Isaac Asimov: Becoming Educated

hmm... This is obviously an example of never letting facts get in the way of a good story. There are a few minor errors of fact, and at least one significant error, in this essay. This writer has imagined what they think Asimov’s life should have been, and used this “inspired by” version to push their own narrative (despite saying it’s based on Asimov’s autobiography).

Before Asimov fell in love with science, he was already entranced by fiction. It was his love of Greek mythology and his reading of 18th and 19th-century classics that sparked his mind.

I’m not sure how anyone can write about Asimov’s early reading habits and inspirations without at least mentioning science fiction. Asimov devoured sci-fi as a teenager. He avidly awaited the monthly sci-fi magazines that were sold in his father’s candy store. He couldn’t afford to buy them, but he was allowed to read them on the strict condition that he didn’t damage them (so that they could still be sold). In his mid-to-late teens, he started writing letters to the magazines, and even joined a fan club! And, when he finally put pen to paper finger to typewriter at the age of 18... it was science fiction he wrote. That’s just about all he wrote for the first two decades of his career. Yes, he read voraciously and widely, including the aforementioned Greek classics, but science fiction was his first true love.

Science fiction was so important in inspiring and moulding the young Isaac, that it leads me to wonder why this essay writer has omitted this. Is it possibly because “Asimov voraciously read pulp science fiction magazines” doesn’t sound as classy as “his love of Greek mythology and his reading of 18th and 19th-century classics [...] sparked his mind”?

By personal choice, his day-job was as a chemist.

No. He didn’t choose to be a chemist. Becoming a chemist was his third attempt at getting a career.

He actually wanted to be a writer. It was his major passion since he started reading science fiction as a teenager.

But he didn’t believe he could make a living as a writer, so he followed his father’s advice and went to medical school to become a doctor (because the stereotype of Jewish parents wanting their son to be a rich doctor has some truth to it!). He started out by studying zoology, but he quickly learned that he was squeamish when it came to the sight of blood. There went that idea!

So he transferred to chemistry. It was his third choice, after writing and medicine.

After completing his undergraduate degree, he applied to various medical schools and was rejected. So he continued his post-graduate studies in biochemistry.

But, again, “Asimov fell into a career he didn’t really want because he needed to earn a dollar and couldn’t get something better” doesn’t sound quite as inspiring as “he did a job he loved”.

It’s becoming more obvious that this essay writer is twisting the truth to fit their agenda.

One thing that many people don’t know about Isaac Asimov is that he actually wasn’t a full-time writer for most of his life.

We’ve now entered the realm of fiction (ironically!).

Asimov sold his first professional story at the age of 18, and never stopped writing – or selling his writing – until he was too old and sick to write. Of course, because of the low payments, it was just a bit of spare pocket money on the side in the early days. He could never earn a living at it! That’s why he became a Professor of Biochemistry at the age of 29 (while still writing and selling stories on the side). A few years later, his earnings from writing exceeded his professorial salary, and a few years after that he resigned from teaching at the age of 38. He then wrote full-time for the remainder of his life. His writing career spanned more than 50 years, with writing being his sole income for more than 30 years of that. Meanwhile, he lasted less than 10 years in academia.

This essay has only one purpose: to sell the essay writer’s message of self-education. However, noone’s going to read yet another blog saying “read and educate yourself”, so they found a well-known polymath and self-didact, and used his name to draw attention to their otherwise mundane essay. And they didn’t even bother to do their research!

I’ve seen this sort of thing too many times: people using Asimov’s name to draw eyeballs to articles that otherwise wouldn’t be read.

The message itself is worthy. We should all aim to read and extend our knowledge. And, teaching others is an excellent way of cementing your own knowledge of a subject. But this didn’t need Asimov’s name dragged into it for no good reason.