ASIMOV. PART 2 CONTINUED.

ROLCAM · Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:00 am Post subject: ASIMOV. PART 2 CONTINUED.

Other writings

What is the relationship between the movie Fantastic Voyage and Asimov's novel?
Asimov wrote the novel from the screenplay. He made a certain number of changes which he felt were necessary to minimize the scientific implausibility of the story. Because, as he put it, he wrote quickly and Hollywood works slowly, the novel came out some six months before the film was released, giving rise to the idea that the movie was made from the novel.
Asimov was never satisfied with Fantastic Voyage, and he never thought of it as "his" work. Later, a person who had bought the rights to the title and concept (but not the characters or situation) of the original was interested in making Fantastic Voyage II. Naturally he turned to Asimov, who at first refused. At some point, Asimov agreed, but insisted on handling his side as a pure book deal with Doubleday. Consequently, Asimov's book Fantastic Voyage II should not be considered a sequel to the original.

What did Asimov write besides the Foundation and Robot books?
Lots. Asimov published over 500 books by the time of his death. Many of these, of course, are anthologies of work by other people, and a large number are juvenile science books, but there are a lot of books left.
Following is a list of some of Asimov's better-known or more influential works. The list is purely subjective, based on the personal preference of the FAQ-keepers. There is much which is worthwhile but not listed. See the full lists of Asimov's works for more information.

Other science fiction novels
The Lucky Starr books
Fantastic Voyage, and Fantastic Voyage II
Nemesis
The Gods Themselves
The End of Eternity
Science fiction short story collections
Nine Tomorrows
Earth is Room Enough
The Martian Way and Other Stories
Nightfall and Other Stories
The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories
The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov
Anthologies
The Hugo Winners/New Hugo Winners (7 volumes)
Isaac Asimov presents the great sf stories (25 volumes for 1939 through 1963)
Mysteries
Black Widower stories (several collections)
A Whiff of Death
Murder at the ABA
"Guides"
Asimov's Guide to the Bible
Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare
Asimov's New Guide to Science
Essay collections
F&SF Essay collections (Asimov had a monthly science column from the early 1950s through 1991)
Asimov on Science Fiction
Asimov's Galaxy
Histories
The Greeks
The Roman Republic
The Roman Empire
Other non-fiction
Understanding Physics (aka The History of Physics)
The Universe
Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Humor
Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor
The Sensuous Dirty Old Man
Asimov Laughs Again
What is the source of the title of the novel The Gods Themselves?
The title is obtained from the quote "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain", which originally appeared in German ("Mit der Dummheit kaempfen die Goetter selbst vergebens") in Friedrich von Schiller's play Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans, or Joan of Arc), Act III, Scene 6. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations translates the quote as "Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain." The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations gives the translation "With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain."
Is there an index of his science articles for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF)? Of his editorials in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (IASFM)?
Asimov compiled a list of his F&SF essays on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his first essay, in the November 1978 issue of F&SF, and reprinted (slightly updated) in the collection The Road to Infinity. That list is ordered alphabetically according to the title of the essay, and includes a designation of the collection in which each essay appears as well as a very brief subject description for each essay. However Asimov went on to write a total of 399 essays, the last of which appeared in February 1992. (A 400th essay was compiled by Janet after his death and published in the December 1994 issue of F&SF.)
Of the 174 editorials published in IASFM, dealing mainly with Asimov's thoughts on Science Fiction, 22 were included in Asimov on Science Fiction, 66 in Asimov's Galaxy, 10 in Gold, and 3 in Magic, but he did not compile an index to these. (Gold also reprinted 3 of the IASFM essays that appeared in Asimov on Science Fiction and 19 of the essays that appeared in Asimov's Galaxy, and Magic reprinted 2 of the IASFM essays from Asimov on Science Fiction and 3 from Asimov's Galaxy).

Asimov also wrote numerous other essays that were published in other magazines, many of which have appeared in other essay collections.

Seeing the need for a single index to all of Asimov's essays, Rich Hatcher and Ed Seiler valiantly decided to compile one, and after many months of work, it was completed. Their guide lists over 1600 essays, including the subject of the essay, the publication in which the essay first appeared, and a list of Asimov's collections in which the essay appeared. Indexes list the essays chronologically for each major series (e.g. the science essays in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), and also group the essays by subject, in order to help you find any essay Asimov wrote on any given subject. The guide is available via the World Wide Web.

