The Foundation Trilogy Analysis and Critique | Video Essay

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Isaac Asimov’s original Foundation trilogy doesn’t get a lot of credit for the quality of its prose, so in this video essay, I explore some of the masterful choices Asimov made in the writing of his classic science fiction books.
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About the Video:
Most of the footage in this video has no direct connection to the novel being discussed. The clips have been repurposed to create new meaning in relation to the literary work. Ideally, this collage of media will help to offer compelling insights, though the attempt might be clumsy at times and viewers are warned that these things should not be taken too seriously: Tis all in good fun. For a list of media used throughout, please refer to the text version of the essay at: contentlit.com/foundation-ana...
Music:
Subterranean Howl by ELPHNT
Ticker by Silent Partner
Resolution by Wayne Jones
I Want to Fall in Love on Snapchat and John Stockton Slow Drag by Chris Zabriskie are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/... Source: chriszabriskie.com/dtv/ Artist: chriszabriskie.com/
More Foundation Episodes:
► Foundation - Summary and Review: • The Foundation Trilogy...
► The History and Influence of Foundation: • The History and Influe...

Опубликовано:

8 апр 2021

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Комментарии : 61

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

More episodes: Foundation - Summary and Review: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hL94C7GhFdM.html Foundation - History and Influence: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N-MHHb9qwyc.html

@zoltanmisley666 3 года назад

Please credit the video snippets you use. I'd very much like to follow up on them

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

@@zoltanmisley666 No problem, the movies are listed at the bottom of the text version of the essay on my website. The link is in the description.

3 года назад

The Encyclopedia Galactica is a respectable, but on the whole insignificant guide and sells rather less than The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is also more expensive and older than the Guide. It has also been criticised in some quarters for the lack of friendly advice on the cover, compared to the Guide.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

"Don't Panic."

@thelilroyvideo 3 года назад

Just happened to stumble across one of your Foundation videos. Got further lost in your channel. Excellent content! How does this not have more views?!?

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

I blame the Second Foundation.

@paul72324 2 года назад

Just finished this series (original three) and I genuinely enjoyed the dialogue so much so that I didn't think about the story as a series of debates until you mentioned it.

@shreyas7239 3 года назад

Great video and analysis, loved the visual overlay as well

@athenaze2472 3 года назад

Great job, I really enjoyed watching it! I read the trilogy recently, and it was so interesting to see it analyzed to some depth. Thank you so much!

@jaykaramales3087 3 года назад

Well done Simon! Thanks for sending me the links for your videos. As you know, I'm going through the works of other authors set in Asimov's Foundation milieu, and honestly so far their quality has not lived up to Asimov's standards so your videos are keeping me motivated by reminding me what a brilliant work the original trilogy was and is.

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

Cheers Jay! Asimov and his style is such a big part of the experience, it's hard to imagine another writer pulling it off with the same charm and panache.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

In many ways the _Foundation_ trilogy is, as said, an intellectual challenge to solve problems nonviolently. The analogy of a murder mystery comes to mind. At first it's to go along with the plan and accept that the crises have limited options and force a social change. But later it means the Foundation worlds and leadership need to solve its own minor problems and continue to strive and achieve based on economic opportunities.

@StewartUSAF Месяц назад

I recall someone saying that “Asimov had writer’s block once. It was the worst 15 minutes of his life!” You talk about the use of familiar tropes in Asimov’s descriptions, but these stories are old enough that they are much less familiar when the stories were written.

@adrianglenister5624 3 года назад

wonderful video Simon, thanks for bringing to my attention

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

Cheers Adrian, glad I could do justice to the book for you.

@dlutkins9 3 года назад

Excellent video, Simon!

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

Thank you, sir!

@RGC-gn2nm 2 года назад

FYI, I got all my first copies of the sci fiction classics through the chaplain's free book programs while on deployment in the military.

@sailorbychoice1 Год назад

6:15 _He wrote at the seventh grade level..._ Keep in mind when saying this that _most_ US newspapers are written to be understood at a _fifth grade reading level,_ and the _majority_ of College freshmen are reading at what is considered a _sixth grade reading level._ Many College graduates (depending on their majors) receive a BS/BA with no more that a _seventh grade reading level._

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

I'm not sure what that means: "Xth grade reading level." If someone does a unique word count, to quantify it, that would make sense, as well as number of words of three syllables or more. Or if there's a number of made-up words to be discussed.

