The Bounds of Infinity -- Asimov & Baxter

In article <nebusj.1080827693 RemoveThis @vcmr-86.server.rpi.edu>,
nebusj RemoveThis @rpi.edu (Joseph Nebus) wrote:

  > If we can believe everythign written in rec.arts.sf.written the
 > presumed-destroyed first couple chapters of ``The Bounds of Infinity,''
 > the 1958 attempted sequel to the Robot Novels, has been recovered, and
 > plans to finish it along what seem like ``logical lines'' by Stephen
 > Baxter are under way.
 >
  > I can't pretend to have anything more than huge reservations about
 > this -- Baxter has bobbled a *lot* of stories (see ``Titan,'' or better,
 > just run from it), and guessing where Asimov would end a novel was never
 > a safe hobby, most particularly in mysteries, save that the real power was
 > always the one behind the throne -- but also don't know who I'd give the
 > job to instead. Greg Egan can hit the dizzying chapters of logic expected
 > at the climax, but the logical reversals that leave everything ending
 > satisfyingly and neatly resolved seem beyond him. Asimov's worldview,
 > loving the ironies his characters fall prey to, is also startlingly hard
 > to imitate. We can hope, though.

I guess we can't believe everything written in any newsgroup on April 1.
Made me look, though. Perhaps therein is where the fun lies with the fun
lies?

I don't know why anyone would presume that The Bounds of Infinity was
destroyed. Asimov never said as much. And I am writing this on April 2,
so I'm not fooling.

--
Ed Seiler<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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John Jenkins <jhjenkins.TakeThisOut@mac.com> writes:

 >Please tell me this is an April Fool's joke...

  Aw, well, all right ... worse; it's an April Fool's joke for
which I forgot to include a chatty little line about a grad student
finding the forgotten pages in the Vault at Boston University, so that
it didn't have a little more grounding to make it credible.

--
    Joseph Nebus
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Joseph Nebus wrote:

 > Aw, well, all right ... worse; it's an April Fool's joke for
 > which I forgot to include a chatty little line about a grad student
 > finding the forgotten pages in the Vault at Boston University, so that
 > it didn't have a little more grounding to make it credible.

I went scouring through rec.arts.sf.written yesterday looking for discussion
on this, and couldn't find it. I thought it sounded credible, considering
the recent news that Spider Robinson is finished an unfinished Heinlein
manuscript, so why wouldn't Asimov's heirs look toward finishing an
unfinished manuscript? Baxter wouldn't have been my first choice; his style
is too different than Asimov's. I might've opted for Roger MacBride Allen,
who doesn't have Asimov's style, but showed with his Caliban trilogy that he
can handled human/robot interactions deftly. Or even David Brin, whose
FOUNDATION'S TRIUMPH felt as though he were channeling the Good Doctor's
spirit.

Bravo! Nicely done prank!

Allyn <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.allyngibson.net" target="_blank">http://www.allyngibson.net</a>
AIM: mknzycalhn ICQ: 4342396

Defeating alien menaces is what Tiggers do best.
-- Peter David, "The TARDIS at Pooh Corner"<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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You could at least have said that Isaac Asimov made an appearance in a
Time Vault - now that I would have believed

In article <nebusj.1080913325.TakeThisOut@vcmr-86.server.rpi.edu>,
Joseph Nebus <nebusj.TakeThisOut@rpi.edu> wrote:
 > John Jenkins <jhjenkins.TakeThisOut@mac.com> writes:

  > >Please tell me this is an April Fool's joke...

  > Aw, well, all right ... worse; it's an April Fool's joke for
 > which I forgot to include a chatty little line about a grad student
 > finding the forgotten pages in the Vault at Boston University, so that
 > it didn't have a little more grounding to make it credible.

--
Greg Toland
mailto: greg.TakeThisOut@gctsmt.demon.co.uk<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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*sigh*

I knew it was too good to be true.

Dr. Asimov himself said that prior to the 1960s he burned a lot of his old or
unfinished manuscripts if he'd given up on story ideas.

If someone *were* to somehow find The Bounds of Infinity, I'd like to see it
get published as the four chapters by itself, and then followed by the
reworked version.

The difficulty would be in pretending "The Robots of Dawn" never happened.
 >> Stay informed about: The Bounds of Infinity -- Asimov & Baxter 

Edward Seiler <DELETEejseiler RemoveThis @earthlink.netUPPERCASE> writes:

 >I guess we can't believe everything written in any newsgroup on April 1.
 >Made me look, though. Perhaps therein is where the fun lies with the fun
 >lies?

