Short Stories Resource

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A World

Transformed

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LITERATURE

Scholar’s

Cup

SHORT

STORIES

CHANGING LIVES,

CHANGING WORLDS

EDITORS Tania Asnes Daniel Berdichevsky ®

the World

Scholar’s Cup

®

CELEBRA TING 5 PW AA

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Literature:

Short Stories

Changing Worlds, Changing Lives

Preface

When it comes to the world transforming, it doesn’t get more epic than the end of the universe.In “The Last Question” you’ll get there, and beyond. The other stories in this collection will take you from a very surprising 22nd

century America—hint: there won’t be flying cars1_{—to the}

doomed planet of Lagash. One is very personal, the journal of a young man gifted (and cursed) with a moment of genius; in another, the most important character is already dead.

Science fiction allows us to visit worlds transformed in the most literal sense—by new technologies, by aliens (of diverse sizes and colors), by horrible plagues2_{, by a hundred other things.}3 _{As you read}

these stories, don’t focus on whether the worlds they describe are possible. A few decades can make stories about the future seem dangerously quaint. Hemingway didn’t have to worry that stories set in the 1920s would someday seem outdated—the 1920s aren’t ever going to change very much4_—but

stories written about the future are much riskier. At its best, science fiction isn’t about predicting the future, but telling meaningful stories in a world different from our own.

Consider what those stories tell you about the worlds in which their authors lived—and about what they saw changing all around them. Ray Bradbury wrote “There Will Come Soft Rains” at a moment when

the end of civilization was, for the first time, not only possible, but probable. Robert Charles Wilson is writing in an era when fossil fuel supplies are on the decline and the influence of religion in American politics on the rise; his future United States has had to abandon modern technology and is controlled by a powerful church. Each of these authors is projecting forward into a future he envisions, or sideways into a world that isn’t quite the way things are.

Take what you learn as you explore these selections, and apply it to longer works too—to the novels, films and television series that have made science fiction mainstream. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—a movie in which people could erase memories of bad relationships—is cut from the same cloth as “Flowers for Algernon”. Inception, Avatar, Star Trek, Wall-E…

the list goes on. Science fiction’s continuing popularity at the theater and on television reminds us that a world transformed is, if nothing else, an interesting world in which to tell a story—with or without flying cars or little green men.

1_{In fact, there won’t be cars at all.}

2_{One interesting plague story: F.M Busby’s The Breeds of Man, in which a fertility plague leaves humans unable to have}

babies. The cure produces a generation of children who shift monthly between being male and female. Who knows: maybe all this gender-switching inspired Korea’s hit new television series The Secret Garden.

3_{So, in different ways, do two other genres, fantasy and magic realism. Dorothy doesn’t leave Oz the way she found it;}

Al-Rassan isn’t exactly Spain. Ned lives in a world where the touch of his finger can bring the dead back to life, and there are monsters living on Avenue Q, but no one finds them all that strange.

4_{Barring time travel.}

Discuss it

Many critics dismiss science fiction as not serious literature. Are they justified?

Research and Discuss it

Examine the types of science fiction and fantasy at

sfsite.com/columns/amy26.htm. How would you classifyHarry Potter? How aboutTwilightand

Avatar? IsForrest Gumpscience fiction? How about the television seriesCapricaandPushing Daisies?

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I. Gabriel García Marquez:

‘‘The Handsomest Drowned

Man in the World’’

Who needs little green men when you’ve got a mysterious corpse?In “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, a dead body washing up on the beach is enough to trigger the seemingly accidental transformation of an entire town.5_The

dead body takes on such great meaning that it forces the villagers to reexamine their society—and it is altered forever.

Objectives

By the time you complete this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions.

 For what literary style is Gabriel García Marquez famous?

 _{What does the title character in “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” represent?}  How does Esteban transform the village?

Gabriel García Marquez

Although he has not lived there very much since the 1950s, Gabriel García Marquez is considered Colombia’s foremost writer. Born in 1928 in the town of Aracataca, he grew up listening to his grandparents tell fantastical stories.7 _{He began his writing}

career as a journalist while at university in the 1940s, and published his first two novels in 1961. In between, he became friends with Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro, and founded the Colombian branch of Castro’s news agency.

In 1965, García Marquez began writing the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, which remains his single most famous work. Like many of his pieces, it makes use of magical realism, a literary style in which unusual or magical happenings are related to the reader as though they were ordinary.

Like Pablo Neruda and many other Latin American writers, García Marquez has produced work that angered his government. As a young man, he was sent on a newspaper assignment to Rome8_{after his}

series of newspaper stories about a Colombian shipwreck exposed the Colombian government’s

5_{A question to ask as you read this story: can the world transform by accident?}

6_{Musical theater is an example of magic realism: characters break out into song, but then (in most musicals) continue on}

as if nothing strange has happened. If everyone at the World Scholar’s Cup abruptly began singing about alpacas, I feel like someone would call the police.

7_{That’s how I grew up, too. For a long time I believed 747s could fly upside-down and that chickens lived in the sea.} 8_{Poor chap—exiled to Italy.}

Magic Realism: Dumbledore Not Welcome Here

Magic realism is a literary movement in which strange things exist in an otherwise normal world---and no one treats them as strange.6_{Some people}

confuse it with science fiction and fantasy because it sometimes has ghosts and other bizarre

phenomena---but it’s not the same thing. The science fiction writer Pat Murphy put it like this: ‘‘In science fiction, if everyone is walking around with a talking monkey on his head, you need an explanation for it. Maybe the monkeys are aliens. In magic realism, everyone acts as if the monkeys have always been there. Like head lice and baseball caps.’’

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smuggling activities.9 _{He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 and is considered a towering}

literary figure not only in Colombia, but all of Latin America.

‘‘The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’’: Overview

Written in 1968, the story first appeared in García Marquez’s 1972 collection Leaf Storm and Other Stories. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” begins when some children spot the body of a large drowned man washing up on the beach of their tiny, isolated seaside community. As soon as the corpse is brought to the village (after it is wrested away from the children, who are playing with it) it begins changing the world of the villagers. From the sea life found on the body, the people can tell the man was from a foreign land. They are stunned by his size and beauty and his apparent “sincerity”—as if he was better and more noble, in life, than any of them could hope to be.

They name him Esteban, after the first Christian martyr—but they feel as if he already had a name and they have merely identified him, “He was Esteban. It was not necessary to repeat it for them to recognize him…there could be only one Esteban in the world, and there he was”.10

The villagers prepare an elaborate funeral for Esteban. Before they put him back in the sea, they feel guilty that he has no family present, “it pained them to return him to the waters as an orphan”, so they choose the best villagers to serve as his mother, father, and other relatives—until the entire village is assigned some relation to Esteban and therefore one big family: “Through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.”

