Comments on: The Asimov story in which a mother invents Twitter

By: Mr. Outis

Mr. Outis — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:59:39 +0000

There’s a description of the Gotlieb Center’s holdings for Asimov at the linked website. That suggests that any fan mail before 1965 would probably have been destroyed.

By: Amanda French

Amanda French — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:35:51 +0000

Sorry, dunno, Lisa. If you write the archivists at Boston U, they might be able to tell you.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:55:39 +0000

I loved reading your comments. does anyone happen to know potential locations of fanmail to Asimov other than the letters pages of Analog/Asimov’s and the archive at Boston U?

By: Joshua Sasmor

Joshua Sasmor — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:15:05 +0000

The arithmetic story is called “The Feeling of Power”. It’s one of Asimov’s more blatantly pacifist pieces, as it predicts that expending human life in war will be a better economic choice than destroying the expensive computers in the missiles; the quote is “I predict the manned missile!” It’s a favorite of mine.

By: Bob Stepno

Bob Stepno — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:33:41 +0000

The women-always-talking cliche puts a whole new light on Lt. Uhura being the Enterprise’s communications officer.
Meanwhile, Asimov was a continuous stream of conversation himself — writing 500+ books, more than 9,000 letters and postcards (says Wikipedia). And scores of limericks. Does that last category go beyond “casual” to “recreational” sexism?

By: Larry Cebula

Larry Cebula — Wed, 13 May 2009 16:51:53 +0000

Great entry. I grew up on Asimov, Heinlein, and Pohl. Asimov’s sexism is particularly goofy. Like one nerd giving another dating advice, it all depends on the audience having no basis from which to realize that the writer doesn’t know anything about women either.

By: Cardin Salgado

Cardin Salgado — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:20:00 +0000

NICE!

By: Amanda French

Amanda French — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:15:25 +0000

Mr. Gunn, I DO remember that story! That one pops into mind now and then too, for some reason. As I recall, the bigwigs get very concerned about the security implications of the “new” longhand technique for doing math.

By: Chris Roper

Chris Roper — Mon, 11 May 2009 06:16:08 +0000

My favourite SF invention is more of a concept creation – John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, where two people are talking about new tech, and the one says: ‘They claim it’s automatic, but actually, you have to push this button.’ That’s how fast people forget to be amazed at new tech!

By: Mr. Gunn

Mr. Gunn — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:41:24 +0000

I remember reading that story. I was a big Asimov fan, too. Remember the one about the guy who re-invented longhand arithmetic and amazed all the computer users?