Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition) (31 page)
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When Asimov returned the corrected proofs to Bradbury on November 4, he described a new novel he might write. Bradbury told him to go ahead and write two chapters and an outline, and on that basis he would judge whether he wanted to offer a contract. Asimov was launched as a novelist and a writer of books. Books were to be the source of his future success and reputation and fortune, and
Pebble in the Sky
was to be number one in a list that would grow to 470. Before the year was over, Greenberg had offered Asimov a contract for publication of a collection of his robot stories, and Doubleday, an option on his new novel. Even this early in his book-publishing career, Asimov could look back on the rejection of "Grow Old with Me" by Merwin two and a half years earlier as the best thing that could have happened. "Doubleday," he recalled in his autobiography, "had found [the manuscript] more valuable because it had not been published and they might not have taken it if it had been. Since I wouldn't trade ten magazine appearances for that book, I now realized that Merwin had, all unwittingly, done me an enormous favor by rejecting it."
Pebble in the Sky
was to be number one in a list that would grow to 470. Before the year was over, Greenberg had offered Asimov a contract for publication of a collection of his robot stories, and Doubleday, an option on his new novel. Even this early in his book-publishing career, Asimov could look back on the rejection of "Grow Old with Me" by Merwin two and a half years earlier as the best thing that could have happened. "Doubleday," he recalled in his autobiography, "had found [the manuscript] more valuable because it had not been published and they might not have taken it if it had been. Since I wouldn't trade ten magazine appearances for that book, I now realized that Merwin had, all unwittingly, done me an enormous favor by rejecting it."
What was the novel that formed the cornerstone of Asimov's gigantic edifice of books? Asimov described it in these terms:
It dealt with a tailor who managed to get transferred into a future in which old people underwent euthanasia unless they could prove themselves useful to society. The problem was to work out a way in which an old tailor from the past could prove useful enough to a society of the future to be kept alive.
The plot is more complicated than usual for Asimov fiction. The story develops along several simultaneous lines, beginning with the accidental translation (by means of an unrelated laboratory incident) of a sixty-two-year-old retired tailor named Joseph Schwartz to an Earth thousands of years in the future. That Earth has been turned radioactive by atomic wars so remote that the wars themselves have been forgotten. Earth is a neglected and detested world, poor in resources and populated by only 20 million people. It exists in the early period of Asimov's Galactic Empire, which is described at the time of its fall and disintegration in the Foundation stories. The Empire consists of 200 million inhabited planets. Fifty more each day are achieving provincial status. From the heart of that Empire a distinguished young archeologist
named Bel Arvardan has come to Earth to find evidence to support his theory that humanity originated on Earth and radiated to other planets and to disprove the "merger" theory that humanity was the natural climax of evolution on any world with a water-oxygen chemical base and that each independent strain of humanity could intermarry.
named Bel Arvardan has come to Earth to find evidence to support his theory that humanity originated on Earth and radiated to other planets and to disprove the "merger" theory that humanity was the natural climax of evolution on any world with a water-oxygen chemical base and that each independent strain of humanity could intermarry.
Arvardan believes that life could not develop on planets that were naturally radioactive. Since only one radioactive planet is inhabited, Earth must have turned radioactive after life developed. Outsiders are forbidden to read the sacred book of Earthmen,
The Book of the Ancients,
but Arvardan has obtained parts of it and read statements that support his theory. He hopes to discover evidence of prior human habitation in areas now so intensely radioactive that humans cannot survive in them. His task is complicated by the anti-Terrestrialism that exists everywhere else in the Galaxy. Earthmen are considered dirty and diseased, ignorant and superstitious. Earth has a corresponding anti-Outside prejudice that counters the feelings of the rest of the Galaxy with an equally violent hatred of everything non-Terrestrial. Arvardan considers himself free of prejudice, but in an episode in which he travels in an airplane with a group of Earthmen his belief is challenged.
The Book of the Ancients,
but Arvardan has obtained parts of it and read statements that support his theory. He hopes to discover evidence of prior human habitation in areas now so intensely radioactive that humans cannot survive in them. His task is complicated by the anti-Terrestrialism that exists everywhere else in the Galaxy. Earthmen are considered dirty and diseased, ignorant and superstitious. Earth has a corresponding anti-Outside prejudice that counters the feelings of the rest of the Galaxy with an equally violent hatred of everything non-Terrestrial. Arvardan considers himself free of prejudice, but in an episode in which he travels in an airplane with a group of Earthmen his belief is challenged.
