Issac Asimov was born on this day in 1920.
As a child of particularly constrained circumstances, it was discovering Science Fiction that allowed me my first glimpse of a world beyond. While my taste buds in fiction have taken me in other directions I remain eternally grateful to a handful of writers including in the first instance the likes of Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and very much Issac Asimov, and later Roger Zelazny and Philip K. Dick. They opened doors!
Asimov joined imaginative exploration with a determination that his stories be scientifically plausible. I have little doubt the humanistic perspective that informed his life and writings raised crucial questions for me at a very important moment in my life. Specifically, I credit reading his Guide to the Bible, which I later learned was little more than a nicely written popularization of standard “modern” scholarship, but for me just blew the lid off of it all…
Thank you, Isaac!
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