fiction and fantasy, as well as a great amount of non-fiction. Altogether he wrote or edited over 500 volumes and an estimated 90,000 letters or postcards, and has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy. Asimov is by general consensus a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered to be one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov was a long-time member of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly — he described them as "intellectually combative." The asteroid 5020 Asimov is named in his honor. ==Biography== Asimov was born around January 2, 1920 (his date of birth for official purposes—the precise date is not certain) in Petrovichi ''shtetl'' of Smolensk Oblast, RSFSR (now Russia) to Anna Rachel Berman Asimov and Judah Asimov, a Jewish family of millers. They emigrated to the United States when he was three years old. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, New York, he taught himself to read at the age of five. His parents owned a candy store and everyone in the family was expected to work in it. He saw science fiction magazines in the store and began reading them. In his mid-teens, he began to write his own stories and soon was selling them to pulp magazines. He graduated from Columbia University in 1939 and took a Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry there in 1948. He then joined the faculty of Boston University, with which he remained associated thereafter, but in a non-teaching capacity. The university ceased to pay him a salary in 1958, by which time his income from writing already exceeded his income from his academic duties. Asimov remained on the faculty as an associate professor, being promoted in 1979 to full professor, and his personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library, where they consume 464 boxes on 71 metres of shelf space. In 1985, he became President of the American Humanism Association and remained in that position until his death in 1992; his successor was his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut. He married Gertrude Blugerman on July 26, 1942, with whom he had two children, David (b. 1951) and Robyn (b. 1955). After an extended separation, they were divorced in 1973, and Asimov married Janet Asimov later that year. Asimov died on April 6, 1992. He was survived by his second wife, Janet, and his children from his first marriage. Ten years after his death, Janet Asimov's edition of Isaac's autobiography, ''It's Been a Good Life'', revealed that his death was caused by AIDS; he had contracted HIV from an infected blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery in 1983. The actual cause of death was heart and renal failure as complications of AIDS. Janet Asimov claims that Isaac's doctors encouraged them not to reveal his illness, while the doctors claim it was Janet herself who wanted to keep it secret (see [http://www.locusmag.com/2002/Issue04/Letter.html]). ==Intellectual positions== Isaac Asimov was humanism and a rationalism. He did not oppose genuine religious conviction in others but was against superstition or unfounded beliefs. He was fear of flying, only doing so twice in his entire life. Asimov was also a claustrophilia; that is, he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. Asimov was a progressivism on most politics, and a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party (United States). In a television interview in the early 1970s he publicly endorsed George McGovern. He was unhappy at what he saw as an irrationalist tack taken by many progressive political activists from the late 1960s onwards. His defense of civil applications of nuclear power even after the Three Mile Island incident damaged his relations with some on the left. (Ironically, the New York Times has recently noted that "some prominent environmentalists are having second thoughts about nuclear power" ([http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F0061EF634540C748DDDAC0894DD404482 'No Nukes,' No More]) and reported that "several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming" (quoted in [http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19091 Environmental neo-con job?]).) He issued many appeals for population control reflecting the perspective first articulated by Paul R. Ehrlich. In the closing years of his life Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by middle class flight to the suburb. His last non-fiction book, ''Our Angry Earth'' (1991, co-written with science fiction author Frederik Pohl), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer. ==Asimov's writing career== ===Overview=== Asimov's career can be divided into several time periods. His early career, dominated by science fiction, began with short stories in 1939. This lasted until about 1958, all but ending after publication of ''The Naked Sun''. Following that, he greatly increased his production of non-fiction, consequently publishing little science fiction. Over the next quarter century, he would write only four science fiction novels. Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with the publication of ''Foundation's Edge''. From then until his death, Asimov would publish many sequels to his existing novels, tying them together in a way he had not originally anticipated. In his own view, Asimov believed that his most enduring contributions would be the Three Laws of Robotics and the Foundation Series (see ''Yours, Isaac Asimov,'' p. 329). Furthermore, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' credits his science fiction for introducing the words ''positronic,'' ''psychohistory (fictional)'' and ''robotics'' into the English language. The first of these words applies to an entirely fictional technology, while the second is frequently used in a different sense than Asimov employed; however, ''robotics'' continues in widespread use with essentially Asimov's original definition. ===Science fiction=== [[Image:Foundation_cover.jpg|thumbnail|right|250px|Hari Seldon's holographic image on the cover of ''Foundation (novel)''. The Foundation Series is among Asimov's most famous fiction works.]] Asimov began contributing stories to science fiction magazines in 1939, ''Marooned Off Vesta'' being his first published story, written when he was 18. Two and a half years later, he published his 32nd short story, "Nightfall (Asimov)" (1941), which is described in ''Bewildering Stories'', issue 8, as one of "the most famous science-fiction stories of all time" [http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue8/asimov.html]. In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written [http://www.rudysbooks.com/asimovobit.html]. In his short anthology ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' he wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'". In 1942 he began his ''Foundation'' stories—later collected in the ''Foundation Trilogy'': ''Foundation (novel)'' (1951), ''Foundation and Empire'' (1952), and ''Second Foundation'' (1953)—which recount the collapse and rebirth of a vast Galactic Empire (Asimov) in a universe of the future. Taken together, they are his most famous work of science fiction, along with the Robot Series. Many years later, he continued the series with ''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) and ''Foundation and Earth'' (1986) and then went back to before the original trilogy with ''Prelude to Foundation'' (1988) and ''Forward the Foundation'' (1992). The series features his fictional science of Psychohistory (fictional) in which the future course of the history of large populations can be predicted. His robot stories—many of which were collected in ''I, Robot'' (1950)—were begun at about the same time. They promulgated a set of rules of ethics for robots (see Three Laws of Robotics) and intelligent machines that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. One such short story, ''The Bicentennial Man'', was made into a film starring Robin Williams. The recent film ''I, Robot (movie)'', starring Will Smith, was based on the ''Hardwired'' script by Jeff Vintar with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after acquiring the rights to the ''I, Robot'' title. It is not related to the ''I, Robot'' script by Harlan Ellison, who collaborated with Asimov himself to create a version that captured the spirit of the original. Asimov is quoted as saying that Ellison's screenplay would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction movie ever made". The screenplay was published in book form in 1994, after hopes of seeing it in film form were becoming slim. See: ''I, Robot'', [http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/bottom/56.html] In 1948 he also wrote a False document, ''Thiotimoline''. At the time, Asimov was preparing for his own doctoral dissertation. Fearing a prejudicial reaction from his Ph.D. evaluation board, he asked his editor that it be released under a pseudonym, yet it appeared under his own name. During his oral examination shortly thereafter, Asimov grew concerned at the scrutiny he received. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said "Mr. Asimov, tell us something about the thermodynamic properties of the compound thiotimoline." After a twenty-minute wait, he was summoned back into the Examination Room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov." He continued writing short stories for science fiction magazines in the 1950s, which he referred to as his golden decade. A number of these are included in his ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' anthology, including "The Last Question" (1956), on the ability of humankind to cope with and reverse entropy. It was his personal favorite and considered by many to be a contender to "Nightfall". Asimov wrote of it in 1973, :Why is it my favorite? For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn't have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word. This sort of things endears any story to any writer. :Then, too, it has had the strangest effect on my readers. Frequently someone writes to ask me if