For Us, The Living, by Robert A. Heinlein 348
| For Us, The LIving | |
| author | Robert A. Heinlein |
| pages | 288 pages |
| publisher | Scribner |
| rating | 3 |
| reviewer | Seth Bokelman |
| ISBN | 074325998X |
| summary | Great piece for die-hard Heinlein fans, not for newbies. |
The book starts with an excellent foreword from Spider Robinson, a friend of Heinlein's as well as a fan, and an excellent Sci-Fi writer in his own right. Spider lays it all out for you in the foreword: this book isn't strong on stories, it's strong on ideas. People who found Heinlein's later works too preachy should steer clear, as this book is probably his preachiest. Robinson speculates that Heinlein really wanted to convey his radical ideas, having just lost a political race, and spent too much of the book standing on the proverbial soapbox, and not enough telling a good story. He says that Heinlein learned from this, and went on to become a master storyteller, learning that people are much more likely to sit still for the lecture if it's embedded in a gripping story.
And that leads me to exactly what's wrong with For Us, The Living. There's very little story in it. There is a plot, and it goes like this. Perry, our hero, (n reality a thinly veiled version of Heinlein himself), is involved in a car accident in 1939, and wakes up in the year 2086 in the body of someone who looks very much like himself, but the original inhabitant of the body chose to end his life (shades of Stranger in a Strange Land here). Our Hero was discovered in the snowy Nevada mountains by a woman named Diana, who is a professional dancer and lives in the mountains. She takes him back to her place to recover, and they're lounging around her house naked by the second page of the book.
From then on, the rest of the book is primarily spent following our hero as he is lectured (literally at times) on the ways of the future, covering topics such as polygamy/polyamory, nudism, the stupidity of jealousy, economics, religion, and the treatment of criminals as patients who need to be cured, rather than miscreants who need to be punished. Many of the ideas that turn up later in Heinlein's books, especially his later books, appear here for the first time. The book is very much, as Spider calls it in the foreword, Heinlein's literary DNA. This is the primordial ooze from which the later books, (Time Enough For Love, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and dozens more) are formed.
I found Heinlein's predictions of the future very interesting. Since the book was written in 1938-1939, the world hadn't witnessed World War II yet, though Heinlein predicts it. In his version, the U.S. stays out of the War, and Europe eventually self-destructs. Heinlein gets quite a bit of the future right, and quite a bit of it wrong. For instance, in 2086, they still haven't landed a man on the moon, though they're working on it. And, while in the future everyone has terminals (seen in later Heinlein novels) from which they can access live video and audio, information is still printed on paper and transported physically via pneumatic (and magnetic) tubes. But, given that it was written before the atomic age, those things are forgiven, and they're part of what makes the book interesting to read.
It's very obvious why this book wasn't published in 1939 -- it's not very good. Also, much of the subject matter is so controversial and sexual to this day that no major publisher would have dared print it then. The book is a bit rough, and a bit "off" in places. For instance, Heinlein uses a two-page footnote(!) to give us Diana's life story, rather than weave it into the story or the dialogue, something he'd never do in his later work, and the story only starts to get compelling in the last 50 pages or so, once the bulk of the lectures are past us.
So do I recommend this book? Yes and no. If you're a Heinlein fan, and you've read most, if not all, of his other work, then you'll love this book, and you should get a copy right now. It's a great snapshot of Heinlein's writing while he was still struggling to define it himself. If you've never read a Heinlein book, don't start here, pick up Starship Troopers, or Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. If you've read a few Heinlein books, read a few more before you try this one, especially Time Enough For Love, and his later works. I've read everything he ever published, and was sad when I finished off The Menace From Earth, as I'd run out of Heinlein to read. This book provided me with one more thrill, and it made me appreciate how strongly Heinlein held his convictions, and how far he came as a writer, from this, his first attempt.
Now that Bob & Ginny Heinlein have passed on, however, this is almost certainly the last significant piece of Heinlein's writing left unpublished, and for us, the living, it's fun to have something new from the Grand Master to curl up with on a cold winter night.