They feel a great sense of loss as they release Esteban into the sea (without an anchor, so he can come back if he wants). They also become aware—for the first time—of how small, isolated, and ordinary their village is. From then on, they live their lives in the name of Esteban’s memory. In his honor, they plan to paint their houses in bright colors and redesign the doorways to be as wide as he was, so that he will never be forgotten. They will beautify the village so much that, in the future, it will be known by great sea captains and ship’s passengers from around the world as Esteban’s village.

Literary Devices Irony

García Marquez narrates the story in such a matter-of-fact way that it seems plausible (believable), which encourages us to take it seriously. Remember: this is a feature of magic realism. The strange is treated as normal. But there is also a strong undertone of irony to “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”—a sense that story’s events are also a bit absurd. If a mythological creature—say, a mermaid—had washed up on shore, the people’s admiration might be more understandable—yet Esteban is not a mermaid, nor an alien, nor even a famous person. He is an anonymous dead man. Only the children take him at face value and do what they would do with any other washed-up object: play with it. Everyone else treats him as extraordinary.

9_{Thirty years later, his report Clandestine in Chile, about an exiled filmmaker’s secret return to his home, earned him the}

wrath of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

10 _{Though, for a time, some stubborn young women insist he should be named Lautaro, after the great 16}th_-century

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The irony of an unidentified corpse becoming something like a god draws our attention to the story’s main themes: mankind’s deep desire to believe in something greater, and our impressive capacity for faith. Humans are so eager to believe in and to make sense of things that they can find meaning in a nameless corpse.

Symbolism

To the villagers, there is more to the drowned man than meets the eye. They feel a deep connection with and admiration for him—as if they have been waiting for him all their lives. Esteban is a symbol of the god or gods of any religion. The people consider him flawless, and redesign their whole village to keep his memory alive, just as religious people build shrines to gods and saints.

Like a god’s greatness, Esteban’s greatness is beyond human comprehension. García Marquez writes, “even though [the women] were looking at him there was no room for him in their imagination.” Also like a god, he fills the people’s lives with meaning, giving them a sense of purpose—of their place in the world. Their village becomes Esteban’s village, and they become Esteban’s people. In the same way a shared religion allows strangers to connect and understand each other, the people’s admiration for Esteban unites them. It makes the entire population of the village a family: “Through him all the inhabitants of the village became kinsmen.”

Esteban can be seen as a symbol for any compelling belief with the power to transform people’s lives.

Allusion

García Marquez uses a religious allusion to drive home the point that the drowned man is like a god or saint. The name Esteban is the Spanish form of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, killed (according to the Book of Acts in the Bible) for his belief that Jesus was the Son of God. Stephen is a saint in several religious traditions, including the Catholic Church, which was the official state religion of Colombia until 1991, and remains the main religious institution in all of Latin America. The author contrasts Esteban to Sir Walter Raleigh, a great 16th_{-century English explorer who would}

have been very exotic to the villagers with his white man’s accent, a parrot on his shoulder, and a gun in his hand. The villagers admire Esteban even more than they would this famous, exotic explorer. When the villagers are carrying Esteban to the cliffs for his funeral, their weeping is so loud it can even (people claim) be heard by sailors at sea. It is rumored one sailor “had himself tied to the mainmast, remembering ancient fables about sirens”. The allusion is to Homer’s Odyssey, in which Odysseus ties himself to his ship’s mast so he can resist the song of the sirens, beautiful female creatures that lure sailors to their deaths. By linking the story of Esteban to a famous myth, García Marquez gives “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” the feeling and weight of a fable. The allusions to St. Stephen, Raleigh, and Odysseus also heighten the irony of the story, by standing in bold contrast to the anonymous drowned man. The man is not a saint, great foreign explorer, or epic hero. He is merely an unknown dead person—yet the villagers worship him.

Setting

Though the story is not set in a definite time, allusions hint at the 16th_{or 17}th _{century, possibly on}

the coast of Chile. In addition to Raleigh, Gabriel García mentions the 16th_{-century Mapuche chief}

Lautaro, a leader of Native Americans who defended the territories of present-day Chile from the Spanish.11 _{At the story’s end, the narrator envisions the captain of a modern ocean liner using an}

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astrolabe, a navigation tool that fell out of use in the 18th _{century. The village is set at the edge of a}

desert; the only significant South American desert is the Chilean Atacama.

The 16th_{century was a time of great transformation in Latin America, when European explorers like}

Raleigh clashed with native people like Lautaro and forever changed the face of two continents. The 17th _{century continued his process, as Spanish colonies came to dominate much of the Americas.}

García Marquez’s references to that time period underscore the theme of transformation in the story. It is also possible, especially given the story’s magic realism, that the setting is actually more modern, even 20th_{century—a backwater village lost in time and in no particular place.}

Content and Meaning

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is sometimes subtitled “A Tale for Children”, because it is meant as a parable, a short, instructive story that illustrates a lesson. Parables often have simple morals such as “it is wrong to lie” or “you shouldn’t be selfish”, but “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” expresses more complicated truths about our world.

Truth is Subjective

The saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” plays with the idea that beauty is subjective rather than objective. Even if I think something is beautiful, you might find it ugly. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” suggests that truth, too, is

subjective. Truth, you could say, is in the mind of the believer.

By most counts, the existence of gods cannot be proved or disproved, and neither can the myth of Esteban. He is dead, so the people are free to decide who he was. They decide he was saintly. For all we know, the drowned man was a criminal, but his true identity is unimportant to the villagers. What matters is their faith in his goodness and sincerity. It unites them and gives them purpose. The women are relieved when it is confirmed that Esteban is unknown—because they like their own version of the truth and do not want it disproved: “Praise the Lord12_{,” they sigh, “he’s ours!” Since}

his identity is unknown, it is theirs to decide.13_{By making their village one big shrine to Esteban, the}

people ensure their version of him will endure: “no one in the future would dare whisper the big boob finally died, too bad…because they were going to…make Esteban’s memory eternal”.

At the story’s end, it is suggested Esteban’s story becomes an accepted truth. The narrator envisions the captain of a passing ship identifying it for his passengers. The captain is an authority figure wearing a fancy uniform and “a row of war medals”, and also an educated man, who speaks “fourteen languages” and uses astronomy (the astrolabe and “pole star” or North Star) to guide his ship. Surely he can be trusted, and he confirms the identity of the village as “Esteban’s village”.

Meaning Can Transform the World

The story suggests people need meaning in their lives as much as plants need water. The villagers live on the edge of a desert, which is a symbol for the lack of meaning in their lives. A desert has almost no source of water, so little life grows there. Similarly, the villagers have no source of meaning, so

12 _{The villagers might be Christians, referring to God—but they could just as easily mean Esteban when they say}

“Lord”—for he is sacred to them.

