A brief look at the components of Asimov's style

Organization & Structure:   Of the books surveyed, the majority followed Asimovs short, simple and clear style- they flowed logically, feeding the reader plot sequences bit by bit.   However, the exception was found in the Foundation Series where each of the books are divided into various section which are then further divided into smaller chapters indicated by numbers.   In Foundation , the sections are representative of different groups of people such "The Psychohistorians" and "The Merchant Princes".   Prelude to Foundation seems to be the exception since its sections consist of both people and objects (Note: Prelude to Foundation was written 37 years after Foundation made its debut). Each section begins from an excerpt from the "Encyclopedia Galactica", a fictional text that exists within the Foundation series. The excerpt provides the reader with completely new material- there is no obvious connection between the excerpt and the previous section.   The beginning of each section also introduces a new character through passages of dialogue.

Analysis: The division of the book into sections is used to isolate the various problems that afflict each group of people.   If we label each problem, as an episode then the resulting fact is that the book is divided into five episodes.   Because the book is divided into five episodes, the reader is forced to read all five parts in order to truly understand the plot.   Although it is possible to skip an entire section, a reader would skip a certain viewpoint of a group of people. The next level of division, the chapters, corresponds directly to plot events.   When a discovery is made or a solution found the chapter generally ends.   For that reason chapter length varies greatly from a half a page to several pages.   The excerpts from the Encyclopedia Galactica serve three main purposes: 1) An abstract introduction to the new section, 2) A device to hook the readers interest, 3) Serve as a "red thread" or in other words, a reoccurring object that helps provide stability.   Lastly the introduction of new characters at the beginning of each section serves a purpose similar to point one for the encyclopedia.   Readers become eager to learn about this new character and their involvement with the specific episode.

Diction:   As Asimov himself states, there is little use of specific literary elements such as allusions and personification.   In addition to Asimov making no special attempt at including such elements is the fact that each of the books surveyed are written in third person. With heavy dialogue, in order to make his characters more life like, Asimov may have been forced to use shorter sentences and a simpler vocabulary.   Any of the robot novels are of a specific case themselves.   In the robot novels, the character pairing is usually a human, as a detective, paired with a robotic counterpart.   Thus, the sentence structure and word choice for the robots are even further reduced.   Asimov is forced, since as logical thinkers, his robots take the most efficient path in action and in speech.   

Tone:   As a result of a rather limited vocabulary base and short sentences, the resulting tone across Asimov's science fiction based novels produces a sense of envy for the robots.   In the robot series, the main character Eliajah Baley learns first hand from his robotic partner Daneel who is first mistaken by Baley as another human.   In this way, the reader can associate with Baley.   Asimov predicts accurately how the average person might react in the presence of a human looking robot.   First, there is fear, distrust, and then envy.   Asimov conveys a sense of envy by placing Daneel and Baley in positions where essentially it is competition to see who can perform a task better: man or machine?   Baley quickly comes to realize that his robotic partner has certain advantages, both physically and mentally.   But he also recognizes that the robot can do little without humans giving some sort of command.   The Foundation series too exhibits this envy for robots.   Although it is not apparent until one reads Prelude to Foundation because Asimov bridges the Robot series and the Foundation series in the novel.   The very same human looking robot Daneel turns out to be the powerful prophet that drives the plot of the Foundation novels.   With just the robot series and foundation series combined alone, Asimov devoted ten books to strengthening this sense of envy for robots.

Author: Roland Saekow (saekow@sbcglobal.net)