Nationhood and Agency in the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
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Universiteit Gent Academiejaar 2016-2017 The Tools of the State: Nationhood and Agency in the Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov Masterproef voorgelegd Nina Bauwelinck tot het behalen van de graad van Student Master in de Master of Arts in de Taal- en Letterkunde Taal- en Letterkunde: Spaans-Engels Spaans-Engels Promotor: Dr. Jasper Schelstraete Leescommissie: Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Amann en Dr. Kwinten Van De Walle 1 Acknowledgements I want to thank my supervisor, Dr. Schelstraete, for helping me make sense of the many possible inroads into the theme of nationhood in the Foundation series and for helping me delineate my argument, while still allowing me a lot of freedom. I also want to thank my parents and brother for helping me out by proofreading and also for supporting me throughout the writing process. 2 INDEX Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………5-8 1. State of mind: the “imagined community” of the nation (Benedict Anderson)……..9-15 1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..…9-11 1.2 The collective memory of the nation: a construction of narratives…………….11-12 1.3 The rejection of the divine right to rule………………………………………...12-13 1.4 From “Messianic” to “homogenous, empty” time…………………………..…14-15 2. Nationhood in the Foundation series (1951; 1952; 1953; 1988) by Isaac Asimov……………………………………………………………………………….…...16-45 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………….16 2.2 The narrative construction of national identity………………………………...16-23 2.2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………...16 2.2.2 The Seldon Plan: a future-oriented foundational narrative………………17 2.2.3 The Seldon Plan: crossing boundaries between generations……........17-18 2.2.4 The need for two “imagined communities”……………………..……18-21 2.2.5 Mythological narratives………………………………………..…….21-23 2.3 Scientific thought and new perspectives on authority………………….………23-33 2.3.1 The First Foundation: a nation built on science………………...……23-25 2.3.2 Salvor Hardin’s critique of the Encyclopedists……………………...25-27 2.3.3 The nation in defence of the institution of Empire………...…………27-30 2.3.4 Science after independence: an integral part of nationalist identity.…30-33 2.4 The transition from “Messianic” to “homogenous, empty” time……….….......33-45 2.4.1 Introduction………………………………………………….............33-34 2.4.2 The Time-Vault………………………………………………...……34-38 2.4.3 After the loss of the Time-Vault……………………………...............38-40 2.4.4 Achieving non-embodied, non-performative power…………………41-45 3 3. In a state: “agency panic” in the Foundation series……………………………….…49-60 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….……46 3.2 Theoretical framework………………………………………...........................47-48 3.2.1 “Agency panic” (Timothy Melley)………………………………………47 3.2.2 “Psychic decolonization” (David Higgins)…………………...…………48 3.3 The problem of agency in the Foundation series………………………………49-60 3.3.1 The Mule…………………………………………………..…………49-53 3.3.2 The Second Foundation…………………………………...................53-60 4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...61-62 5. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………...…63-64 (25,523 words) 4 Introduction Science fiction tends to examine the impact of certain innovative ideas on the development of human society, by foregrounding a particular “thought experiment” (Mendlesohn 2003: 4). This is no different in the case of Isaac Asimov (1919-1992), whose Foundation series (1951-1993) imagines a universe in which scientific principles are applied to society (Attebery 2003: 39). In this thesis I will analyse how the concepts of nationhood and nationalism are represented in four novels from this series: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), as well as the first prequel in the series Prelude to Foundation (1988). While the series spans a total of seven novels, I want to limit the scope of my analysis to the trilogy (1951; 1952; 1953), because these novels form the backbone of the whole series and are also most widely known. I have chosen to add Prelude to Foundation (1988) to this corpus, because this first prequel delves deeper into the origins of certain key concepts which figure prominently in the trilogy (notably, psychohistory and the Seldon Plan). First of all, I want to offer a brief overview of the main plot line of these four novels. For the purpose of intelligibility, I will follow the chronological order of events, but I want to stress that this is not the order in which the series is organized. In Prelude to Foundation (1988), Hari Seldon is working on the development of the practical application of the statistical science of psychohistory, which allows for the calculation of the probable futures of a specific group of people. In his quest to turn psychohistory from mere theory into practice, Seldon runs into a lot of obstacles. He is guided through his search by Chetter Hummin, who appears to have a particular interest in seeing Seldon