Robert A. Heinlein's 100th Birthday 202
sasdrtx writes "Today is Robert A. Heinlein's 100th birthday. Regarded as one of the most influential hard Sci-Fi authors of the 20th century, it's definitely worth looking back at his influence on not only science fiction, but the space program, the english language, counter-culture, and political discourse. The Space Review has a piece entitled Ride the Lightning, which discusses Heinlein's history with the space program and (sometimes incorrect) assertions about the future of space flight. For a look at the official celebration, the Heinlein Centennial website has numerous resources available. The program for the event (pdf) makes it sound like they're having a great time in Kansas City."
TANSTAAFL (Score:5, Interesting)
Pelagian (Score:2, Interesting)
Pelagius lived in Kardanoel, he preached a doctrine there
How whether you went to Heaven or Hell, it was your own affair.
Pelagius believed that everybody at all times had the ability to make free decisions, and therefore there was no excuse for any criminal behaviour whatsoever. Nowadays we live in a world in which neur
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Pelagianism is applicable only in the very narrow framing context of Christianity. The broader moral theory is 'Existentialism' (and specifically Sartrean Existentialism), which does not depend upon the presence or absence of God(s) or afterlives to assert what Heinlein was asserting with his quote. I imagine with Heinlein's fairly public views on Christianity, he would have felt more comfortable calling himself an Existentialist than a Pelagian. And either way, it is a barely reputable exercise to assign
Existentialist? (Score:2, Insightful)
A couple of items:
He talks about moralities link to the neighbor principle (I think it was in Starship Troopers, during one of the History of Morals and Philosophy). The idea that a 'better; morality was not linked as much to the *what* but the *who*. The fart
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Oh, I agree, it is an uncomfortable fit at best. I was merely reacting to the fact that Pelagianism is a much poorer fit. While I believe you are right that Heinlein would have rejected the sense of moral relativism/elimativism that seems to run through much of existentialist thought, I think he would have had great affection for the general existentialist point that freedom and responsibility are insolubly linked, as the GGP's quote seems to indicate.
Re:Pelagian (Score:5, Insightful)
What it comes down to is that "we" is more than just the small part of the brain that engages in complex thought. "We" are the entirety of the brain.
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neurologists and psychologists have demonstrated that this is fundamentally flawed, that much of our decision making is unconscious
I'm not sure that's entirely right... I think you'd find most psychologists agreeing that there's certainly a bunch of stuff going on that we are not aware of, but most of the decision/reasoning theorists might take issue with the view that decisions are somehow beyond conscious control. However, you are entitled to your opinion, whether you are aware of it or not.
Wait, what? (Score:4, Informative)
To have really free choice you would have to have an unbounded set from which choices could be selected, but that's going down another path of discussion entirely- finite universes imply finite choices and even then you have hard enough time catching up with the number of options available.
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They essentially abandoned the idea of 'punishing' criminals, instead offering offenders the choice of either compulsory psychotherapy to make them behave in a more societally acceptable manner (psychology was extremely well understo
Re:Pelagian (Score:5, Interesting)
In reality, one could explain ALL decision-making as nothing but chemical reactions or a response to past experiences (depending if you're a neurologist or a psychologist), but ultimately, I think that's an all-too convenient way for some to dodge the issue of personal responsibility and accountability for one's own behaviors and actions.
Sounds like the Calvinism argument all over again. (Score:3, Informative)
The idea that abandoning Free Will in favor of determinism (or Predestination; which is determinism with the addition of a diety) would lead to, shall we say... "adverse ou
Re:Pelagian (Score:4, Funny)
To a very large extent, people will believe whatever you tell them. Look at the vast amounts of money spent on advertising, marketing, campaigning, propaganda, and electioneering that go on in the world today. Your choices depend on what you believe, and what you believe depends on how you're brought up, and what people tell you, and the images you see in the media, etc, etc.
If you're in a position of power, and you want to persuade people to go along with an unpopular decision, you do not educate them as to why the decision has to be made and let them make their own choice --- this doesn't work. You change their minds for them, using powerful emotional and behavioural conditioning schemes. It works scarily well. And you don't often cotton on to the fact that it's happening to you, because from your perspective it's all merely reinforcing attitudes and behaviours that you are already conditioned to believe are 'right'.
People really do have much less free will than you might think.
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Wow! Where do you live? I gots me some rape'n an' pillag'n to do! Neurological disorders aside, even if you accept that "much of our decision making is unconscious" (which I don't), your brain still formed those thoughts. You did, and you're probably libel for it.
Dismissing soft sciences (Score:2)
I recommend you look up his piece on "how to go to c
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Let me guess, you're a liberal, aren't you?
