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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
| |
| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | David November |
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date
| 1972 |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 288 |
| Awards | Locus Award for Best Novel (1973) |
| ISBN | 0-385-02701-X |
The Gods Themselves is a 1972 science fiction novel written by Isaac Asimov. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973.
The book is divided into three main parts, which were first published in Galaxy Magazine and Worlds of If as three consecutive stories.
Plot summary
In terms of structure, the book opens at chapter 6 to give context to
the other chapters. Thus, the flow is Chapter 6 overview of Chapter 1,
then Chapter 1. Next, is Chapter 6 overview of Chapter 2, then Chapter
2. Chapter 6 then concludes, and the story proceeds with chapter 7.
In terms of the setting in the future, in Part I, the novel
specifically refers to the date October 3, 2070 as a date when the
character Hallam entered the laboratory to work. Later in Part I, in
chapter 2, the book states that the character Peter Lamont had been 2
years old when Hallam performed the work set in 2070, and Lamont was 25
years old when he began working at the Pump Station. Accordingly, the
bulk of the novel is set sometime around the year 2100. In Part III, the
novel states that the Earth's population has been reduced to two
billion people following a "Great Crisis" which involved genetic
engineering. Part III of the novel takes place on a lunar colony with
about 10,000 people, half of which were "native Lunarites."
The main plot-line is a project by those who inhabit a parallel universe (the para-Universe) with different physical laws
from this one. By exchanging matter from their
universe—para-Universe—with our universe, they seek to exploit the
differences in physical laws. The exchange of matter provides an
alternative source of energy to maintain their universe. However, the
exchange will likely result in the collapse of the Earth's Sun into a supernova, and possibly even turning a large part of the Milky Way into a quasar. There is hope among those in the para-Universe that the energy explosion does happen in our universe.
First part: Against Stupidity...
The
first part takes place on Earth, almost a century after the "Great
Crisis", where ecological and economic collapse reduced the world's
population from six billion to two billion. Radiochemist Frederick
Hallam discovers that a container's contents have been altered. He finds
out that the sample, originally tungsten, has been transformed into plutonium 186—an isotope
that cannot occur naturally in our universe. As this is investigated,
Hallam gets the credit for suggesting that the matter has been exchanged
by beings in a parallel universe; this leads to the development of a
cheap, clean, and apparently endless source of energy: the "Pump", which
transfers matter between our universe (where plutonium 186 decays into
tungsten 186) and a parallel one governed by different physical laws
(where tungsten 186 turns into plutonium 186), yielding a nuclear
reaction in the process. The development process grants Hallam high
position in public opinion; winning him power, position, and a Nobel
Prize.
Physicist Peter Lamont, while writing a history of the Pump about
thirty years later, comes to believe that the impetus of the Pump was
the effort of the extraterrestrial "para-men". Lamont enlists the help
of Myron "Mike" Bronowski, an archeologist and linguist known for
translating ancient writings in the Etruscan language,
to prove his claim by communicating with the parallel world. They
inscribe symbols on strips of tungsten to establish a common written
language as the strips are exchanged for ones made of plutonium-186. As
Bronowski works, Lamont discovers that the Pump increases the strong nuclear force
inside the sun, and thus threatens both universes by the explosion of
Earth's Sun and the cooling of that in the parallel universe. Bronowski
receives an acknowledgment from the parallel universe that the Pump may
be dangerous. Lamont attempts to demonstrate this to a politician and
several members of the scientific community, but they refuse his
request. Lamont decides to tell the para-men to stop the use of the
Pump, but Bronowski reveals that they have been in contact not with the
other side's authorities, but with dissidents unable to stop the Pump on
their side. The last message was them begging Earth to stop.
Second part: ...The Gods Themselves...
The
second part is set in the parallel universe where, because the nuclear
force is stronger, stars are smaller and burn out faster than in our
universe. It takes place on a world orbiting a sun that is dying.
Because atoms behave differently in this universe, substances can move
through each other and appear to occupy the same space. This gives the
intelligent beings unique abilities. Time itself appears to flow
differently in this universe: the events take place in an apparently
short space of time in the lives of the inhabitants, while more than
twenty years pass in our universe, and a long feeding break of one of
the characters translates into a two-week gap on Lamont's side.
Like the first part of the novel, this section has an unusual
chapter numbering. Each chapter except the last is in three parts, named
"1a", "1b", and "1c". Each reflects the viewpoint of one of the three
members of the "triad" central to the story's theme.
The inhabitants are divided into dominant "hard ones" and subject "soft ones". The latter have three sexes with fixed roles for each sex:
- Rationals (or "lefts") are the logical and scientific sex; identified with masculine pronouns and producing a form of sperm. They have limited ability to pass through other bodies.
