Art reflects the time in which it’s made. Audiences reflect the time in which they engage with the art, and the conversation between the two takes place on a contemporary topography of culture, politics and personal experience. That process of adaptation fascinates me. Digging into the core of a story to find what makes it work is a timeless process and yet one inherently of whichever time it was carried out in. Adaptation is an act of immortality. And of resistance.
Enter Hari Seldon. The notional hero of Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation series, Seldon is a mathematician who develops a means of predicting the future. Psychohistory is a chthonic behemoth of an idea only Hari truly sees and understandsm and it works with enough precision to scare the crap out of everyone.
Psychohistory is how Seldon knows the human Empire will collapse and plunge the galaxy into 30,000 years of darkness. If he’s given time, and the right resources, he can build a foundation of knowledge that will reduce that to period to 1000 years. He gets what he wants but, because psychohistory can’t forecast individual actions, even Hari is surprised by how things go…
Contents
Gaal and Salvor
Galaxy, The Prettiest Star
Interstitials: The music of Vangelis
Playout: Matt Berry as Doctor Who from Rob Ritchie