13_{If they had found out he was really a garbage man named Bob, they might have had a harder time worshipping him.}

Debate it!

Resolved: That the story’s message would be just about the same had a beautiful foreign vase washed

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their lives are very plain and uninspired. They have little appreciation for beauty: their houses are plain and they do not grow flowers. They live a life of simple survival, without ambition.

During Esteban’s funeral procession, the villagers realize how empty their lives have been. “Men and women became aware for the first time of the desolation of their streets, the dryness of their courtyards, the narrowness of their dreams as they faced the splendor and beauty of their drowned man.” Esteban sets a new standard of beauty and greatness for the community. He opens their eyes to the possibility that they and their village could also become beautiful and great. They can no longer be satisfied with how things were: “everything would be different from now on.”

The people beautify the village so much it becomes world-famous despite its tiny size. They dig for springs so that they can grow enough rosebushes to cover the courtyards and cliffs. They transform the desert into a garden—just as their village transforms from a nameless speck on the map to “Esteban’s village”, and they from people without a purpose to people driven by a shared belief. Often, the world is transformed by more concrete forces, such as war, inventions, and natural disasters. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” reminds us that ideas can be just as powerful. Religious beliefs, scientific theories, philosophical ideas, and even works of fiction can change everything.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned:

 _{Gabriel García Marquez is a Nobel Prize-winning Colombian novel and short story writer who}

is considered a leading writer of magical realism.

 _{“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” is a parable about humankind’s need for}

meaning and belief, and the ability of ideas to transform the world.

 _{One of the story’s major themes is that truth is subjective. It does not matter if Esteban really}

was a sincere and noble man as the people believe—or even if he is actually beautiful—because their faith in him, their truth, is what matters.

 Esteban is a symbol of the god or gods of any religion, and also of any compelling belief that has the power to transform society.

 The transformation in the story is caused by a coincidence—the body washing up on the shore—a reminder that the world changes in unpredictable ways.

Before moving on to the next section, ask yourself:

 What discoveries in your lifetime have transformed society?

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II. Ray Bradbury: ‘‘There

Will Come Soft Rains’’

You can order a robot vacuum cleaner on Amazon.Why not? We are growing used to ever-greater convenience. Kindles and iPads let us carry thousands of books in a backpack, and cell phones allow us to stream episodes of Glee almost anywhere. In Ray Bradbury’s story “There Will Come Soft Rains”, convenience has reached new heights: the stove makes breakfast on its own, the weather box by the front door tells you if you need an umbrella, and tiny robot mice do all the housekeeping. It’s the ideal lifestyle—so ideal it chugs along even when there isn’t anyone living it.

Objectives

 _{What are some typical themes of Ray Bradbury’s works?}

 _{What view of technology does he present in “There Will Come Soft Rains”?}

Ray Bradbury

He never attended college, but Ray Bradbury’s output eclipses that of many writers with multiple degrees. Born in 1920 in a small town in Illinois, he calls himself “a student of life,” and his novels, short stories, poems, essays, and plays all reflect his observations of our world and the people in it. Bradbury’s best-known works are probably Fahrenheit

451 and The Martian Chronicles. His work has been

variously classified as fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery.14 _{Some of his novels and short stories are}

dystopian, or set in a bleak future. He lives in Los

Angeles, California, and, although he turned 90 this year, is still writing. “Writing, for me, is akin to breathing,” he has said. “It is hard for me to believe that in one lifetime I have written so many stories. On the other hand, I often wonder what other writers do with their time.”15

Originally published in Collier’s Weekly magazine in 1950, “There Will Come Soft Rains” is also part of The Martian Chronicles, a short story collection. The 28 stories are loosely connected by a storyline involving interactions between the inhabitants of Mars16 _{and the people of Earth. In the}

first third of the collection, humans from Earth try to reach Mars and colonize it. They are able to settle on Mars after unwittingly killing many of the Martians with Earth germs.17 _{However, most of}

them return to Earth when it is threatened by a global nuclear war.18 _{The war eventually wipes out}

14_{Like Asimov, he is the kind of writer who annoys bookstore shelvers.}

15_{This comment comes from the introduction to a volume of 100 of Bradbury’s stories. (He’s written more than 600.)}

Apparently, story writing is what Bradbury does with his time. He could probably use an automatic house.

16_{Not including Marvin.}

17_{The plague that devastates the Martians is similar to smallpox, which wiped out many Native American populations.} 18_{I feel like this would be a good time to stay on Mars. Just saying.}

’’Libraries raised me. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for ten

years.’’ ---Ray Bradbury

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most of Earth’s population. The last five stories in The Martian Chronicles focus on the aftermath of the nuclear war on Earth. “There Will Come Soft Rains” is the second-to-last story.

‘‘There Will Come Soft Rains’’: Overview

The story begins on an ordinary morning in Allendale, California in the United States. The clock is striking seven. Breakfast is ready. But, to readers in 1950 and even to readers today, this morning would seem strange. The clock is a voice-clock, and the breakfast stove is making breakfast automatically. Despite the activity of various gadgets, the scene feels oddly vacant: “The morning house lay empty.” Something is wrong: the owners of the house (the McClellans) are absent, and we do not know why.

The automated house continues its mechanical functions through each hour of the day. The kitchen appliances are a busy person’s dream, and the robot mice are very efficient. At ten o’clock in the morning, we are given a chilling answer about why the house is empty: “The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.” This is the sole house to survive a nuclear war.

At ten-fifteen, we see the side of the house, on which the outlines of the family that used to live there are preserved in paint. The rest of the house is covered in “a thin charcoaled layer”—the paint having burned off in the nuclear explosion. Until now, the house has “kept its peace”, remaining calm, but today it seems worried about the owners’ absence. It lets in the dog, which sniffs frantically for its owners. Shortly after, the dog goes into a hysterical frenzy and dies. The house incinerates its body. With growing dread, we progress through the

afternoon: the bridge game, martinis, children’s hour, bath time, dinnertime, and bedtime. Just after nine, a voice reads a poem called “There Will Come Soft

Rain” by 20th_{-century American poet Sara Teasdale. The message of the poem is that nature}

continues regardless of man’s fate. It includes the lines: “And no one will know of the war, not one / Will care at last when it is done. / Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree / If mankind perished utterly”. The poem strongly suggests all of humanity has perished in the nuclear war of the story. At ten o’clock at night, a storm causes a tree branch to break a window, knocking over a bottle of cleaning solvent, which sets the house on fire. The house tries to save itself, but cannot. The mechanical voices die out one by one as the fire destroys every room. The house frantically tries to continue its normal routine, reading poetry and making a huge breakfast—but then there is silence. The story ends with “a last voice”, the voice-clock, stating the date over and over again from among the house’s ruins: “Today is August 5, 2026, today is August 5, 2026, today is...”