- Emotionals (or "mids") are the intuitive sex; identified with the feminine pronouns and provide the energy needed for reproduction. Emotionals can pass freely in and out of solid material, including rock.
- Parentals (or "rights") bear and raise the offspring, and are identified with masculine pronouns. Parentals have almost no ability to blend their bodies with others, except when helped by one or both of the other sexes.
All three 'genders' are embedded in sexual and social norms of expected and acceptable behavior. All three live by photosynthesis; whereas sexual intercourse
is accomplished by bodily collapse into a single pool (known as
'melting'). Rationals and Parentals can do this independently, but in
the presence of an Emotional, the "melt" becomes total, which causes orgasm
and also results in a period of unconsciousness and memory loss. Only
during such a total "melt" can the Rational "impregnate" the Parental,
with the Emotional providing the energy. Normally, the triad produces
three children; a Rational, a Parental and Emotional (in that order),
after which they "pass on" and disappear forever. In the past, some
triads have repeated the cycle of births (thus ensuring population
growth), but the declining amount of solar radiation no longer allows
that. "Stone-rubbing" is a practice of partially melting with solid
objects like rocks, possible for Emotionals, but the other genders are
only capable of it in a very limited form. It is an analogue of human masturbation
and generally frowned upon. Dua, the Emotional who functions as
protagonist of this section of the book, appears to be the only one who
practices it while married.
The hard ones regulate much of soft one society, allocating one
of each sex to a mating group called a "triad," and acting as mentors to
the Rationals. Little is shown of "hard one" society; whereas Dua
suspects that the "hard ones" are a dying race, retaining the "soft
ones" as a replacement for their absent children. This is dismissed by
Odeen, the Rational of Dua's triad. Having the most contact with the
"hard ones," Odeen has heard them speak of a new "hard one" called
Estwald, accounted of exceptional intelligence and the creator of the
Pump.
Dua is an oddball Emotional who exhibits traits normally
associated with Rationals, resulting in the nickname "left-em." While
being taught by Odeen, she also discovers the supernova problem that
Lamont uncovered in the first section. Outraged that the Pump is allowed
to operate, she attempts to halt it but cannot persuade her own species
to abandon the Pump. Given that their own sun and all the other stars
in their universe can no longer provide the energy necessary for
reproduction, they consider the possible destruction of Earth's Sun
worthwhile if it might provide a more reliable source of energy.
Driven by an innate desire to procreate, Tritt, the "Parental" of
the triad, at first asks Odeen to persuade Dua to facilitate the
production of their third child. When this fails, Tritt steals an
energy-battery from the Pump and rigs it to feed Dua, which stimulates
the triad into a total melt, resulting in conception. Dua discovers this
betrayal and escapes to the caves of the hard ones, where she transmits
the warning messages received by Lamont. This effort nearly exhausts
her mortally before she is found by her triad. Here it is revealed that
the hard ones are not a separate species, but the fully mature form that
the triads eventually coalesce into permanently. Each melt briefly
allows the triad to shift into its hard form during the period they
can't later remember. Odeen convinces Dua that the hard one they will
become will have influence with the others to stop the Pump; but as
their final metamorphosis
(the true meaning of "passing on") begins, Dua realizes (too late to
prevent irreversible union) that her own triad's "hard" form is the
scientist Estwald.
Third part: ...Contend in Vain?
The third part of the novel takes place on the Moon.
Lunar society is diverging radically from that of Earth. The lower
gravity has produced people with a very different physique. Their food
supply is manufactured from algae and distasteful to inhabitants of
Earth. They enjoy low-gravity sports that would be impossible on Earth,
such as an acrobatic game like "tag" performed in a huge cylinder (these
sports are vital to them, since their metabolism is still that of
Earthmen, and proper strenuous exercise must be maintained for it to
function properly). Some Lunarites want to further adapt their bodies to
life on the Moon, but Earth has outlawed genetic engineering
decades ago. Lunarites are beginning to see themselves as a separate
race, although procreation between them and Earth people is quite
common. Sex, however, is problematic, since an Earthborn person is
likely to injure his or her partner due to loss of control. Sexual
morals are loose, and nudity is not taboo.
The plot centers on a cynical middle-aged ex-physicist named
Denison, briefly introduced in Part 1 as the colleague and rival of
Hallam whose snide remark drove Hallam to investigate the change in his
sample of tungsten and, eventually, develop the Pump. Finding his career
blocked by Hallam, Denison leaves science and enters the business
world, becoming a success.
Denison, independently of Lamont, deduced the danger in the
Electron Pump. He visits the Moon colony hoping to work outside of
Hallam's influence using technology that the Lunarites have developed.
