REQUIEM: ISAAC ASIMOV 1920-1992

ISAAC ASIMOV LOVED CLARITY ABOVE ALL ELSE, SAVE HIS WIFE AND FAMILY. HE SHARED
HIS LOVE OF CLEAR THINKING AND CLEAR WRITING WITH HIS READERS AND AUDIENCES FOR
MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY.

That, on the occasion of his death, is cause as much for thanks as for sorrow.
The great science communicator of our century, which is to say the greatest
science communicator of all time, Isaac Asimov did more to serve the cause of
rational humanism than any dozen writers or thinkers one could name.

There is a temptation in eulogizing Isaac simply to list his accomplishments.
Close to 500 books, awards and honors beyond number, fame and wealth, a
delightful home and social life. Along with John W. Campbell, Robert A.
Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke, he created modern science fiction, and a case
can be made that Asimov's influence loomed largest of all. Certainly Asimov saw
concepts from his fiction become paradigms in the practical world. The Three
Laws of Robotics-Asimov's Laws-are the prime example of this, having made their
way from the pages of his fiction into debates over the nature of the robotic
and other artificial intelligences we are in the process of building. Asimov's
Laws may last as long as his books.

In his nonfiction, Asimov's ambition was without boundary. He tackled every
aspect of the sciences and made his way through most of the humanities as well.
Shakespeare, the Bible, quantum mechanics, overpopulation, biography, sex, the
nature of science fiction, physiology, exploration, the quirks and conundrums of
his own personality- Isaac was not only willing to try it all, he did try it
all, and succeeded far more often than he failed. Outside of science fiction,
his novels and stories have not received the literary attention they deserve,
although his lifelong detestation of critics may have prompted Isaac to view
critical neglect as a blessing. Nevertheless, there is more of literary
substance to his fiction than one might guess from book jackets or reviews. His
prose carried readers along effortlessly. His dialogue, in some ways stilted,
bore a great deal of the stories' weight. When Isaac's characters spoke, they
spoke about something. Ideas flowed among them, propelling the stories along
even as they prompted reflection and consideration on the part of the reader.
One became a participant in the grand debates that raged among Isaac's
creations.

And his characters! Not for Isaac to be known for self-indulgent plumbing of the
neurotic soul. His people often displayed neuroses, sure, but they also
displayed their ability to reach accommodation with their foibles, even to turn
those foibles into assets. Much as, one might suppose, their creator had.
Isaac's characters displayed feelings, goals. and dreams. Only occasionally can
you feel Asimov tugging at their strings. More often than not, they tug at
yours. Again, one is tempted toward the catalog: Susan Calvin and her robots,
Hari Seldon and psychohistory, Lije Baley and R. Daneel Oliwaw probing mysteries
in a scientific age, Andrew the artificial man who longed to be human. There
are more. and they will live forever in the stories that house them.

Asimov stories are often called relentlessly logical, and up to a certain point
that's true. But more is present than logic. One story, "The Ugly Little Boy,"
is undoubtedly as logical and pitiless in its understanding of history and the
forces of nature as any fiction ever written. At the same time, the story is
filled with emotion, real emotion, not the histrionics and melodrama that too
often pass for emotion in fiction. Read it and weep, the cliche goes; read "The
Ugly Little Boy" and try not to.

Of course, the greatest of all of Asimov's characters was Isaac himself. As
comfortable on the speaker's dais as behind the writer's keyboard, he constantly
shared himself with fans and audiences. Over the last two decades, he shared a
growing wisdom about our species, colored by a certain weariness over what we do
to ourselves and our world. He was too much the storyteller to sermonize too
often, yet the sermons-the teachings-are there in his work, worth your time and
everyone's.

Isaac Asimov was, finally, a great writer and important-in many ways the Dickens
of our electronic, scientific, information-oriented age. His work will long
outlast his body, or yours, or mine, or even those of the immortal machines he
envisioned. The universe of whose multifold wonders he wrote in so many forms
and modes seems a dimmer place with Isaac Asimov gone. That's neither logical
nor rational, but it's true.