CliffsNotes on Asimov's Foundation Trilogy & Other Works

Cliff Notes

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• ISBN:
  9780544179707
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Aides à l'étude
• Subtopic: Guides d'étude

The Gods Themselves

1972

The publication of The Gods Themselves was Asimov’s triumphal return to science fiction after writing a good deal of nonfiction. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for 1972. Although some fans felt that The Gods Themselves was a disappointment and that the awards were given primarily to honor Asimov’s past contributions to science fiction, it is probably Asimov’s best novel, science fiction or standard fiction. The Gods Themselves can be judged against standard literary criteria without special pleading. It is not perfect, but it is a rich and carefully crafted novel that sustains a reader’s interest, even after repeated readings.

The Gods Themselves is divided into three sections of increasing length and complexity. The first section—“Against stupidity . . .”—focuses on the efforts of Peter Lamont to discredit Dr. Frederick Hallam as the Father of the Electron Pump and to convince someone to heed his warnings that continued use of the Electron Pump might lead to the destruction of our universe. The second section—“. . . the gods themselves . . .”—focuses on the beings in a parallel universe who initiated the development of the Electron Pump to gain the energy needed to maintain life in their universe. The final section-“. . . contend in vain?”—returns to our universe and to the moon, where Dr. Ben Denison and Selene Lindstrom L work together to reach into another parallel universe to gain energy and to balance the effects of the Electron Pump. Together, the three section titles form a modified quotation: “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain?” The original quotation, attributed to the German dramatist Schiller in his play concerning Joan of Arc, reads, “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” The only difference is in the end punctuation, but the change makes a significant difference in the meaning. Whereas the period indicates a flat statement which suggests a hopeless state of affairs, Asimov’s question mark introduces an element of hope that stupidity need not be the dominating force. The novel bears this out: Throughout the novel, a great deal of stupidity, selfishness, and one-sided thinking is portrayed; however, although some succumb in the struggle against stupidity, two people do, finally, join forces to develop a means of short-circuiting the effects of stupidity.

“Against stupidity . . .” begins with Chapter 6, which Asimov assures the reader is intentional. It briefly focuses on the goals of Peter Lamont, who wants to discredit Frederick Hallam and to demonstrate that the non-humans who gave directions for building the Electron Pump are superior in intelligence, and of Myron Bronowski, who has merely to interpret and translate the thinking of the non-humans. Several other portions of Chapter 6 are interspersed throughout the early stages of the story before its main body is presented in order.

Frederick Hallam, newly a Ph.D., discovers that someone has tampered with a bottle of tungsten metal on his desk. Because he feels himself the victim of a practical joke, he has the new contents of the bottle tested, discovering that these contents are “impossible” according to the physical laws of our universe. He further discovers that this new metal becomes increasingly unstable and radioactive.

Twenty-three years after Hallam’s discovery, Peter Lamont, newly a Ph.D. in physics, with an interest in the history of the Electron Pump, joined Pump Station One. Dissatisfied by the official record and feeling that Hallam has used his influence to edit the record so that all the credit for the discovery is his, Lamont finds that no one will give him the kind of information he wants, although many will talk to him.

He interviews Hallam to try to get some information. At first, Hallam is pleasant, leading Lamont to talk about his own work in para-theory (deducing the laws of a parallel universe). But when Lamont suggests that para-men were primarily responsible for the development of the Pump and, hence, are more intelligent than humans, Hallam becomes very angry. As a result of this interview, Lamont finds his sources of information fewer, and his career as a para-theorist begins to decline.

Lamont meets Bronowski, who patiently spent twelve years deciphering Etruscan inscriptions that had baffled all others, and persuades him to tackle the problem of translating the evidences they have of the para-language. While Bronowski works patiently at the task, Lamont’s career continues to decline. Prodded by a chance remark of a junior colleague who had been promoted over him, he begins looking for the “catch” that might mean that the Electron Pump is a dangerous rather than an unblemished blessing. He finds faulty assumptions and alternative assumptions which provide answers to those questions that indicate the destruction of our universe in the near future if Pumping is continued. To have an excuse for going to Hallam’s superiors, Lamont presents his argument to Hallam in a way that angers him.

Chapter 6, now in sequence, follows this meeting. Lamont explains his sense of urgency to Bronowski, and Bronowski reveals the first possibilities of communication with the para-men. Unfortunately, the evidence is too ambiguous for Lamont to use.

Lamont goes first to Senator Burt, head of the Committee on Technology and the Environment, and later to Joshua Chen, whose speeches often influence public opinion. Both men listen to Lamont, but both men refuse to do anything that would help him.