I can give them the name of a story, which they ''think'' I may have written, and tell them where to find it. They don't remember the title but when they describe the story it is invariably "The Last Question". This has reached the point where I recently received a long-distance phone call from a desperate man who began, "Dr. Asimov, there's a story I think you wrote, whose title I can't remember—" at which point I interrupted to tell him it was "The Last Question" and when I described the plot it proved to be indeed the story he was after. I left him convinced I could read minds at a distance of a thousand miles. Beginning in 1977, he lent his name to ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (now ''Asimov's Science Fiction'') and penned an editorial for each issue. There was also a short-lived ''Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine'' and a companion ''Asimov's Science Fiction Anthology'' reprint series, published as magazines (in the same manner as stablemates ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' and ''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine'''s "anthologies"). ===Popular science=== During the late 1950s and 1960s, Asimov shifted gears somewhat, and substantially decreased his fiction output (he published only four adult novels between 1957's ''The Naked Sun'' and 1982's ''Foundation's Edge'', two of which were mysteries). At the same time, he greatly increased his non-fiction production, writing mostly on science topics; the launch of Sputnik in 1957 engendered public concern over a "science gap", which Asimov's publishers were eager to fill with as much material as he could write. Meanwhile, the monthly ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' invited him to continue his regular non-fiction column, begun in the now-folded bimonthly companion magazine ''Venture Science Fiction'', ostensibly dedicated to popular science, but with Asimov having complete editorial freedom. The first of the ''F&SF'' columns appeared in November of 1958, and they followed uninterrupted thereafter, with 399 entries, until Asimov's terminal illness took its toll. These columns, periodically collected into books by his principal publisher, Doubleday, helped make Asimov's reputation as a "Great Explainer" of science and were referred to by him as his only pop-science writing in which he never had to assume complete ignorance of the subjects at hand on the part of his readers. The popularity of his first wide-ranging reference work, ''The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'', also allowed him to give up most of his academic responsibilities and become essentially a full-time freelance writer. He published ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' in two volumes—covering the Old Testament in 1967 and the New Testament in 1969—and then combined them into one 1300-page volume in 1981. Replete with maps and tables, the guide goes through the books of the Bible in order, explaining the history of each one and the political influences that affected it, as well as biographical information about the important characters. Asimov also wrote several essays on the social contentions of his day, including "Thinking About Thinking" and "Science: Knock Plastic" (1967). The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings once prompted Kurt Vonnegut to ask, "How does it feel to know everything?" Asimov replied that he only knew how it felt to have the ''reputation'' of omniscience—"Uneasy". (See ''In Joy Still Felt,'' chapter 30.) In the introduction to his story collection ''Slow Learner,'' Thomas Pynchon admitted that he relied upon Asimov's science popularizations (and the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') to provide his knowledge of entropy. ===Other=== Never entirely lacking wit and humor, towards the end of his life Asimov published a series of collections of limerick (poetry), mostly written by himself, starting with ''Lecherous Limericks'', which appeared in 1975. ''Limericks: Too Gross,'' whose title displays Asimov's love of puns, contains 144 limericks by Asimov and an equal number by John Ciardi. Asimov's ''Treasury of Humor'' is both a working joke book and a treatise propounding his views on humor theory. According to Asimov, the most essential element of humor is an abrupt change in point of view, one that suddenly shifts focus from the important to the trivial, or from the sublime to the ridiculous. Asimov published two volumes of autobiography: ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979) and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980). A third autobiography, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', was published in April 1994. The epilogue was written by his widow Janet Asimov shortly after his death. ''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet, is a condensed version of his three autobiographies. ===Literary themes=== Much of Asimov's fiction dealt with themes of paternalism. His first robot story, "Robbie", concerned a