  I'm glad to hear I was able to pick something just credible
enough to give a few moments of doubt, then. There aren't many ``lost
Asimov'' manuscripts that'd be believable.


 >I don't know why anyone would presume that The Bounds of Infinity was
 >destroyed. Asimov never said as much. And I am writing this on April 2,
 >so I'm not fooling.

  Well, I supposed it was; the writing was done before 1964 and
the creation of the Vault at Boston University, and Asimov said he would
destroy or throw out everything he had before then. But it's not as if
he was out trying to destroy all traces of manuscript, and first drafts
of ``Pebble in the Sky'' and ``The End of Eternity'' escaped the grill;
there's not much reason others wouldn't.

  It doesn't seem to have been mentioned at all in ``The Alternate
Asimovs,'' even though it'd fit nicely as an ``alternative'' to his
published writing, but Asimov might not have thought of it, or the
manuscript, if it were in there, might have been overlooked.

--
    Joseph Nebus
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In article <nebusj.1081136729.TakeThisOut@vcmr-86.server.rpi.edu>,
nebusj.TakeThisOut@rpi.edu (Joseph Nebus) wrote:

 > Edward Seiler <DELETEejseiler.TakeThisOut@earthlink.netUPPERCASE> writes:
 >
  > >I guess we can't believe everything written in any newsgroup on April 1.
  > >Made me look, though. Perhaps therein is where the fun lies with the fun
  > >lies?
 >
  > I'm glad to hear I was able to pick something just credible
 > enough to give a few moments of doubt, then. There aren't many ``lost
 > Asimov'' manuscripts that'd be believable.
 >
 >
  > >I don't know why anyone would presume that The Bounds of Infinity was
  > >destroyed. Asimov never said as much. And I am writing this on April 2,
  > >so I'm not fooling.
 >
  > Well, I supposed it was; the writing was done before 1964 and
 > the creation of the Vault at Boston University, and Asimov said he would
 > destroy or throw out everything he had before then. But it's not as if
 > he was out trying to destroy all traces of manuscript, and first drafts
 > of ``Pebble in the Sky'' and ``The End of Eternity'' escaped the grill;
 > there's not much reason others wouldn't.
 >
  > It doesn't seem to have been mentioned at all in ``The Alternate
 > Asimovs,'' even though it'd fit nicely as an ``alternative'' to his
 > published writing, but Asimov might not have thought of it, or the
 > manuscript, if it were in there, might have been overlooked.

Apparently I was not quite accurate when I said that "Asimov never said
as much". In _I. Asimov_, when writing about _The Robots of Dawn_, he
said that he decided not to go back to "those lost eight chapters",
since he "didn't want them at all", instead he decided to start fresh.

I was thinking of a reference he made to the false start sitting in a
drawer somewhere, but I think that was the fourth Foundation novel, not
the third robot novel.

However, it is curious that after he said that they were lost, he said
that he "didn't want them at all", as if he had a choice.

As with _Lucky Starr and the Snows of Pluto_, I am absolutely sure that
it does not exist in the Boston University archives. However, just
because something of his is not in the archives does not mean that it
does not exist. Although he said that when the archive was created, he
gave them everthing that had not gone into the barbecue pit, that was
not true. There are numerous instances where, years after the archive
was created, he made donations of materials that dated back before the
establishment of the archive. Which means that he held onto those
materials in the meantime. He also made mention in his autobiography of
a few other uncompleted projects, and those have never shown up in the
archive either.

_The Bounds of Infinity_, as described, wouldn't really fit in with the
other Alternate Asimovs, since it was not a completed work, whereas the
others were.

--
Ed Seiler<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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In article <DELETEejseiler-88500C.04292806042004 DeleteThis @news01.east.earthlink.net>, Edward Seiler <DELETEejseiler DeleteThis @earthlink.netuppercase> wrote:

: Apparently I was not quite accurate when I said that "Asimov never said
: as much". In _I. Asimov_, when writing about _The Robots of Dawn_, he
: said that he decided not to go back to "those lost eight chapters",
: since he "didn't want them at all", instead he decided to start fresh.
:
: I was thinking of a reference he made to the false start sitting in a
: drawer somewhere, but I think that was the fourth Foundation novel, not
: the third robot novel.

I've seen that reference as well -- he talks about having written a
few pages, and when he pulled them out of the drawer, he didn't remember
where he'd planned to go with them, so he just took them and wrote
_Foundation's Edge_. Could it have been in the introduction to _Foundation's
Edge_, or in the introduction to one of the 1980's paperback Foundation
Series reprints?

-----
Richard Schultz schultr DeleteThis @mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
"Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad."
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