He is helped by a Lunarite tourist guide named Selene Lindstrom. She is secretly an Intuitionist (a genetically engineered human with superhuman intuition),
who is working with her lover, Barron Neville. They are both part of a
group of political agitators who want independence from Earth. The group
particularly wants to be allowed to research ways to use the Electron
Pump on the Moon. Although solar energy is plentiful enough to power
their underground habitats, Neville wants to live entirely underground
and never have to venture out on the surface. With the scientists' help,
Denison gets access to the technology and proves that the strong force
is indeed increasing, and will cause the Sun to explode.
Denison continues his work, tapping into a third parallel universe that is in a pre-Big Bang
state (called "cosmic egg" or "cosmeg"), where physical laws are
totally opposite to those of Dua's universe. Matter from the cosmeg
starts with very weak nuclear force, and then spontaneously fuses as our
universe's physical laws take over. The exchange with the second
parallel universe both produces more energy at little or no cost, and
balances the changes from the Electron Pump, resulting in a return to
equilibrium. However, Selene clandestinely conducts another test showing
that momentum can also be exchanged with the cosmeg. Denison catches
her and forces her to admit her secret purpose: Neville thinks the
momentum exchange can be used to move anything without using rockets,
including the Moon itself. He wants to break away from Earth in the most
complete way possible. Denison is appalled, although he sees the
potential of the technology to make travel within the Solar System
easier, and to the stars possible.
When Selene discusses Neville's plan with the rest of the group,
most of them agree that moving the entire Moon will be meaningless, and
building self-sufficient sublight starships will be better. A later
public vote goes against Neville as well. Hallam is ruined by Denison's
revelations. Selene and Denison become a couple. Having received
permission to produce a second child, Selene requests Denison to become
its father. The novel ends with them deciding to try working around the
sexual incompatibility problem.
Asimov's relationship to the story
In a letter of February 12, 1982, Asimov identified this as his favorite science fiction novel. Asimov's short story "Gold", one of the last he wrote in his life, describes the efforts of fictional computer animators to create a "compu-drama" from the novel's second section.
Asimov took the names of the immature aliens—Odeen, Dua, and Tritt—from the words One, Two, and Three in the language of his native Russia, i.e. odin (один), dva (два) and tri (три).
Asimov's inspiration for the title of the book, and its three sections, was a quotation from the play The Maid of Orleans by Friedrich Schiller:
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.", "Against stupidity
the gods themselves contend in vain" (quoted in the book itself).
Asimov describes a conversation in January 1971 when Robert Silverberg had to refer to an isotope—just
an arbitrary one—as an example. Silverberg said "plutonium-186". "There
is no such isotope", said Asimov, "and such a one can't exist either".
Silverberg dared Asimov to write a story about it.
Later Asimov figured out under what conditions plutonium-186 could
exist, and what complications and consequences it might imply. Asimov
reasoned that it must belong to another universe with other physical
laws; specifically, different nuclear forces necessary to allow a Pu-186
nucleus to hold itself together. He wrote down these ideas, intending
to write a short story, but his editor, Larry Ashmead, asked him to expand it into a full novel. As a result of that request, Asimov wrote the second and third thirds of the book.
In his autobiography, Asimov stated that the novel, especially
the second section, was the "biggest and most effective over-my-head
writing [that I] ever produced".
According to Alasdair Wilkins, in a discussion posted on Gizmodo, "Asimov absolutely loves weird, elliptical structures. All three of his non-robot/Foundation science fiction novels — The End of Eternity, [The Gods Themselves], and Nemesis — leaned heavily on non-chronological narratives, and he does it with gusto [in The Gods Themselves]."
References to science
At the time of writing, quasars
had been only recently discovered and were not well understood. In the
story Lamont suggests that quasars are in fact parts of galaxies that
have undergone sudden increase in the strength of the strong nuclear force,
resulting in an explosion of fusion energy. It is not certain if Asimov
took into account the nature of solar fusion, where the primary
reaction rate is governed by the weak nuclear force, transforming protons into neutrons, while the strong force governs the amount of energy released during reactions.
The book mentions quarks, but confines its discussion of the strong force to pions, which are the carriers of the force that binds protons and neutrons together, while gluons
bind quarks within protons and neutrons. At the time, gluons were only
suspected to exist while particles thought to be quarks had been
observed directly.
Similarly, the Etruscan language
and particularly Etruscan writings had not yet been translated and were
enigmatic. The language's possible relation to any other known language
remains today (in 2019) unproven. The character Bronowski is imagined
to have solved the puzzle by considering the Basque language,
which is also unique in Europe, as a relative of ancient Etruscan.
Bronowski decides to help Lamont when the president of the university
refers to the language as "Itascan", confusing it with Lake Itasca. He resolves to do something that "even that idiot will remember".
