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The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
American Literature (EOM3011)
Aligarh Muslim University
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The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
Written by Isaac Asimov in 1951 for a children's magazine, "The Fun They Had" is a storey about two children having a good time. The storey is Asimov's most widely anthologized work, and it was reprinted several times over the course of the next several decades.
The storey begins with a diary entry made by Margie on May 17, 2155, in which she writes, "Today Tommy found a real book!"
Margie knows the book is old because her grandfather has told her stories about his grandfather's paper books, which she has in her possession. Tommy and Margie turn the yellowed pages of an old book on their own. Their reactions to the book are strange and amusing because the words remain the same, rather than moving and changing as they do on a computer or television screen. Tommy remark that it appears to be a waste: his screens can hold a million books, and you never have to throw them away like traditional books. Although Margie is only eleven years old and has read fewer books than Tommy, who is thirteen, she agrees with Tommy's assessment.
The book, Tommy explains to Margie, is one he discovered in his attic and that it is a book about school. Margie is disinterested in the subject matter because she despises school. Her mechanical teacher had recently been assigning her geography tests after geography tests. Her test results only continued to deteriorate, prompting her mother to summon the County Inspector.
The Inspector, a round little man with a toolbox in his hands, gave Margie an apple and helped her fix the teacher. Upon completion, he informed Margie's mother Mrs. Jones that the geography section had been turned up a little too high and had been dialled back to an appropriate level. Margie appeared to be making good progress. Margie, on the other hand, was dissatisfied, as she had hoped that they would remove the teacher from the classroom entirely.
She returns to Tommie and the old book, and she inquires as to why anyone would want to write about school. Tommy tells her, with a tone of condescension, that school was different back then. He goes on to say that real men and women taught in schools hundreds of years ago. Margie is perplexed as to how both men and women can be teachers in the same school. The reasons she has for objecting are numerous: a man would not be intelligent enough, a man could never know as much as a mechanical teacher; and, more importantly, she would not want a strange man coming into the house and teaching her.
Tommie responds to each and every objection. He explains to Margie that children used to attend school in a separate schoolhouse where they all learned the same things as other children their own age hundreds of years earlier. They begin to read the amusing book together.
Mrs. Jones interrupts Margie and Tommy's conversation by informing her that it is time for school. Tommy departs, and Margie enters the schoolroom, which is conveniently located next to her bedroom. It is ready and waiting for her, just as it is every day other than Saturdays and Sundays, except on Saturdays and Sundays. The teacher informs her of today's arithmetic lesson and instructs her to place her homework in the appropriate slot in the classroom. During this time, Margie daydreams about the old schools, where children used to play together on a daily basis. Margie watches as the mechanical teacher flashes fractions on the screen while she imagines how much fun children in the olden days must have been having.
Throughout "The Fun They Had," the paper book that Tommy discovers in his attic serves as a foil against which Margie is able to question her own perception of the world. Tommy informs us that the book is about school, but he does not provide any additional information; the specifics of the book's content are conspicuously absent from the text. As an alternative, the narrator emphasises Margie's emotional reaction to the book. Imagery of children learning and playing together in a common schoolhouse building, as well as the concept of human teachers delivering standardised lessons, captivates her. Margie yearns for the life depicted in the book's pages, and she is not alone. The irony of the storey is that Asimov's readers, as well as readers today, are living in the reality that Margie imagines. We already know that children do not perceive it as the utopia of Margie's fantasies.
When Asimov wrote in 1951, he was living in a world where there were no e-books, Kindles, or audiobooks. It was likely that the only book option available to him would have been the "yellow and crinkly" pages of an old paperback. Nonetheless, he foresaw technological advancements that have now come to fruition. In 2020, what Margie refers to as "telebooks" will be a common occurrence in everyday life. Technology is increasingly infiltrating the educational system. Moreover, as the United States enters an uneasy quarantine as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers across the country are requiring students to complete online assignments, hold classes on a computer screen, and grade papers electronically. Despite the fact that paper books are still in print, the world today is not yet Margie's, but it is on the verge of becoming one.
Despite all of the technological advancements depicted in Asimov's novel "The Fun They Had," social dynamics appear to have remained relatively unchanged. Taking the example of Margie and Tommy, they have a classic relationship between an older and younger sibling. To Margie, Tommy explains the facts of reality with an air of superiority in his voice and a "exclamation of delight" in his eyes. When she reveals her ignorance, Tommy "screams with laughter." According to legend, this know-it-all dynamic can last for centuries.
The author also emphasises the importance of Margie's mother as a strong authority figure in this text. She is able to control her reaction to learning about the old methods of educating students because she has received guidance from her mother, who has taught her about the importance of personalising a student's education and the necessity of keeping school hours consistent week after week. The author, Isaac
appliances transformed the everyday lives of many Americans; and science fiction was growing in popularity at the same time as all of this was happening. Throughout the United States, the 1930s to the 1950s are regarded as the "Golden Age" of science fiction and fantasy literature. Science fiction, which had its beginnings in pulp magazines, has long been a popular genre. However, in 1937, the magazine Astounding Science Fiction was taken over by scientist John W. Campbell Jr., who served as editor for a decade. Campbell was responsible for the publication of Asimov's earlier stories, as well as a flurry of new stories from science fiction writers during this period.