Communication with the para-men establishes that the Electron Pump is dangerous but that the para-men will do nothing to stop it. Bronowski then decides he will no longer battle the stupidity of the power structure, and Lamont is left alone.

The chapter entitled “ . . . the gods themselves . . .” takes place in the parallel universe and focuses on Dua, Odeen, and Tritt, members of an important triad. Dua is the group’s Emotional, but she is different from all the other Emotionals on this world; her main difference lies in the fact that she had a great deal of the Rational in her. Odeen is a Rational, the one most concerned with learning and with contacting others. Tritt is a Parental, the aspect of the group concerned with family, children, and sex. He usually acts directly, on the basis of instinct. Tritt was brought to Odeen first, but he knows that Dua is precisely the right Emotional for them; he is disturbed that her difference means that she does not want to “melt” a baby-Emotional to complete their family.

Dua, Odeen, and Tritt are the Soft Ones. Their teachers, the beings who are in charge of things, are the Hard Ones. Whereas the Soft Ones are tri-sexual, the Hard Ones seem to be either non-sexual or single-sexed. The Soft Ones are made up of loosely connected matter; they can melt into one another, although the Rational and the Parental need the special properties of the Emotional before they can do so properly. The Hard Ones are more densely packed, seeming much like humans. The food of the Soft Ones is energy, absorbed from the sun; the Emotional provides the energy for “melting” and for starting a child, although it takes her much longer to absorb energy. The birth rate on this planet has been dropping steadily because their sun is dying. Tritt’s instinct and Odeen’s knowledge leave them both disturbed by Dua’s reluctance to initiate the third child.

Odeen tackles the problem rationally, trying to get information and a plan of action from his teacher, Losten. Tritt tackles the problem instinctively, going into the caverns of the Hard Ones and finding something he feels sure can help him. In the meantime, Dua contemplates, and when she returns home, she has many questions to ask Odeen. Tritt hurries them into Dua’s chamber. While Odeen explains the Positron Pump and the difference between the two universes, Dua feeds herself, actually enjoying eating. She suddenly wishes to “melt,” and Tritt is there, as though expecting this. Afterward, Odeen and Dua argue about the effects of the Positron Pump and of the explosion that will occur in the other (our) universe. She is concerned about people; he is interested only in the supply of energy.

When three Hard Ones come and discover that Tritt had taken a food-ball to connect to Dua’s feeding place, and that the recent “melt” initiated a baby-Emotional, Dua feels totally betrayed and leaves abruptly. She stays away a long time, and when Odeen does find her, she rejects his arguments and pleas. While she is gone, she also works to stop the Positron Pump and to communicate with the other universe.

Alerted by Losten, Odeen and Tritt find her just before she sinks into the floor without enough energy to emerge again. As they slowly feed her, Odeen explains that Soft Ones are immature forms of Hard Ones and that when they “melt,” they temporarily become Hard Ones. Odeen, Tritt, and Dua “melt” and emerge as Estwald.

The action in “. . . contend in vain?” takes place on our moon and focuses on Ben Denison and Selene Lindstrom L. While the actions of the first two parts of the novel deal with roughly parallel events in parallel universes, the action in this final section occurs some time later.

Ben Denison and Selene Lindstrom L meet while she is guiding tourists around Luna City. His understanding of some of the facts of life on the moon, unlike most tourists, and his interest in the proton synchroton intrigue her. When she tells Barron Neville, her lover and a leader in the Moon’s scientific community, he instructs her to find out more about Denison. Both because of her instructions and her own interest, Selene shows Ben sights few tourists see.

Konrad Gottstein, the new Commissioner on the Moon, intercepts Ben and offers him a fair hearing on any discoveries he makes about the Electron Pump if he will provide information about what is happening scientifically on the Moon. While Gottstein is acting on suspicions and worries passed on to him by his predecessor, Neville questions Selene about the possibility that Ben is involved in some kind of conspiracy. Later, Neville meets with Denison and offers him the chance to use laboratory facilities, primarily so he can observe Ben.

Selene and Ben continue to see each other, and they talk about his work. Her quick perceptions lead him to the fact that she is probably an Intuitionist, which infuriates Neville. As a result of her suggestions and his work in the laboratory, Ben devises an experiment which they carry out on the surface. Gottstein, in a surprise move, joins them. As Ben talks to Gottstein, Selene manipulates the equipment and reaches a third universe.

After publication of a paper on the breakthrough and its consequences, and after Neville’s subsequent refusal to cooperate with Earth, a meeting between Gottstein, Denison, and Neville is arranged. Neville still refuses to cooperate, revealing his plan to become totally independent of Earth by moving the Moon out of orbit and out of the solar system. Neville dismisses the problems and alternatives which Ben raises and says that it will be done as he says. Selene enters and tells him that she has talked with others; if he forces the issue, he will be defeated.

