From: seiler@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (Ed Seiler)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Asimov, an appreciation (long)
Date: 6 Apr 92 19:13:21 GMT
Article-I.D.: nsisrv.1992Apr6.191321.11225
Organization: Hughes/STX


  Isaac Asimov loved to write. He wrote with a passion and dedication, 
publishing nearly 500 books in his career. There have been others who 
have published more books, but no one who has written with such breadth. 
He wrote fiction and non-fiction, science fiction and science, books for 
children and for adults, about history, the bible, humor, mysteries, 
poetry, and more. Always more. Truly for him, writing was his life.

  I never knew Isaac Asimov. I wish I had. I met him briefly on several 
occasions, exchanged a few words. I wrote to him several times; each 
time he wrote back. He believed in reading his own mail, rather than 
hiring someone to do it. When I spoke to him once, I asked him about 
some small books that he wrote that I had a hard time finding. He told 
me that he thought he had a few spare copies, and that I should write to 
him about it. When I did write, I only asked him if he could tell me 
where I could get them; much to my surprise he sent me the books 
themselves.

  Not only was Asimov a talented writer, but he was a very good speaker 
as well. I attended several of his talks, and found them to be both 
thought provoking and entertaining. It was not at all unusual for him to 
receive a standing ovation during a particularly good speech. Yet his 
talks were often given without much preparation; he would pick a subject 
he had written about (every subject that he knew something about, he had 
written about) and go on from there.

  He had a strong sense of humor of which he was quite proud. There were 
few things about himself for which he was not proud. Humility was not a 
virtue that he embraced, but he also was quick to poke fun at himself. 
He also had an endearing quality, one that he especially aimed at the 
ladies. Asimov was unabashedly lecherous, perhaps the title character of 
his little book "The Sensuous Dirty Old Man". He could charm, though I'm 
pretty sure, at least in his later years, that he was all talk, and that 
the recipients of his attention knew that well. He was a man who wrote 
of adventures in distant galaxies, yet who absolutely refused to fly on 
an airplane. He loved Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, Sherlock Holmes, 
The Lord of the Rings, mystery stories and history books, but most of 
all he loved to write.

  My involvement with Asimov seemed to have an innocuous beginning. One 
of his books on astronomy just happened to catch my eye in the library. 
Go to any library in the country, and there is a good chance that you 
will run across at least one of his books. After I read that first book, 
I was pleased, though not overly so. But I noticed that he had written 
some other books, and my curiosity was piqued. So I read a few more of 
his books. And some more. I discovered his science fiction, and found 
that I liked that too. I soon found that for almost any subject that I 
was interested in, Asimov had written a book on it. I don't know 
precisely when it happened, but at some point I decided to undertake 
"the quest". That was to read every single book he had ever written. 
Certainly not an undertaking for the faint of heart, for just coming up 
with a complete bibliography was next to impossible, since he was always 
writing. Night and day. Seven days a week. Three hundred and sixty-five 
days a year. Plus one more day in leap years. Yet I do not regret 
undertaking my quest. It has been enjoyable, though I have never been 
prepared for the eventuality that this quest could be attained.

  Though I met him only briefly, I feel that I knew him well, for he did 
not hesitate to write about himself. He wrote an autobiography that was 
published in two fat volumes, and which only covered roughly two-thirds 
of his life. True to form, it dealt mainly with his literary career. The 
best glimpse of himself I feel came from his monthly science column in 
the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which he never missed 
writing in over 32 years. He began each article with a personal 
anecdote, often humorous, that gave some insight into the man behind the 
typewriter. Then he would launch into whatever he wanted to discuss that 
month. The topics included astronomy, physics, chemistry, math, and 
biology, as well as speculations on the nature of intelligence, warnings 
on the dangers of overpopulation, and diatribes against the empty-
headedness of pseudoscience. He kept his writing clear and simple, and 
assumed his readers to be intelligent. After all, the magazine was a 
science fiction magazine, and Asimov was proud of the general 
intelligence of science fiction readers.

  It was science fiction where Asimov first made his mark as a writer. 
He had great praise for his mentor John Campbell, who not only rejected 
the first stories submitted by the young Asimov, but who took the time 
to offer some suggestions and did so in a gracious manner. Asimov often 
wrote how much he valued Campbell's rejections. Asimov started writing 
stories in the pulp tradition that he grew up loving to read while 
working in his father's candy store. Under Campbell's guidance, he soon 
progressed to a style that became something more, and left his mark on 
the field forever. For Asimov, it was of utmost importance to keep the 
science in science fiction. He disdained the efforts of those who 
thought otherwise. Despite such an insistence on the technological 
aspects of the craft, Asimov managed to write many stories that were 
touched by a very human quality. A prime example of this is his short 
story The Ugly Little Boy, of which he was quite proud. It was about an 
experiment that retrieved a prehistoric "caveboy" from the past, and 
dealt with the attachment that grew between him and the scientist who 
cared for him. Another example is his award-winning story "The 
Bicentennial Man", exploring the emotions of a robot who becomes so 
advanced that he learns what it is like to feel human.

  Asimov was often criticized for the weakness of his characterizations, 
and his inability to handle interpersonal relationships, particularly 
sex. Asimov stated that he did not feel comfortable about including sex 
in his science fiction, but as a writer he felt he could not avoid a 
challenge. When a wager was made to the effect that he was unable to 
incorporate sex in a story, he wrote the novel "The Gods Themselves", 
which detailed sex among alien, trisexual creatures. Perhaps as science 
fiction has evolved, Asimov did not evolve the same way, which may be 
the reason he turned mostly to nonfiction in his later years. But let it 
never be forgotten that science fiction today stands on the shoulders of 
giants of the past, giants who are sadly departing this world. Isaac 
Asimov, you will be deeply missed.

Ed Seiler
Hughes/STX Corp.
seiler@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov