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There is one small catch: no kind of matter known can withstand the pressure of Jupiter without smashing, and no Jovian spaceship can leave Jupiter without exploding. In the final scene, however, a human inventor develops a spaceship hull made incredibly strong by a force field that can be maintained because it flicks on and off, stroboscopically, eight hundred thousand times a second. "Victory Unintentional," the sequel to "Not Final!," is summarized in Chapter 3.
At this point in his writing career, Asimov's robot stories were well established and his Foundation stories were beginning to be published. "Nightfall" had given him a cover on
Astounding,
and he was being published in that magazine with some regularity. He had no reason to believe that he could make a living as a writer, but the writing was a great help to his bank account he was paying his tuition as well as some other expenses although still living at home. In 1942, while he was continuing his graduate work in chemistry at Columbia (having passed on the second try his qualifying examinations to undertake research), he experienced his first dry spell. It was fourteen months before he returned to his typewriter and then only on a limited basis.
Astounding,
and he was being published in that magazine with some regularity. He had no reason to believe that he could make a living as a writer, but the writing was a great help to his bank account he was paying his tuition as well as some other expenses although still living at home. In 1942, while he was continuing his graduate work in chemistry at Columbia (having passed on the second try his qualifying examinations to undertake research), he experienced his first dry spell. It was fourteen months before he returned to his typewriter and then only on a limited basis.
He had good reasons for his temporary abandonment of what had seemed like unimaginable success a year or two before: his research toward his Ph.D. consumed time and energy, he met and fell in love with Gertrude Blugerman, whom five months later he persuaded to marry him, and he applied for and accepted a job at the Naval Air Experimental Station of the U.S. Navy Yard in Philadelphia, where Robert Heinlein and L. Sprague de Camp already were at work. After "Author! Author!," which was sold to
Astounding
's companion fantasy magazine,
Unknown,
but not published until 1964 in an anthology of
Unknown
stories because of the magazine's untimely death, and "Death Sentence" (
Astounding,
November 1943), Asimov wrote only one story during the rest of the war years that was not a Foundation story or a robot story.
Astounding
's companion fantasy magazine,
Unknown,
but not published until 1964 in an anthology of
Unknown
stories because of the magazine's untimely death, and "Death Sentence" (
Astounding,
November 1943), Asimov wrote only one story during the rest of the war years that was not a Foundation story or a robot story.
That story was "Blind Alley" (
Astounding,
March 1945), and, in spite of Asimov's resolve to stay away from areas of dispute with Campbell, it was about aliens. Two aspects of the story, however, must have pleased Campbell: the aliens were non-threatening, a dying race that had specialized in the biological sciences as well as psychology and psychiatry, and once they came into contact with humans (in the period of the thriving Galactic Empire), all the humans' efforts could not keep them from eliminating themselves by voluntarily having no offspring. The other pleasing aspect was the solution to the problem: an opportunity for the aliens to speed off to the Magellanic Clouds and a galaxy of
their own was created by a clever bureaucrat who used the turgid bureaucratic channels of communication and methods of operation for his own purposes. That must have appealed to Campbell's conviction that "it's all a matter of knowing how."
Astounding,
March 1945), and, in spite of Asimov's resolve to stay away from areas of dispute with Campbell, it was about aliens. Two aspects of the story, however, must have pleased Campbell: the aliens were non-threatening, a dying race that had specialized in the biological sciences as well as psychology and psychiatry, and once they came into contact with humans (in the period of the thriving Galactic Empire), all the humans' efforts could not keep them from eliminating themselves by voluntarily having no offspring. The other pleasing aspect was the solution to the problem: an opportunity for the aliens to speed off to the Magellanic Clouds and a galaxy of
their own was created by a clever bureaucrat who used the turgid bureaucratic channels of communication and methods of operation for his own purposes. That must have appealed to Campbell's conviction that "it's all a matter of knowing how."
Asimov was busy through the rest of 1944, 1945, and 1946 with robot and Foundation stories. In addition, he was drafted into the Army in September 1945, and released a year later. This period saw him produce "The Mule," "Evidence," "Little Lost Robot," and "Now You See It. . . ." Then he wrote another non-robot, non-Foundation story, "No Connection'' (
Astounding,
June 1948). It too was about aliens, in this case intelligent bears who have succeeded to the mastery of North America after humanity wiped itself out in atomic wars. But in Europe anthropoids have evolved into a new kind of humanoid civilization and pose a threat, including even atomic warfare, to the peaceful, cooperative ursine civilization. An ursine archeologist, investigating radioactive ruins, finds evidence of a previous human civilization, which he calls "Primate Primeval," but he rejects the notion that any connection would exist between the sordid present of neutron bombardments and the glorious, mysterious past.
Astounding,
June 1948). It too was about aliens, in this case intelligent bears who have succeeded to the mastery of North America after humanity wiped itself out in atomic wars. But in Europe anthropoids have evolved into a new kind of humanoid civilization and pose a threat, including even atomic warfare, to the peaceful, cooperative ursine civilization. An ursine archeologist, investigating radioactive ruins, finds evidence of a previous human civilization, which he calls "Primate Primeval," but he rejects the notion that any connection would exist between the sordid present of neutron bombardments and the glorious, mysterious past.
Both "Blind Alley" and "No Connection" were problem stories and were modestly successful insofar as they represented effective problem-solving. After Asimov's first non-fiction article, a research spoof, "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" (
Astounding,
March 1948), which was important to his future career, Asimov took a gamble on a novella, "Grow Old with Me," for
Startling Stories,
partly to prove to himself that he was not a one-editor author. Its rejection by
Startling
and then
Astounding
was a blow to his writing ambitions. He stopped writing for a year while he completed work on his Ph.D. and accepted a job to do post-doctoral research on anti-malarial drugs.
Astounding,
March 1948), which was important to his future career, Asimov took a gamble on a novella, "Grow Old with Me," for
Startling Stories,
partly to prove to himself that he was not a one-editor author. Its rejection by
Startling
and then
Astounding
was a blow to his writing ambitions. He stopped writing for a year while he completed work on his Ph.D. and accepted a job to do post-doctoral research on anti-malarial drugs.
Asimov then produced a time-travel paradox story titled "The Red Queen's Race" (
Astounding,
January 1949), in which a crazed researcher attempts to send back to Hellenistic times a chemical textbook translated into Greek so that the Greeks can build a stronger civilization that will withstand barbarian attacks. After a long effort to undo the action, the assistant professor of philosophy who translated the textbook tells investigators not to worry. The textbook was sent back to this world.
Astounding,
January 1949), in which a crazed researcher attempts to send back to Hellenistic times a chemical textbook translated into Greek so that the Greeks can build a stronger civilization that will withstand barbarian attacks. After a long effort to undo the action, the assistant professor of philosophy who translated the textbook tells investigators not to worry. The textbook was sent back to this world.
All the non-series stories mentioned so far, with the exceptions of "Nightfall" and "Marooned Off Vesta," were reprinted by Asimov in his collection
The Early Asimov.
The last story in that collection is "Mother Earth" (
Astounding,
May 1949). It is important largely for its premonitions of the robot novels. The Terrestrian Empire is in the
process of falling; its fall has been predictable from the introduction of positronic robots into the Sirian sector colony Aurora, and from the establishment of an immigration quota against Earth by the Outer Worlds. A possible war by the Outer Worlds against Earth will be the final blow for the Empire. But a former Terrestrian ambassador sets up Earth to lose a quick war in order to prepare for a second Terrestrian Empire in which the citizens of the Outer Worlds will have deteriorated because of the alien chemistry of their planets and revolted against Outer Planet genetic policies or will have produced different varieties of humanity on all fifty Outer Worlds. Variety will be the norm, and they will no longer be united against Earth. Some details of the story were picked up, such as the fifty Outer Worlds and the possibility of deterioration, almost forty years later for the 1980s Foundation novels,
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth.
The Early Asimov.
The last story in that collection is "Mother Earth" (
Astounding,
May 1949). It is important largely for its premonitions of the robot novels. The Terrestrian Empire is in the
process of falling; its fall has been predictable from the introduction of positronic robots into the Sirian sector colony Aurora, and from the establishment of an immigration quota against Earth by the Outer Worlds. A possible war by the Outer Worlds against Earth will be the final blow for the Empire. But a former Terrestrian ambassador sets up Earth to lose a quick war in order to prepare for a second Terrestrian Empire in which the citizens of the Outer Worlds will have deteriorated because of the alien chemistry of their planets and revolted against Outer Planet genetic policies or will have produced different varieties of humanity on all fifty Outer Worlds. Variety will be the norm, and they will no longer be united against Earth. Some details of the story were picked up, such as the fifty Outer Worlds and the possibility of deterioration, almost forty years later for the 1980s Foundation novels,
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth.
By the time "Mother Earth" was published, Asimov's career had taken several new directions. He had finished the last of the Foundation stories, ". . . And Now You Don't," Doubleday had asked him to expand the rejected novella "Grow Old with Me" to 70,000 words in order to publish it as a book, and he had accepted a teaching job at the Boston University School of Medicine for $5,000 a year. He still had no way of knowing he could make a living as a freelance writer. As he reported in
The Early Asimov,
his total earnings for eleven years of writing had not reached $8,000.
The Early Asimov,
his total earnings for eleven years of writing had not reached $8,000.
