“The Foundation Trilogy” (post 2) by Isaac Asimov (post 4): Science Fiction Explanation of Writing Process and Multiple Personality

In my first post on Asimov, who was amazingly prolific, I quoted his memoir on his writing process: “I can hear bits of dialogue…or passages of exposition…That’s why I’m always ready to write. Everything is…already written” (1).

Since he experienced his works as “already written,” he must have wondered who had written it, put the words in his mind, and made his typing it so enjoyable. The Foundation Trilogy is Asimov’s science-fiction answer.

Near the end of the third novel of this trilogy, a character wonders: “When can a man know he is not a puppet? How can a man know he is not a puppet?” (2, p. 601). It turns out that the “Second Foundation” is a secret group of scientific psychologists, who, without doing any kind of therapy, can put ideas in any person’s mind and change their personality.

1. Isaac Asimov. I. Asimov: A Memoir. New York, Bantam/Doubleday, 1994.

2. Isaac Asimov. The Foundation Trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation [1942-1953]. Introduction by Michael Dirda. New York, Everyman’s Library, 2010.