You can purchase For Us, The Living from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Re:Who? (Score:5, Informative)
Ever heard of Red Plant or Starship Troopers? Stranger in a Strange Land?
He won Hugo awards in 1956, 1959, 1961, and 1966. He's had other works nominated for the award. He was published for over 50 years.
He also has written quite a bit of nonfiction.
Re:Who? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Contradiction (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Thanks, but... (Score:1, Informative)
My guess is you are no longer a juvenile (or at least weren't when you read it) and are less likely to enjoy that kind of book.
Re:So, basically... (Score:3, Informative)
In To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Maureen works hard to keep two of her children from being involved with each other. The book may be considered as an epic from the lessons Maureen learns as a parent along the way.
Re:Who? (Score:1, Informative)
What about things like:
Waterbeds
Waldos (and I don't mean "Where's Waldo")
Re:Who? (Score:5, Informative)
possibly the most influential American writer of the 20th century.
No. The most influential American writer of the 20th century was probably ole Ez (Ezra Pound), another socred believer, and a treasonous bastard, who nevertheless dramatically affected the literature of the US and Europe from 1914 on, influencing Yeats, Eliot, Joyce, Frost, Williams, cummings, and pretty much every writer listed in your common literature anthologies after 1925. Next most influential American? Maybe Pynchon. You may not realize the influence they had on the way you understand books, but they did have a significant influence.
Heinlein was a great pulp SF writer, but his influence on SF, or literature and culture in general, was only slightly greater than Asimov's or Clarke's. Given the "harder" science of Clarke's work, I'd argue that he had more influence on the future scientists and engineers of the world than Heinlein. Rand had more influence on politics (to our undying regret), and Hubbard, well, his influence for the worse is pretty easy to see, isn't it? The person who really dominated SF in the 40s and 50s was John W. Campbell, the editor of Astounding/Analog who developed Asimov, Heinlein, de Camp, van Vogt, and many other famoust SF writers.
The most influential 20th c. SF *writer* might be Capek, who's important for more than just R.U.R. - he was an important figure in pre-WWII Czech (and European) cultural politics. I'd argue that the best SF writers who've gone were Herbert and Dick, with Heinlein and Asimov not that far behind, and that the best who are still around are Lem and Vinge. Heinlein is fun, and has a lot to say, but he has two major weaknesses: he's self-indulgent and repetitive.
Re:Who? (Score:3, Informative)
Belay that (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Predicted WWII? (Score:2, Informative)
Heinlein predicted the war. However, he predicted the US stayed out of it and Europe self-destructed.
In actuallity the US WOULD have stayed out if not for Pearl Harbor. Because of Pearl Harbor, we did get involved and deviated from Heinlein's prediction.
So in answer to your question, he predicted the war, but got the outcome wrong. Although I don't think you had to be psychic to predict a war occuring in the late 1930's.
-Jerry
Short stories, too! (Score:3, Informative)
i don't see it (Score:4, Informative)
I really don't understand why so many people are crazy about Heinlein.
I have read Heinlein and found his work embarrassingly corny and dated. Contrast with Philip K. Dick, whose ideas seem uncannily (and frighteningly) relevant to our own time.
Re:Slightly off topic.... (Score:3, Informative)
I'd agree with the assessment that everything from "Farnhham's Freehold" and later is generally oversexed and underplotted rehashes of his old ideas. I'd recommend "Stranger in a Strange Land," not so much for quality, but because of social impact. It is both the most-referred-to Heinlein book, and his most widely read. It isn't good, per se, but it isn't terrible, like "I Will Fear No Evil," "Friday," "Number of the Beast," "To Sail Beyond the Sunset," etc.
His short stories are generally very good. Some suck, but most are well worth reading.
Re:Who? (Score:5, Informative)
Also, Vinge does rock.
Re:Belay that (Score:3, Informative)