Literary Devices

Post-Apocalyptic Setting

Post-apocalyptic stories, set after the end of civilization, are often used to reflect on the dangers of the present-day world. Particularly since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and

Debate it!

Resolved: That “There Will Come Soft Rains” would be more effective as a film.

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Nagasaki during World War II, post-apocalyptic literature (and film) has tended to warn of the devastation of nuclear war.19

“There Will Come Soft Rains” is set among such devastation—but the more specific setting, the house, strengthens the story’s sense of danger and unease. Viewing a totally destroyed landscape with no houses left standing would be unsettling, but the house creates an intense sense of dread by reminding us what has been destroyed20_{. The house’s automated}

functions are a chilling reminder that no actual humans—and few creatures of any kind—remain in Allendale, and perhaps on Earth.

Personification

The fact that the machines have voices and perform human functions is not personification. They are simply programmed that way. Bradbury personifies the house by giving it other human qualities,

including emotions. The personification begins in the very first line, when the voice-clock sings “time to get up…as if it were afraid that nobody would.” Later, the robotic mice are said to be “angry” and the house extremely worried: it “had shut up its windows and drawn shades in an old-maidenly preoccupation with self-protection…” The house seems to have become an almost conscious being. It quivers with nervousness, sensing its owners are dead.

Bradbury compares the house to a human body when he writes that food leftovers are washed “down a metal throat.” The mice are said to have “eyes” even though they are machines, and the house has an “attic brain”. The incinerator seems to “sigh”. When the house is destroyed, it is said to die, and is compared to a human body, with a “skeleton”, “skin”, and “veins and capillaries”. It fights for its survival like a living thing, becoming like a hysterical person—in a state of “maniac confusion”. Bradbury also personifies the fire as “clever” and “angry”. Its actions are human: it “fed on” the paintings and “lay in beds, stood in windows”.

Personification creates a sense of irony. Nearly all the doing, thinking, and feeling in the story (except for the dog’s actions) is attributed to inanimate objects. The scenes that occur in the story are like a mockery of life, for life being ‘lived’ by machines and fire is not really life at all.

Symbolism and Metaphor:

The house is a symbol of human civilization. It is advanced and efficient, just as we consider our modern civilization to be. The McClellan family symbolizes humanity’s almost total dependence on technology. As we watch the house function, we come to understand that the McClellans no longer have to do anything for themselves—not even cook breakfast, entertain the children, or light a cigar.

19_{The idea of an apocalypse has been around much longer. There’s always been someone who thought the world was}

going to end.

20_{The phrase “the last one standing” usually refers to the winner of a contest, but the last house standing in the story is}

the opposite: a symbol of mankind’s defeat.

Mini-Directed Research Area

The Day Afterwas a post-apocalyptic film that many believe had an impact on political and public opinion

in the United States and possibly beyond. Find out what sort of apocalypse it depicted. Was it the same

apocalypse as in a different film,The Day After Tomorrow? If not, why do you think these films

described different apocalypses?

Debate it!

Resolved: That household appliances have improved the human condition.

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Bradbury uses a metaphor to suggest that pride was the cause of mankind’s downfall21_{: “The house}

was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away…” Humans have gone beyond using technology to improve their lives. They have taken convenience too far, to the point where they act almost as gods, with endless mechanical servants. The McClellans do not even have to look at the clock, or read the weather report.

The metaphor is ironic, because gods usually live forever. The McClellans, not so much.

Motifs and Themes

Consequences of Nuclear Warfare

Like “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”, Bradbury’s story is a parable. It was written at the start of the Cold War, a long period of tension between Communist countries, most notably the Soviet Union, and Western powers, including the United States. Both sides engaged in a nuclear

arms race, building up massive arsenals of nuclear weapons. The fear of nuclear war was felt in many parts of the world. People built fallout shelters to protect them during a nuclear attack, and schoolchildren were led through fallout drills, in which they practiced hiding under their desks.22

“There Will Come Soft Rains” encourages Americans of the 1950s not to turn a blind eye to the possibility of nuclear annihilation. The people of the United States were enjoying relative prosperity after World War II, having suffered less as a nation than countries in Europe and Asia. In a sense, the United States was like the house in the story—the last country left standing after war devastated much of the world. The story warns Americans not to forget about the dangers of war.

The story’s title also provides an ironic contrast to the final scene, in which the house is reduced to “rubble and steam”.

The Downside of Technology

The story takes a critical look at the value of mechanical things. They are useful in serving humans, but have no intrinsic value—no worth independent of their function23_{. The breakfast stove and}

robot mice are useless without humans there to enjoy breakfast or a clean floor. Despite how advanced the technology of the house is, it is completely helpless against the fire. Even the fancy sprinkler system fails, because the nuclear explosion has cut off the water supply to the house.

Next to the frightening reality of nuclear destruction, the animated nursery, automated poetry-reading, and foldout bridge tables seem frivolous—having no real purpose other than amusement24_.

“There Will Come Soft Rains” was written in the post-World War II era, a period of prosperity in the United States. Suburban life25_{with household appliances such as washing machines and vacuum}

cleaners was becoming an ideal for many families. The story takes the ideal of convenience to an extreme, envisioning a suburbia in which the whole house is an automated appliance. Families no longer have to perform even the most basic household chores.

21_{In Greek tragedy, the characteristic that leads to the hero’s downfall (and, usually, death) is called his tragic flaw. Many}

Greek heroes, such as Phaethon and Icarus have the tragic flaw of hubris, excessive pride or confidence in one’s abilities.

22_{Despite the fact that a desk would provide very little protection against a nuclear explosion.} 23_{That is, unless you own a solid gold, diamond-encrusted iPhone.}

24_{You will want to hide this story from your parents when you are trying to convince them that you “need” an Xbox.} 25_{Suburbs are areas outside the centers of major cities, where people tend to live in houses, not apartment buildings. The}

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The destroyed town of Allendale contrasts disturbingly with the convenient technology of the house: “The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes.” Technology, in the form of nuclear weapons, has destroyed Allendale. The juxtaposition26_{of the house and city causes us to weigh the advantages}

and disadvantages of technology. It is a source of convenience, but also an agent of destruction.

The Endurance of Nature

Bradbury uses Teasdale’s poem to make a point about the relationship between nature and mankind. The poem muses on the fact that nature is indifferent to mankind—it does not need people’s help in order to survive, and lacks the capacity to care if we thrive or even survive. Teasdale predicts that nature will persist even if humanity destroys itself completely27_{. Spring will still arrive, with “soft}

rains and the smell of the ground”, and the plants and animals will go about their lives. We humans often consider ourselves superior to nature—but the poem suggests that we are not so great. In the event of annihilation, life would go on without us.