Researchers have also criticised the genre's conservatism as well as issues of racism and misogyny that it has encountered. The majority of well-known science fiction writers of the time were white and male in appearance. Campbell himself was well- known for his racist and sexist views, many of which were said to have alarmed Asimov when he encountered them. After World War II, younger generations of scientific writers took on new and alternative ways of imagining scientific futures, addressing many of these ideological critiques in new forms of the science fiction genre in the late twentieth century.
The storey of "The Fun They Had" revolves around the experiences of an eleven-year- old girl during her schooling. Throughout the text, various pedagogical approaches are discussed: for example, centuries ago, children learned together in schoolhouses staffed by human teachers; today, children learn online. Margie, on the other hand, is pursuing her education on her own. Her mother determines the schedule, but the lessons are delivered by a mechanical teacher—a robot whose screen flashes with lessons and has a slot for entering homework and tests. Her mother is in charge of the schedule, but the mechanical teacher is in charge of the lessons. Every weekday, Margie and the robot work together to complete her education in a room in Margie's house where they are both alone except for each other. As a result, it appears that Margie dislikes school, not because she dislikes the actual act of learning, but because she dislikes the increasing mechanisation of her education. As a result of her solitary education, she has a strong desire for more social interaction. Margie tries to put off going to school in order to spend more time with Tommy, but her mother puts a stop to her efforts. When Tommy returns to his home, Margie begs him to allow her to continue spending time with him after school. Tommy agrees.
Margie and Tommy live in a technologically advanced world where they must constantly adapt. Books are no longer printed on traditional paper media. Students are taught by a mechanical teacher (a robot), who adapts the lessons to their individual learning styles and abilities. Children punch in their homework and tests into a punch code that is then submitted into a robot's slot by the teacher. In Tommy and Margie's world, all of this technology is just a part of everyday life. On the surface, these advancements appear to have been made in the name of progress. But, more importantly, what kind of progress has been made? Is Margie's life any better as a result of all of this technological advancement? With her disdain for her education and a longing for low-tech schools of the past, Margie suggests that she is critical of the pursuit of scientific advancement without taking into account the
needs of social and communal life. Margie's life has become more lonely as a result of technological advancements.
As a result of the stories their grandparents' generation had passed down to them, Margie and Tommy are certain that the book they discover in Tommy's attic is extremely old when they discover it in Tommy's attic. For Margie and Tommy, the memory of an earlier way of life, before teachers were replaced by robots and books were replaced by telebooks, is still alive—even if it is far removed from their current reality. For Margie, knowing about and having a connection to this historical past causes longing and a desire to go back to those times in her life. The importance of history is emphasised by Asimov in this way because it highlights the role of nostalgia as well as the romanticization of history.
It is when Tommy discovers an old paper book in his attic and spends time poring over it with Margie that the object comes to symbolise everything that humanity has lost with the advent of technology. The children are initially sceptical of the book because the "telebooks" with which they are familiar contain multiple books in a single volume. The pages of this old book, however, reveal to Margie and Tommy the way school used to be for their great-grandparents' generation, and they are fascinated by what they discover. When compared to the education they receive at the hands of a mechanical teacher, the old way of life appears to be far superior.
In the narrator's description of Margie's mechanical teacher, the robot is described as "large, black, and ugly," with "a big screen and a slot" for homework. When compared to the simple humans who used to serve as teachers in centuries past, this description is strikingly different. As a result, the mechanical teacher represents the technological advancements that appear to have taken over Margie's world in the present day, Furthermore, the mechanical teacher has experienced breakdowns on a couple of occasions, once when attempting to teach Margie geography tests that were too difficult for her, and once when attempting to teach Tommy history. As a result, the teacher represents not only technology itself, but also the problems that arise as a result of its implementation.
Telebooks, in contrast to the printed book, represent the promise of technological advancement. In the opinion of Tommy and Margie, telebooks are books with moving words on a screen that are "the way [it is] supposed to be." Another advantage of screens is that they have the capacity to hold "a million" books at the same time. Tommy is concerned that a paper book would have been simply thrown away "when you're finished with it." Tommy and Margie are unambiguously of the opinion that telebooks are a superior alternative to printed books. In this way, telebooks serve as a symbol of society's acceptance of the benefits of technology as a general phenomenon.
Irony is a major literary element in "The Fun They Had," and it plays a significant role throughout the novel. Margie envisions the old-fashioned school as a welcoming environment with a strong sense of community. Asimov's contemporaries and
The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
Course: American Literature (EOM3011)
University: Aligarh Muslim University
