Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) (29 page)
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Authors: James Gunn
BOOK: Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition)
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Walls were crutches! Darkness and crowds were crutches! He must have thought so, unconsciously, and hated them even when he most thought he loved and needed them. . . .
He felt himself filling with a sense of victory, and as though victory were contagious a new thought came, bursting like an inner shout. . . .
That thought is the solution to the murder. One good thing leads to another. Asimov has shown Baley passing through successive stages of his agoraphobia and the consequences of his attempts to conquer it, growing more able to control his fear with each incident, until at last he masters his deepest apprehensions and becomes a better person at the same time that he solves the murder that brought him to Solaria.
Only Baley's return to Earth remains to bring the movement of the novel full circle. The theme of
The Caves of Steel
was the need for Earthmen to emigrate to the unsettled planets, as a means not so much of relieving population pressure (an impractical notion, as Asimov exposed in
Nemesis
) but of resuming humanity's march to the stars so that it can accept its heritage: the uninhabited Galaxy. The theme did not seem to be taken particularly seriously in the first novel, for the possibility of Earthmen going to other planets without their enclosed environment seemed so unlikely as to be virtually impossible: at best it might be left to their children or their children's children. But in
The Naked Sun
Baley faced his fears for all Earthmen; what he can do, others can do. Baley thinks of his son Bentley "standing on some empty world, building a spacious life. It was a frightening thought. Baley still feared the open. [Asimov was a realist about human psychology and did not believe that he could work a miracle and change Baley completely.] But he no longer feared the fear! It was not something to run from, that fear, but something to fight."
The Caves of Steel
was the need for Earthmen to emigrate to the unsettled planets, as a means not so much of relieving population pressure (an impractical notion, as Asimov exposed in
Nemesis
) but of resuming humanity's march to the stars so that it can accept its heritage: the uninhabited Galaxy. The theme did not seem to be taken particularly seriously in the first novel, for the possibility of Earthmen going to other planets without their enclosed environment seemed so unlikely as to be virtually impossible: at best it might be left to their children or their children's children. But in
The Naked Sun
Baley faced his fears for all Earthmen; what he can do, others can do. Baley thinks of his son Bentley "standing on some empty world, building a spacious life. It was a frightening thought. Baley still feared the open. [Asimov was a realist about human psychology and did not believe that he could work a miracle and change Baley completely.] But he no longer feared the fear! It was not something to run from, that fear, but something to fight."
Baley goes through a few paragraphs of reverie, retracing his experiences with the open spaces and the naked sun on Solaria, and realizes not only that others can do it but that it has changed him. He no longer fits in on Earth. "He had told Minnim that Cities were wombs, and so they were. And what was the first thing a man must do before he can be a man? He must be born. He must leave the womb. And once left, it could not be re-entered." For Baley the caves of steel now are alien.
The novel ends as it began, with Baley facing his fear. But now he can handle it. He also has been changed by his experience and he understands his dream on Solaria. The last words of the novel are:
He lifted his head and he could see through all the steel and concrete and humanity above him. He could see the beacon set in space to lure men outward. He could see it shining down. The naked sun!
The Naked Sun
was the last science-fiction novel Asimov would write until
The Gods Themselves
fifteen years later (aside from a couple of his juvenile novels and his novelization of the film
Fantastic Voyage
). Why not a third robot novel to make the series a trilogy? After all, the trilogy seems like the natural science-fiction series unless the series continues interminably. In the second decade of the century there were the George Allan England
Darkness and Dawn
trilogy, the Charles B. Stilson
Polaris
trilogy, and J. U. Giesy's "Dog Star" trilogy; more recently have come J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy (1954-55), Harry Harrison's
East of Eden
trilogy, Brian W. Aldiss's
Helliconia
trilogy, and so many fantasy trilogies that one loses track. And, of course,
The Foundation Trilogy.
Asimov answered the question himself in
The Rest of the Robots,
which in the Doubleday edition included the robot novels.
was the last science-fiction novel Asimov would write until
The Gods Themselves
fifteen years later (aside from a couple of his juvenile novels and his novelization of the film
Fantastic Voyage
). Why not a third robot novel to make the series a trilogy? After all, the trilogy seems like the natural science-fiction series unless the series continues interminably. In the second decade of the century there were the George Allan England
Darkness and Dawn
trilogy, the Charles B. Stilson
Polaris
trilogy, and J. U. Giesy's "Dog Star" trilogy; more recently have come J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings
trilogy (1954-55), Harry Harrison's
East of Eden
trilogy, Brian W. Aldiss's
Helliconia
trilogy, and so many fantasy trilogies that one loses track. And, of course,
The Foundation Trilogy.
Asimov answered the question himself in
The Rest of the Robots,
which in the Doubleday edition included the robot novels.
While I was writing
The Naked Sun,
it became perfectly clear to me that what I was working on was the second novel of a trilogy.
The Naked Sun,
it became perfectly clear to me that what I was working on was the second novel of a trilogy.
In
The Caves of Steel
I had a society heavily overweighted in favor of humanity, with the robots unwelcome intruders. In
The Naked Sun,
on the other hand I had an almost pure robot society with only a thin leaven of humanity barely holding it together.
The Caves of Steel
I had a society heavily overweighted in favor of humanity, with the robots unwelcome intruders. In
The Naked Sun,
on the other hand I had an almost pure robot society with only a thin leaven of humanity barely holding it together.
What I needed to do next was to form the perfect topper to my vision of the future by setting the third novel of the trilogy in Aurora, and depicting the complete fusion of man and robot into a society that was more than both and better than either.
In the summer of 1958 I even started the novel, and then somewhere in the fourth chapter, between one page and the next, something happened.
What had happened was Sputnik. By the summer of 1958 Asimov had decided that "the American public deserved understanding of science and that it was the burning duty of writing scientists to try to give them that understanding." He turned to the subsequent science popularizations that brought him fame and fortune and that make up the majority of his 470 books.
The explanation of the decision is neat and no doubt true as far as it went. But there were other reasons. Asimov may have reached the limits of his accomplishments in science fiction. He mentioned this in his autobiography:
As to my other career, science fiction, there, too, I had gone as far as I could. I might do things that were better than "Nightfall,"
The Foundation Trilogy, I, Robot,
or
The Caves of Steel,
but surely not much better. These were already recognized as classics, and I had been writing for fifteen years and I had yet to make more than ten or eleven thousand dollars a year as a writer.
The Foundation Trilogy, I, Robot,
or
The Caves of Steel,
but surely not much better. These were already recognized as classics, and I had been writing for fifteen years and I had yet to make more than ten or eleven thousand dollars a year as a writer.
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