Earth is so poor that everyone, with a few exceptions for unusual service or distinction, must submit to euthanasia at the age of sixty or when no longer productive. The law is called "the Sixties" and is so much a part of Earth culture that though it may be evaded, like taxes, acceptance is universal.
In another plot line, an Earth scientist named Affret Shekt has invented a Synapsifier, which reduces the resistance of non-nervous tissue between adjoining nerve cells and improves the quickness and effectiveness of thought. The process by which people undergo the treatment, however, is believed to be dangerous, often fatal. A farm family with whom Schwartz finds himself volunteer Schwartz, who is considered feeble-minded, for the Synapsifier in the hope of rendering him capable of helping meet their farm quota for produce, for they are sheltering from euthanasia the wife's father, Grew, who has suffered a paralysis of the legs. The process makes Schwartz weak and confused, but as he recovers he learns the language quickly and then slowly develops the Mind Touch, the ability to read minds and then the ability to kill with the mind, and finally the ability to immobilize others and even to control their gross physical movements.
Meanwhile, Arvardan, Schwartz, Shekt, and Shekt's daughter Pola find themselves enmeshed in a plot by the Society of Ancients to revenge themselves upon the rest of the Galaxy for the long history of
oppression and anti-Terrestrial prejudice, and perhaps even to win control of the Galaxy and its riches for Earth. The plan is to send off toward a number of the planets in the Galaxy automatically guided missiles loaded with a mutated virus called Common Fever that is prevalent among Earthmen but fatal to Outsiders. The virus has been isolated and prepared in quantity by biological scientists treated secretly by Shekt's Synapsifier. The virus will sweep the Galaxy, destroying almost everyone within months unless the Empire surrenders and begs for the antitoxin. In the beginning, as the virus is spread to untouched planets by infected Outsiders, no one will even know that Earth is responsible.
oppression and anti-Terrestrial prejudice, and perhaps even to win control of the Galaxy and its riches for Earth. The plan is to send off toward a number of the planets in the Galaxy automatically guided missiles loaded with a mutated virus called Common Fever that is prevalent among Earthmen but fatal to Outsiders. The virus has been isolated and prepared in quantity by biological scientists treated secretly by Shekt's Synapsifier. The virus will sweep the Galaxy, destroying almost everyone within months unless the Empire surrenders and begs for the antitoxin. In the beginning, as the virus is spread to untouched planets by infected Outsiders, no one will even know that Earth is responsible.
The person in charge of the plot and the police state, with its spies and informers, is the secretary to the High Minister, a Machiavellian character named Balkis who looks for hidden motives behind every action. As in the Foundation stories, an assistant without real authority manipulates the High Minister, who is a figurehead. Balkis even has visions not simply of Earth's revenge but of himself as the new ruler of the Galaxy.
In a final subplot, Arvardan and Pola Shekt meet by accident and fall in love, although their romance is disrupted for a time by Pola's discovery that Arvardan is an Outsider.
All of these elements entwine themselves in a complicated series of events that ends with Schwartz setting off for the nearby city of Chica (Chicago) in order to avoid the Census and death, and being captured, in spite of the Mind Touch, because of his lack of familiarity with the society; Pola and her father revealing to Arvardan the plot against the Galaxy; and all of them captured and imprisoned together by Balkis, who has linked them in his mind in a twisted but purely imaginary plot of agents and deceit. Although Balkis intends to kill them, Schwartz identifies with the Earthmen and their desire for revenge and does not want to interfere. But the others finally persuade him to use his strange mental powers to help them escape and reach a nearby Imperial garrison where they can reveal the impending attack.
In a climactic scene Arvardan is humiliated by an officer of the garrison and challenges the authority of the commanding officer. Eventually, he and the others are not believed even by Ennius, the Procurator, who finds Balkis's story more credible. Only after Schwartz has escaped and the time of the missiles' firing has passed does Balkis boast of his success and Ennius shamefacedly admit his error. At this point, Schwartz enters to reveal that he Mind-Touched an Imperial officer to
fly him to Senloo (St. Louis) and bomb the building where the missiles and virus were ready to be sent off.
fly him to Senloo (St. Louis) and bomb the building where the missiles and virus were ready to be sent off.
In the final chapter, the Galaxy is sending vast loads of soil to restore Earth, Schwartz has been decorated by the Empire and is about to leave with the newly married Arvardan and Pola Shekt on a tour of the Galaxy, after which the Arvardans plan to return to Earth to work. Arvardan has become a naturalized citizen.
The novel has three major strengths. The first is the historical development of the Galactic Empire, a background that Asimov built with convincing detail through the Foundation stories and in other works. The Empire is ready-made for his use, and the lowly estate of the birthplace of humanity, which has been part of other stories (in the Foundation stories, the birthplace has been lost, as it has been in the
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth
), serves as a satisfying irony. The second strength is the use of an elderly tailor as hero (at sixty-two, Schwartz must have seemed ancient to the twenty-nine-year-old Asimov and his by-and-large youthful readers). It was an act of daring in a genre that specialized in young men for action and older men for inventions. The choice of hero that may have put off Merwin and perhaps Campbell was ultimately rewarding: Schwartz is convincing and his development into a man of understanding and strange abilities turns the novel into something of a novel of character. The third strength is in its historical parallel: just as the Empire in
The Foundation Trilogy
is comparable to the Roman Empire when it began its long fall, so Earth in
Pebble in the Sky
is comparable to Judea under the rule of the Romans, when it was awaiting the Messiah.
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth
), serves as a satisfying irony. The second strength is the use of an elderly tailor as hero (at sixty-two, Schwartz must have seemed ancient to the twenty-nine-year-old Asimov and his by-and-large youthful readers). It was an act of daring in a genre that specialized in young men for action and older men for inventions. The choice of hero that may have put off Merwin and perhaps Campbell was ultimately rewarding: Schwartz is convincing and his development into a man of understanding and strange abilities turns the novel into something of a novel of character. The third strength is in its historical parallel: just as the Empire in
The Foundation Trilogy
is comparable to the Roman Empire when it began its long fall, so Earth in
Pebble in the Sky
is comparable to Judea under the rule of the Romans, when it was awaiting the Messiah.
Asimov's choice of the historical parallel is deliberate. As proof, one can point to his successful use of the same technique in the
Trilogy
and to his fascination with history. There is internal evidence as well: 1) Earthmen clearly represent the Jews; 2) the Empire's representative on Earth is called a Procurator, as was Pontius Pilate, the Roman administrator of Judea who condemned Jesus to the Cross; 3) Earthmen are bloodthirsty, always asking for the death penalty for one of themselves, as did the Jews when they were asked whether to spare Jesus (the High Minister says, ''. . . my people are an obstinate and stiff-necked race . . ."); 4) Earth's extremists are called Zealots, as was the radical group that advocated the overthrow of Roman rule; and 5) at one point a troubled Ennius, as Pilate, says of Balkis, "I find no fault with this man." Though Ennius might double for Pilate, the Machiavellian Balkis as Christ stretches the parallel a bit. Perhaps it is not intended to be carried that far.
Trilogy
and to his fascination with history. There is internal evidence as well: 1) Earthmen clearly represent the Jews; 2) the Empire's representative on Earth is called a Procurator, as was Pontius Pilate, the Roman administrator of Judea who condemned Jesus to the Cross; 3) Earthmen are bloodthirsty, always asking for the death penalty for one of themselves, as did the Jews when they were asked whether to spare Jesus (the High Minister says, ''. . . my people are an obstinate and stiff-necked race . . ."); 4) Earth's extremists are called Zealots, as was the radical group that advocated the overthrow of Roman rule; and 5) at one point a troubled Ennius, as Pilate, says of Balkis, "I find no fault with this man." Though Ennius might double for Pilate, the Machiavellian Balkis as Christ stretches the parallel a bit. Perhaps it is not intended to be carried that far.
Asimov may have intended the comparison of Christ and Balkis to point up the significant fact that he is not simply rewriting history. Balkis is not Christ, just as
Pebble in the Sky
is not a simple retelling of the Judea story. Earth is a Judea with special characteristics; it is a Judea with radiation poisoning and institutionalized euthanasia, and it is a Judea given an opportunity to avenge its wrongs and regain its freedom. Asimov's critics (Damon Knight among them), who dismissed his historically inspired science fiction as merely the rewriting of history, overlooked the fact that the Galactic Empire in the Foundation stories is not the Roman Empire at the time of its fall but a Galactic Empire with foresight psychohistory to shorten the Dark Ages and with the Foundations not simply to preserve knowledge, as the monasteries did, but to add to it, disseminate it, and use it as the basis for a newer and more rational Galactic civilization.