The novel ends with Ben and Selene deciding to see if the problems raised by Earth-conditioned muscular reactions in Lunar gravity can be overcome so that sex between them is possible.

Science, as a method of exploration and as a body of knowledge, is neutral, neither good nor bad. The uses which people make of science are rarely neutral, and the misuses of science and of position in the scientific community form a major thread, tying the parts of The Gods Themselves together.

The standard portrait, the picture most people have, of the scientist is one of an objective searcher after truth and the secrets of the universe, apart from the irrigations and emotional upheavals that trouble ordinary mortals. Another part of the standard portrait is the idea that scientific discovery is a purely logical pattern of putting information together and emerging with scientific law. The Gods Themselves suggests that the reality is considerably different from this idealized picture.

Frederick Hallam is, of course, the primary exemplar of the difference between the idealized portrait and the reality. First, he is not particularly brilliant. This is no disgrace; it merely indicates that there are other ways to succeed and to build a reputation. In Hallam’s case, the major reason for his rise in the scientific community, and his even greater rise in the eyes of the public, is his persistence in continuing and completing a problem once he has started. On this point, Hallam can be compared with Bronowski, who is viewed in a much more favorable light; Bronowski, who is brilliant, has spent twelve years in pursuit of understanding certain Etruscan inscriptions. Luck, of course, played its role for both men. Indeed, most scientific discoveries begin with an intuitional insight, which then provides the basis for observation and testing, rather than arising out of fitting known facts together. A final point about Hallam’s rise to power is his willingness to take a chance; even if the idea of a parallel universe was not his idea originally, he is the one who dared to make the idea public. Luck, chance-taking, tenacity, and average or just slightly above average intelligence—these are qualities of more scientists than are traits normally ascribed to them. These aspects of Hallam’s character are simply correctives for the idealized portrait.

Hallam’s motivations and uses of power make him objectionable as a scientist and as a human being. For example, curiosity and a desire for knowledge have nothing to do with Hallam’s motives for pursuing the question of what he finds in the bottle. Instead, he pursues the matter because he feels that he has been jeered at and made fun of; his manner is like that of a child who is “going to show them,” although it is more purposeful. There is also a hint of hope for revenge in his motivation, for he already seems to have had a grudge against Ben Denison for slights, real and imagined. Once he has gained his power, Hallam’s primary motivation seems to be in keeping it. As Lamont discovers in his search for information about the development of the Electron Pump, large gaps appear in the available information. He suspects Hallam, and the decline in Lamont’s career after he makes Hallam angry supports the suspicion. Hallam’s concern for his dignity and reputation is perilous, for Lamont’s assumption of the superiority of the para-men does not criticize Hallam in any way although it gives more credit to the para-men than to humans—and, therefore, less credit to Hallam. To defend the human race is one thing; to ruin a man’s career because he suggests that humankind is less intelligent than alien beings is quite another.

Unfortunately, others like Hallam do exist and do influence ways in which men’s careers develop; scientists do have human feelings and failings, some of them more than others. Although he has less power than Hallam, Barron Neville shows similar traits and motivations. He has a severe case of agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. He also feels very strongly that Earth has too much influence about matters concerning the Moon; he especially feels resentful about restrictions on research on para-theory and access to the proton synchroton, which he attributes to Hallam. Neither of these is particularly blameworthy. If one is conditioned, since childhood, to an enclosed environment, and if walking on the surface of a planet causes fear, then preferring to remain inside is a natural reaction; few, if any, Lunarites enjoy going out on the surface. A desire for self-direction is also a natural feeling; indeed, many other people on the Moon seem to share this feeling, and history provides many similar examples.

However, Neville becomes obsessed with these feelings. He is a leader in a group of scientists who are working on ways to circumvent Hallam’s prohibitions. They are all, at Neville’s insistence, keeping their work secret. The motivation for this has little to do with Hallam’s influence; it does, however, have a great deal to do with Neville’s fear that the forces of Earth will, somehow, conquer and exile the Lunarites. Because he is involved in a conspiracy, he believes everyone else is also involved in a conspiracy; more specifically, he feels that all Earthmen are actively working against him. He is even suspicious of other Lunarites, for he appropriated Selene to himself shortly after her talents became apparent, and he uses those talents only for projects he personally approves of.

