THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS James Gunn CELEBRATING ISAAC
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THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS James Gunn CELEBRATING ISAAC On October 26 I gave a talk about my book about his science fiction, he Isaac Asimov at West Virginia Universi- said that I should be writing my own fic- ty in Morgantown. The occasion was part tion. of a continuing lecture series called “A Isaac was brought to this country at Celebration of Ideas,” and the WVU li- the age of three and grew up in a series brary and the university’s Chief of Staff of Brooklyn candy stores. That, he felt, Jay Cole and his marvelous student as- shaped his later life. He did not regret sistant Molly Simis came up with the the habits they instilled in him—with happy idea of featuring a talk about the possible exception of the social awk- Isaac, in large part because the library’s wardness created by never visiting any- special collections have what probably is one or having anyone visit the family, the largest collection of Asimov materials tied as they were to the unrelenting de- after that held by Boston University. mands of the store—because they result- How WVU got the Asimov collection is a ed in the adult, successful Isaac Asimov. story in itself: a WVU alumnus, Larry And that was a very good thing to be. Shaver, now living in Oklahoma City had He found ways to cope with the larger been collecting Asimov books and other world, at first with wit bordering on the materials since his college days. He of- smart-alecky and later with what he fered his collection to WVU, and the li- called “gallantry to the ladies,” which con- brary had the wisdom to accept them. Lat- sisted of suggestive remarks offered as er Carlos Patterson of Sacramento, jests, and an overall air of amazement at California, not an alumnus, heard about his own success coupled with a generous the collection and added several hundred accounting of his own failings and the items from his Asimov collection; the putdowns by his friends. In his school WVU collection now has almost seven days, for instance, he recounted the occa- hundred items, including games and sion when Leigh Hunt’s “Abou Ben Ad- quizzes with Isaac’s name on them. Both hem” was scheduled for discussion. Ben donors flew in to Morgantown for the oc- Adhem, whose name is not in the angel’s casion. tablet as one who loves the lord, asks to Here are the remarks I made to an en- be written as one who loves his fellow thusiastic audience of 180 (mostly) Asi- man, and the poem ends with “And lo! mov fans in a big room at the WVU stu- Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.” Isaac dent center. was ready for the teacher’s question: “Why did Ben Adhem’s name lead all the I am pleased to talk about my friend and rest?” “Alphabetical order, sir!” Isaac vol- literary model, Isaac Asimov, in this, the unteered. He was sent to the principal, year he would have been ninety—or Isaac recounted, “but it was worth it.” maybe ninety-one. As nearly as his par- Isaac credited his transformation from ents could calculate, he was born on Jan- annoying know-it-all to genial comrade to uary 2, 1920, but that was in Petrovichi, an incident late in World War II, when he Russia, where records and memories are had been inducted into the Army and unclear, and he may have been born as sent to H-bomb tests in the Pacific. He early as October 4. He would have been heard a soldier telling a couple of others astonished at the idea of this kind of cel- about how the bomb worked. He rose to ebration; when I interviewed him for assume the smart man’s burden and offer 10 Asimov’s the correct account when he asked him- ence” in the magazine’s title. self who appointed him their educator, Isaac’s father gave him a used office- and sat down. Ironically, a few years later sized typewriter when Isaac was fifteen, he assumed the smart man’s burden by and Isaac put it to use immediately, writ- beginning a series of non-fiction books ing letters to the science fiction maga- about almost everything that we celebrate zines commenting on the stories, particu- today, that led Professor George G. Simp- larly those in Astounding Stories, which son of Harvard to call him “one of our nat- had recently been acquired by Street & ural wonders and national resources.” Smith from the bankrupt Clayton maga- Before Isaac was a celebrated sage, zine chain. His fascination was intensi- however, he was a science fiction writer, fied when John W. Campbell, Jr., was and even in his latter days he wanted to named editor of the magazine in 1937 be known as a science fiction writer. “It