@PeseudoAnacleto 2 года назад

The legend of galactic heroes's scene never will be more acurrate in a video non about its own series. Fundation was one of my first loves in thr sci fi,. Maybe will be que his principies not legitimiced today, always will still in my child memoris as a one of the greattest stories never written

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 2 года назад

The world needs more Legend of Galactic Heroes fans.

@caramanico1 2 года назад

Everybody should also read his real science books and essays. He makes the toughest scientific theory totally understandable - he would have been a fantastic professor.

@johncarldelossantos7345 Год назад

He is a Biochemistry Professor.

@ryang.5094 Год назад

Excellent job. Subscribed! Can you do a video about Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos?

@ContentLitwithSimonFay Год назад

I love Hyperion. It's definitely on my list of books to cover.

@mkmcemd 9 месяцев назад

Thanks!

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 9 месяцев назад

Cheers, friend!

@JSGH-JOE Год назад

Ha! Im Irish American in Vermont... this is my third episode and I thought you we're frim India this whole time until you just referenced that awesome book(How the Irish Saved Civilization). I feel like the sequel to that was that nonfictiom book that told the story of the first Encyclopedia... hold up!?!?!? WHAT!?!?!.. Train of thought wreck! Anyhow, Awesome content!!! MORE ASIMOV PLEASE! PEACE!

@JSGH-JOE Год назад

Here in VT we play "Finnegans Wake", "Wild Rover", "Ol Dun Cow" etc. Come to O'dwyer's Public House in Killington VT someday. :)

@AP-eq6fv 3 года назад

This is excellent. I think I may know what my next book(s) will be. You should also do a video on Dune. Personally, I really disliked the book, but would love to hear your thoughts.

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

I wasn't the biggest fan of Dune, but in retrospect I found myself interested in it again when I realised it reinterprets a lot of themes from Foundation. I'll definitely look at it in detail someday.

@roberthasse7862 3 года назад

DON'T watch this if you haven't read the trilogy! (Serious spoilers!!!)

@TheNameOfJesus 3 года назад

At 15:02 Asimov was interviewed by “Sy Bourgin.” Say that name out loud. See the irony?

@peterconway6584 3 года назад

I had to spend several seconds on that name, because I just knew that it couldn't really be spelled the way I thought.

@markkiernan9314 3 года назад

The chops on him. Had me laughing my asimov

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

Isaac see what you're saying.

@markkiernan9314 3 года назад

@@ContentLitwithSimonFay what

@MrBendybruce 3 года назад

About the Mule. My view of this character is shaped by the idea that he was in no small way a product of his circumstances and the society he came from. In that respect, even if his goals seemed morally questionable, there was at least some part of me that could empathies with his perspective.

@Dularr 3 года назад

Funny thing is all the characters are villains. There are no heroes in Foundation.

@lordofworldz 3 года назад

the word i learned b/c of this trilogy i didnt know was assiduous. I never knew that word existed and now use it any chance i can

@ContentLitwithSimonFay 3 года назад

Tis a good one.

@Dularr 3 года назад

yep, number one personality trait of your doctor.

@gorymarty56 2 года назад

Clips from firefly and Aeon Flux.

@SkipInPerth 2 года назад

@simon fay enjoyed your video(s) about foundation books. I am on my way to visit your site to find out which video clip from 17:08 to 17:36 - I recognized most of the others but not this one :-)

@peterretep4009 2 года назад

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_and_the_City_of_a_Thousand_Planets

@Eris123451 9 месяцев назад

It's weird some, "classic," science fiction bares re-reading but much doesn't. For me Foundation falls into the second category, it's was a great romp with a few show stopping moments but on the whole it hasn't really stood the test of time that well and I can think of several other, "space operas," that have lasted far better.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

Sci-fi that deals with life on Venus and Mars from the 1930s-1950s doesn't stand up because we know better; they are barren worlds. The sci-fi ideas or tropes in _Foundation_ are of a Galactic Empire with space ships having hyperspace devices, blasters and force-fields. The premise is based on a fictional branch of mathematics able to predict the future based on psychology of planet-wide numbers of human beings and larger. We then get into rare emotional-telepathic communication and control. Clearly many of these ideas are improbable to near impossible, but they still are staples of science fiction. Compare that with _Dune_ which has many of the same ideas of a Galactic Empire, but with perhaps some fantastical abilities of humans like prescience while taking spice to see the future, making them able to cross through hyperspace, and being able to access your ancestors' memories. These are not common sci-fi ideas, and its doubtful if there is any mechanism in science or human beings able to do these things. Perhaps non-fantastical is the cynical actions of one group to create or modify religions to manipulate or control large numbers of human beings. That at least involves sociology.