Behind this, however, is his fear of open spaces. He is against using solar energy needed for the Moon’s power because it makes Lunarites dependent on the Moon’s surface. He resents Hallam’s influence because it prevents Lunarites from working to develop their own Electron Pump as an alternate energy source that would not tie them to the surface. He resents Earth because, among other things, it reminds him of the immensity of space surrounding the Moon. His ultimate goal is to remove the Moon from all influence of the Earth, politically, intellectually, emotionally—and physically. His fears are so strong that he is willing to impose his will on all others. That he is said to be very persuasive—the reader never sees this facet of his personality—is a great help in this enterprise. Fortunately, he does not quite have the power to influence his opposition.

Although our sympathies are much more with Peter Lamont than with Hallam, his faults are also very apparent. Lamont has intelligence and curiosity; the first quality obtains him his position at Pump Station One, and the other quality gets him into trouble. His curiosity, first, leads him to research the development of the Electron Pump and then, when gaps appear, to push forward to fill the gaps. However, it is only because of his incredible naivete that his real troubles begin. He knows so little of human nature that he seems to think that Hallam will fill in all the blanks if he is merely asked, and he assumes that the only possible attitude toward the para-men is respect for their superior intelligence. He seems not to have asked anything about what kind of a man Hallam is before going to see him, a foolish error under any circumstances. Lamont cannot be blamed for reacting bitterly to his treatment by Hallam, which far exceeds any offers Lamont may have given. It is, however, unfortunate that his research into alternate assumptions about the Electron Pump and its effects are tinged by bitterness and by his desire to gain revenge. Although he may be trying to save humankind, his work is suspect, and justly so, because he has an axe to grind. Peter Lamont may be the victim of another man’s vindictiveness, but it is his own pride, his own unwillingness to reconsider his position and to apologize, and his own naivete that insure his victimization. In some ways, Lamont is closer to the idealized portrait of the scientist, but if we accept this, we remove him from human affairs and knowledge of human beings, which is hardly desirable, and we leave him unable to deal realistically with others.

The para-men provide another perspective on the portrait of the scientist, in their stress on the rational approach and in their consideration of a problem from only a narrow point of view. Like Lamont, they often do not take human factors into consideration, nor are they often concerned by many of the consequences. The stress on the rational approach to the problem at hand, through Odeen and Estwald, does provide an effective counterpoint to the activities of Hallam, Neville, and Lamont. Dua is far more like the humans than Odeen or Estwald are; although she acts impulsively and on the basis of faulty conclusions, as the humans do, her motives are not self-serving. Both groups arrive at the same points: The Electron (Positron) Pump must continue, overriding the objections of Lamont and Dua. The rational approach succeeds only because Odeen and Estwald are battling for the survival of their race. Even that decision, however, is muted because Dua shows that a selfless concern for others is possible; the reader is left frustrated when her feelings are negated in Estwald.

The portrait of the scientist is seen from yet another angle through Myron Bronowski and the young scientist who passes Lamont by. Bronowski stays with what he knows and, although lazy, produces brilliantly. There is certainly a measure of prudence in his refusal to encounter Hallam and the weight of public opinion, but it is certainly a cowardly position, one that is self-serving when considered with the fact of possible danger to humankind. In the same way, the position taken by the younger scientist is much healthier for the individual but does not offer much hope for humanity; it might if the danger were long range and if a person had time to build both a reputation that Hallam could not influence and sufficiently solidify evidence of the danger. Nevertheless, these two men, and others like them, cannot be condemned too harshly, for the probability is that all they would accomplish is ruining themselves without even harming Hallam’s reputation or public opinion about the Electron Pump.

Politicians and public figures also share features of the revised portrait of scientists and add to the stupidity that must be contended against. Senator Burt does not want to confront Frederick Hallam, having done so once in a cause in which he was right and very nearly defeated; he cannot be blamed for wishing to avoid further humiliation, especially with so little evidence behind the position Lamont asks him to support. He also seems correct in his assessment of his ability to achieve success in this venture in the face of the usefulness of the Electron Pump to the general public; his chances of success are very small, and his chances of being turned out of office would be great. In addition, any good that he is doing in his current office, and there is a suggestion that he is generally a positive force for the environment, would be lost if he were defeated. His stand is indeed self-serving, but it is also based on an accurate assessment of what he can and cannot do. Joshua Chen is in much the same position; he could possibly change public opinion, as Lamont asks him to do. However, the evidence is limited, and even a public relations genius must have information behind his efforts; he should also be convinced about what he is doing, and, given Chen’s particular interests, this would be difficult for him. Neither of these men, nor any of those characters discussed, are trying deliberately to destroy our universe, though the para-men are ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Life and Background of the Author
• Introduction to Asimov’s Science Fiction
• Categories of Science Fiction
• Critical Commentaries
• The Foundation Trilogy
• Pebble in the Sky
• The Stars, Like Dust
• The Currents of Space
• The End of Eternity
• The Gods Themselves