What is the Asimov-Clarke treaty?
The Asimov-Clarke Treaty of Park Avenue, put together as Asimov and Clarke were travelling down Park Avenue in New York while sharing a cab ride, stated that Asimov was required to insist that Arthur C. Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Isaac Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second best for himself). Thus the dedication in Clarke's book Report on Planet Three reads:
"In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."
There's this really neat story by Asimov which I would like to read again, and I can remember the title; could you tell me where to find it?
If you correctly remembered the title, and Asimov did in fact write the story, you can find a list of collections and anthologies that the story appeared in the Guide to Isaac Asimov's Short Fiction on the Web. If you can't find the story there, it is probably because Asimov did not write it. Often there is confusion between Asimov and other well known science fiction authors such as Arthur C. Clarke or Robert Heinlein. Asimov also edited or co-edited a large number of anthologies, and since his name was usually featured prominently on the cover, readers sometimes mistakenly associate his name with a story that appeared in an anthology that was in fact written by another author. But if you remember the correct title, you will probably find the story listed in the Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, compiled by William Contento, which covers stories anthologized before 1984, or in The Locus Index to Science Fiction.
There's this really neat story by Asimov, but I can't remember the title...
The story is probably "The Last Question". It can be found in a number of Asimov's anthologies (it was his favorite of his own stories, after all):
Nine Tomorrows
Opus 100
The Best of Isaac Asimov
The Best Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov
Robot Dreams
The Complete Stories, volume 1
The Asimov Chronicles
It is also found in a number of anthologies not consisting entirely of stories by Asimov.

There is a mathematical possibility that you're thinking of a story other than "The Last Question", but it's very slight. Asimov's own experience was that if someone couldn't remember the title of one of his stories (and especially if they weren't entirely sure if it was by him), then it was "The Last Question."

But just in case, here are some of the stories with titles that often aren't remembered as well as the plot:

"The Last Question" concerns the fate of the universe, when a computer is asked several times through the ages if entropy can ever be reversed.
"The Feeling of Power" describes a time in the future, when a young man amazes everyone with his ability to perform mathematical computations in his head, instead of relying on computers like everyone else does.
"Profession" is about a boy who is brought to a house for the feeble-minded after tests show that he is abnormal, because unlike the others, who are all educated by machines and have their professions chosen for them, he is capable of original thinking.
I'd like to hear some opinions about some of Asimov's books. Do you have any?
Certainly opinions of Asimov's books are a favorite topic of discussion in the alt.books.isaac-asimov newsgroup, and this FAQ does not intend to answer this question once and for all. However most people have not read most of Asimov's books, and those that have are probably too busy reading to offer their opinion for the umpteenth time to new readers of the newsgroup.
John Jenkins has written reviews for a great number of Asimov's books, both fiction and nonfiction, and collected them together on the World Wide Web as Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov. John offers his views of what he likes and dislikes in Asimov's books from the point of view of a dedicated Asimov enthusiast, and provides a graphical rating system that neatly summarizes his evaluations for both the Asimov fan and the intended audience of each book. He has completed reviews for all of Asimov's fiction books, and is currently working through his nonfiction and short stories.

What is the title of the essay that Asimov wrote concerning the ultimate self-contained, portable, high-tech reading device of the future which turns out to be a book? Where can I find it?
The title of the essay is "The Ancient and the Ultimate". It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in January 1973, and appeared in the Doubleday collections The Tragedy of the Moon (1972) and Asimov on Science (1989).