robotic nanny. As the robots grew more sophisticated, their interventions became more wide-reaching and subtle. In "Evidence (Asimov)", a robot masquerading as a human successfully runs for elective office. In "The Evitable Conflict", the robots ran humanity from behind the scenes, acting as nannies to the whole species. Later, in ''Robots and Empire'', a robot develops what he calls the Zeroth Law of Robotics, which states that "A robot may not injure humanity, nor, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm". He also decides that robotic presence is stifling humanity's freedom, and that the best course of action is for the robots to phase themselves out. A non-robot novel, ''The End of Eternity'', features a similar conflict and resolution. In The Foundation Series (which did not originally have robots), a scientist implements a semi-secret plan to create a utopia over the course of 1000 years. This series has its version of Plato's Republic, called the Second Foundation, to perfect and protect the plan. When Asimov stopped writing the series in the 1950s, the Second Foundation was depicted as benign protectors of humanity. When he revisited the series in the 1980s, he made the paternalistic themes even more explicit. ''Foundation's Edge'' introduced the planet Gaia (planet), obviously based on the Gaia hypothesis. Every animal, plant, and mineral on Gaia participated in a shared consciousness, forming a single super-mind working together for the greater good. In ''Foundation and Earth'', the protagonist must decide whether or not to allow the development of Galaxia, a larger version of Gaia, encompassing the entire galaxy. ''Foundation and Earth'' introduces robots to the Foundation universe. Two of Asimov's last novels, ''Prelude to Foundation'' and ''Forward the Foundation'', explore their behavior in fuller detail. The robots are depicted as covert operatives, acting for the benefit of humanity. Another frequent theme, perhaps the reverse of paternalism, is social oppression. ''The Currents of Space'' takes place on a planet where a unique plant fiber is grown; the agricultural workers there are exploited by the aristocrats of a nearby planet. In ''The Stars, Like Dust'', the hero helps a planet that is oppressed by an arrogant interplanetary empire, the Tyranni. Often the victims of oppression are either Earth people (as opposed to colonists on other planets) or robots. In "The Bicentennial Man", a robot fights prejudice to be accepted as a human. In ''The Caves of Steel'', the people of Earth resent the wealthier "Spacers" and in turn treat robots (associated with the Spacers) in ways reminiscent of how whites treated blacks, such as addressing robots as "boy". ''Pebble in the Sky'' shows an analogous situation: the Galactic Empire rules Earth and its people use such terms as "Earthie-squaw", but Earth is a theocratic dictatorship that enforces euthanasia of anyone older than sixty. One hero is Bel Arvardan, an upper-class Galactic archeologist who must overcome his prejudices. The other is Joseph Schwartz, a 62-year-old twentieth-century American who had emigrated from Europe, where his people were persecuted (he is quite possibly Jewish), and is accidentally transported forward in time to Arvardan's period. He must decide whether to help a downtrodden society that thinks he should be dead. Yet another frequent theme in Asimov is rational thought. He invented the science-fiction mystery fiction with ''The Caves of Steel'' and the stories in ''Asimov's Mysteries'', usually playing fair with the reader by introducing early in the story any science or technology involved in the solution. Later, he produced non-SF mysteries, including the novel ''Murder at the ABA'' (1976) and the "Black Widowers" short stories, in which he followed the same rule. In his fiction, important scenes are often essentially debates, with the more rational, humane—or persuasive—side winning. ==Criticisms== One of the most common impressions of Asimov's fiction work is that his writing style is extremely unornamental. In 1980, SF scholar James Gunn wrote of ''I, Robot'' that :Except for two stories—"Liar!" and "Evidence (Asimov)"—they are not stories in which character plays a significant part. Virtually all plot develops in conversation with little if any action. Nor is there a great deal of local color or description of any kind. The dialogue is, at best, functional and the style is, at best, transparent. [...] The robot stories—and, as a matter of fact, almost all Asimov fiction—play themselves on a relatively bare stage. This description applies well to a large proportion of Asimov's fiction, including that written after 1980. Gunn observes that there are places where Asimov's style rises to the demands of the situation; he cites the climax of "Liar!" as an example. One should not overlook the sharply drawn characters which occur at key junctures of his storylines: in addition to Susan Calvin in "Liar!" and "Evidence", we find Arkady Darell in ''Second Foundation,'' Elijah Baley in ''The Caves of