Written: February 15, 2019.
Just to give a little background to my psyche:
I have always been a fan of science fiction. My love for science fiction began when I was about eleven years old going twelve. It was around the time when Cartoon Network decided to air the Back to the Future Trilogy, one of each movie per week. So that three weeks really defined what type of person I was going to be.
I didn't know anything about the Back to the Future movies back then. I might've seen it before, but it didn't latch on to my brain, enough for me to remember it vividly. When Cartoon Network aired it on their channel, I was completely blown away by these movies!
Little eleven year old me was so amazed by what was happening in these movies. It was the first time I ever even noticed science fiction. The first time I ever noticed anything, honestly! Back then, I didn't care shit about movies. I didn't understand them, didn't care shit about what was going on. Basically, I was just there for the ride, because my brain doesn't function like how most brains function. Complex information would just pass by my thoughts and slither away into the air once I'm done with it.
But when I watched the first Back to the Future movie, it was Crispin Glover's character "George Mcfly" that got my brain to start working its engines.
Remember George Mcfly? Marty Mcfly's father. The skinny loser who always got picked on by Biff Tannen and his goons? George Mcfly, who repeatedly got rejected by Loraine, Marty's to-be Mother? That's not the George Mcfly i'm referring to. I'm talking about the George Mcfly, who spent his lunch time, scribbling down words on a notepad, writing essays or chapters about his stories. Science Fiction stories, about alien visitors coming down to earth from other planets. That was the George Mcfly I'm talking about.
See, I didn't know that writing stuff down and making stories as a habit was considered a profession, at that time. I didn't know that before a movie was ever even shot, that there was a script or a book that people relied on when making the movie. It didn't occur to me before that the extensive amount of books that I saw in bookstores were the basis of 80% of movies. But when I saw George Mcfly's character in Back to the Future, and saw him publishing a book in his adulthood, the same story he was writing back in high-school, that was the moment that made it all clear to me.
The idea that writing the stories in your head in a piece of paper was a profession that you could earn money from, or fame, or honor, was completely absent from my psyche, until I met George Mcfly.
The Back to the Future movies gave me a sense of purpose. Those movies told me that there's something bigger than just the mundane things in life that I passively already enjoy or have to live with. That there was a deeper meaning to all of those movies and books that passed by my eyes, to which I didn't even consider to pay attention to before.
Back to the Future told me, time and time again, that if I put my mind to it, I could accomplish anything.
So I did what the universe told me to do: I started writing. I started making worlds of my own. Galaxies more infinite than our reality. Tales of creatures and monsters that I heard as a child. Time Travel.
I started reading books. And as I was reading, I was also writing. Reading was what I needed to get better at writing.
About ten years or more later, I'm still writing, and I'm still reading. Haven't really gotten to Author Level yet, but I'll get there. I'll get there.
There reason why I had to explain my psyche was because this book, Foundation, is really testing my relationship towards Science Fiction.
I know I love Science Fiction. I know I love the complexities of space travel, time travel, advanced technologies, robots taking over the world, and even fantasy, which is symbiotic to science fiction, especially in our modern literature.
But this is where it gets tricky for me. This is where I'm conflicted. This isn't really my first rodeo with Classic Science Fiction. If you follow up on my book reviews, then you'll know that I've read another classic sci-fi novel, called Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert A Heinlein.
Heinlein is a famous author. So is Asimov. Both are well known for being masters of science fiction...that really just goes over my head. Don't get me wrong, but what does that mean?
I have read Stranger in a Strange Land, finished it, and was completely disappointed with what the author did with the story. The book goes like this: A man, who's not a man, but is a Martian, who was born in Mars, suddenly gets sent to earth, to learn the human ways of living. The martian does this, but soon finds out that he could make things disappear with his mind, he could make things float, change the form of his body, maybe make his penis longer, and basically became Jesus by the end of the book.
Reader: I'm sorry, what was that other thing?
Me: what?
Reader: the penis being larger-
Me: He fucking gets stoned to death because he thinks he's a god, but is basically the Leader of a self-made illuminati.
Reader: oh...shit.
Heinlein, again, what were thinking, man? I don't get how your brain went there. You could've went into a completely better path, than the utter bullshit that you decided to go for.
So that's my main issue with Foundation as well. But this is more of the choice of the author to how it is written. And my problems with the story go back to my problems with reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. Which, mind you, was a fucking nightmare to even read. Not because it was scary, but because Dracula wasn't even in the book. He was like 10% there. Imagine reading a book titled Dracula, and some other douche named Van Helsing keeps on stealing the spotlight, spewing spit around people because of his rants over the existence of such a creature as Dracula.
"Oh look at me, I'm so afraid of Dracula and vampires, wahhh." That's what you sound like, Van Helsing. You stupid piece of shit!
Asimov, I'm not done with you. I haven't even begun! You know where this is going. Your stupid fucking Hari Seldon character isn't even in the fucking book you're writing! You fucking choose to do a hologram? Oh boy, that's just, boy, that's superb! That's rich, man. Claps to you.
What a fucking waste. Who the fuck even is the main character of this story? Seldon? Fucking Pirenne, what's his name? Oh yeah, that's right. Because fuck you, man. Who the fuck are all these character's in your book? WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY, AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THERE PURPOSE?????
I guess maybe putting this to a more discrete tone of voice, Isaac Asimov is an author who chooses plot-work over character-work. He focuses more on the dilemmas of a larger entity such as a city or a whole world, it's agricultural deficiencies, it's economic instabilities, but never really puts a face to those concerns, that we could then sympathize with, or care about.
Asimov and all the other writers of that time, focused on the ideas they had, and never really focused on the characters that the readers could then be able to follow. The sense of a Point-of-view in story telling was utterly absent from this Science Fiction story.
To provide comparison, take Ender's Game for example. That story is mainly focused on putting one character, one person, one entity's story-arc, in the center of the book. While still maintaining a balance when it comes to world-building. Because in this form of story-telling, we get to experience the world of Ender Wiggin through his eyes. Not the eyes of some random individual, but Ender's eyes. We get to feel his emotions. Get to empathize what's happening to him as the plot thickens. And overall, we get to understand and care about what the story is trying to give to its reader.
But in Foundation, you have zero amount of what I had just said...
I'm done. On to the next one.
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