In “There Will Come Soft Rains”, the fire destroys the last traces of humanity. Nature triumphs over the manmade. We are left with a scene of complete devastation. In this context, the story’s title can be interpreted two ways. It is a message of hope, suggesting spring will come again and life will someday, somehow, grow out of the radioactive rubble. It is also ironic, for the charred, smoking landscape is the opposite of spring, the time of freshness, flowers, birds, and new growth. In either case, Bradbury suggests that nature is superior to technology. Fire defeats the house, and nature will continue to exist even in the absence of mankind28_.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned that:

 _{Ray Bradbury is a prolific American author of the 20}th_{and early 21}st_centuries.

 “There Will Come Soft Rains” (1950) pictures a town in the wake of nuclear devastation. We witness the final motions and the destruction of the last automated house left standing.

 _{The main literary devices used in the story are a post-apocalyptic setting, personification,}

symbolism, and metaphor.

 _{The story was written after World War II, at the beginning of the Cold War. The story}

warns an American audience not to take its prosperity for granted. Relatively unharmed by the war, it is like the last house left standing in the story—and could be destroyed.

 “There Will Come Soft Rains” warns that technological advances are not just sources of convenience, but agents of destruction.

 _{Like Sara Teasdale’s poem, the story suggests nature will outlast mankind.}

 Are modern families becoming like the McClellans?

 Is it a tragedy that the house is destroyed?

26_{To juxtapose is to place very different objects or ideas next to each other.}

27_{She wrote the poem shortly after the end of World War I. Known then as the “Great War,” it was the largest and}

bloodiest in modern times, and many people believed there would never be another to equal or surpass it.

28_{The aftermath of the 1986 nuclear power plant disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine suggests this may be true. Many people}

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III. Isaac Asimov:

‘‘The Last Question’’

What will happen at the end of time?This is the question Isaac Asimov asks and answers in “The Last Question.” Over the course of ten trillion years, the universe and humanity transform until they are beyond recognition. Earth ceases to exist, the Sun dies out, and people’s minds float through space, separate from their bodies. When all the stars have died out and almost nothing exists anymore—not even time—a single question still holds the potent power of change.29

Objectives

 _{What is Isaac Asimov famous for writing?}

 _{In “The Last Question,” what transformations do the universe and human race experience?}  _{What is the purpose of biblical allusion in the story?}

Isaac Asimov

“This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written,” Isaac Asimov has said of “The Last Question”—no small claim, since Asimov wrote and published over 500 books, even more than Ray Bradbury.30 _{On June 1, 1956, Bob Lownes, editor of Science Fiction}

Quarterly, asked Asimov if he could submit a story for publication.

Three days later, Asimov sent him, the finished manuscript of “The Last Question”, which he called, in his autobiography, “the science fiction story to end all science fiction stories.”31

The story’s impact was deeply felt and inspired creative responses among readers. Soon after its release, a preacher discussed “The Last Question” in a sermon. In 1972, a fan turned the story into a planetarium show that Asimov attended. He said the show helped him better understand his own story a full 16 years after writing it. “The Last Question” is one of Asimov’s most science-focused stories, dealing with time, chaos, and technology. It proved memorable for readers, though, according to Asimov, many forgot who had written it.32

29_{Or the power of a reboot, at any rate. Everyone knows a reboot fixes anything.}

30_{Most were not science fiction, however—in fact, most were not fiction at all. They ranged from histories to collections}

of “lecherous” limericks.

31_{It failed. There are still science fiction stories.}

32_{In fact, Asimov once had a phone call from a man who began, “Dr. Asimov, there’s a story I think you wrote, whose}

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Born Isaak Ozimov in Petrovichi, Russia, in 1919 or 1920, Isaac Asimov immigrated to the United States with his family at age three. Although Russian-born, he never learned Russian, since his parents spoke Yiddish33 _{and English with him. He learned to read at age five, and, within a year or}

two, was reading early science fiction magazines.34_{By age eleven, Asimov was writing his own stories,}

and, by nineteen, he had begun publishing them. He would continue to publish stories, novels, and nonfiction works until the end of his life in 1992.

Asimov attended high school in New York, graduating in 1935, and earned three degrees in chemistry—a bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D.—over the next 13 years. He worked as a chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard during World War II, and then served for nine months in the United States Army before returning to science and writing. He joined the faculty of Boston University in 1949. However, he was a professor for less than a decade, becoming a full-time writer in 1958. Asimov is known today as a Grand Master of science fiction.35 _{His Foundation and}

Robot series novels are considered modern classics of the genre; both series are examples of a type of science fiction called future history. Future histories create elaborately detailed histories of the future, in which an author then sets multiple stories.

Asimov also penned many non-fiction works, as well as some straight mystery novels, but is best remembered for his science fiction. When considering science fiction, it is important to remember that the genre of science fiction is difficult to define, as it is very broad and varied. On the fringes it overlaps with other genres, such as fantasy and magic realism. Asimov’s science fiction is known as “hard science fiction”—not because it is difficult, but

because it is based on actual science (“hard” science) as it was understood at the time. Asimov sometimes referred to his work as “social science fiction” because it often explored the impact of science and technology on human societies. Most critics agree that Asimov’s work was more notable for its powerful ideas than for containing deeply-imagined characters or poetic language.36

Asimov’s death in 1992 is suggestive of how social values can transform in a single decade. The cause of his death—a disease called AIDS, which he caught through a contaminated blood transfusion— was so controversial at the time that his family decided to hide it from the world. Ten years later, society had become more accepting, and his wife revealed the truth behind his decline.37

33_{Yiddish is a language once spoken by many people of Jewish descent—in large part a mixture of German and Hebrew.} 34 _{Isaac’s father disapproved of the magazines, but Isaac won him over by arguing that, since their titles included the}

word “science”, they had to be educational.

35_{Yes, it’s an official title, though it runs the risk of inflation as a new Grand Master is elected every year.}

36_{Ironically, arguably his most famous and well-realized character isn’t even human: the robot, R. Daneel Olivaw.} 37_{Asimov once wrote he hoped to die typing, his (sizable) nose stuck between the keys of his typewriter. It wasn’t to be.}

Is Multivac a Vacuum Cleaner?

Today, it may seem strange that Asimov named all his computers this-vac and that-vac, but the very first computers were made with thousands of

vacuum tubes. As a result, one such real-world

computer, which gave Asimov the idea for Multivac, was named UNIVAC. Computers based on vacuum tubes required tremendous space and were very slow. Asimov, like many writers projecting into the future, imagined computers becoming even larger and more powerful, but failed to grasp how radically they would change. You might be surprised to learn that, as late as the 1980s and 1990s, science fiction writers created entire future histories without anything remotely like the Internet---or cell phones.

