Man I'm tired

[graeco_celt]

It doesn't seem as though I should be but I am.
In fact, I've been feeling pretty exhausted for the last two or so weeks.
Not quite sure what's going on there.

Anyway...
(Yeah, bullet points again. Sorry)

* Foundation has proved to be somewhat disappointing. It feels rushed and the characters are never developed. In fact, more than anything, it

Comments

[graeco_celt]

Well, I'm only a year older than you and I'm certainly no expert in the exact timeline of the proposal of concepts of human existence (in science fiction or anywhere else)!

But I think it's a fairly human practice to forget (with varying frequency, depending on the person in question) that nothng about our societies, way of thinking etc has always been here. It causes us to take things for granted. So, for us, there may not seem to be anyting particularly 'new' about what Asimov or anyone else wrote because we've grown up with these ideas but, at the time, they chnaged people's ways of thinking and being.

I really woke up to this while I was at university - funnily enough, via a combination of reading up on certain key social theorists of the past and getting hooked on Buster Keaton, both cases being representative of innovation in the respective fields of sociology and cinema. A lot of people would look at what Buster keaton used in his films and the various techniques and think "So? We can do that much more convincingly now", without really cottoning on to what an amazing new thing said technique was when he pioneered it.

I was guilty of doing the same sort of thing with some of the theorists I was studying in a couple of papers; I caught myself on several occasions, thinking "Who doesn't know that already?" and other similar thoughts, before realizing that, actually, at the time, nobody was really thinking that. And that, in fact, a number of now accepted (or, at least, widely discussed) concepts within the fields of sociology, psychology, cultural studies, gender studies etc are still alien to anybody not working within the aforementioned and other related fields.

Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah, mob mentality, manipulation of the baser instincts of humanity, sweeping historical forces etc - they may be old hat now but they weren't necessarily when Asimov and the like started articulating them.

And now I REALLY must do some work!!! :D

[shweta_narayan]

But I think it's a fairly human practice to forget (with varying frequency, depending on the person in question) that nothng about our societies, way of thinking etc has always been here.

Oh, yes. c.f. "So what" responses to LotR.
I completely agree, but it's not what I meant; I know some of his ideas were groundbreaking, and assume his ideas in Foundation were groundbreaking, but I don't know which bits in particular were new, since I read them far later.

I was guilty of doing the same sort of thing with some of the theorists I was studying in a couple of papers

I first came to realize it talking to pretty-amazing senior professors who were struggling with things we grad students took for granted because of them.

[graeco_celt]

Mmm, I too would have to do some further research before being able to conclusively point out which bits were groundbreaking at that time.

Then again, as I say, perhaps that accolade was put forth by the then equivalent of Meyer or Rwoling fans. ;D

Right, right, right, STOP ENGAGING ME IN INTERESTING CONVERSATION!!!

I have a plan to stick to, dammit!
(1 hour of genealogical research, prepare this afternoon's classes, get out of the house and away from the noisy builders - not that that's their fault, of course - return textbooks to my Catalan teacher, have lunch, read my new books, go to work)
Must start!

Maybe I should disbale my gmail alert icon, so I don't know if you've replied to me, till later? :D
(I am the universal emperor of both procrastination and lack of will power...! :S)