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Monday, November 08, 2010

Asimovean Eyes

Isaac Asimov

I have finally reached a state where I resemble Isaac Asimov: large glasses, white hair, sunken cheeks, and often genial expression; I have no sideburns by intent; I shave in the shower without benefit of mirror, and the 'burns can be sketchy.
Yesterday in the car, I glanced at myself in the side mirror and thought I resembled a writer of science fiction; I thought that I looked like Ray Bradbury. As the seconds clicked by, I recalled exactly how Ray Bradbury looked in his old age, and that was not the face in the mirror, thank heavens! Exactly Asimovean.


Hari Seldon
note: I used a photo of Asa Kasher to represent Hari Seldon.

In my alter ego as Professer Hari Seldon, a character of Asimov's fiction, I give the following tidbits from the time vault:

I am going to live 30 more years,
I shall be killed by a government tired of me,
We shall create a sanctuary, physical, mental, or both.


(As an aside, please note how frequently the concept "sanctuary" has come up in popular culture over the past quarter century. We are obsessed by it, I think. It often appears in Zombie movies nowadays, and the normal people fight their way to "Sanctuary". It is appropriate that sanctuary is used as the salvation in zombie stories, which are "diseased" Resurrection myths.)

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

He had AIDS in that picture.

Montag said...

So I learn.
Asa Kasher, however, is still among the living.