Isaac Asimov’sFoundationseries rests on the imaginary science of psychohistory. Find out what this science is, and discuss with your team whether you think it might be possible someday. Then, be ready to debate motions related to

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‘‘The Last Question’’: Overview

“The Last Question” covers ten trillion years of history by giving us glimpses into seven different moments.38 _{In each of seven scenes, beginning in 2061}39 _{and extending far into the future, humans}

ask highly intelligent supercomputers40 _{for the answer to the same question: “How can the net}

amount of entropy in the universe be massively decreased?” Entropy is the gradual progression of the universe towards chaos41_{and heat-death, and the characters want to know if it can ever be reversed.}

In 2061, the computers are known as Multivac though they are later called Microvac, the Galactic AC, the Universal AC, the “Cosmic AC, and, finally, just AC. They are vital to human life, controlling nearly everything, from power sources to starships, and are far more intelligent than people can ever hope to be. The human characters are in awe of the computers, and ask them the questions that they themselves cannot answer.42

The “last question” begins as a bet between two half-drunken men, Adell and Lupov. Mankind has recently harnessed the energy of the sun, and the men are arguing over whether the sun is really an unlimited energy source, or if it will someday run out of energy. Lupov says the sun and other stars will inevitably burn out. The universe is doomed to go dark; Entropy is inevitable. Adell counters that man might be able to reverse entropy and keep the universe going indefinitely. The men ask Multivac to resolve their argument. The computer is so overwhelmed by the question of whether entropy can be reversed that it falls silent. It eventually responds: “INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.”43

This answer is repeated in each of the scenes, except the final scene. In scenes four through six, the words “AS YET” are added to emphasize the fact that mankind has been asking the question for ages, and yet the answer still cannot be found. Each group of characters asks its supercomputer the same question and receives the same answer. In the wide time span of the story, mankind learns to derive all the energy it

needs from the sun, humans have colonized planets in other galaxies, achieved immortality, and Earth’s Sun has become a white dwarf, meaning that it has exhausted its energy.

By the fifth scene, people’s minds have melded with AC, the largest universal computer ever to exist, while their bodies are cared for by robots, “automatons”. In the sixth scene, almost nothing exists. The seventh and final scene occurs past the end of time, in

hyperspace, a term Asimov uses to mean a state in

which the laws of science that we know on Earth no longer apply. Time, space, and speed are all radically different than we know them to be—as in a time warp between different universes. The

38_{I once wrote a short story titled “Seven Ways to Live Forever.” It took me forever to write. Don’t ask if you can read it.} 39_{2061 must have seemed much farther away in 1956, when Asimov wrote this story, than it does now.}

40_{In the last scene, a computer with human consciousness both asks and answers the question.}

41_{When a block of ice melts into water, its entropy increases. In the solid form of ice, the molecules are tightly arranged,}

whereas in the liquid form of water, they are more loosely arranged. When water evaporates water vapor, in which the molecules are even more loosely arranged, entropy increases again.

42_{This footnote is not #42 by accident.}

43_{At least it didn’t give them the Blue Screen of Death.}

Discuss it

Historically, most science fiction writers have been men. One early female science fiction writer, Alice Sheldon, even pretended to be a man, using the name James Tiptree, Jr., in order to fit in. Why do you

think men have dominated science fiction—and, to a slightly lesser degree, fantasy?

What is the difference between soft and hard science fiction? Which of the works studied this year would

you consider to be soft? Start here:

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only reason AC still exists is because it has not yet answered the question. Finally, it figures out the answer. It speaks into the void: “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”44_{—and light appears.}45

Literary Devices

Form

“The Last Question” is told in a series of vignettes, short scenes featuring different characters in different times and places. The scenes flash before us like scenes in a TV show, with no transition between one and the next. Common elements—human characters, computers, and the “last question”— connect the scenes. Using the vignette form, Asimov is able to, as he described it, “tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story.” The abrupt jumps from scene to scene give us a sense of the giant leaps in time we are making.

The vignettes grow shorter46 _{and more intense as the story goes on. The first scenes occur at a}

leisurely pace, especially the first one, in which the characters are drinking. Adell and Lupov experience a bit of anxiety about the future of humanity, but they forget all about it the next morning. By the fourth scene, tension is high between man and computer over the subject of the question. Man wonders whether the question is solvable. The last two and shortest vignettes are composed mainly of short narrative sentences rather than dialogue, since mankind has died out and fused with the AC. The surging drama of the last scenes makes the story’s conclusion especially strong. The tension of the final vignettes turns quickly into a haunting sense of awe at the last lines.

Writing Style

As in most of his writing, both fiction and non-fiction, Asimov’s style in “The Last Question” is clear and concise, with little space devoted to long descriptive passages or to the inner minds of his characters. In response to critics who see this style as a lack of style, Asimov wrote in a 1980 essay that what he wanted was for readers to forget they were reading and feel directly engaged in his stories. To write clearly, he suggested,

was more difficult in some ways than to write un-clearly. Readers of Asimov’s work should keep in mind that he was not encoding secret messages in it, but trying to be transparent.

Biblical Allusion

The last lines of “The Last Question” allude to the beginning of the Book of Genesis, the first volume of the Bible, when God creates the world. Then God creates light. In the King James translation of the

Bible, the record of this event is translated from Hebrew as, “And God said let there be light, and there was light.” The creation of a new universe reverses entropy, because it creates order where, previously, nothing existed. A few lines earlier, the phrase “And it came to pass” appears. This phrase is often used in the Bible to introduce significant events.

44_{If only it would turn off the Caps Lock and stop yelling at us.}

45_{It’s too bad this does not work in real life, “light” being substituted with “a perfect finished copy of my homework.”} 46_{I’ve always been amused by the phrase “grow shorter”.}

’’Colored glass mosaics have been known sense ancient times. Creating clear plate glass that doesn't distort one's view of the world is much

harder. Even though it's less beautiful and less ‘poetic,’ it's much harder to make.’’ ---Isaac Asimov, on his choice to write clearly

instead of poetically

Discuss it

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Names

The characters in each scene gradually become less distinct from one another until all of humanity is combined with the AC. Eventually, humans cease to exist. Asimov uses the characters’ names to tell us that man is losing his individuality. We progress from Adell and Lupov, two distinct men, to the similarly named Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodettes to characters whose names are a combination of letters and numbers—like machines.47 _{The names continue to become progressively less}

human-sounding as we meet characters whose bodies have been made immortal, while their minds exist on some other plane. Their names, Zee Prime and Dee Sub Wun, are spelled in letters, yet sound like numbers. Next, all the people on Earth come to share one mind, or one consciousness, and are called, simply, “Man.” Asimov tells us, “Man, mentally, was one.” In the last scene, humanity no longer exists and therefore no longer has a name. Even the computers’ names shorten over time, giving us a sense that existence—of any kind—is fading away.48

Content and Meaning

“The Last Question” often leaves readers with strong feelings, ranging from awe to despair, because it deals with such grand ideas. Asimov’s stories are often multilayered, considering scientific concepts on the surface, but, on a deeper level, asking questions about the human condition.

