La Tortue Cynique / The Cynical Turtle

Funny story: Isaac had told me that “his” Three Laws of Robotics were actually given to him by John Campbell — Isaac had just tinkered with the wording. But when the movie people actually made a film called I, Robot, the story that was filmed had nothing to do with Isaac’s actual stories but was something written and published by another writer, and all they used of Isaac’s work was the title and the Three Laws. Neither of which had been his.

Ca tombe bien "I, Robot" n'était pas terrible comme film. En tout cas, bien en-deça de l'oeuvre d'Asimov.

The publishing of science fiction in book form in the U.S. had just begun, and I wanted Isaac to get in on it. The trouble was that Doubleday, the most interesting of the hardcover houses, had decided that they wanted new works, not reprinted serials taken from the pulps. (It was a dumb decision, and later, when they realized what they were missing out on and reversed it they made a fortune out of those old Foundation and robot books.)

Quand l'éditeur ne juge plus les oeuvres mais se contente de fixer une politique, il échoue dans son travail.

Is the delay before sales in Europe a change?

Merci à Gruber de nous rappeler l'attachement d'Apple à nous alimenter en retard et à un prix défiant tout achat.