Isaac Asimov
I’m really excited with Curiosity and the fact of be able to explore another world in the search of life. It’s incredible how far we can go and how little is that distance comparing with the size of the whole Universe. It remains me something… if humans can do it why others can’t do the same to us.
And my mind always ends in all those fantastic Isaac Asimov books. He filled my dreams with space travels and incredible adventures, so I think it’s time to do a little tribute.
For this illustration took more than 170 Asimov books, counted all the words and spread over a portrait of the famous writer. Here is the beginning of the word list: robot (26560),human (14363),derec (10679),something (10167),away (8922),without (7549),another (7212),moment (7005),anything (6686),matter (6652),don (6631),felt (6074),dr (6063),law (6039),around (5992),re (5861),quite (5820),smiled (5550),almost (5468),suppose (5399),reason (5383),suddenly (5150),understand (5095),ariel (4964),arm (4915),planet (4829),space (4785),ll (4733),really (4665),stared (4573),case (4571),mr (4567),believe (4560),however (4546),baley (4544),hunter (4542),least (4242),else (4229),maybe (4170),brain (4106),sir (4083),upon (3948),return (3852),remained (3806),seen (3795),control (3772),seldon (3772),speak (3698),computer (3680),nature (3643),nodded (3633),rather (3631),hari (3629),die (3577),daneel (3553),kill (3535),slowly (3524),wall (3506),sense (3494),wrong (3451),hope (3450)…
It’s nice to compare it with another great scifi writer, Stanislaw Lem. I will (someday) create an illustration about him but I have some of the work already done. Following you can see the beginning of the most commonly used words in 20 books of Lem: something (1600),without (1346),around (1178),another (1126),human (1055),fiction (984),wall (978),everything (954),suddenly (948),away (924),doctor (924),existence (889),moment (864),engineer (851),cloud (834),return (830),planet (829),nature (812),case (811),already (800),stefan (797),matter (758),anything (739),gregory (735),arms (722),become (714),space (693),remained (691),later (685),understand (672),felt (670),along (654),someone (652),however (644),inside (644),whether (640),reason (635),almost (619),glass (607),window (604),intelligence (603),control (601),least (598),really (598),believe (597),continued (596),information (594),author (588),system (587),thus (587),result (581),quite (580),taken (565),universe (564),therefore (559),robot (558),structure (558),captain (555)…
Nicely robot is now in 56th position!. Both great but deeply different writers, don’t you think so?.