The Packbats' Weblog

Ooh, this is a good one.

If you could travel back in time to spend a day with someone, who would it be and why?

I can't say what I'd do if I had infinite time to prepare. Would I visit an influential Greek playwright, retrieve copies of the work? Would I drop in on Bartok and swipe some of the reputed 90% of his compositions he burned? Would I step back to spend a day with Melville and Moby-Dick? There are just too many choices.

If, however, I had to do it right now (though I would prefer an hour's - or better, a week's - advance notice), I think I would go back to October 1941 to talk to Isaac Asimov about "Nightfall".

Isaac Asimov was a dreadfully prolific writer. In fact, he'd published at least seventeen stories prior to the September 1941 printing of "Nightfall", of which I've probably read the revised version of one ("Robbie"). In no sense am I an expert on his writing, having read naught but Nightfall and Other Stories, half of I, Robot, that I. Asimov memoir, Fact and Fancy, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, Asimov's New Guide to Science, and maybe a smattering of others I forgot.

But reading them, I think I can see why "Nightfall" is one of the greatest stories of all time, and why his other shorts don't compare. And having read the memoir, I know Asimov never knew.

See, Asimov was like a writer of 'whodunits'. (Very like, in fact.) Every story had to have an angle, an plot twist - perhaps something frequently hinted at, but which no-one would twig to until the end, or perhaps just a punchline. "C-Chute" had a character's motivation. "It's Such a Beautiful Day" had a bit of defiance of societal mores. "The Machine that Won the War" - well, that was practically a purebred joke, the whole thing's the setup.

"Nightfall" - the punchline was revealed the first page. It wasn't needed.

No 'locked-room mystery' was "Nightfall". While most of the story takes place in a single building, the characters constantly allude to broad societal trends, to various events occurring in the previous months ... the world feels real, plausible - maybe in part because it is much like our own, save for the difference that drove the plot. The characters, the same.

He thought it was because it kept up a dramatic pace. He said so. It's just sad.