The Search for Meaning

In every age within the ten trillion years of the story, mankind asks the same question: Can the universe be prevented from deteriorating into chaos? Many of the characters seem sure that entropy cannot be prevented.49 _{Jerrodd states, “It will all stop someday…Even the stars run down, you}

know”, and VJ-23X claims, “We both know entropy can’t be reversed. You can’t turn smoke and ash back into a tree.” However, in each age, the characters still hold enough doubt to ask their supercomputer the question, and, in each age, that supercomputer cannot provide an answer.

By repeating the question over so many trillions of years, Asimov demonstrates mankind’s unending quest to know what is unknown, find meaning, or make sense of the universe. The people asking the question are concerned with the practical matter of how the human race will continue to survive, but, perhaps more so, they are troubled by the idea that certain truths can never be known50_{. The}

question is scientific, yet it is not really asked out of scientific interest. As such, like the questions, “Does God exist?” or “What is the purpose of mankind?” it does not have a scientific answer.

The answer, like the concept of an all-powerful creator god, requires a leap of faith. It stands in contrast to all the scientific progress made over the millions of years in the story. Instead of a formula or theorem, it is a line from the Bible. Asimov answers “the last question” in a way different readers might interpret very differently. Those who adamantly believe in God may think the answer means: Yes, entropy can be reversed, but only by a miracle of God. Readers who, like Asimov, are atheists51_,

or believe it is impossible to know whether God exists52_{, may find the answer vague. To them, the}

answer may seem to be: Yes, entropy can be reversed, but in a way beyond human understanding.

47_{Nowadays, they’d probably be called iJohn and iJohn 4G.} 48_{Existence is ceasing to exist. Commence headache.}

49_{If you’d studied chemistry, you’d be sure too: the inevitable increase of entropy is the second law of thermodynamics.} 50_{Appropriately to the ten-trillion-year story, an unknown truth is sometimes called “a question for the ages.”}

51_{An atheist is someone who does not believe in the existence of God.}

52_{Asimov is quoted as having stated: "Emotionally I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't}

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Since Asimov was an atheist, it is important to consider the story from the second perspective. “The Last Question” demonstrates that curiosity and the search for meaning are central to human existence. It also stresses we must never stop being curious and trying to make progress—for even after all life, matter, and even time and space seem to exist, human curiosity allows the universe to be reborn: “All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.” In the story, a mere question outlasts everything else, and makes the impossible possible. Had mankind never asked the question, AC would never have solved it and entropy would not have been reversed.

The story’s last moments can be seen as a metaphor for the process of scientific inquiry and discovery. The statement “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” represents the desire for progress. It is the desire mankind has had since at least 2061, when Adell and Lupov first asked the question, and arguably since man began erecting civilization out of the wilderness. The light at story’s end is a symbol of knowledge and progress. Entropy is reversed and order emerges in the universe again. Here the story suggests that, ultimately, progress is the only solution to chaos.

In the age when the stars are dying out, Cosmic AC tells Man: "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES." This statement is like the thesis of the story—that even the most difficult problem can be solved if enough inquiries are made and data collected.

Though Asimov was not a religious man, he believed in the power of human ingenuity to enable progress and transform the universe. One could say he believed in the Almighty Question.

Technology: Good or Bad Influence?

The relationship between humans and computers in “The Last Question” is complex and open to interpretation. On the one hand, we might feel uncomfortable at the extent of mankind’s reliance on computers. Even in 2061, humans can no longer fully comprehend computers, which have become incredibly complex: “the general plan of relays and circuits [had] long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.” Because computers are beyond human understanding, humans seem to greatly admire them. Asimov calls Adell and Lupov “faithful attendants” of Multivac, implying that they tend to it the way servants serve a king.

At the same time, in the second scene, the Microvac seems like a servant to the family of Jerrodds, responsible for shuttling them to their destination and answering any questions they might have. However, they, like Adell and Lupov, as well as the humans in all the other scenes, would be helpless without the computers. The survival of human society is based on Multivac and its descendants, which provide energy and transportation to the human race.

Gradually, humanity as we know it disappears. People’s minds are separated from their bodies, which are tended by robots. Humans can no longer comprehend any part of the supercomputer, at this point, the Cosmic AC: “The question of its size and Nature no longer had meaning to any terms that Man could comprehend.” At the end, bodies (like everything) cease to exist, and all human consciousness is absorbed into AC. “The Last Question” portrays humanity becoming so dependent on technology for survival that humanity transforms itself out of existence.

On the other hand, the generations of Multivac allow humans to survive long after Earth’s demise and the death of the Sun. Multivac brings newfound hope for humanity’s survival when it discovers how to harness solar energy. Microvac transports people to live on new planets. The Galactic AC and Cosmic AC keep humanity going, even when they have long outstripped human understanding. Over time, humans survive by merging with AC—and, in the end, AC makes it possible for the universe to continue existing. AC has taken on the role of a divine being.

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Viewing AC in this way allows us to view technology in a positive light. Though an atheist, Asimov gives a computer, a piece of technology built by humans, the importance and abilities of God. From this viewpoint, technology is the greatest power in existence. It can answer unanswerable questions. It is the last and greatest hope of humanity.

We do not know what happens after the end of the story, when light appears. If we follow the tale from the Bible, Earth will be created again, and so will humanity—but this is only one possibility. It is unclear whether AC will continue to shape the course of the new universe, or whether a series of random events will. We do not know whether the universe as we know it will form again, or whether a new type of universe will form—perhaps one we cannot even imagine53_.

The humans in the story ask the question due to their fear that humanity will die out. They want the universe to continue because they want to continue. Taking this into account, we can view the story’s

ending as the beginning of a new age for humanity. It is possible that a new Earth might form and humans evolve on it all over again.54

Technology not only transforms the universe over the ten trillion years of “The Last Question,” but it even creates something out of nothing.

Conclusion

In this section, we have learned that:

 _{Isaac Asimov was a writer of science fiction whose books deal with major themes of time,}

computers and artificial intelligence, and the effect of technology on humans.

