|
|
Post by artraveler on Oct 8, 2021 13:01:04 GMT -8
Isaac Asimov, Foundation
This is an Apple TV release. If you are familiar with the novels leave your anticipations at the door. Asimov wrote the first novel, Foundation in the 1950s and time has somewhat dated the material. So, unfortunately, has political correctness. If you’re a big fan of the novels, you are going to be disillusioned. However, there is hope. Although, the characters written by Asimov are completely changed, as is major elements of the plot there is still some surprisingly good science fiction to report.
The story, for this series, begins over 10,000 years in the future and the entire galaxy is settled by humans and ruled from one central planet Trantor, by a genetic clone of a previous emperor Cleon IV, actually three clones one elder, one middle and one younger, referred to as Dawn, Day, and Dusk, as one dies and new one is cloned. The galactic empire appears to be stable, all powerful and encompassing thousands of star systems and trillions of people.
Imagine the angst as a mathematician, Hari Seldon, using his own highly developed math of psychohistory has the gall to suggest the empire is not only going to fall, but will be followed by 30,000 years of chaos and barbarism. It is impossible to stop the fall, but the period of chaos can be shortened to 1,000 years before a new empire takes control of the galaxy.
Seldon is tried for treason and sentenced to exile, but the emperor(s) fund the creation of two foundations, just in case Seldon’s predictions are correct. The first is at the far end of the galaxy on a planet, called Terminus the second is, “at star’s end”, in an unknown location.
The story focuses on times of crisis when the Seldon plan appears to be about to fail. In Asimov’s books most of the main characters are male. In the series not only are the main characters female but also Black. Such an oblivious concession to PC simply cannot be overlooked. It rankles and even abuses Asimov’s work. The female characters Asimov uses in the novels are strong, intelligent and there is no indication of their race. This is an imperfection in the series, that is hard to overlook.
Overlook it we must, to get to the story so far. The series is in part four as of 8 October. The first crisis is about to challenge the first foundation. There is an army on Terminus from another planet and the citizens of the first foundation must find a method to deal with the invading army and avert what could be 30,000 years of chaos in the galaxy.
The SFX are very good the acting is better than adequate with characters that are generally convincing. I have no doubts that reviewers will find the PC so objectionable that they will write the entire series off. That is a shame as there is some very good science fiction here that should be apricated even if it only has the outline of the Asimov novels.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 12, 2021 9:34:55 GMT -8
They have the first episode for free. I'm going to check it out.
--
Visually interesting through the first 15 minutes. I've never read the books but I suspect they've cranked up the "people of color" index by about 1000%. White people haven't quite been banished from this, but almost.
--
So far so good through 51 minutes of the first episode. It's remarkable that Gaal, the lead actress, is yet another bland woman. After starting with Carrie Fisher, the Star Wars world fell prey to a string of boring actresses. Natalie Portman was awful. And Lou Llobell as Gaal is suitably boring. Plus, this child acter can't act a lick. One gets the feeling that all they do in casting is check off the box for "the right color" and don't dig much deeper.
Interesting that the empire's bomb detecting technology comes up a bit short. And this is definitely a harbinger to 9/11.
--
I would definitely want to watch episode two of this. I'm not sure if I want to subscribe to Apple TV in order to do so, although I could simply do so for one month.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 12, 2021 13:26:16 GMT -8
I was racking my brain while watching this to figure out where I had seen Jared Harris before. Couldn't place him. But I think it was in the Chernobyl series. He is in The Crown, so I might have seen him there as well.
The special effects and overall look and direction of episode one was good. But I would rate Jared Harris as the only real actor there. I guess the emperor was okay but I was distracted by his "I look like Nicolas Cage" physical appearance. Oh, and the guy who played the spy was very good.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 13, 2021 9:26:16 GMT -8
I may not delve into this series further. One reviewer writes:
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 13, 2021 9:39:01 GMT -8
The reviews on this have been pretty negative. A combination of wokeness and not following the original story seems to be the problem. But since I've never read any of this, now might be a good time. You can download the books here. |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 26, 2021 7:34:17 GMT -8
The source I found for the Foundation series is presented in seven books. I downloaded the Epub files. These are obviously the product of slap-dash OCR and the first book is riddled with errors. But they are generally easy to skip over. I’m nearly finished with Prelude to Foundation.The resemblance to the Apple TV series is almost non-existent. The McGuffin (if you will) of “psychohistory” isn’t playing out well so far. It seems a gimmick, a dodge. I’m sure they’ll flesh it out later. But for now it’s a weak plot point. But the story is overall interesting enough as Hari Seldon is shuffled here and there by an apparently benevolent benefactor, Chetter Hummin (sounds like a dipping sauce), in order to escape the clutches of the Emperor who would either kill Seldon if his psychohistory predicts the downfall of the empire or force him to predict a rosy future of the empire. First stop is when Sheldon’s benefactor secretes him in Streeling University on Trantor, the home planet of the galactic empire. But apparently by agreement, universities are outside of the control of the empire where “academic freedom” apparently reigns. But maybe it turns out to be not so safe at the university, even despite the help of historian and supposed protecter, the babe-a-licious Dors “Boom Boom” Venabili. So their benefactor ushers them off to a somewhat autonomous and strange district of Trantor known as the reclusive Mycogen sector, famous for its delectable algae and fungus creations. Well, that doesn’t quite work out either and next they move on. And that’s about where I’m in the story right now. Overall, this is fine science fiction. Everyone says how “dated” these stories are so no wonder the Apple TV producers may have changed parts of it. But let’s remember we’re talking about what-ifs not actual history, so I have no problem with the various features, technology, and things that are mentioned that may be a little behind the times given modern thinking and technology. It’s a story, for god’s sake. Still, I find the weakness of the whole “psychohistory” idea to be something that could collapse this series under its own weight at any time. But I’ll see if he can make this plausible. |
|
|
|
Post by artraveler on Oct 26, 2021 15:52:00 GMT -8
The TV series has completely gone off track with the book(s). It bears little resemblance to Asimov's ideas or characters. I haven't read any reviews but I am sure the purists are running around with hair on fire. In episode 1 and 2 the story moved quickly and the writing was snappy by episode 3 everything slows down to a crawl. I found myself jumping ahead in 3 and 4 just to filter out the rubble. The surprise of politically correct main characters is over and I keep waiting for convincing that these people and their unique position in the story are important. So far, at best it is 50/50.
