Essay Questions

What is strange about the character of Gaal Dornick?

When Gaal Dornick is first introduced, the description seems to be setting him up as almost as a Luke Skywalker-type innocent (even though he precedes the appearance of Luke into the public consciousness by a few decades). He is described as a “country boy” who has never visited the central planet in the galaxy. And yet, at the same time, Gaal is certainly no farm boy since he already possesses an advanced degree in mathematics and has been personally chosen by Hari Seldon to assist on his very important project. Over the course of “The Psychohistorians” Gaal is a major character who seems to always be at Seldon’s side and by the first page the reader is already informed that he is the author of Seldon’s biography. And yet, if he were completely removed from the story nothing would be significantly altered. Thus, he is somehow strangely both essential to the story and superfluous to it.

So, what’s the deal with Gaal Dornick being simultaneously essential and superfluous to the story?

Despite the fact he is superfluous in the sense that removing him from the narrative would not enact any significant change in the outcome, there is no denying that Gaal is also essential. The divergence here is really one of storytelling and story. Gaal is truly non-essential to the story as it is being played out, but at the same time he is an essential element for the reader trying to navigate this mysterious new world. “The Psychohistorians” did not begin life as a separate, self-contained story. The information provided in this chapter of the first Foundation book originated as merely the opening scene in what would become the second chapter of the book, “The Encyclopedists” which did not include the Gaal character at all. When Asimov decided to expand his short stories into something more novel-like, he crafted “The Psychohistorians” for the purpose of expanding the backstory of the novel’s central conceit of psychohistory. In order to facilitate the dissemination of necessary information, Gaal Dornick was created as a person capable of understanding psychohistory, but not being equally educated about the political intricacies of Trantor which will prove to be of truly essential significance in the series.

Why is Hari Seldon put on trial?

The trial of Hari Seldon takes place in “The Psychohistorians” which is the very first chapter of the Foundation series while being chronologically last. Seldon’s trial will therefore serve to explain how the Foundation of the title actually came to be. He is on trial for using the new mathematical discipline of psychohistory which he has developed to predict that the long-ruling empire is destined to collapse into anarchy within the next five centuries as a natural and organic result of the history of its rule. Naturally the inherent accusation in this prediction is quick to tick off the ruling aristocracy that make up the Committee of Public Safety which has long been the effective overseers of the empire. In other words, Seldon is put on trial for not for being a witch claiming the power of foretelling the inevitable arrival of doomsday, but for good old-fashioned treason.