By 1952, as his books began to be published with comforting regularity two a year beginning in 1950 Asimov's income from writing began to exceed his salary. By 1957 he discovered that he was primarily a writer and was making considerably more money by writing than as a professor. When a new dean began to pressure him to devote more time to research and would not be convinced that Asimov's writing was his research, Asimov resigned everything except his title by that time he had been promoted to associate professor and turned to full-time writing for the first time. Unfortunately for science fiction, he decided to devote his time to non-fiction. In the years between 1949 and 1958, however, Asimov had produced his best science-fiction novels and some of his best stories. He was particularly inspired by the creation in 1950 of
Galaxy Science Fiction,
edited by Horace L. Gold.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
founded in 1949 under the editorship of Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas, was more of an inspiration to others than to Asimov.
F&SF
specialized in fantasy and literary stories; Asimov, in technology and problem-solving. To
F&SF
Asimov
sold humorous science-fiction verse based on literary models, mostly Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as, beginning in 1958, monthly science articles, which he claimed as his favorite writing and subsequently was to collect in many of his books.
Galaxy,
through Gold's requests, ideas, and goading and through the three cents a word payment, escalating with the fourth story to three and a half cents and up, helped Asimov to produce some of his best fiction.
Galaxy Science Fiction,
edited by Horace L. Gold.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
founded in 1949 under the editorship of Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas, was more of an inspiration to others than to Asimov.
F&SF
specialized in fantasy and literary stories; Asimov, in technology and problem-solving. To
F&SF
Asimov
sold humorous science-fiction verse based on literary models, mostly Gilbert and Sullivan, as well as, beginning in 1958, monthly science articles, which he claimed as his favorite writing and subsequently was to collect in many of his books.
Galaxy,
through Gold's requests, ideas, and goading and through the three cents a word payment, escalating with the fourth story to three and a half cents and up, helped Asimov to produce some of his best fiction.
As Asimov mentions in his autobiography, he had grown beyond Campbell:
In part it was because he [Campbell] had taken a wrong turning. He had moved into dianetics and from there into a series of other follies, and there was no way in which I could follow him. Furthermore, he could not separate his personal views from the magazine, but strove to incorporate those views into the stories he elicited from the authors, and many authors were only too delighted to comply and to "press Campbell's buttons." I could not do it any more than I could comply with his penchant for human superiority over extraterrestrials in earlier years.
Second, there were new markets opening up, and I wanted to branch out. . . .
Six of the first eight issues of
Galaxy
included works by Asimov: two short stories, a novelette, and a three-part serial. The first story, in the first issue of
Galaxy
(October 1950), was "Darwinian Pool Room." It consisted of a conversation speculating about the possibility of the evolutionary process coming up with something to supersede man and ending with the joking suggestion that man's successor might be the thinking machine, which was being developed at the same time as the means for eliminating humanity, the hydrogen bomb.
Galaxy
included works by Asimov: two short stories, a novelette, and a three-part serial. The first story, in the first issue of
Galaxy
(October 1950), was "Darwinian Pool Room." It consisted of a conversation speculating about the possibility of the evolutionary process coming up with something to supersede man and ending with the joking suggestion that man's successor might be the thinking machine, which was being developed at the same time as the means for eliminating humanity, the hydrogen bomb.
Asimov felt better about the publication of his second
Galaxy
story (second issue, November 1950), since Gold had been under no first-issue pressure to accept it. Asimov titled it "Potent Stuff." Gold changed the title to "Misbegotten Missionary." Asimov changed it to "Green Patches" when he reprinted it in his own collection,
Nightfall and Other Stories.
It involved an apparently pleasant planet on which a telepathic life form that could take any shape and could take over any living creature had united all living things into one biological entity. [Asimov may have returned to that concept for the more benign Gaia in
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth,
his 1980s return to SF novels and ascension to bestsellerdom discussed in Chapter 8.] It revealed itself on any entity it took over only through two tiny patches of green fur. An expedition to the planet had destroyed itself and its ship when it had
realized it was being assimilated. A new expedition realizes just as it is about to dock back on Earth that it may be carrying "green patches." The Captain must decide whether to destroy his ship. But he can find no evidence of live "green patches." Ironically, the live creature had been camouflaged as a piece of wiring. That wiring carried current only when the airlock door was opened, and the creature was electrocuted when the ship docked.
Galaxy
story (second issue, November 1950), since Gold had been under no first-issue pressure to accept it. Asimov titled it "Potent Stuff." Gold changed the title to "Misbegotten Missionary." Asimov changed it to "Green Patches" when he reprinted it in his own collection,
Nightfall and Other Stories.