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What you do depends on what you decide to do, which on turn depends on the particular circumstances at that moment, your personal history, the personality traits you've been born with, etc. You are a part of the universe, and therefore influenced by the other parts of it.
You are not "alone" responsible for your actions, since those actions are in part influenced by other people; to claim otherwise is to deny that your a
Stranger in a strange land (Score:3, Informative)
Heinlein is right up there with Asimov and Frank Herbert, IMO. Of the new batch I see William Gibson and Vernor Vinge filling those shoes, but there can never be another Heinlen or Herbert. I miss them.
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Re:Stranger in a strange land (Score:4, Informative)
Small change can often be found under seat cushions.
Money is a powerful aphrodisiac
An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.
If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science. It is opinion.
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.
Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous (he is also a fool.)
Never try and teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.
Get a shot off fast. This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.
There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is not evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?
Delusions are often functional. A mother's opinions about her children's beauty, intelligence, goodness, et cetera ad nauseam, keep her from drowning them at birth.
Most "scientists" are bottle washers and button sorters.
A generation which ignores history has no past--and no future.
A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.
What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it!
History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.
It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired.
Your enemy is never a villian in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate -- and quickly.
No state has an inherent right to survive through conscript troops and, in the long run, no state ever has. Roman matrons used to say to their sons: "Come back with your shield, or on it." Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome.
Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated out of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing---with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place.
Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
It is better to copulate than never.
All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can, and must, be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly---and no doubt will keep on trying.
A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.
There is only one way to console a widow. But remember the risk.
When the need arises -- and it does -- you must be able to shoot your own dog. Don't farm it out -- that doesn't make it nicer, it makes it worse.
Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.
It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier.
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
Sex should be friendly. Otherwise, stick to mechanical toys; it's more sanitary.
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled
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I never really thought about where they came from--programmed in by RAH, apparently, and I've no real problem with that. It makes as much fundamental sense as, "If the enemy is in range, so are you."
I wonder how many fourteen year old punks will pile in, denigrating that list. Slashdot is slashdot, after all...
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"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!"
Your grossly misrepresent Heinlen, ignorantly so (Score:4, Interesting)
If you think the movie Starship Troopers resembles the book you obviously haven't read the book. Before you try to paint the movie as some kind of Americal right-wing thing you might want to consider that the guy who made the movie was European. Perhaps that explains why Juan Rico was blonde and caucasion. In Heinlen's book Juan Rico was ethnically Filipino.
"Majority Rule can be the worst tyranny of all." - Heinlein.
Yeah, it's also called mob rule for a reason. If you are trying to portray that quote as anti-American you might want to consider that the founding fathers of the United States had said the same thing:
"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine" - Thomas Jefferson.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" - Benjamin Franklin.
"Money is the sincerest of all flattery." - Heinlein.
Ever hear the expressions "talk is cheap" or "put your money where your mouth is"? When people give you money, as in buy your invention, your product, your time, etc they are flattering you. They are essentially saying that of all the options you come out on top.
"For women, `equality' is a disaster." - Heinlein.
As in "equality" that ignores the *fact* that there are psyiological differences between the sexes. Consider Heinlen's *1959* book Starship Troopers, women served in combat. That was a quite progressive thought in those days. Yet, it was not out of some kind of femminism or notion of equality, it was based on psyiological *differences* between the sexes. In the book pilots were generally female due to merit, the book claimed (whether this was real or aristic license I don't know) that females had better coordiation/reflexes and were generally more capable as pilots.
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You are correct, they did come from Buenos Aires.
You sure about that? I don't recall there being any definite indication of exactly where Juan Rico and his parents lived. The only mention of Buenos Aires I recall was the part where his mother was visiting BA when it was hit by the bugs. Yeah, here it is: "...whether she felt that my mother had made a trip to Buenos Aires because I wasn't home where I should have been...Father had planned to go with her, but something had come up and he stayed over to settle it". Definitely indicates BA as a trip destinat
Re:Stranger in a strange land (Score:4, Interesting)
The one good thing that came out of seeing this early incarnation of Dr. Phil was that he told me to read this book. Wanted me to understand the word "grok." I can't think him enough. The book changed my life, especially my outlooks on religion and the general amount of lies told to us everyday by the people we're supposed to trust.
If you have not had a chance to read this book, please do. You can probably find plenty of used copies for $1 at the local book rack or Goodwill. You'll thank me later.
Beware Stranger (Score:3, Informative)
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Now, whether or not Stranger was more Heinlein or less Heinlein than his other stuff is a whole 'nother debate.
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I beg to differ. I'd say that Asimov and Herbert are right up there with Heinlein. I'd describe Heinlein as the gold standard by which others are measured.
