Trends (short story)
"Trends" | |
---|---|
Astounding Science Fiction | |
Publisher | Street & Smith |
Media type | Magazine |
Publication date | July 1939 |
"Trends" is a
"Trends" was the tenth story written by Asimov, the third to be published, and the first to appear in Astounding, then the leading science fiction magazine.[1]
Origins
The story had its genesis in research Asimov was conducting on behalf of an academic writing a book on social resistance to technological change. Asimov was particularly struck by a series of articles by
Plot summary
Trends is narrated by Clifford McKenny, looking back from the year 2008, who tells how his boss John Harman was preparing to fly a rocket, the Prometheus, to the Moon in 1973. On July 14, 1973, the day before the scheduled flight, a newspaper called the Clarion denounces Harman as an impious blasphemer for daring to profane the heavens with his rocket ship, and warns that if the government won't stop him, "our enraged citizenry may have to take matters into their own hands". The head of the research institute Harman works for tries to dissuade him, arguing that popular opposition to his work is too strong. Harman refuses to listen.
On the day of the flight, after Harman enters the Prometheus and prepares to launch it, it explodes, killing 28 members of a mostly hostile crowd led by a powerful evangelist named Otis Eldredge. McKenny learns that his coworker Shelton, an Eldredge follower, sabotaged the rocket. The next day, a mob led by an injured Eldredge converges on the hospital where Harman is recuperating, and is barely kept from lynching him. Within a week, a bill passes Congress making rocket experiments a capital crime, and it becomes clear to McKenny that Harman will not be allowed to leave the hospital. He smuggles Harman out and takes him to his uncle's farm in Minnesota.
Within six months, Harman is preparing to try again. McKenny is sent to Chicago to collect the remainder of Harman's personal fortune, and to recruit a handful of trusted engineers. Over the next five years, Harman oversees the construction of the New Prometheus. At the same time, Eldredge's followers gain control of Congress, which establishes the Federal Scientific Research Investigatory Bureau to scrutinize and control all scientific research. Eldredge's death in 1976 does not deter his followers, who continue to restrict scientific research. On March 25, 1978, the FSRIB issues the Easter Edict, forbidding all independent scientific research. A month later, Harman launches the New Prometheus and succeeds in making a
Notes
Asimov named the narrator after fellow writer Clifford D. Simak. He cited "Trends" as an example of a successful prediction of the future in a science fiction story. Even though he got the details of the flight itself wrong, Asimov said, he was correct in predicting that there would be popular opposition to a flight to the Moon, and was the first to do so.[2]
The story, written two months after the September 1938
References
- ^ The Early Asimov, Book One, Isaac Asimov, 1972, p. 301.
- ^ a b Asimov, Isaac (1972). The early Asimov; or, Eleven years of trying. Garden City NY: Doubleday. pp. 79–82.
Sources
- Asimov, Isaac, "When Aristotle Fails, Try Science Fiction", Intellectual Digest, December 1971.
- Asimov, Isaac, "Prediction as a Side Effect", Boston Review of Arts, July 1972.
- Asimov, Isaac, "How Easy to See the Future", Natural History, April 1975.
- Asimov, Isaac, ISBN 0-385-13679-X.
- Asimov, Isaac, "Trends" in The Early Asimov ISBN 0-385-03979-4.
External links
- "Trends" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- "Trends" on the Internet Archive