3 ms·

There's a LOT of stuff in 'golden age' sci fi which hasn't aged well at all. I love the /idea/ of Foundation - both the 'science of history' idea, and the idea

There's a LOT of stuff in 'golden age' sci fi which hasn't aged well at all. I love the /idea/ of Foundation - both the 'science of history' idea, and the idea of making every chapter a different set of characters, tracing the arc of history. But found it to be pretty terrible as an actual book when I went back to re-read it a year or two back. It's 1/3 good idea, 1/3 engineer's disease on galactic scale, and 1/3 creepy male lens. (like, seriously, if an author treats women as nothing more than background furnishings, useful for occasional groping, I start doubting their ability to say interesting+useful things about human society real quick. And 60's sci fi has a TON of this perspective.) Le Guin is literally exceptional. A fantastic author, who I've loved since I was a kid and can always go back to. Part of the function of time is to filter out the timeless from the merely timely...

anand-bala 6y ago
> Part of the function of time is to filter out the timeless from the merely timely This is such a beautiful observation. As a kid, I wasn't into "old" fantasy and scifi, but recently have started reading them. And I must say, there are a lot of authors with some beautiful foresight, especially Le Guinn: the entire Earthsea Cycle talks about some deep psychological introspection, about how power dynamics can affect different sects of society differently, about the notion of "inherent evil". This stuff is as timeless as human society.
teh_klev 6y ago
I've re-read the original Foundation trilogy around ten times over the years. Sure the writing is clunky, it's a product of its time (~40s-50's) and a bit "Boys Own". But if you can get past that the story itself is still a classic in the genre and I still enjoy it every time I read it again. But you're right in some respects, thus far for me, Le Guin has been totally captivating and obviously a far better writer than Asimov. But remember she also started her writing in different times. Also, I don't quite remember any "groping" in Foundation. I know there's some stories about Asimov having wandering hands, but I don't remember that in the books.

anand-bala 6y ago

> Part of the function of time is to filter out the timeless from the merely timely This is such a beautiful observation. As a kid, I wasn't into "old" fantasy and scifi, but recently have started reading them. And I must say, there are a lot of authors with some beautiful foresight, especially Le Guinn: the entire Earthsea Cycle talks about some deep psychological introspection, about how power dynamics can affect different sects of society differently, about the notion of "inherent evil". This stuff is as timeless as human society.

teh_klev 6y ago

I've re-read the original Foundation trilogy around ten times over the years. Sure the writing is clunky, it's a product of its time (~40s-50's) and a bit "Boys Own". But if you can get past that the story itself is still a classic in the genre and I still enjoy it every time I read it again. But you're right in some respects, thus far for me, Le Guin has been totally captivating and obviously a far better writer than Asimov. But remember she also started her writing in different times. Also, I don't quite remember any "groping" in Foundation. I know there's some stories about Asimov having wandering hands, but I don't remember that in the books.