Steel'' and Hari Seldon in the Foundation prequels. (In ''Forward the Foundation,'' Seldon becomes a partial mirror of Asimov himself.) Asimov was also criticised for the lack of sex and aliens in his science fiction. Asimov once explained that his reluctance to write about aliens came from an incident early in his career when ''Astounding'''s editor John Campbell rejected one of his early science fiction stories because the alien characters were portrayed as superior to the humans. He decided that, rather than write weak alien characters, he would not write about aliens at all. Nevertheless, in response to these criticisms he wrote ''The Gods Themselves'', which contains aliens, sex, and alien sex. Asimov said that of all his writings, he was most proud of the middle section of ''The Gods Themselves''. Others have criticised him for a lack of strong female characters in his early work. In his autobiographical writings, he acknowledges this, and responds by pointing to inexperience. His later novels, written with more female characters but in essentially the same prose style as his early SF stories, brought this matter to a wider audience. For example, the 25 August 1985 ''Washington Post'''s "Book World" section reports of ''Robots and Empire'' as follows: :In 1940, Asimov's humans were stripped-down masculine portraits of Americans from 1940, and they still are. His robots were tin cans with speedlines like an old Studebaker, and still are; the Robot tales depended on an increasingly unworkable distinction between movable and unmovable artificial intelligences, and still do. In the Asimov universe, because it was conceived a long time ago, and because its author abhors confusion, there are no computers whose impact is worth noting, no social complexities, no genetic engineering, aliens, arcologies, multiverses, clones, sin or sex; his heroes (in this case R. Daneel Olivaw, whom we first met as the robot protagonist of ''The Caves of Steel'' and its sequels) feel no pressure of information, raw or cooked, as the simplest of us do today; they suffer no deformation from the winds of the Asimov future, because it is so deeply and strikingly orderly. A considerable portion of such criticism boils down to the charge that Asimov's works are not cyberpunk. Other than the books by Gunn and Patrouch, there is a relative dearth of "literary" criticism on Asimov (particularly when compared to the sheer volume of his output). Cowart and Wymer's ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' (1981) gives a possible reason: :His words do not easily lend themselves to traditional literary criticism because he has the habit of centering his fiction on plot and clearly stating to his reader, in rather direct terms, what is happening in his stories and why it is happening. In fact, most of the dialogue in an Asimov story, and particularly in the [Foundation] trilogy, is devoted to such exposition. Stories that clearly state what they mean in unambiguous language are the most difficult for a scholar to deal with because there is little to be interpreted. Although he prided himself on an unornamented prose style, he also enjoyed giving his longer stories complicated narrative structures, often by arranging chapters in non-chronological ways. Some readers have been put off by this, complaining that the nonlinearity is not worth the trouble and adversely impacts the clarity of the story. For example, the first third of ''The Gods Themselves'' begins with Chapter 6, then backtracks to fill in earlier material [http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/Books/Book121.html]. (In fairness, one should note that John Campbell advised Asimov to begin his stories as late in the plot as possible. This tidbit of advice helped Asimov create "Reason (Asimov)," one of the early Robot stories. See ''In Memory Yet Green'' for details of that time period.) Asimov's tendency to contort his timelines is perhaps most apparent in his later novel ''Nemesis (Asimov),'' in which one group of characters live in the "present" and another group starts in the "past", beginning fifteen years earlier and gradually moving toward the time period of the first group. John Jenkins, who has reviewed the vast majority of Asimov's written output, once observed laconically, :It has been pointed out that most sf writers since the 1950s have been affected by Asimov, either modeling their style on his or deliberately avoiding anything like his style. [http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/NonAsimov/White.html] ==Quotes== * "If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." * "Early in my school career, I turned out to be an incorrigible disciplinary problem. I could understand what the teacher was saying as fast as she could say it, I found time hanging heavy, so I would occasionally talk to my neighbor. That was my great crime, I talked." * "I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending." * "If I could trace my origins to Judas Maccabaeus or King David, that would not add one inch to my stature. It may well be that many eastern Europe Jews are descended from Khazars, I may be one of them. Who knows? And who cares?" * "In 1936, I first wrote science fiction. It was a long-winded attempt at writing an endless novel...which died. I remember one sentence, 'Whole forests stood sere and brown in midsummer.'