succeed. Hummin explains to Seldon that the stakes are high: the current Galactic Empire is rapidly decaying and Seldon’s psychohistory could help them set the course for a new and improved Empire. By observing the different societies which exist on Trantor, the Empire’s capital city (which spans a massive planet divided into “sectors”), Seldon is able to determine the necessary steps for the creation of the Seldon Plan (which is the practical application of psychohistory). The trilogy chronicles the development of the First Foundation on the planet Terminus, fifty years after the death of its founder, Hari Seldon, who had established two Foundations in order for his Plan to succeed. The first one initially consists of about a hundred thousand people, among whom were fifty scientists, and starts off as a scientific colony, but it becomes a nation once Salvor Hardin takes control of its government. While being kept deliberately in the dark about the location and purpose of the Second Foundation, the First Foundationers are guided along the path to Empire by the Seldon Plan, which offers them a clear sense of destiny and 5 largely shapes their national identity. Every few decades, the Foundation is faced with a so- called “Seldon Crisis”, which presents them with a difficult obstacle which has been predicted by the science of psychohistory. In order to overcome these obstacles, each time a different tactic has to be employed by the leaders of the Foundation. For instance, when their planet Terminus is threatened by the military power of the barbarian kingdoms situated in the periphery of the Galaxy, the First Foundation starts a religion based on science which places these kingdoms firmly under Terminus’ control. However, there is one foe which even Seldon has not managed to predict: the Mule. He is a mutant in possession of powers of mental control which allow him to convert anyone to his ranks. Because of this unforeseen threat, the Second Foundation is forced to intervene and to neutralize the Mule. In doing so, they have exposed their existence as well as their own powers of mental control to the First Foundationers. After a game of cat and mouse, the Second Foundation finally manages to resume its covert existence and the Seldon Plan is allowed to continue along its way. I will now explain to what extent I will be drawing from the theory of the nation as an “imagined community”, as developed by Benedict Anderson, in order to discuss the specificities of nationhood in the First Foundation. Anderson’s theory proves to be useful to examine a wide range of “imagined communities”, but his specific definition of the nation as one which is both limited and sovereign (Anderson 1999: 6) is especially helpful in marking the distinctions between the First Foundation’s national identity and that of the other types of nationhood present in the series (particularly, the Galactic Empire and the dynastic kingdoms). According to Anderson, the national identity of the “imagined community” is created through the employment of narratives to combat amnesia. I will argue that, contrary to the nation’s traditional insistence on the past (the nation as old and timeless), the Seldon Plan functions as a foundational narrative which is oriented towards the future. This foundational narrative results in a shared investment in the consolidation of the unrealized future “imagined community” of the Second Galactic Empire. Therefore, I will argue that the First Foundation’s nationhood is not considered to be a necessary alternative to the notion of Empire. In order to better understand this positive evaluation of Empire, as well as the investment of the people of the First Foundation in such a far-off future, I will be taking into account the specific space/time conceptions present in the novels’ universe (discussing the notions of “hyper-space” and “Time- Vault”, respectively). In this regard, I will be referring to the concept of “time-space compression” (David Harvey). Secondly, I will consider the importance of the Seldon Plan as a scientific basis for the nation, as demonstrated by two specific passages in which the opposition between religion and 6 science corresponds to the antithesis between barbarism and civilization: the Atomic Priesthood and Mycogen’s devotion to history. I will also demonstrate that the scientific nature of the Seldon Plan does not preclude it from assuming mythological guises in the perception of non- members of the “imagined community” of the First Foundation (specifically, the myths of “Raven” Seldon, “manifest destiny” and the “magician’s cult”). Finally, I will discuss the major theme of the problem of agency in the Foundation series, in light of the notion of “agency panic”, which according to its theorist Timothy Melley (2000) is one of the central characteristics of American post-war literature. This notion allows me to contextualize the specific problems of agency which the First Foundation is faced with (the Mule’s mental powers and the Second Foundation’s constant interventions in the minds of individuals) and to consider the impact they have on the nation.