Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) (17 page)
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Authors: James Gunn
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A major part of the story's appeal, certainly for Campbell and no doubt for his readers as well, was the alignment of forces: the rational people, the scientists, opposed by the irrational, the mobs and the Cultists. The mobs reject the warnings of the scientists because ordinary people place their faith in everyday experience continuing as it always has and will not believe in such abstractions as theories of gravitation and calculations about an invisible satellite. The Cultists, on the other hand, have preserved unique information about earlier catastrophes, but they interpret that information according to their desires rather than their intellects. They reject scientific "facts" in favor of religious "knowledge." They are right about events but for the wrong reasons, and thus their responses are also irrational.
Against these forces Asimov placed the scientists, who may be passionate enough in pursuit of their goals (Aton blusters at Theremon, and another astronomer, Beenay, attacks Latimer), but they are willing to accept whatever "truth" best explains the facts. In earlier stories ("Black Friar of the Flame," which was written early in 1939, "Half-Breed," ''The Secret Sense," etc.), Asimov had sometimes allowed emotion to become a motivating force. In "Nightfall" he established the position that he was to maintain throughout most of the rest of his work: rationality must struggle to prevail in a world made difficult not only by the mysteries and hard truths of the universe but by people unable or unwilling to think clearly. The subject of "Nightfall" is ignorance; ignorance of the laws that govern the universe, ignorance of phenomena such as "night" and "stars," which makes the Lagashians, even the scientists, victims of their fears.
Asimov's style suited his subjects and his method. The mystery and the puzzle are story types in which only rationality can prevail, and Asimov's direct, clear prose, as unlyrical and unmetaphorical as possible, persuaded readers that they were being presented all the facts upon which to draw their own conclusions. Asimov, in fact, objected to a paragraph that Campbell inserted near the end of the story:
Not Earth's feeble thirty-six hundred Stars visible to the eye: Lagash was in the center of a giant cluster. Thirty thousand mighty suns shone down in a soul-searing splendor that was more frighteningly cold in its awful indifference than the bitter wind that shivered across the cold, horribly bleak world.
In his autobiography Asimov complained that this
simply wasn't me. It has been praised as proof that I could write "poetically," which gravels me, since I don't want to write poetically: I only want to write clearly. Worst of all, Campbell thoughtlessly mentions Earth in his paragraph. I had carefully refrained from doing so all through the story, since Earth did not exist within the context of the story. Its mention was a serious literary flaw.
simply wasn't me. It has been praised as proof that I could write "poetically," which gravels me, since I don't want to write poetically: I only want to write clearly. Worst of all, Campbell thoughtlessly mentions Earth in his paragraph. I had carefully refrained from doing so all through the story, since Earth did not exist within the context of the story. Its mention was a serious literary flaw.
Earth, of course, could not exist within the context of the story because if Lagash were aware of Earth, the psychological fear of darkness and the Stars would be irreparably weakened. The entire paragraph is an intrusion, literally, of the "editorial" voice.
A few other rewards for the science-fiction reader emerge from the story, such as the application of the meaning derived from the unique situation of Lagash and its outcome to the situation of Earth: if Lagashians are psychological victims of their environment, how does Earth's environment in a similar way affect us psychologically, religiously? The reader enjoys knowledge greater than that of the characters. Beenay, for instance, speculates about the incredible possibility of the Stars being distant suns, maybe as many as two dozen suns in a universe eight light-years across, and about the question of how simple the law of gravitation would be in a one-sun system. The former speculation makes readers smile at Beenay's naiveté; the latter gives them pause. The law of gravitation was not that simple for humanity Newton came up with his law at a moment in western civilization roughly comparable to that in Lagash's development. Beenay also comments that life would be impossible on a planet with only one sun, since life is fundamentally dependent on light, and that planet would have none half the time. From this the reader realizes the difficulty of imagining an alien existence. Sheerin also praises the torch as a really efficient artificial-light mechanism, providing the reader with more comparative speculation. And Beenay urges the astronomers, just before totality, not to waste time trying to get two Stars at a time in the scope field "one is enough."
The final impact of the story comes from the size of its concept and the image with which the story concludes civilization burning, even the rational astronomers themselves maddened by the sight of the Stars in a pair of passages that are not without their own poetry:
For this was the Dark the Dark and the Cold and the Doom. The bright walls of the universe were shattered and their awful black fragments were falling down to crush and squeeze and obliterate him [Theremon]. . . .
Aton, somewhere, was crying, whimpering horribly like a terribly frightened
child. "Stars all the Stars we didn't know at all. We didn't know anything. We thought six stars in a universe is something the Stars didn't notice is Darkness forever and ever and ever and the walls are breaking in and we didn't know we couldn't know and anything"
child. "Stars all the Stars we didn't know at all. We didn't know anything. We thought six stars in a universe is something the Stars didn't notice is Darkness forever and ever and ever and the walls are breaking in and we didn't know we couldn't know and anything"
Someone clawed at the torch, and it fell and snuffed out. In the instant, the awful splendor of the indifferent Stars leaped nearer to them. . . .
Only the thought of the three hundred possible survivors tucked away from all the madness in the Hideout and representing a possible break with the terrible consequences of ignorance, remains to sustain the reader.
Asimov's own three favorite short stories that he considered better than "Nightfall" were "The Last Question" (1956), "The Bicentennial Man" (1976), and "The Ugly Little Boy'' (1958). (There may be others.) All were written much later than "Nightfall," with greater craft and in more skillful prose. Readers still may have reasons to prefer "Nightfall." "The Last Question," for instance, deals with a subject even larger than "Nightfall" the death and creation of the universe but it contains virtually no characters. Readers may marvel at its cleverness but are unlikely to be moved by it. "The Bicentennial Man" and "The Ugly Little Boy" are Asimovian anomalies. They are sentimental stories of character in which people change rather than solve puzzles (although there is some puzzle-solving in "The Bicentennial Man"). Their implications are personal rather than species-wide; they deal with individuals rather than civilizations or humanity itself.
Before "Nightfall," Asimov's stories, with a few exceptions, had been imitative and relatively undistinguished. He says as much (in
The Early Asimov
) when he describes "Half-Breed" (
Astounding,
February 1940), in which he placed an intelligent race on Mars, one that was sufficiently like Earthmen to make interbreeding possible. "I just accepted science fictional clichés. Eventually I stopped doing that." This, of course, is how most writers begin. They are directed toward writing by a love of reading and they re-create what they love. Eventually, if they have talent, they find their own subjects and their own ways of dealing with them.
The Early Asimov
) when he describes "Half-Breed" (
Astounding,
February 1940), in which he placed an intelligent race on Mars, one that was sufficiently like Earthmen to make interbreeding possible. "I just accepted science fictional clichés. Eventually I stopped doing that." This, of course, is how most writers begin. They are directed toward writing by a love of reading and they re-create what they love. Eventually, if they have talent, they find their own subjects and their own ways of dealing with them.
Asimov's first published story, "Marooned Off Vesta," interestingly enough, held at its heart the Asimovian subject the rational mind presented with problems by the universe, by accident, or sometimes by the irrational elements in humanity and the Asimovian method: the characters are faced with a puzzle or a mystery and work toward a solution. In the story, a spaceship accident maroons a group of survivors three hundred miles from the asteroid Vesta, where help is available.
They must find a way to propel the wreckage toward the asteroid. One of them finally rigs a method of releasing water retained in the wreck as a jet of steam: even at the low temperature of space, water boils in a vacuum.
"The Callistan Menace," the first story Asimov wrote, also was a puzzle, but not much of one. Originally, it had been titled "Stowaway" because a space-struck boy of about thirteen stows away aboard a ship heading for the mystery world Callisto, a satellite of Jupiter. Crewmen are in danger of being killed by giant Callistan magnet worms when the boy emerges in a non-metallic rubber spacesuit to rescue them.
Asimov's tenth story and his first in
Astounding,
"Trends," was not a puzzle story and seems comparatively weaker for that reason. It was about the first steps toward spaceflight, and its chief claim to significance was its prediction of resistance to space exploration. Campbell may have liked it not only for its social theme but for the fact that the resistance to space-flight was led by an evangelical religious group and its charismatic leader.
Astounding,
"Trends," was not a puzzle story and seems comparatively weaker for that reason. It was about the first steps toward spaceflight, and its chief claim to significance was its prediction of resistance to space exploration. Campbell may have liked it not only for its social theme but for the fact that the resistance to space-flight was led by an evangelical religious group and its charismatic leader.
Over the next year Asimov wrote nine more stories and sold about half of them. He was published in
Amazing, Astonishing, Cosmic, Future, Super Science,
and
Planet,
but not in
Astounding
again until he wrote his nineteenth story, "Homo Sol" (September 1940). The story is important in that it is in some ways prefatory to the Foundation stories, as is the earlier written but later-published "Black Friar of the Flames" (
Planet,
Spring 1942). "Homo Sol" inspired in Asimov a resolution not to deal with aliens and thus to avoid Campbell's biases and his own futile arguments. That resolution may have led to Asimov's all-human galaxy, which at the time was a distinctive aspect of the Foundation stories.
Amazing, Astonishing, Cosmic, Future, Super Science,
and
Planet,
but not in
Astounding
again until he wrote his nineteenth story, "Homo Sol" (September 1940). The story is important in that it is in some ways prefatory to the Foundation stories, as is the earlier written but later-published "Black Friar of the Flames" (
Planet,
Spring 1942). "Homo Sol" inspired in Asimov a resolution not to deal with aliens and thus to avoid Campbell's biases and his own futile arguments. That resolution may have led to Asimov's all-human galaxy, which at the time was a distinctive aspect of the Foundation stories.
July 29, 1940, Asimov notes in
The Early Asimov,
was a turning point in his publishing career. Up to that day he had written twenty-two stories in twenty-five months. Of these he had sold (or was to sell) thirteen; nine never sold and no longer exist. After this day, except for two short-short stories, he never again wrote a science-fiction story that he could not sell.
The Early Asimov,
was a turning point in his publishing career. Up to that day he had written twenty-two stories in twenty-five months. Of these he had sold (or was to sell) thirteen; nine never sold and no longer exist. After this day, except for two short-short stories, he never again wrote a science-fiction story that he could not sell.
"Not Final!" (
Astounding,
October 1941) is the first nonrobot, non-Foundation story after "Nightfall" that hints at Asimov's future capabilities. Like "Nightfall," the theme of "Not Final!" has magnitude. Human spaceships have achieved interplanetary flight. Inhabitants of Jupiter have been contacted by radio, but once they learn that humans are not Jovians they send a final message that humans are vermin and will be destroyed. With all the resources of mighty Jupiter and a technology equal to that of Earth, the Jovians cannot be stopped.
Astounding,
October 1941) is the first nonrobot, non-Foundation story after "Nightfall" that hints at Asimov's future capabilities. Like "Nightfall," the theme of "Not Final!" has magnitude. Human spaceships have achieved interplanetary flight. Inhabitants of Jupiter have been contacted by radio, but once they learn that humans are not Jovians they send a final message that humans are vermin and will be destroyed. With all the resources of mighty Jupiter and a technology equal to that of Earth, the Jovians cannot be stopped.
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