Summary of Neil Goble's "Asimov Analyzed"
By: Cole Collins
Up until his death in 1992, Isaac Asimov was considered America’s greatest writer of science fiction with his short story, "Nightfall", championed as the best science fiction of all time. Even Frederick Pohl, editor of StarScience Fiction Stories, proclaimed that, “in the alphabet of science fiction, ‘A’ is for Asimov” (3). In Asimov Explained, Neil Goble does his best to identify what methods and techniques made Asimov so successful. In order to do this Goble takes numerous samples from a countless number of Asimov's works and analyzes them from both a statistical and rhetorical standpoint. In Asimov Explained, both Asimov's science fiction and non-fiction works are analyzed, and even though there is obviously correlation between the two, this summary will only discuss the science fiction findings.
When Neil Goble took samples from hundreds of books he counted sentences, words, syllables, personal words, and personal sentences* for accurately assessing Asimov. On page 46 Goble presents his findings in a table with statistics for each book and statistics for the overall average. According to the chart it is clear that Asimov's writing does have consistency from book to book. The only similarity in both non-dialogue and science fiction books with dialogue was that there was an average of 143 syllables per ~100 words. In books with dialogue the sentences and paragraphs were notably shorter, with and increase in personal words and sentences. Asimov's sentence length was found rather short in non-dialogue books, with an average of 15.4 words per sentence, due to his liking of simple sentences. Yet, Asimov's average sentence length in books with dialogue decreased even further to 10.6 words. Goble uses this to infer that Asimov preferred to have his characters speak with brevity and simplicity.
When Goble examined the rhetorical aspect of Asimov he discovered, as well as many others, that Asimov has his “utterly personal style” (97). "[His] writing is never pallid. It is always interesting, usually charming and frequently dramatic" Asimov was always being asked how he wrote and his only response was “I just write any old way that comes into my mind” says Goble. One characteristic of Asimov's writing that separated his rhetoric from the rest was his certain charms and trademarks. For example, Asimov would give characters catchphrases to utter to make them easier to differentiate from each other. Goble points out many more techniques and patterns within Asimov's writing and even gives us an article from Writers Handbook, in which Asimov himself gives his thoughts on how "not" to write. Some of these includes not playing with clichés, don't fry the reader's brain with too much science, and not be inconsistent with idea presented earlier in the story.
Neil Goble’s Asimov Explained does its best to identify patterns and point out statistics within Asimov’s work to inform the reader of Asimov’s techniques. In order to write good science fiction, it is best to understand how one of the greatest science fiction writers himself does it.
* These were counted following guidelines laid down by "How to Use the Readability Formula", designed by Rudolf Flesch. "Personal words are "people" and "folks," and their names; also pronouns referring to them if you can tell what sex they are. Personal sentences include dialogue, any sentence fragments, all questions, commands, and exclamations, and any other sentences that directly involve the reader." (42-43)
When Neil Goble took samples from hundreds of books he counted sentences, words, syllables, personal words, and personal sentences* for accurately assessing Asimov. On page 46 Goble presents his findings in a table with statistics for each book and statistics for the overall average. According to the chart it is clear that Asimov's writing does have consistency from book to book. The only similarity in both non-dialogue and science fiction books with dialogue was that there was an average of 143 syllables per ~100 words. In books with dialogue the sentences and paragraphs were notably shorter, with and increase in personal words and sentences. Asimov's sentence length was found rather short in non-dialogue books, with an average of 15.4 words per sentence, due to his liking of simple sentences. Yet, Asimov's average sentence length in books with dialogue decreased even further to 10.6 words. Goble uses this to infer that Asimov preferred to have his characters speak with brevity and simplicity.
When Goble examined the rhetorical aspect of Asimov he discovered, as well as many others, that Asimov has his “utterly personal style” (97). "[His] writing is never pallid. It is always interesting, usually charming and frequently dramatic" Asimov was always being asked how he wrote and his only response was “I just write any old way that comes into my mind” says Goble. One characteristic of Asimov's writing that separated his rhetoric from the rest was his certain charms and trademarks. For example, Asimov would give characters catchphrases to utter to make them easier to differentiate from each other. Goble points out many more techniques and patterns within Asimov's writing and even gives us an article from Writers Handbook, in which Asimov himself gives his thoughts on how "not" to write. Some of these includes not playing with clichés, don't fry the reader's brain with too much science, and not be inconsistent with idea presented earlier in the story.
Neil Goble’s Asimov Explained does its best to identify patterns and point out statistics within Asimov’s work to inform the reader of Asimov’s techniques. In order to write good science fiction, it is best to understand how one of the greatest science fiction writers himself does it.
* These were counted following guidelines laid down by "How to Use the Readability Formula", designed by Rudolf Flesch. "Personal words are "people" and "folks," and their names; also pronouns referring to them if you can tell what sex they are. Personal sentences include dialogue, any sentence fragments, all questions, commands, and exclamations, and any other sentences that directly involve the reader." (42-43)