. That was the first Asimovian science-fiction sentence." * "Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers." * "Night was a wonderful time in Brooklyn in the 1930s. Air conditioning was unknown except in movie theater, and so was television. There was nothing to keep one in the house. Furthermore, few people owned automobiles, so there was nothing to carry one away. That left the streets and the stoops. The very fullness served as an inhibition to crime." * "No one can possibly have lived through the Great Depression without being scarred by it. No amount of experience since the Depression can convince someone who has lived through it that the world is safe economics." * "True literacy is becoming an arcane art and the United States is steadily dumbing down." * "Until I became a published writer, I remained completely ignorant of books on how to write and courses on the subject...they would have spoiled my natural style; made me observe caution; would have hedged me with rules." * "When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that United States society has found one more way to destroy itself." * "What I ''will'' be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I ''want'' to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and ''variety'' can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for", September 20, 1973, ''Yours, Isaac Asimov,'' page 329. ==Selected bibliography== In addition, see the Isaac Asimov complete bibliography. Asimov aspired to write 500 books but did not quite reach that total; he wrote over 463 titles. If all titles, charts, and edited collections are counted, there are currently 509 items in his complete bibliography. Asimov could have written an ''Opus 400'', which would have been a celebration of his 400th title; the bibliography lists only up to his commemorative ''Opus 300''. ===Science fiction=== ===="Greater Foundation" series==== *The Robot series: ** ''The Caves of Steel'' (1954), ISBN 0553293400 (first Elijah Baley SF-crime novel) ** ''The Naked Sun'' (1957), ISBN 0553293397 (second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel) ** ''The Robots of Dawn'' (1983), ISBN 0553299492 (third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel) ** ''Robots and Empire'' (1985) (sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy) ** ''The Positronic Man'' (1993) (with Robert Silverberg, a novel based on Asimov's earlier short story "The Bicentennial Man") *Galactic Empire series: ** ''Pebble in the Sky'' (1950) ** ''The Stars, Like Dust'' (1951) ** ''The Currents of Space'' (1952) *Foundation series: ** ''Foundation (novel)'' (1951), ISBN 0553293354 ** ''Foundation and Empire'' (1952), ISBN 0553293370 ** ''Second Foundation'' (1953), ISBN 0553293362 ** ''Foundation's Edge'' (1982), ISBN 0553293389 ** ''Foundation and Earth'' (1986), ISBN 0553587579 ** ''Prelude to Foundation'' (1988), ISBN 0553278398 ** ''Forward the Foundation'' (1993), ISBN 0385247931 (hardcover), ISBN 0553404881 (paperback) ====Novels not part of a series==== * ''The End of Eternity'' (1955) * ''The Gods Themselves'' (1972) * ''Nemesis (Asimov)'' (1989) * ''Nightfall (Asimov)'' (1990) (with Robert Silverberg, a novel based on the earlier short story) * ''The Ugly Little Boy'' (1992) (with Robert Silverberg, a novel based on an earlier short story) (While primarily independent, some of these novels have very minor connections to the Foundation series.) ====Short story collections==== ''Also see List of short stories by Isaac Asimov'' * ''I, Robot'' (1950), ISBN 0553294385 * ''The Martian Way and Other Stories'' (1955) * ''Earth Is Room Enough'' (1957) * ''Nine Tomorrows'' (1959) * ''The Rest of the Robots'' (1964) * ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969) * ''The Early Asimov'' (1972) * ''The Best of Isaac Asimov'' (1973) * ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'' (1975) * ''The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories'' (1976) * ''The Complete Robot'' (1982) * ''The Winds of Change and Other Stories'' (1983) * ''Robot Dreams'' (1986) * ''Gold (Asimov)'' (1990) * ''Magic (Asimov)'' (1995) ===Mysteries=== ====Novels==== * ''The Death Dealers'' (1958) (later republished as ''A Whiff of Death'') * ''Murder at the ABA'' (1976) (also published as ''Authorized Murder'') ====Short story collections (Black Widowers and others)==== * ''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968) * ''Tales of the Black Widowers'' (1974) * ''More Tales of the Black Widowers'' (1976) * ''Casebook of the Black Widowers'' (1980) * ''Banquets of the Black Widowers'' (1984) * ''The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov'' (1986) * ''Puzzles of the Black Widowers'' (1990) * ''Return of the Black