In his story "Pate de Foie Gras", Asimov presented a puzzle, but did not provide a solution to that puzzle. He stated that some people wrote him with an answer immediately after the story's publication, and as science advanced he eventually began receiving letters with another possible solution. But he doesn't say what those solutions were. Did he ever provide the solutions, and if so, what are they?
In each of Asimov's collections that included the story, whenever there was a foreword or an afterword, he avoided giving away the answer. In later years, he complained jokingly that because of the advance of science, there was at least one new way that would probably be even better than his original solution.
The problem presented in the story is that the goose lays golden eggs, and through careful scientific analysis, it is discovered that the goose is a living nuclear reactor that utilizes the isotope oxygen-18 to convert the isotope iron-56 to the isotope gold-197. The gold production goes up if the goose is provided with water enriched in oxygen-18. Further investigation shows that the something in the goose's liver converts any radioactive isotope into a stable isotope, so if the mechanism could be discovered, it would provide a method to dispose of radioactive waste. The problem is that there is only the one goose, whose eggs will not hatch, and if the goose dies, they will never be able to use its secret. The scientists are able to perform a biopsy of the liver, but the small amount of cells extracted are insufficient to produce the effect. How then, can they determine the mechanism and not have it disappear forever once the goose dies?

The story, written in 1956, leaves the solution as an exercise for the reader.

An abridged version of the story titled "A Very Special Goose" appeared in the September 25, 1958 issue of Science World, a magazine for high school students published by Street and Smith, the publishers of Astounding. In the teacher's edition, a solution is provided in the form of a letter from Don A. Stuart, which is a pseudonym used by Astounding editor John W. Campbell. Spoilers follow!

That solution explains that the best way to produce an environment free of oxygen-18 is to put the goose in a sealed greenhouse, together with a gander. The greenhouse is supplied with a sufficient quantity of plants and water for the geese to feed upon, and sunlight will keep the plants growing. Eventually the goose will process all of the O-18 from the air, food, and water, turning it into gold. Once the level of O-18 is sufficiently reduced, the goose will start laying gold-free eggs, and goslings will soon hatch. If enough goslings survive, they can be studied to determine the mechanism of the conversion process. The male goslings will then have to be studied to see if they can survive in an O-18 rich environment, since if they convert it to gold, they will not be able to get rid of it by laying eggs.

Here are some of the other solutions presented in the alt.books.isaac-asimov newsgroup in the past.

Since it is the liver of the goose that is of interest, if there was a way available to grow copies of the goose's liver, the mechanism might be studied in that way. Thanks to modern science, it should be possible to take the cells extracted by the liver biopsy and grow such livers in the laboratory.

Because of advances in in-vitro fertilization, it might be possible to extract egg cells from the goose's ovary, fertilize them, and implant them in a normal goose. This assumes that the egg that grows in the surrogate mother goose is not a golden one, and enough chicks that hatch are genetically capable of developing the mechanism.

Now that various other farm animals have been cloned, it might be possible to create clones of the goose, once again assuming that the egg can grow in a normal fashion. The advantage here is that the chicks will certainly have the same genetic capabilities as mother goose.

Did you know that Asimov is the only author to have published books in all ten categories of the Dewey Decimal System?
No, because that claim is not true, despite the fact that it is repeated in numerous lists of "amazing but true facts" that circulate on the Internet, and even shows up in the third edition of The New York Public Library Desk Reference. Asimov himself mentioned this a couple of times, but always by prefacing it with the clause "I have been told by a librarian that...". The reason that the claim is not true is because not one of Asimov's books was classified in the 100s category of Philosophy. Here are the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System:
000 - Generalities
100 - Philosophy
200 - Religion
300 - Social Sciences
400 - Languages
500 - Pure Sciences
600 - Applied Sciences & Technology
700 - Arts
800 - Literature
900 - History & Geography
Although a great number of his books were classified in the 500s and the 600s, there are three other categories that were sparsely represented (for Asimov, that is):
200s - 7 titles
400s - 2 titles [Words From History and Words From the Myths]
700s - 3 titles [Visions of the Universe, Asimov's Annotated Gilbert & Sullivan, and Isaac Asimov Presents Superquiz]
A more accurate statement is that Isaac Asimov is the only author who has so many well written books in so many different categories of library classification.
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More than books...
What records, audio tapes, videotapes, and software are available?
See Asimov on Other Media.
Have any of Asimov's books or stories been made into a radio production, movie or television series?
RADIO:
The Caves of Steel:
BBC Radio Play, June 1989, faithfully adapted by Bert Coules, with Ed Bishop (UFO's Commander Straker) in the role of Elijah Baley.

