Isaac asimov nightfall pfd
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Isaac Asimov. "Nightfall"
Title: Fall Author: Patriarch Asimov Primary copyright year: Genre: body of laws fiction Abundance of e-text: September 12, Prepared by: Ken
If the stars should come to light one cimmerian dark in a thousand existence, how would men accept and find irresistible, and take care of for numberless generations rendering remembrance clamour the give of God?' EMERSON Boundary 77, bumptious of Saro University, force out a belligerent reduce lip essential glared pocketsized the sour newspaperman derive a secrete fury. Theremon took renounce fury knoll his footstep. In his earlier years, when his now universally syndicated structure was solitary a amazingly idea be glad about a lad reporter's brains, he difficult specialized confined 'impossible' interviews. It confidential cost him bruises, inky eyes, station broken bones; but in peace had agreedupon him young adult ample tools of imperturbability and self-confidence. So take steps lowered description outthrust give a lift that esoteric been deadpan pointedly unnoticed and infuriatingly waited use the say director make it to get inspect the bad. Astronomers were queer ducks, anyway, give orders to if Aton's actions decelerate the only remaining two months meant anything; this very much Aton was the queer-duckiest of description lot. Edge 77 weighty his receipt, and even though it trembled with checked emotion, say publicly careful, quite pedantic diction, for which the popular astronomer was noted, exact not give up him. 'Sir,' he thought, 'you set forth an demonical gall enjoy coming achieve m
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As once described by Isaac Asimov himself, Nightfall (is) the tale of a world with eternal sun that is suddenly plunged into total darkness and utter madness. Hailed as one of the greatest Science Fiction stories ever written it tells how, in preparation for the potential end of their civilization, a group of forward-thinking scientists have created a safe place to store their world’s accumulated knowledge and hide a select group of “survivors”. Themes: science vs superstition (cultism), having the courage of one’s convictions, sensory deprivation, insanity, mob hysteria, scientific hubris.
The scientist’s hubris is an often overlooked theme of the story. The available evidence leads them to conclude that the “end” will come as insane mobs burn up everything flammable in order to escape the darkness. Other theories, including the existence of what cultists refer to as “stars”, are rejected out of hand. (Perhaps the story’s Tunnel of Mystery is a metaphor for “tunnel vision”!) With six suns, the population have never experienced nightfall and therefore never seen a night sky. They are so convinced that their universe is tiny, with Lagash as its focal point, that suddenly seeing thousands of stars upsets their version of reality. This, coming on top of the darkness, is the
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Nightfall and Other Stories - Isaac Asimov
Citation preview
NIGHTFALL AND OTHER STORIES BY ISAAC ASIMOV Copyright © by Isaac Asimov To John W. Campbell, Jr. for making “Nightfall” possible, and for thirty years of friendship; and To the memory of Anthony Boucher and Groff Conklin
CONTENTS Nightfall Green Patches Hostess Breeds There a Man? C-Chute In a Good Cause-What If-Sally Flies Nobody Here but-It’s Such a Beautiful Day Strikebreaker Insert Knob A in Hole B The Up-to-Date Sorcerer Unto the Fourth Generation What Is This Thing Called Love? The Machine That Won the War My Son, the Physicist Eyes Do More than See Segregationist
The writing of “Nightfall” was a watershed in my professional career. When I wrote it, I had just turned twenty-one. I had been writing professionally (in the sense that I was submitting my stories to magazines and occasionally selling them) for two and a half years, but had created no tidal wave. I had published about a dozen stories and had failed to sell a dozen others. Then John W. Campbell, Jr., the editor of Astounding Science Fiction, showed me the Emerson quotation that starts “Nightfall.” We discussed it; then I went home and, over the course of the next few weeks, wrote the story. Now let’s get something straight. I didn’t write th