First published in Foundations Friends: Stories in Honor of Isaac Asimov (1989), by Orson Scott Card. This Science Fiction novella is an Interquel, taking place just after the end of "The Psychohistorians" (Forward the Foundation had not yet been written, but events would also overlap with it). Leyel Forska is a scientist trying to uncover the origin of humanity, and he wishes to join Hari's Encyclopedia Foundation on Terminus, but Seldon has other plans...
Leyel is quickly established as an egocentric scientist who finds only two people in the galaxy to be his equal; his wife Deet and Hari Seldon. Seldon is preparing to send thousands of scientists to Terminus, in an empire-funded project intended to save the galactic civilization from collapsing. He invented psychohistory and has set a plan in motion that will affect the future of the entire galaxy. Deet is working with the Imperial Library, trying to teach the librarians how to form a community through a number of techniques, especially story-telling. Leyel, on the other hand, is an Originist; an historian who is trying to find evidence of the origin of humanity. He has spent enormous funds trying to restore decayed archives.
Having been rejected by Seldon, Leyel finds himself lost and frustrated. Seldon has refused him, and his wife spends all her time at the library. His research has produced almost no results, even as he refocuses onto the question of humanity, rather than the homeworld. When Seldon dies, he tries one last grand gesture to his old friend, but the government, who feared Seldon's popularity amoung the galactic citizens, subtly punishes him, taking away the Forska family fortune. Leyel is driven to new depths of depression, until he turns to Deet for her help, and she recommends her new friends within the Library, the indexers.
"The Originist" has been republished in Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card (1990).
"The Originist" provides examples of:
- Clarke's Third Law: When Chandrakar Matt and Hari Seldon are discussing his recent dismissal of Leyel, she directly calls him an "old wizard", based on his dramatic scripts for the Time Vault Holograms. Hari waves away Chanda's comparison and insists on calling himself a scientist. They end the exchange by tossing friendly insults to each other.Chandrakar Matt: "Artists. Wizards. Demigods."
Hari Seldon: "Stubborn misguided women who don't know science when they're doing it." - Culture Police: A week after the funeral Leyel Forska threw for Hari Seldon, a representative from the Commission of Public Safety appears to explain to Leyel how concerned they are for his old age. Through subtext (which Leyel's inner narration explains for the reader's benefit), we learn that Leyel (and his wife) will have to submit their scientific research for approval first.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Leyel Forska is given a downplayed example when Hari Seldon says that if Leyel tries to join the Foundation on Terminus, he must leave his wife on Trantor. Leyel is angry with Hari, because now he blames his wife, Deet, for making him unable to work on Hari Seldon's greatest scientific project. It turns out Hari wanted Leyel to pick his wife; not only would he be more useful in helping with her (real work), but having him on Terminus would bring just enough political attention from Trantor— due to his wealth and fame from his research— to affect the Psychohistorical projections, and skew when Terminus can break away from the Empire.
- Implicit Prison: A week after the funeral Leyel Forska threw for Hari Seldon, a representative from the Commission of Public Safety appears to explain to Leyel how concerned they are for his old age. Through subtext (which Leyel's inner narration explains for the reader's benefit), we learn Leyel will not be allowed to leave the planet, his travel on planet will be monitored, and whenever his children or grandchildren visit him, the other group will be held as hostages as well. In addition, any scientific research he (or his wife) wants to publish will be submitted for approval first.
- Interquel: This begins soon after the events of "The Psychohistorians", but from (mostly) Leyel Forska's perspective. Hari Seldon refuses to allow him to join the Encyclopedia Foundation, and the story primarily follows his perspective as he struggles with doing real science during the collapse of the Galactic Empire, long before the events of "The Encyclopedists".
- Lewd Lust, Chaste Sex: When Deet and Leyel have sex on the living room floor, it's only two sentences. However, their post-coital nuzzling is given multiple paragraphs of description.
- Magic from Technology: When Chandrakar Matt and Hari Seldon are discussing his recent dismissal of Leyel, she directly calls him an "old wizard", based on his dramatic scripts for the Time Vault Holograms. Hari waves away Chanda's comparison and insists on calling himself a scientist. They end the exchange by tossing friendly insults to each other.Chandrakar Matt: "Artists. Wizards. Demigods."
Hari Seldon: "Stubborn misguided women who don't know science when they're doing it." - Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Deet and Leyel have sex on the living room floor, but it's their post-coital nuzzling that is given multiple paragraphs of description.
- Mars and Venus Gender Contrast: Leyel's inner monologue often provides a contrast between how he believes women (like his wife Deet) and men view the world. When they discuss the idea of two branches of primates that both evolved at the same time, Deet points out that he's described the contrast of Men versus Women.You have just described the relationship between males and females. Two completely different species, completely unintelligible to each other, living side by side and thinking they're really the same.
- Playground Song: Deet cites several distorted versions of "Ring Around the Rosy", evidence of Language Drift, and concludes that the persistence of the poem shows how some human communities, like "young children playing" are effectively immortal.
- Proud Scholar Race Guy: Part of Deet Forska's role is to help make the librarians of the Imperial Library feel like they are part of a community. She tries experiments that will result in the employees of the library feeling like the library is something special that they are proud to belong to. She shares some stories about her successes with Leyel Forska, such as the way a librarian expresses pride at belonging to this intellectual sub-culture of Trantor when interacting with visitors.
- Show Within a Show: Deet heard from Rinjy about a prophetic librarian, who sent the Admiralty the records of Misercordia before they knew they needed them. Deet explains which parts were true and which were false to her husband, Leyel, because she's excited about the mythologizing within the librarian community. And because she's the librarian in the story, so would have reason to know.
- Tangled Family Tree: Leyel Forska has a half-sister named Zenna. Deet married Leyel, and her father married Zenna.Thus Leyel's half sister became Deet's stepmother, which made Leyel his wife's stepuncle—and his own step-uncle-in-law. A dynastic tangle that greatly amused Leyel and Deet.
- Undisclosed Funds: The amount of money in the Forska fortune is never given a specific number. Leyel's funds are only described in terms of what is cheaper or more expensive, rather than how much it costs to do any of the near-magical things it can do, like the hundreds of undercover bodyguards shadowing him, to grant the illusion that he has none. When this fortune is seized by the government, he describes it as an amputation, leaving him with only the same number of limbs as any normal person.