is and changed the name to Astounding Sci- uphill to science fiction; downhill to every- ence-Fiction. Isaac decided then to start thing else,” he commented. He wrote writing science fiction stories, and, more about attending a World Book meeting of importantly,to write them for Astounding. contributors where each was introduced Soon afterward Isaac discovered that with an orchestral theme. To Isaac’s cha- the magazine was edited in Manhattan, grin, he was introduced with “How deep is a subway ride away, and Isaac ventured the ocean, how high is the sky?” “No mat- in to meet Campbell. It was the first of a ter how various the subject matter I series of meetings that would shape wrote on,” he said, “I was a science fiction Isaac’s developing mind and future. writer first and it is as a science fiction Campbell was patient and provocative writer that I want to be identified.” about science, culture, and writing, and In the introduction to Nebula Award he was willing to talk by the hour to the Stories Eight, he wrote: inexperienced teenager, even reading the I began by writing science fiction . stories Isaac began bringing to him and and for thirty years I’ve found that pointing out their flaws while he reject- my training in science fiction made it ed them. The first story Isaac published, possible for me to write anything. “Marooned Off Vesta,” when he was I have written about 150 books as of nineteen, was in Amazing Stories and now, and I tell you, that of all the the second as well, but he counted the things I write, science fiction is by real beginning of his career from the story far the hardest thing I do. “Trends” that he published in Astound- Isaac fell in love with science fiction in ing a couple of months later. his father’s candy store, which stocked That began a remarkable collabora- newspapers and magazines. Isaac tion of editor and author that lasted ten learned to read them so carefully they years. That collaboration included Isaac’s could be returned looking untouched—a robot stories, his Foundation stories, and habit that he retained until the end of his non-series stories, among which was, his life. Among those magazines was a in 1942, his first story featured on the new kind of publication that had started cover, “Nightfall.” Although he didn’t when Isaac was six years old: Amazing know it, this publication would establish Stories, then Science Wonder Stories and his reputation as a major writer. The sto- Astounding Stories of Super Science. ry illustrated the way in which the edi- Isaac had taught himself to read at the tor and the author worked together. age of five, and Isaac’s father always Isaac had come to Campbell’s office on viewed his son with a sense of awe and a one of his frequent visits, and Campbell determination that his elder son would quoted a sentence from Ralph Waldo be a doctor. He ordered Isaac not to Emerson’s Nature: “If the stars should waste his time on such pulp magazines appear one night in a thousand years, until Isaac pointed out the word “sci- how would men believe and adore; and Thought Experiments: Celebrating Isaac 11 April/May 2011 preserve for many generations the re- disliked anatomy and dissection. membrance of the city of God.” And Camp- He also discovered that he could not get bell said, “What do you think would hap- into medical school and decided to study pen, Asimov, if men were to see the stars chemistry toward a graduate degree, in- for the first time in a thousand years.” “I terrupted by a period of military research don’t know,” Isaac said, and Campbell at the U.S. Navy Yard in Philadelphia replied. “I think they would go mad. I with Robert Heinlein and L. Sprague de want you to write a story about that.” Camp. All this time Isaac was writing The incident brings up a question and selling stories regularly to Campbell. about Isaac’s writing style. Style, Todor- As a writer who had experienced finan- ov wrote, is what stands between the cial struggles myself, I was surprised— reader and the text, and Isaac wanted and, to be honest, somewhat bemused—to nothing to stand in the way. One of the read in Isaac’s autobiography that he had first scholars writing about Isaac’s work, earned a total of $7,821.75 in his first Joe Patrouch, commented that Isaac eleven years, or about $710 a year. could write poetically when he wished Isaac earned his Ph.D. in 1948 and, af- and cited a paragraph near the end of ter a year of post-doctoral research at “Nightfall.” Isaac replied that trans- Columbia, was hired as an instructor in parency was a style, and that paragraph biochemistry at the Boston University didn’t prove that he could write poetical- School of Medicine.