On FOUNDATION and my Asimov history

So, a TV series based on Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION series is coming out, probably already started by the time anyone reads this. As I mentioned in a previous post, I wasn't even aware that this was a thing a month ago, when I came across one of the ads for it. Which is kind of weird, because in a previous phase of my life it would have been all I was thinking about for months prior to its debut. So I've had Asimov on the brain a lot for the last month.

(as to the TV show, while the first ad I saw for it looked good, subsequent investigation has seriously tempered my enthusiasm. And watching stuff on AppleTV is a pain. I've been willing to do it for TED LASSO, but not much else. It's a ten episode season, so I'll probably wait for five to air and start those, see how long I last)

Isaac Asimov's writing was pretty much a defining feature of my teen years. As I recall, it started when I was twelve. I was a pretty voracious reader prior to that, but most of the stuff I was reading prior to that was very much kids' stuff. Nothing I'm too ashamed of, but I know a lot of it involved precocious kids who were too smart for their age and had to solve the problems of grownups. We're talking Danny Dunn, Encyclopedia Brown, The Great Brain.  Anyway, that year we had a daily reading time in school, which in retrospect was probably break time for the teacher, where we had to sit and quietly read a book from the school library for, if I'm recalling correctly, fifteen minutes a day. The second one I picked was NIGHTFALL AND OTHER STORIES, a short story collection by Asimov. Not sure why I picked that. I might have been familiar with Asimov's name, maybe from the science fiction magazine bearing his name. I was definitely motivated by it being a short story collection, much more suited to 15-minute chunks of reading five days a week. Anyway, I don't think it's exaggerating to say that book changed my life, in tiny increments, over the next month or so. There are just whole ways of looking at the world that I'd never encountered before, a huge variety of imaginative settings used to tell stories about basic human truths. Also, and this can't be overestimated, Asimov wrote introductions to every story, which gave some fascinating insights into the process of writing and publishing that were all new to me.

Now, at twelve I was pretty undeveloped as a cultural consumer. I watched a lot of TV, but probably the only show I loved back then that I can still watch with anything other than nostalgic affection is THE MUPPET SHOW, and, y'know, that's kind of sui generis. Maybe DOCTOR WHO, I kind of go hot-and-cold on that. The only movies I remember seeing that I'd still watch today are THE WIZARD OF OZ and WILLY WONKA, maybe the STAR WARS movies. I was late in developing any affinity for music, so it would be a take a few more years for me to like anything, and a few more for me to really discover my groove.  There are a few comics I was reading back then that I still think highly of (the Perez/Wolfman TITANS and Giffen/Levitz LEGION among them), but even those I'd place as solid second tier behind that stuff that really clicked with me, which was still years in the future for me, even if it was mostly published decades in the past. So Asimov took root in a pretty fertile but empty field. After painfully finishing NIGHTFALL in fifteen minute increments (no, I couldn't just take it home, yes, I asked) I took it out as a regular library loan and re-read it in days, and then revisited favourite stories and scenes (in retrospect, I could have just lied and said I finished it, then taken it out as a regular loan. Oh, stupid honest 12-year-old Bob...). The school library was lacking in more, but the public library came through (hat-tip to https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/). I'm not sure, I think I, ROBOT was next, maybe some of the Robot or Empire novels. The man wrote a lot.

It didn't take me too long reading works by and about Asimov to become aware of the the FOUNDATION series (in fact, looking at the dates, it seems FOUNDATION'S EDGE was published just a few months prior to my discovery of NIGHTFALL). I admit I was initially a bit intimidated by it. I don't think it was helped by the covers of the available library copies being kind of weird. I've yoinked copies off the internet:

Tell me that's appealing to a 12-year-old boy. Also, for some reason I could never wrap my head around the fact that SECOND FOUNDATION is the third book (something whoever did this graphic didn't seem to know, either).

Obviously I eventually got over my issues, and exhausted all the other available Asimov science fiction in the library (little knowing what awaited me scattered throughout Dewey's decimal system). And probably had another birthday, so I was thirteen and officially a man, mazel tov. Okay, maybe not, but I was ready for the next level of storytelling, and this was it. Still kind of hard to believe that it was written from 1942 to 1950. It feels much more modern than that. Anyway, I have no idea how many times I read those books in the ensuing years. At least twice before I tackled FOUNDATION'S EDGE, and again after I finished that, and every time another book in the series came out (1986, 1988 and 1993) I'd re-read at least the original trilogy (my feelings about the later books are, let's say, complicated and still evolving, and a tale for another time). So I'd say at least seven times I read the trilogy in ten years.

But it's been a while. I still revisit Asimov on a regular basis, maybe every year or so, but I'm more likely to hit some of the short stories, maybe one of the (not quite) stand-alone novels, or some non-fiction. I think it's been at least 20 years since I've read the original FOUNDATION books. There was a time I'd have thought that was unthinkable. There was also a time when nothing would excite me more than then thought of a screen adaptation of FOUNDATION. But that was before THE BICENTENNIAL MAN and I, ROBOT broke my hearts. I'm still intrigued, even though it looks like some of what's going to be in the first season comes from the prequels PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION and FORWARD THE FOUNDATION, which are okay on their own merits, but a bit problematic in the grand scheme. There also seems to be a lot of original material in the adaptation, which, given the past work of the writer/producer, does not feel me with glee.

So I've got a few weeks, I think I might re-read the original trilogy again, maybe some of the other books. I'm just kind of sorry that it took this to get me to think back on my history with Asimov in such detail (trust me, the first draft of this post was much longer, and all the tangents in my head that didn't even make it to the screen would have made it three times longer). And hopefully, regardless of quality, this TV show will bring a new readership to Asimov's work (I haven't looked at how they're marketing the inevitable re-issues of the book, I hope they aren't trying to sell PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION as the first book and ideal starting point. I assume not, since Hari Seldon is being played by an old guy and Gaal Dornick appears to be a major part of it, and Salvor Hardin is in the cast list, so maybe flashbacks to the events of the prequels?). It definitely does deserve it. 

My own advice would be to pick up an Asimov short story collection (anything with "Robot" in the title), read a few of those, maybe pick up a short novel (THE CAVES OF STEEL, perhaps, is your best bet), then dive into FOUNDATION, remember that FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE is the second book and SECOND FOUNDATION is the third (fool me once...). Then, no matter what you think of it all, take a break. Do not dive right into either the sequels FOUNDATION'S EDGE and FOUNDATION AND EARTH or the prequels PRELUDE TO FOUNDATION and FORWARD THE FOUNDATION. Let the original trilogy sit in your head for a while. At least six months is probably good, ideally a year. Then re-read it, and then read the other four gradually, in publication order (EDGE, EARTH, PRELUDE, FORWARD). Actually, before you read EARTH there are other things you need to read, and a few more that might help, but revealing what and why those are here would be a spoiler (even saying this much is a spoiler, for which I can only apologize). Which I suspect will be spoiled by the end of the first season of the show.

But that's just my thoughts. Do it your own way, but definitely try the books, regardless of what the TV show turns out to be. I'm sure they'll be more readily available for the next little while than they ever have been before, even if you have to buy AppleTV branded editions.