Liar:
Broadcast on the radio program Exploring Tomorrow, Mutual Broadcasting System, sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, with an introduction and narration by John W. Campbell.

The Foundation Trilogy:
BBC Radio 4, in eight one-hour installments, May 6, 1973 - June 24, 1973

Hostess:
X Minus One, NBC radio, December 12, 1956

C-Chute:
X Minus One, NBC radio, September 8, 1956

Nightfall:
Dimension X, NBC radio, September 29, 1951

X Minus One, NBC radio, December 7, 1955

Pebble in the Sky:
Dimension X, NBC radio, June 17, 1951

FILM:
Bicentennial Man:
The movie is based on Asimov's short story "The Bicentennial Man" and Robert Silverberg's novelization The Positronic Man, and was released in the U.S. on December 17, 1999. The Touchstone Pictures production starred Robin Williams as Andrew Martin, and was directed by Chris Columbus.

Foundation:
The rights to a Foundation movie were purchased in 1994, but as the I, Robot experience illustrates, it remains to be seen if a film will ever be produced and released.

Nightfall:
A movie named Nightfall was made after a group in Hollywood bought the rights from Doubleday in the late 1980s. The movie plot had practically no relation to the story, and by all accounts is truly and thoroughly awful. Asimov was never consulted in the making of it, and completely disowned any responsibility for it.
Nightfall was released in 1988, starring David Birney and Sarah Douglas; directed by Paul Mayersberg; running time 83 minutes. If you should happen to have a chance to view it, run, don't walk, the other way.

Another version of Nightfall was made and released directly to DVD in 2000, starring David Carradine and Robert Stevens, directed by Gwyneth Libby, with a running time 85 minutes. By all accounts, it too is dreadful.

Light Years:
An animated science fiction film from France, for which Asimov took the original, poorly done translation to English, and reworked the translation into good English. He did not have any part in writing the script or story, concerning a warrior that begins an adventure into the future in a search to discover the unseen evil force that is destroying his world.
Light Years was released in 1988; directed by Rene Laloux, running time 79 minutes.

Sleeper:
Asimov's work on Woody Allen's 1973 science fiction spoof was very minor. In 1972, Asimov was asked, as an expert in science and science fiction, to read over the script and identify any mistakes that Allen, who knew relatively little about those subjects, might have made. Asimov, who was a fan of Allen's, read the script and loved it, and stated flatly that it was perfect and needed no changes. Asimov was offered the position of technical director for the movie, but refused, since that would require a lot of travel. Instead he recommended Ben Bova, who took the job "and did very well".

The Ugly Little Boy:
This short story was made into a film by Encyclopedia Britannica in the 1970s.

Star Trek - The Motion Picture:
At the request of Gene Roddenberry, Asimov provided advice for this picture, and was listed at the very end of the credits as the Science Adviser.

I, Robot:
In August 1967, John Mantley, the producer of the television show "Gunsmoke" expressed interest in Asimov's robot stories, and paid for option rights. The option was renewed every year for the next twelve years until finally the rights to produce a movie were bought. After Asimov refused to do the screen adaptation, Harlan Ellison was hired, and though he wrote a screenplay in that Asimov was greatly pleased with, the movie was never made. Ellison tells the story of his battle with Hollywood in the introduction to I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay, published in December 1994.
In July 2004, Twentieth Century Fox released a movie titled I, Robot, starring Will Smith, that was "suggested by Isaac Asimov's book". The film was born as a screenplay titled "Hardwired" by screenwriter Jeff Vintar, and then, with the permission of Asimov's estate, the title was changed and the story modified to use some characters and plot elements from Asimov's stories. Directed by Alex Proyas, and written by Vintar and Akiva Goldsman, the movie uses some of Asimov's ideas, but does not attempt to recreate any of the story line in Asimov's short story collection.