@septdre Год назад

Man I accidentally read the first and last book in that order completely skipping the 2nd book

@lordofworldz 3 года назад

a combination of william gibson and isaac asimov would be impressive. Gibsons ability to make very trilling character stories where the outside world doesn't matter and that could take place in any world and asimovs ability to make grand worlds where larger then life characters run things in a very vague and extremely imaginative and compelling way would be an absolutely amazing story. I suppose this is just my opinion but would i would love to see a world where the 2 of them could fill out a world together (also this comment took way to long to form into words and its still too wordy, and took too many edits) This is my head cannon so fuck you if you dont like it -.-:..... :-D

@tantraman93 2 года назад

Most of us owe a massive debt to a school librarian that bought sci-fi and fantasy out of their meager book budget.

@thomasciarlariello3228 Год назад

"Star Wars" ripped off Asimov, Clarke, etc.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

I object to the term "ripped off." Clearly 20th century sci-fi ideas influenced others working in the genre. We can see that Tatooine and a "spice smuggler" had antecedents in Dune, as the Galactic Empire or at least Coruscant was preceded by Trantor in _Foundation._ The droids are a lot like the two bickering peasants in Kurosawa's _Hidden Fortress_ just as the speeder bike chase seems very similar to that movie's horse chase. Now the creators of _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine_ had access to the show "bible" for _Babylon 5_ so likely translated that show into the Star Trek universe and were arrogant enough to even use the name of one of the characters as the Dabo-girl, Leeta. J. Michael Straczynski sued and either won or got a settlement. Now whether E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was stolen from a story about a boy and his alien from an Indian writer whose script was circulating in Hollywood is unknown. Lucas won his lawsuit by some Canadian boys who claimed they sent him their script about short furry aliens they named Ewoks. If these cases were true then they would be rip-offs. If Lucas got the rights to do a _Flash Gordon_ movie like he wanted to, then there'd be no _Star Wars_ and one wonders how good _Flash Gordon_ would have been compared to the mess we got in 1980.

@charlesdog9795 3 года назад

Now Amazon is going to ruin it all with their 'show'. I will not be watching.

@lkrnpk 2 года назад

Apple

@charlesdog9795 2 года назад

@@lkrnpk Just as bad, maybe worse.

@countdowntorevolution9986 3 года назад

It's a while since I read it but I don't think the idea was for the Foundation to lead on to utopia, just cancel out the chaos that followed the Empire's collapse. Very nice set of vids overall though.... Please don't bother covering any of the books after the original trilogy - they're terrible and ruin the whole thing.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

I think the Second Galactic Empire involved creating a society like the renaissance, post-renaissance or Age of Reason where science and learning flourishes and technology benefits the great masses of humanity. I think it was said once that by 1000 F.E. (Foundation Era) the First Foundation would be accepting of galactic rule by psychohistorians (though perhaps not knowing they are also emotional-telepaths). It is said in the books that if they could save Trantor and the Galactic Empire from destruction they might not want to because it is embedded with a decay, lack of interest in learning, social stratification of caste, and lack of vigor to solve problems, and explore and colonize new worlds on the periphery and improve humankind's well being. Yeah, I don't think the successive books do much for us on Earth who have not formed one-world government or banned nuclear weapons. Figuring out how the Second Foundation gets the First Foundation to accept them is a major plot point that was not addressed. I think they even gave up on the Second Foundation and Second Empire in favor of a hive-mind intelligence. Maybe that could better have occurred thousands or tens of thousands of years after the Second Empire.

@RGC-gn2nm 2 года назад

Using dated sci fi terms like Space Patrol and Atomics pulled me out of the story. More generic terms like weapon instead of atomic blaster or space patrol instead of in orbit/on the perimeter.

@sandal_thong8631 9 месяцев назад

_Foundation_ and some of his other stories were written in the 1940s and 1950s. I can see what you mean by "atomics" this and that, but they also use the term in _Dune,_ I believe. Smoking tobacco seems very anachronistic to me today. They even make a point in some movies that they didn't show tobacco products, these days.