Pebble in the Sky
is not a simple retelling of the Judea story. Earth is a Judea with special characteristics; it is a Judea with radiation poisoning and institutionalized euthanasia, and it is a Judea given an opportunity to avenge its wrongs and regain its freedom. Asimov's critics (Damon Knight among them), who dismissed his historically inspired science fiction as merely the rewriting of history, overlooked the fact that the Galactic Empire in the Foundation stories is not the Roman Empire at the time of its fall but a Galactic Empire with foresight psychohistory to shorten the Dark Ages and with the Foundations not simply to preserve knowledge, as the monasteries did, but to add to it, disseminate it, and use it as the basis for a newer and more rational Galactic civilization.
Typically, however, Asimov did not allow Judea (Earth) to get its revenge and its freedom. Such short-sighted triumphs were foreign to Asimov's philosophy. He was not religious and disliked Judaism as a form of "particularly pernicious nationalism. . . ." In
Pebble in the Sky
Asimov opts for civilization and sanity and understanding, which eventually may lead (though in
Foundation and Earth
Asimov revealed that the effort was unsuccessful) to the restoration of an Earth that was ravaged by the insanities of the little groups firmly convinced, each one, that it was better than the others.
Pebble in the Sky
Asimov opts for civilization and sanity and understanding, which eventually may lead (though in
Foundation and Earth
Asimov revealed that the effort was unsuccessful) to the restoration of an Earth that was ravaged by the insanities of the little groups firmly convinced, each one, that it was better than the others.
Pebble in the Sky
also has its weaknesses. The plot against the Galaxy is an isolated act intended to reverse the balance of power at one blow, unlike the more convincing context of actions in the Foundation stories, each one moving the Galaxy in some small way closer to Hari Seldon's vision. Schwartz's bombing of the missile site, which occurs offstage like the violence in the Foundation stories, is a cutting of the Gordian knot that lacks the subtlety with which Asimov unravels his better works. Balkis's insistence on perceiving complicated plots in accidental relationships may be credible considering his own machinations but seems more an authorial convenience in light of the fact that his own conniving rather than someone else's determination brings about his downfall.
also has its weaknesses. The plot against the Galaxy is an isolated act intended to reverse the balance of power at one blow, unlike the more convincing context of actions in the Foundation stories, each one moving the Galaxy in some small way closer to Hari Seldon's vision. Schwartz's bombing of the missile site, which occurs offstage like the violence in the Foundation stories, is a cutting of the Gordian knot that lacks the subtlety with which Asimov unravels his better works. Balkis's insistence on perceiving complicated plots in accidental relationships may be credible considering his own machinations but seems more an authorial convenience in light of the fact that his own conniving rather than someone else's determination brings about his downfall.
In fact, weakness of motivation is the major flaw of the novel. Events happen for the novel's reasons to keep it going rather than the characters' reasons. Schwartz just happens to be projected into the future and just happens to stumble into the home of the one family that has reason to take him in. Shekt just happens to have advertised for volunteers on which to test the Synapsifier just before Schwartz arrives
from the past (why did Shekt need to test the Synapsifier, since he already had used it on a number of the Society of Ancients biologists, and why did the Society allow him to advertise?). The crippled Grew just happens to read about it, and the family just happens to decide to volunteer Schwartz for it to cure his mental deficiencies. Later on, Schwartz just happens to escape from the Institute (he has no reason) as Arvardan is passing by, and Pola, going in search of him, just happens to meet Arvardan. Natter, Balkis's agent, just happens to decide to save Schwartz from being captured by Imperial soldiers, and even that decision seems inadequately motivated. Fortunate incidents accumulate. Few of them happen because they must, but all of them are necessary to the manipulations of the story. This leads Asimov to various kinds of shoring-up processes of which Balkis's conspiracy mania is the grossest example. Without it, none of the rest of the events would have mattered: the missiles would have gone off as scheduled and Earth would have had its will of the Galaxy.
from the past (why did Shekt need to test the Synapsifier, since he already had used it on a number of the Society of Ancients biologists, and why did the Society allow him to advertise?). The crippled Grew just happens to read about it, and the family just happens to decide to volunteer Schwartz for it to cure his mental deficiencies. Later on, Schwartz just happens to escape from the Institute (he has no reason) as Arvardan is passing by, and Pola, going in search of him, just happens to meet Arvardan. Natter, Balkis's agent, just happens to decide to save Schwartz from being captured by Imperial soldiers, and even that decision seems inadequately motivated. Fortunate incidents accumulate. Few of them happen because they must, but all of them are necessary to the manipulations of the story. This leads Asimov to various kinds of shoring-up processes of which Balkis's conspiracy mania is the grossest example. Without it, none of the rest of the events would have mattered: the missiles would have gone off as scheduled and Earth would have had its will of the Galaxy.
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