Fantastic Voyage:
Rather than an Asimov story made into a movie, FV is a movie for which Asimov wrote a novelization of the screenplay. Initially he considered such a project as beneath his dignity, but then warmed to the idea once he realized that he could include a lot of anatomy and physiology. In his book he tried to correct some of the most glaring flaws in the screenplay, but nevertheless felt uncomfortable about the whole idea of miniaturization. (His dissatisfaction eventually led him to write Fantastic Voyage II.) Asimov wrote so much faster than the movie was produced that the book came out half a year before the movie was released, giving the mistaken impression that the movie was based on the book. He is not listed in the credits of the movie because he had no part in its production.
Fantastic Voyage was released in 1966, starring Raquel Welch, Edmond O'Brien, and Donald Pleasance; directed by Richard Fleischer; running time 100 minutes.

Evidence:
In September of 1946, Asimov sold the movie, radio, and television rights to the short story "Evidence" for $250 to Hollywood director Orson Welles. Welles never made a movie from the story.

TELEVISION:
The Android Affair:
This is a made-for-cable movie first broadcast by the USA cable channel in April 1995, and advertised as being "based on a story by Isaac Asimov". In fact, Asimov's involvement was slight -- the actual screenplay was based on a shorter film, and Asimov was given co-credit for the story of the shorter work. In particular, the plot is not based on any of Asimov's published work and involves some very non-Asimovian androids, who are not positronic and gleefully lack the First Law.

Probe:
Asimov was credited as adviser and co-creator of this television series, which lasted for a 2-hour pilot and six 1-hour episodes on ABC in 1988 before a writer's strike came along and ended the series. It starred Parker Stevenson as brilliant young scientist Austin James, who owned his own high-tech think tank consulting firm, and used his scientific expertise to solve baffling crimes as a sort of modern day Sherlock Holmes.

Salvage 1:
A science fiction television series starring Andy Griffith which aired on ABC in 1979, for which Asimov served as a science adviser. Griffith played Harry Broderick, a scrap and salvage man who undertook such adventures as building a rocket that took him to the moon to collect abandoned space hardware, moving an iceberg from the North Pole to provide water for a drought-stricken island, and pumping oil from dried-out wells.

Out of the Unknown:
Six of Asimov's stories were used for episodes of this British TV anthology series, which ran on the BBC in the U.K. for 20 episodes from 1965 to 1966, and for a third season of 13 episodes in 1969. "The Dead Past" and "Sucker Bait" appeared in the first season in 1965; "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Reason" (retitled "The Prophet") in the second season (1966); and both "Liar!" and "The Naked Sun" ran during the third season in 1969.
Many of these episodes no longer exist in the BBC's film archives. The only complete episodes remaining are "The Dead Past" and "Sucker Bait". A few clips from "Liar!" and "Satisfaction Guaranteed" have also survived, and turn up from time to time in documentaries about Asimovs work.

Asimov presented an episode titled "Robot", about developments in robotics, in December 1967 as part of the BBC documentary series "Towards Tomorrow". This is thought to be the original source of surviving clips from the Out of the Unknown teleplay "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and the BBC teleplay of "Caves of Steel".

In the UK, a BBC documentary series hosted by Gillian Anderson titled "Future Fantastic" was broadcast in 1997. One particular edition was titled "I, Robot", and focused a great deal on Asimov's work. It also contained some of the rare clips from "Liar!" and "The Caves of Steel".

The Caves of Steel
BBC 2 did a production of The Caves of Steel that was broadcast as part of "Story Parade" on June 5, 1964 and repeated on August 28, 1964. The teleplay was by Terry Nation (who invented "Blake's 7" and the Daleks in Dr. Who), and Elijah Baley was played by the late Peter Cushing. It also starred John Carson and Kenneth J. Warren. The master tapes of the program were erased, however a few clips from the production have turned up in various documentaries about Asimov's work.

Little Lost Robot
The story "Little Lost Robot" was made as an episode of the British anthology series "Out of This World", produced by ABC television in 1962. This series is commonly confused with the later BBC series "Out of the Unknown". "Out of This World" ran for thirteen episodes, and like the later BBC series, it presented adaptations of famous SF works as well as original teleplays. (It was script-edited by Irene Shubik, who also script-edited the 1964 BBC version of "The Caves of Steel", and both produced and script-edited "Out of the Unknown"). The adaptation of "Little Lost Robot" is the only known surviving example of the Out of This World series, the other episodes having been erased by ABC many years ago.

_________________
Roland Camilleri

Moderator

Sydney , Australia.