Widowers'' (2003) contains stories uncollected at the time of Asimov's death, in addition to contributions by Charles Ardai and Harlan Ellison ===Nonfiction=== ====Popular science==== * ''The Chemicals of Life (book)'' (1954) * ''Inside the Atom (book)'' (1956) * ''The World of Carbon (book)'' (1956?) * ''The World of Nitrogen (book)'' (1958) * ''The Clock We Live On (book)'' (1959) * ''Asimov on Numbers'' (1959) * ''Words of Science and the History Behind Them'' (1959) * ''Life and Energy (book)'' (1962) * ''Adding a Dimension'' (1964) * ''The Human Brain (book)'' (1964) * ''The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (1965) * ''The Neutrino (book)'' (1966) * ''The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar (book)'' (1966) * ''Science, Numbers and I (book)'' (1968) * ''The Solar System and Back'' (1970) * ''Our World in Space (book)'' (1974) * ''Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright'' (1977) * ''The Collapsing Universe (book)'' (1977) ISBN 0-671-81738-8 * ''Views of the Universe (book)'' (1981) * ''Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos'' (1982) * ''The Sun Shines Bright'' * ''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery'' (1989, second edition extends to 1993) * ''The Secret of The Universe'' (1990) * ''Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space'' (1991) * ''The Sun (Asimov)'' (2003) * ''The Earth (Asimov)'' (2004) * ''Jupiter (Asimov)'' (2004) * ''Venus (Asimov)'' (2004) ====Annotations==== * ''Asimov's Annotated "Don Juan"'' * ''Asimov's Annotated "Paradise Lost"'' * ''Asimov's Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan'' * ''The Annotated "Gulliver's Travels"'' ====Guides==== * ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible, vols I and II'' (1981), ISBN 0-517-34582-X * ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare ===Other=== * ''Opus 100'' (1969) * ''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology'' (1972 in literature) * ''Opus 200'' (1979) * ''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts'' (1979) * ''Azazel'' (1988) ==Readings and references== ===Print media=== * Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979). :''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980). :''I, Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994). :''Yours, Isaac Asimov'' (1996), edited by Stanley Asimov. ISBN 0-3854-7624-8. :''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet Asimov. ISBN 1-5739-2968-9. * Fiedler, Jean and Jim Mele. ''Isaac Asimov'' (1982). ISBN 0-8044-2203-6. * Goldman, Stephen H., "Isaac Asimov", in ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Vol. 8, Cowart and Wymer eds., (Gale Research, 1981), pp. 15-29. * Gunn, James. "On Variations on a Robot", ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', July 1980, pp. 56-81. Reprinted in the 1982 book. :''Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction'' (1982). ISBN 0-19-503060-5. :''The Science of Science-Fiction Writing'' (2000). ISBN 1-5788-6011-3. * Oleander, Joseph D. and Martin H. Greenberg, eds. ''Isaac Asimov'' (1974). ISBN 0-8008-4258-8. * Patrouch, Joseph F. ''The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov'' (1977). ISBN 0-385-08696-2. * Touponce, William F. ''Isaac Asimov'' (1991). ISBN 0-8057-7623-0. * White, Michael. ''Asimov: The Unauthorized Life'' (1994). ISBN 1-85798-120-0. ===Online=== *[http://www.asimovonline.com/ Isaac Asimov Home Page] **[http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_big_list.html Complete list of works] **[http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_FAQ.html FAQ] *[http://homepage.mac.com/pockyrevolution/asimov/index.htm The Asimov Vault] (Photos, sound recordings, biography and links) * * *[http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/Asimov.html Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov] (reviews and ratings) *[http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/future_of_humanity.html The Future of humanity: What Asimov thinks is the way forward for us] *[http://www.angelfire.com/wi/mikebru/Alps.html Religion in Asimov's Writings: An essay by Michael Brummond] *[http://www.asimovians.com www.asimovians.com] (Forum on Asimov, his works and everything else) *[http://www.ibdof.com/viewforum.php?f=62 Discussion group for Asimov] at The Internet Book Database of Fiction *[http://www.ibdof.com/IBDOF-author-booklist.php?author=68 Book listing for Asimov] by [http://www.ibdof.com/ IBDoF.com] {Work in Progress} *[http://wiredforbooks.org/isaacasimov/ 1987 Audio Interview with Isaac Asimov - RealAudio (24 min. 59 sec.)] Isaac Asimov 1920 births 1992 deaths Biochemists Nebula Grand Masters Hugo Award winning authors Essayists Skeptics Naturalized citizens of the United States People with asteroids named after them lv:Aizeks Azimovs simple:Isaac Asimov th:ไอแซค อสิมอฟ

Isaac Asimov

American writers Mystery writers Science fiction writers Science writers

Isaac asimov

#REDIRECT Isaac Asimov

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

I