Unless the writing and the acting improves with this weeks episode I will call it quits and give them C- for effort.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 26, 2021 17:28:06 GMT -8
No doubt. And your comments about the general trend of the show don't surprise me. It sort of looked like that was where it was headed. But, heck, if it spurs me to read the book, all the better.
|
|
|
|
Post by artraveler on Oct 26, 2021 17:59:59 GMT -8
if it spurs me to read the book, all the better. Well, it has been at least 30 years since I read the complete series but this did spur me to read again. I am about 1/3 through book 4. |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 26, 2021 18:24:54 GMT -8
I've been trying to read a bit every night, sometimes during the day as well. Work is dead slow at the moment so I have the time.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 27, 2021 7:12:45 GMT -8
I probably have just a few pages left in Prelude to Foundation. They have met the Mayor of Wye. Funny that Asimov inserted a few "Who's on first?" jokes concerning that name.
Prelude to Foundation was published in 1988. I thought it was earlier than that. Nevertheless, Dors (Hari's protector) is the proverbial and quite (now) stereotypical Ass-Kicking Female. Being this is 1988, he didn't quite invent the prototype, I think. But he's close.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 28, 2021 7:18:49 GMT -8
Interesting surprise/plot-twist at the very end of Prelude to Foundation. Mr. Flu (and others) should read no further. This is a big spoiler and would pretty much ruin this book for you, or at least diminish it. So Hummin turns out to be some kind of biological robot, at least externally indistinguishable from humans. And (currently in the guise of First Minister Demerzel) has been doing his bit to adhere to his programming and shepherd “humanity” through the ages.
And the (to me) LOL plot twist is that the ass-kicking female, Dors, may not actually be a female. She may be a robot of some kind, a special assistant (one of many? of thousands? of millions?) to Hummin. And Seldon proves himself to me all-man by basically saying, “Fuck it. She’s got tits and ass and she likes me. She’s my girl.”
So, anyway, I wouldn’t rate this prose as Shakespeare but the first book is certainly readable. |
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 28, 2021 8:52:37 GMT -8
We might assume Asimov's politics to be left-of-center. Gauging by the first book, we might generously classify him as a "classical liberal" with all the caveats about liberalism being the gateway drug to leftism.
But in the second book, Asimov definitely tweaks the political boundaries a little. There's a demagogue politician known as "Jo-Jo." Offhand, Jo-Jo definitely sounds like a communist type of demagogue.
What is astonishing is that "academic freedom" are not just throw-away words in the mind of Asimov, or at least to his main character, Hari Seldon. Starting in the second book, there is an unauthorized rally by one of Jo-Jo's mouthpieces on the campus of Streeling University. The idiot students (they are always gullible) are there soaking it up. The speaker is backed by five or six enforcement goons.
Hari hears the noise while walking to his office in the morning and checks it out. He hears the familiar "Jo-Jo" rant by the mindless mob. (University students are almost always a mindless mob.) He figures there's no way these guys have a permit so he challenges the speakers. In the course of this (note, I wish Ann Coulter or Ben Shapiro would adopt these tactics) he man-handles the speaker and kicks the ass out of the couple of the henchmen. Hari is accomplished at Judo (what they call being a "Twister").
That is how you fucking enforce (if you'll pardon my French) academic freedom. You meet the goons (of whatever stripe) head on. Way to go, Hari!
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 30, 2021 13:59:31 GMT -8
I think Asimov was a fan of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. Many of the conversations between Demerzel and Cleon (the emperor) sound as if they had been written by Wodehouse for Jeeves (Demerzel) and Wooster (Cleon), although Cleon isn't quite the upper-class twit that Bertie is.
|
|
Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
Posts: 12,261
|
Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 1, 2021 7:54:44 GMT -8
About 40% into book two. Seldon has advanced in the bureaucracy a bit. Evil Jo-Jo-ian forces are at work in the background. The imperial city gets a new gardener. Seldon sends his son off on a dangerous intelligence-gathering missing regarding possible sabotage.
And psychohistory still remains a weak link in the chain of these stories. But still interesting enough so far.
|
|
