4 ms·
The Foundation could use modernization. The "big ideas" are still interesting, but the nuts and bolts of putting characters in a world to act out a story has th
by jws 9y ago
The Foundation could use modernization. The "big ideas" are still interesting, but the nuts and bolts of putting characters in a world to act out a story has them inadvertently soaked in late 1940's United States culture.
I have failed to interest young people in the book, they seem to be put off by virtually all of the characters being cigar or pipe smoking men with females relegated to the secretarial positions where they are summoned by the very modern push button on a desk. I think there is also the very modern push button on the floor of the office which closes the door.
As a story it now suffers from what to modern readers are inadvertent anachronisms. Asimov seems to have meant to write "Here we are, maybe 15 minutes in the future and off we go into the stars and centuries beyond!", instead we've got "Once society regresses to a state which oppresses half the population and is reduced to primitive pre-electronic technology we can finally get on with a grand future!"
A TV series which starts 15 minutes in our future and presents the same ideas could be a fine framework to fill with characters people care about, but something other than world war two era United States industrialists please.
- unethical_ban 9y agoWasn't the main character who eventually discovers the secrets a the end of the book a female? Also, was the book really meant to be Utopian in tone? I thought it was just a good space story, one of my most enjoyable reads ever (I read it when I was 23).
- jws 9y agoYes, there are significant female characters, I think primarily academics which in context are the most important kind of people. I didn't notice anything off when I first read it, but that was in the 1970s and I was a young studious male. I remembered it as a fun space story and one which glorified researchers and academics as important over generals and politicians… which probably is a lot of the appeal to a certain audience. I think now it's sort of like watching space movies from the 1950s. Model spaceships swinging along on wires in front of a painting and zippers up the back of the alien monster's skin were the norm then and just ignored, now they are moment ruining features.
- cicero 9y agoYou are correct that the books are dated, but I have found the occasional teenager (I teach high school) who is able to look past that and be fascinated with the big ideas inside. I loved the books as a teenager, but now I have issues with some of the big ideas. Nonetheless, they are worthy of note.