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the higher mathematics stumped you eventually when you got up to the upper reaches of calculus and physics was not really your field. |
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Gunn: I wondered if there is some similarity, not in the careers themselves, but simply in the kinds of minds that were involved. |
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A.: Well, since I'm a great admirer of H.G. Wells, I find this funny. (Laughter) |
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Gunn: To go back to The Foundation Trilogy, I am curious at what point in the whole series did the concept of the Second Foundation occur? |
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A.: Well, from the very start |
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Gunn: Right from the first conversations with Campbell? |
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A.: Right, because I remember Campbell saying we'll need two foundations. |
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Gunn: Because it's never mentioned in the first foundation series it's mentioned in the introductory story that you wrote for the Gnome Press edition, but as I recall, and I could be wrong, I didn't see any mention of a second foundation until we get into the second volume. |
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A.: Well, it's my impression, and I swear, I can't say for sure, that in the very first story, "Foundation," there was a casual mention of the Second Foundation, because it was there from the beginning. [Asimov was right. J.G.] I did not know what the function of the Second Foundation was to be. It was there as a safety measure, as a reserve, as a strategic reserve, in case something developed in the plot so that I needed a way out, that would be the Second Foundation. And as a matter of fact, it became necessary once we introduced the Mule. Now the Mule was introduced by Campbell over my virtually dead body which was in a sense a good thing it was one of the many occasions in which Campbell was right and I was wrong and I never try to hide those occasions. He wanted to upset the plan and I thought that was heresy. He said to me don't worry, think of all the fun you'll have trying to get it back on the track. And so I remember distinctly saying to myself, well if he's going to make me destroy the plan, the only way I could get back at him was to write the longest story I had written up to that time, and I did; I wrote 50,000 words. I'd never written a 50,000 word story before and he was glad to pay for it. Of course, it was the best piece, it was the best thing in The Foundation Trilogy. |
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Gunn: You make the comment in your autobiography that he made you change the ending of "Now You See It . . . ," the sequel to "The Mule." |
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