# Was Isaac Asimov a good writer or a stylistic hack with visionary ideas?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-isaac-asimov-a-good-writer-or-a-stylistic-hack-with-visionary-ideas/255557>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 17, 2004, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-isaac-asimov-a-good-writer-or-a-stylistic-hack-with-visionary-ideas/255557 "2004-07-17T06:33:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-isaac-asimov-a-good-writer-or-a-stylistic-hack-with-visionary-ideas/255557/41 "2004-07-19T06:13:49Z")

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> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> But my interpretation of that is different from his. First, the laws were John W. Campbell’s inspiration. And Campbell absolutely dominated sf in the 1940s. When Campbell decided that he wasn’t going to allow evil Frankensteinian robots in his magazines and gave Asimov the logical basis for eliminating them, that decision changed the field. You might be able to publish them in the pulps or the lesser digests, but you wouldn’t have any impact or influence over the rest of the field.
> 
> It was Campbell who made the difference here, far more so than Asimov.

I don’t think anyone could disagree that Campbell was the most influential person in science fiction at the time. I rather suspect he’d reject Frankenstein stories whether Asimov wrote or not. As I mentioned, Asimov said Campbell invented the laws, and Campbell said Asimov. I suspect what they both said was true - they were implicit in the story, and Campbell wrote them down.

BTW, I had the opportunity to read all the golden age Astondings - from Jan. 1939 right through 1945. The disappearance of the hacks and the growth in sophistication of those who could write for Campbell was quite astonishing.  
(or should I say Astounding - wrong mag there.)

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**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2004, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-isaac-asimov-a-good-writer-or-a-stylistic-hack-with-visionary-ideas/255557/42 "2004-07-19T14:02:22Z")

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I think [Book-A-Minute](http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/asimov.robot.shtml)’s summation of Asimov’s work is telling.

The **Reader’s** response cannot be discounted.

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