When you start a book you have certain expectations, of course. It's what made you choose that book in the first place. But sometimes it turns out to be worse than you thought. In the past I would feel bad if I didn't finish a book, so I would force myself to keep going. That's just stupid. Life is short. Nowadays, if after a number of pages I'm still not getting into it, I move on.
But while some books end up being a disappointment, others turn out to be a pleasant surprise. One such book for me was Isaac Asimov's autobiography, simply called A Memoir, which I read about twenty years ago and which I plan to read again sometime in the future.
How I came across it is rather serendipitous. My only visit to the United States so far was to Orlando, Florida. (You're probably wondering: "Why, why would anyone want to go to Orlando?" It's a long story.)
I managed to find a Borders, and I popped in for a quick look. Why I chose to buy that particular book is an enigma to me given that:
a) I had never heard of it
b) I had never read any of Asimov's books
I just bought it on an impulse, for no apparent reason, and I'm really glad I did. Most people remember Isaac Asimov for his science-fiction novels, but in fact he wrote mostly non-fiction, on all sorts of subject. Asimov was a very intelligent and knowledgeable man, but also really down to earth. (Inexplicably he was also fond of bolo ties. No one's perfect, I guess.)
Quick digression. It’s difficult to define intelligence. Different people are smart in different ways. And if something can’t be defined, it can’t be measured either. For example, does an IQ test measure your intelligence per se, or simply your ability to solve a particular kind of riddles? I suppose solving riddles does show an inclination for logical thinking, something I admire.
I actually think that the capacity for logical thinking is innate in everyone, it’s a uniquely human trait. Which is not to say that we all think or act logically all the time. Far from it.
This is something the Greek philosophers were already asking themselves. If I know that a particular course of action is the right one, how come I may sometimes choose a different one, one that might have disastrous consequences? If we can all think logically, why don’t we do it all the time? It’s a good question.
The reality is that human behaviour can be driven by a number of impulses, impulses which sometimes override reason. Things like fear, greed, lust, envy, anger, jealousy and so on. These things sometimes get the better of us. If that wasn’t the case, crime would be very rare indeed if not non-existent.
Back to Asimov. Most autobiographies proceed chronologically. Not this one. It's made up of 166 small chapters, each one just a page or two, where he recollects one episode from his life followed by some thoughts and observations, and the chapters go back and forth in time, with wide-ranging titles such as Acrophobia, Bookworm, Humiliation, The Bible, Star Trek, Humor, In-Laws, Police, Children, Interviews, Automobile, Death, Plagiarism and so on. Because of that you don't have to read the book in order, form start to finish. If you want you can just pick any chapter at random.
Asimov's life was not that extraordinary. The best part is to see Asimov's brain at work. He was a very rational and insightful person, and to see how he dissects and analyses his life and the world around him is inspiring. (And inevitably his clear-thinking led to a disarming honesty, even regarding his own mistakes and shortcomings.) It reminds me something that I read in another wonderful autobiography, Jung Chang's Wild Swans.
Jung Chang's father had a huge collection of books, but during the so-called Cultural Revolution the Red Guards took away (and then destroyed) all their books except The Complete Works of Mao Ze-Dong, The Capital by Karl Marx and the Chinese Dictionary, leaving her without much choice. (Interestingly, Isaac Asimov once said "Any book worth banning is a book worth reading".) But this is what she wrote about reading The Capital:
"I was attracted by something I had rarely come across: the logic that ran through an argument. Reading Marx helped me to think rationally and analytically. I enjoyed these new ways of organizing my thoughts."
It was a similar experience for me with Asimov's autobiography. I'm not sure how to define rationality. It's something almost ineffable. But it's something that you recognize when you see it. And when you do see it, it is a thing of beauty.
