| Sarkon the Prophet looks quite like Mr. Isaac Asimov on this picture, the only difference being that he has a beard and that he is never seen with glasses. He is rather thin in build, which probably comes from the fact that he spends most of his time thinking. As a matter of fact, knowledge stands highest in his personal scale of values. He lands in the Welgon Age after getting lost in thought too far and too deep (The Prophet). His favorite activity is traveling the "vaporous mists of the spiritual paths" to look for new concepts and ideas and to try to find the answers to various fundamental questions about life and the universe. When he succeeds though, it is not while traveling these paths, but while interacting with the other characters in the Welgon Age - most of all with cookie, who gives him the final hints on two of his most important questions (The Vanishing Point, The Center of the Universe). It is extremely revealing that Sarkon discovers these answers while trying to explain things to cookie, who not only asks the right questions but also asks them the right way. Sarkon's communication is quite more chaotic with General Kwar and Dr. Qworm, since with them it usually takes the form of an argument. Still: arguing with General Kwar often leads to the solving of political problems (Pseudo-Pacifist Propaganda Parables, The Encompassists), and arguing with Dr. Qworm gives him answers about scientific interrogations (The Speed of Stone, Living on Lies and Logic). He even notices a flaw in Hubble's Law that turns our conception of the universe upside down (The Final Prophecy). As a matter of fact, Sarkon is a rather unusual kind of prophet who chose his way out of fear of failure, explaining that "prophets never predict things that happen during their lifetimes - failure is something we'd rather not meet!" (The Final Prophecy); also, "as any good prophet, disbelief and lack of faith were his main virtues" (The Final Prophecy), which means either that there are no good prophets, or that the only good prophets are the people who doubt most, and that would be philosophers. And that's probably what Sarkon actually is: a philosopher in disguise - which is strongly supported by the fact that except for the stories that introduce each of the characters individually, Sarkon is the only one to appear in all of these philosophical tales. His being a philosopher is actually revealed by his one goal in life, which is to explain the universe (Living on Lies and Logic). |
