The End of Eternity - Isaac Asimov
September 4, 2021 | 2 min
I expected this book to no be really connected to other Asimov's novels and in some ways it's by itself a great book, but it's like a cornerstone were many many books are built upon.
In this book Asimov talks explicitly about some ideas of greatness and the mediocre. Mankind can never evolve the ability of control of it's future because it'll always take the safest and most mediocre path, and this will eventually lead to self destruction (by depression basically). To achieve greatness there must be trouble, hard times and randomness.
The Eternity itself
The eternity is also shown as a very abrasive and hostile organization, where people detached from their times work in the whole eternity like it's their own toy. In some ways it seems almost like a military organization. There's a passage where Noys speaks to Harlan that everybody in eternity is an psychopath and he remembers that someone he knew despite being basically mentaly broken in his training made important decisions inside the organization, this came across to me as very realistic, it's that kind of truth that hurts a little to just know it.
The chast system that exists in eternity also shows this sick nature of their organization, they discount their grief of not having a past, of their memories never existed in the inferior chasts. How it's expected that their morality is any better than nothing? Spaceships are bad because they lead to high drug use, and nuclear technology is bad because it's too risky. Asimov even talks about the lower chast, the Maintenence, their are the largest chast in number are are problably the chast that have the most well rounded people because "their hobbies aren't expcted to be related to their work activities", I think it's kind of funny that Asimov talks about this because this thing about being interested in different things is one of the things that I believe makes him a great writer ([[Different areas of Interest | more]]).
Quotes
"Out of danger and restless insecurity comes the force that pushes mankind to newer and loftier conquests"
"In a system [...] which allows men to choose their own future, will end by choosing safety and mediocrity"
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tags: #digest/book links: [[Asimov]] finished: 16 sept 2021