 _{Asimov was an atheist and a scientist, and his views on religion and science helped shape}

the major topics and themes of his works of fiction.

 “The Last Question” is Asimov’s favorite of his own stories.

 The ending alludes to the biblical Book of Genesis, in which God creates the Earth.

 The question in “The Last Question” represents mankind’s desire for progress. The story emphasizes the importance of progress to the survival of humankind.

 The story portrays technology in both a negative and positive light, depending on one’s interpretation. Humanity becomes dependent on technology for survival, yet technology enables mankind to survive for ten trillion years, solves mankind’s most important and troubling question, and may even bring mankind back into existence.

 How do the universe, and man’s role in it, transform during “The Last Question”?

 What do you think happens after the end of the story?

 What technological advances have most affected your life?

53_{As famous science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke, may have said: “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine,}

it is stranger than we can imagine.”

54_{And then Cylons will destroy the world all over again. Sigh.}

Debate it!

Resolved: That the most important questions in this world can be answered through science.

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IV. Isaac Asimov: ‘‘Nightfall’’

If you are lost, find the North Star.If you are outside on a dark night, admire the constellations. If you see stars for the first time, go insane and burn your city to the ground. Actually, save that for the Lagashians. Unlike us, the inhabitants of Lagash in Asimov’s “Nightfall” have every reason to be terrified of starlight: it spells the end of civilization.

Objectives

 _{What does the darkness in “Nightfall” symbolize?}  _{Does science or religion triumph in the story?}

 _{How do the “cycles” in the history of Lagash compare to those of Earth’s civilizations?}

Context

Although “The Last Question” is Asimov’s favorite of his own stories, “Nightfall” is arguably more popular with his fans. Asimov once said, “It frequently ends up on the top of the list—not only of my stories but of anybody’s. Yet I was only twenty-one when I wrote it and was still feeling my way.”

Asimov wrote “Nightfall” after a conversation with the editor of

Astounding Science-Fiction, John W. Campbell, who was pondering

this quote from 19th_{-century American writer Ralph Waldo}

Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!” In other words, we are so used to seeing stars that we take them for granted—but if we saw them only once in a thousand years, we would be so amazed that we would instantly renew our faith in God.

Campbell disagreed. He told Asimov he believed people would go insane if they only saw the stars once per millennium. “I want you to write a story about that,” he told Asimov.

‘‘Nightfall’’: Overview

“Nightfall” begins with an epigraph56_{, Emerson’s}

quote—which it proceeds to disprove. Far from being excited about the approaching total solar eclipse on their planet, the Lagashians are beside themselves

with terror. The eclipse is an extremely rare event, occurring only once every 2,049 years, and is a

55_{Except maybe the next Stephanie Meyer novel.}

56_{An epigraph is a quote that introduces a work of literature.}

Debate it!

Resolved: That nothing could ever drive all humans insane at once.55

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frightening prospect on a planet that has six suns and experiences eternal daytime. The Lagashians are accustomed to sunlight—which is always so bright that they have never seen the stars.

When the eclipse has happened in the past, the Lagashians have been so desperate for light other than starlight that they burned down their homes and buildings, destroying their civilization. The scientists at Saro University who have discovered the approach of the eclipse are trying to ensure that at least some Lagashians survive to carry on civilization. Among other things, they perform trial simulations of darkness and stock a hideout with supplies.58

A journalist named Theremon has been

assigned to cover the story of the eclipse, provided he survives it without being killed or going mad. While preparing for the eclipse, the scientists capture a young religious man or “Cultist” named Latimer59_{, who believes the cause of the event is divine, not}

scientific. The scientists prepare to document the eclipse on camera, steeling themselves for the terrifying dark—but, in the end, every last Lagashian goes insane.60

“Nightfall” ends with the stars shining down as Theremon succumbs to madness. A “crimson glow…that was not the glow of a sun” begins to rise from the city, implying people are already burning buildings for light. The story’s final words read: “The long night had come again.” Tragically, the scientists fail to record the eclipse, and their research will likely be burned, so Lagashians another 2,049 years in the future will probably face the same fate.

Literary Devices

Dialogue

Asimov gives us most of the information we need to understand his characters through dialogue, or conversation. “Nightfall” starts with an encounter between two characters that leads to a conversation. This device continues throughout the story. Since the protagonist, Theremon, is a reporter, he gathers most

of his facts by interviewing other people—mostly the scientists. Latimer, the Cultist, also shares some of his beliefs in conversation, and eventually starts speaking in gibberish, which is the language of his

57_{Yes, there are awards for science fiction stories. I would happily burn down my civilization if I won the Hugo or a}

Nebula. – Daniel

58_{I can’t imagine this would be very comforting to a Lagashian. “Hi. The world is going to end tomorrow—but don’t}

worry, there’s a small team of scientists working on it.”

59 _{His name may or may not be a reference to Hugh Latimer, a 16}th_{-century Christian martyr of England who was}

burned at the stake during the reign of Queen Mary.

60_{I wonder: aren’t there any blind Lagashians? You’d think they would be able to deal.}

After Nightfall, More Nightfalls

John Campbell first published ‘‘Nightfall’’ in

Astounding Science-Fictionin 1941---but the story has been frequently reprinted ever since. In the 1950s, it was broadcast as a radio program. In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted it the best science fiction short story written before 1965 (when they began voting for annual winners).57_It

has been made into a film twice, in 1988 and 2000---neither film was very good. In 1990, Asimov’s friend Robert Silverberg expanded it into a novel that carried on past the eclipse to show us what happened next.

Watch it on YouTube

Speaking of dialogue, you might enjoy this interview with Asimov. Do you see any connections in his responses to “Nightfall” or “The Last Question”?

Short Stories Resource

A World

Transformed

2 0 1

1

Scholar’s

Cup

SHORT

STORIES

CHANGING LIVES,

CHANGING WORLDS

the World

Scholar’s Cup

®

Literature:

Short Stories

Changing Worlds, Changing Lives

Table of Contents

Preface

I. Gabriel García Marquez:

‘‘The Handsomest Drowned

Man in the World’’

Objectives

Gabriel García Marquez

‘‘The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’’: Overview

Content and Meaning

Conclusion

II. Ray Bradbury: ‘‘There

Will Come Soft Rains’’

Objectives

Ray Bradbury

‘‘There Will Come Soft Rains’’: Overview

Literary Devices

Motifs and Themes

Conclusion

III. Isaac Asimov:

‘‘The Last Question’’

Objectives

Isaac Asimov

‘‘The Last Question’’: Overview

Literary Devices

Content and Meaning

Conclusion

IV. Isaac Asimov: ‘‘Nightfall’’

Objectives

Context

‘‘Nightfall’’: Overview

Literary Devices