Anselm Quemot is a character in Isaac Asimov's Robot series.
About Anselm[]
Anselm Quemot is a Solarian sociologist. A prominent and intellectually driven Solarian, Anselm Quemot was a tall, thin, wedge-faced man with a prominent nose, deep-set lively eyes, and snowy white hair. As a sociologist, he had spent a decade developing what he considered startling new postulates about society. His work had led him to a profound, almost obsessive, interest in Earth and its ancient history, believing that Solarian society was fundamentally based on Terrestrial models of antiquity, though not its contemporary culture.
Quemot embodied the extreme psychological effects of Solarian isolation; his wife had died a decade prior, and as he was past the age of procreation, he had not been assigned a new partner. Consequently, he had grown completely unaccustomed to personal presence. When Elijah Baley visited him in person, Quemot exhibited severe distress, confessing that he felt he could smell Baley and had a disagreeable sensation that something slimy might touch him, causing him to cringe away. Despite this profound discomfort, his intellectual curiosity about a real Terrestrial overcame his aversion, leading him to agree to the meeting. He was also an acquaintance of Rikaine Delmarre, regularly playing chess with him via viewer and almost invariably losing. Quemot's character provided Baley with a crucial insight into the deep-seated social phobias and the theoretical foundations of Solarian life, helping him understand the societal pressures that could contribute to a crime.
Appearances[]