There are any number of obvious parallels to be found in Foundation. He establishes the eponymous Foundation to both shorten the chaos that would follow and provide a well from which an eventual renaissance may spring. Seldon has foreseen the end of the established order and the collapse of the Galactic Empire. Seldon is a pioneer in the field of “psychohistory,” which charts and predicts the movement of politics and culture across millennia. Put simply, Foundation is about the efforts of Hari Seldon, played in the television series by Jared Harris. Economist Paul Krugman has claimed that the series shaped his entire outlook. Critic Dan Schneider argues, quite reasonably, that “ without Foundation there would simply not be Star Wars.” Gene Roddenberry famously corresponded with Asimov and claimed that one of the primary goals of Star Trek was “ making new purchasers of The Foundation novels.” The influence of Foundation extended beyond fiction. To give a sense of the esteem in which Foundation is held by those in the know, the series famously beat Lord of the Rings to the special one-time “ Best All-Time Series” Hugo Award in 1966.įoundation casts a long shadow over contemporary culture. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is rightly regarded as one of the essential texts in American science fiction, even if it has never enjoyed stature in pop culture comparable to Star Wars or Star Trek. The epic has had a storied journey from page to screen.
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