Foundation
In which Rat puts it into practice
Good time of day, humans!
Rat loves science fiction, almost as much as he loves cheese.
Fun fact: Western sci-fi was generally welcomed in the Soviet Union, and Asimov’s works, along with those of Bradbury, Simak and others were translated not only into Russian but into minor languages as well. Asimov’s Foundation series is a notable exception – the earliest Russian translation I could locate is dated 1992, right after the fall of the empire. A conspiracy theorist might say: «so someone in the KGB read it and thought «oh, this sounds like a plan!»»; in reality, it’s more likely censors just couldn’t stand the idea of non-Marxist grand sociology, even in fiction.
CWCID: inspired by
, who mentioned both empire and Asimov yesterday in a somewhat different context:
I don't know if Asimov intended, but when I read the Foundation series it hinted at a stateless society, something mostly anarchic. That, in addition to a grand sociology, might be very upsetting to an entrenched nomenklatura—especially one that was nominally (notionally...) in favour of such a thing. Control freaks dread a crisis of rising expectations.
Thanks for the mention! Asimov said of Foundation once, "I took an empire that was Roman, cast it galaxy-wide, and they said 'Oh, what a brilliant young man this is!'"
Of course, Asimov did far more than that. His sociology was a purely materialistic one. If you read the books, it is present--an objective, rational, scientific analysis of what makes societies rise and fall, and how human nature, for lack of a better term, is just one many-splendored complication that always throws a monkey wrench into the best-laid plans of both rats and men.