The Lije Baley Novels
Sep. 3rd, 2004 11:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowStill sick.
I finished The Gods Themselves and decided to reread the Lije Baley novels; I'm about halfway through The Caves of Steel. I'm not going to review them; I suppose most SF readers are familiar enough with them. Still, there are a few points I'd like to comment on.
It had not previously occurred to me the extent to which the background of The Caves of Steel is modelled on the colonial experience of China. I suppose it should have been obvious, if for no other reason than the reference by one of the Spacers to Earthlings as "inscrutable", but it didn't strike me until now. But the analogy is quite strong, I think; there are small enclaves of outsiders, backed by a civilization at a higher technological level, strong enough to enforce extraterritoriality and to bend local government to its will. Also, we see a sense of lost superiority on the part of the locals - the Spacers, after all, originated as colonies of Earth, and were once ruled from there. The analogy isn't perfect, of course; the Spacer advantage in technology is, I think, much greater than that of the West over China in, say, 1900, and there doesn't seem to have been a close analog of either the Taiping Rebellion or the Boxer Rebellion. Still, it's there, just as the analogy to the fall of Rome underpins the Foundation Trilogy.
One thing that I find hard to believe is Asimov's discussion of the elimination of pathogens from the Spacer worlds. Two problems occur to me. First, it is acknowledged that symbiotic bacteria were permitted to grow, even as pathogens were eliminated. But bacteria mutate at a rather high rate, and harmless or beneficial strains, such as most strains of E. coli, can swiftly transform into lethal ones. New pathogens would inevitably arise. The low population densities of the Spacer worlds would probably prevent the emergence of new epidemic diseases; on Solaria, as described in The Naked Sun, epidemics are simply inconceivable, for example. But pathogens there would certainly be. The second problem has to do with the matter of unchallenged immune systems. As I understand it (and I will accept correction from those who know more), an immune system which is not faced with external pathogens is likely to, as it were, turn on its own body, producing allergies or worse autoimmune disorders. There are hints that that is true even under the moderately hygienic regime used in the modern West; how much more so, under the circumstances described by Asimov on the Spacer worlds? It seems to me that an attempt to develop "clean" worlds would be both futile and foolhardy.
Asimov's population estimates also seem problematic. The Caves of Steel takes place around the year 5000 AD, and the population of Earth is about eight billion and still slowly growing, and there is no indication of a period of population decline in the interim. Let's see, the book was written in 1953. What was the population of Earth then, about 2.5 billion? The rate of growth Asimov suggests strikes me as impossibly low, even given the data available to him at the time.
Nitpicking, all of this; the Baley novels are, in my opinion, Asimov's best work (at least as far as novel-length fiction is concerned). But there's still a bit of a jar.
I finished The Gods Themselves and decided to reread the Lije Baley novels; I'm about halfway through The Caves of Steel. I'm not going to review them; I suppose most SF readers are familiar enough with them. Still, there are a few points I'd like to comment on.
It had not previously occurred to me the extent to which the background of The Caves of Steel is modelled on the colonial experience of China. I suppose it should have been obvious, if for no other reason than the reference by one of the Spacers to Earthlings as "inscrutable", but it didn't strike me until now. But the analogy is quite strong, I think; there are small enclaves of outsiders, backed by a civilization at a higher technological level, strong enough to enforce extraterritoriality and to bend local government to its will. Also, we see a sense of lost superiority on the part of the locals - the Spacers, after all, originated as colonies of Earth, and were once ruled from there. The analogy isn't perfect, of course; the Spacer advantage in technology is, I think, much greater than that of the West over China in, say, 1900, and there doesn't seem to have been a close analog of either the Taiping Rebellion or the Boxer Rebellion. Still, it's there, just as the analogy to the fall of Rome underpins the Foundation Trilogy.
One thing that I find hard to believe is Asimov's discussion of the elimination of pathogens from the Spacer worlds. Two problems occur to me. First, it is acknowledged that symbiotic bacteria were permitted to grow, even as pathogens were eliminated. But bacteria mutate at a rather high rate, and harmless or beneficial strains, such as most strains of E. coli, can swiftly transform into lethal ones. New pathogens would inevitably arise. The low population densities of the Spacer worlds would probably prevent the emergence of new epidemic diseases; on Solaria, as described in The Naked Sun, epidemics are simply inconceivable, for example. But pathogens there would certainly be. The second problem has to do with the matter of unchallenged immune systems. As I understand it (and I will accept correction from those who know more), an immune system which is not faced with external pathogens is likely to, as it were, turn on its own body, producing allergies or worse autoimmune disorders. There are hints that that is true even under the moderately hygienic regime used in the modern West; how much more so, under the circumstances described by Asimov on the Spacer worlds? It seems to me that an attempt to develop "clean" worlds would be both futile and foolhardy.
Asimov's population estimates also seem problematic. The Caves of Steel takes place around the year 5000 AD, and the population of Earth is about eight billion and still slowly growing, and there is no indication of a period of population decline in the interim. Let's see, the book was written in 1953. What was the population of Earth then, about 2.5 billion? The rate of growth Asimov suggests strikes me as impossibly low, even given the data available to him at the time.
Nitpicking, all of this; the Baley novels are, in my opinion, Asimov's best work (at least as far as novel-length fiction is concerned). But there's still a bit of a jar.
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immune system
Date: 2004-09-03 10:25 am (UTC)The "clean" thing is a theme of the entire work -- the city dwellers, however limited in their bathing and sewage facilities, consider themselves "cleaner" than those who must work "outside" in the yeast swamps and other wild places. That Spacers consider even the city dirty, and that the Spacers' worlds are SO clean that even their "outsides" are cleaner than the city insides, is simply another step on the continuum.
And this isn't unreasonable in an artistic view of our own world. We urban dwellers put up with far more ticks, spiders and skeeters in camping -- outdoors -- than we permit in our houses. One roach and we break out the boron dust ... The more urban, the fewer pests; and the pests that DO slip in are considered even more disgusting.
With regard to population, again, the timing is an issue. The "Green Revolution" of Norman Borlaug had yet to be demonstrated. Simple irrigation, fertilization, and hybridization weren't (a few decades ago) considered sufficient improvement to feed billions. But in practice and in fact bringing developing nations up to a mere 1950's technology in agriculture has produced an awesome improvement, and the notion of "yeast vats" to convert all available solar input to edible caloric output has not proved needful.
That said, the population figure, the yeast vat tech, and the cities themselves suggest a collapse of the climate or ecosystem that is not directly addressed in the books. I suspect a ret-con could be easily worked up if needful.
About two years back I actually used a two-track two-speed "slidewalk" (on rubber belts) at an airport -- exactly as described in Caves, if more limited.
Re: immune system
Date: 2004-09-03 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 02:28 pm (UTC)Pat, pat, pat. At least you have a 3-day weekend to loll about, taking care of yourself and NOT talking! Hope you feel better soon.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-03 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 12:34 am (UTC)"'You've never been sick, Dr. Fastolfe?'
'Not with a parasitic disease. We are all liable to degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, of course, but I have never had what you would call a cold. If I were to contract one, I might die of it.'"
Fastolfe later reveals that the Spacers allowed Earthers to believe it a matter of snobbery; for it to become common knowledge that Spacers are afraid to approach Earthers would be disastrous, given the current state of Earther/Spacer relations.