It involved an apparently pleasant planet on which a telepathic life form that could take any shape and could take over any living creature had united all living things into one biological entity. [Asimov may have returned to that concept for the more benign Gaia in
Foundation's Edge
and
Foundation and Earth,
his 1980s return to SF novels and ascension to bestsellerdom discussed in Chapter 8.] It revealed itself on any entity it took over only through two tiny patches of green fur. An expedition to the planet had destroyed itself and its ship when it had
realized it was being assimilated. A new expedition realizes just as it is about to dock back on Earth that it may be carrying "green patches." The Captain must decide whether to destroy his ship. But he can find no evidence of live "green patches." Ironically, the live creature had been camouflaged as a piece of wiring. That wiring carried current only when the airlock door was opened, and the creature was electrocuted when the ship docked.
It was ironic, also, that Asimov realized halfway through the story that he was creating "an infinitely inferior `Who Goes There?'," John W. Campbell's classic horror story of a shape-changer that can imitate any protoplasm it consumes and the basis for two movies titled
The Thing.
He called Campbell and told him about it. Campbell told him not to worry, that no two stories are exactly the same when written by a competent writer. Asimov continued the story, trying to make it as different as possible from Campbell's "Who Goes There?," but with a broken spirit. To add a final irony, Asimov sent the story to Gold, who had requested it. As Asimov later reported in the collection, the story's acceptance ended "a more-than-seven-year agony of self-doubt."
The Thing.
He called Campbell and told him about it. Campbell told him not to worry, that no two stories are exactly the same when written by a competent writer. Asimov continued the story, trying to make it as different as possible from Campbell's "Who Goes There?," but with a broken spirit. To add a final irony, Asimov sent the story to Gold, who had requested it. As Asimov later reported in the collection, the story's acceptance ended "a more-than-seven-year agony of self-doubt."
Further proof of Asimov's new independence came with
Galaxy
's serialization of Asimov's new novel, commissioned by Doubleday after the success of
Pebble in the Sky,
the novel that had begun life as "Grow Old with Me." The new novel was
The Stars, Like Dust,
which Gold, as was his frequent and not always appreciated practice, retitled. Gold published it as
Tyrann
(January, February, March 1951).
Galaxy
's serialization of Asimov's new novel, commissioned by Doubleday after the success of
Pebble in the Sky,
the novel that had begun life as "Grow Old with Me." The new novel was
The Stars, Like Dust,
which Gold, as was his frequent and not always appreciated practice, retitled. Gold published it as
Tyrann
(January, February, March 1951).
"Hostess," Asimov's next story in
Galaxy
(May 1951), also involved editing problems. Asimov had attended a meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association in Newark, New Jersey, and discovered that Ted Sturgeon's upcoming story in
Galaxy
(perhaps "Rule of Three") shared not only a gimmick with the story that Asimov already had sent to Gold but similar names for the main characters. Eventually, Asimov rewrote the story in Gold's living room, and Gold later changed the name of the woman character. Asimov restored the story to its original form (except for the woman's name) in
Nightfall and Other Stories.
Galaxy
(May 1951), also involved editing problems. Asimov had attended a meeting of the Eastern Science Fiction Association in Newark, New Jersey, and discovered that Ted Sturgeon's upcoming story in
Galaxy
(perhaps "Rule of Three") shared not only a gimmick with the story that Asimov already had sent to Gold but similar names for the main characters. Eventually, Asimov rewrote the story in Gold's living room, and Gold later changed the name of the woman character. Asimov restored the story to its original form (except for the woman's name) in
Nightfall and Other Stories.
"Hostess" is a novelette of more than usual interest. It was also the first story Asimov experimented with by dictating it to a machine for his wife to type. The novelette retains the Asimovian stamp of problem-solving. It develops as a series of puzzles: 1) Rose Smollett, a fellow in biology at a prestigious research institute, is at age thirty-five a bride of less than a year and wonders sometimes why her husband, Drake, a member of the World Security Board, married her; 2) Drake opposes welcoming into their home a cyanide-breathing alien, Harg Tholan,
whose herbivorous race developed from cowlike creatures and who is on Earth ostensibly for biological research; and 3) Tholan raises the delicate question of the Inhibition Death that has begun to affect the four other intelligent races in the Galaxy, stopping their growth and bringing about their deaths within a year. Only Earthmen, it seems, stop growing when they reach maturity, and only they are carnivores.
whose herbivorous race developed from cowlike creatures and who is on Earth ostensibly for biological research; and 3) Tholan raises the delicate question of the Inhibition Death that has begun to affect the four other intelligent races in the Galaxy, stopping their growth and bringing about their deaths within a year. Only Earthmen, it seems, stop growing when they reach maturity, and only they are carnivores.
BOOK: Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction (Revised Edition)
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