I think the Clarke-Asimov treaty got it right. Asimov was a fantastic science writer. His SF was really just a vehicle for his ideas, more so than other writers. Anything he wrote which goes beyond science was pretty poorly done.
As far as Herbert goes, well, I don't think Dune was SF, so I don't count him as a good SF writer.
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would have been (Score:5, Informative)
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just heard the news (Score:2)
Time Enough for Love (Score:2, Funny)
Time Enough for Love -- Heinlein in full flight (Score:4, Insightful)
And indeed it is OK to sleep with your mom (and with all your other family members who might yield offspring too), once technology removes the danger of genetic mishaps.
Heinlein didn't let himself be constrained by political correctness, and good for him. That's what great science fiction is all about, leaving behind the shackles of the past, and seeing where it leads. And the more Jurassic people that that annoys, the better.
Disclaimer: I have all of his books.
Funnily enough though, he's not my favourite author
Happy Birthday, Robert!
Re:Time Enough for Love -- Heinlein in full flight (Score:4, Insightful)
1) While you might think that makes it 'ok', Heinlein didn't have that requirement. Farnham's Freehold postulated incest for reproduction, and with unmitigated zeal too, rather than any sort of reluctance at the supposed 'necessity'.
2) Its one thing for an author to explore a 'taboo', particularly in hard SF. However, Heinlein explored incest a little more zealously. To the point it was pretty much a given in anything he wrote as he got older that wasn't aimed explicitly at kids.
It wasn't -just- Time Enough For Love. It was Time Enough for Love, The Number of the Beast, Farnham's Freehold, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Job, The Cat who Walks Through Walls, All You Zombies... etc...
Titles like "I will fear no evil" which could have been (should have been) a brilliant study of the nature of identity, age, gender, and law -- starts out well, but devolved into a sordid series of loosely connected vignettes about an aging lech who seduces and enthusiastically fucks everything he encounters with his new sexy body, while 'melding souls' with its previous owner.
It is also somewhat telling that practically ALL of his female characters were relentlessly promiscuous, and even in his books aimed at a younger audience his female characters were unfailingly sexually precocious when you consider their age.
But most importantly, Heinlein didn't explore sexuality, its meaning, its effects on people, on relationships. He didn't vary it from setting to setting, or contrast it with other lifestyles. Over a couple dozen novels his characters just did it, enthusiastically and without restraint, with anything that moved, and it was implictly correct, and delivered with a sense of superiority - that anyone who might disagree is just unenlightened.
That's not an element of Hard SF. At best its a case of the author's own bias and proclivities 'showing through'. At worst its pontificating, plain and simple. In Heinlein's case I'm inclined to believe the latter. Far too much plot, and effort were dedicated to it in title after title after title for it to be merely inadvertantly 'showing through'.
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I would point out that he also wrote, in Time E
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And as someone who lived through the sexual revolution of the 60s and the resulting 70s and early 80s, and who died before AIDS became well known, why wouldn't he make such an extrapolation?
Re:Time Enough for Love -- Heinlein in full flight (Score:4, Insightful)
Think about what that should mean in the context of "Hard SF".
Its not that he wouldn't make such an extrapolation, its that he would have treated it differently if was a true hard sf extrapolation. HardSF is creating a setting and then carrying the plot within its confines keeping it as 'scienntifically sound' as is reasonable, and where the confines of the setting drive the plot, help define it, and utlimately form a crucial part of it.
This is what separates HardSF from Star Wars.
Arthur C. Clarkes rendezvous with Rama is almost a feasibility study in interstellar spacecraft design. Asimov's Robot novels postulates robots and the rules of robotics and finds out what that might lead to in various situations. Philip K. Dick in Minority Report figures out how to commit murder in a world where the police have precognitive ability to find murderers. (The movie utterly botched translating the book, btw.)
Heinlein, given the amount of paper he dedicated to his characters sexual acrobatics, desires, and so on managed to do very very little real *consideration* of the subject of the impact this might have on his worlds. It didn't didn't constrain the plot. It was just THERE.
Conversely, if Heinlein meant to explore other issues, and merely put the different sexual mores in as a background - then why did he dedicate so much paper to it, and why is it in practically every novel?
It would be like reading Asimov's work, and noting that the characters were vegetarian, constantly talked about being vegetarian, and described how delicious each vegetarian meal was, all the ways beets, tofu, and beans could be prepared... and this all in "Robots and Empire" which really has nothing to do about vegetarians.
Then you read The Stars Like Dust, and find more rabid again. Odd you might say, maybe he's just extrapolating from current attitudes towards cruelty towards animals - but then why isn't this important to the plot? This is hardSF after all. The setting is important! Then you read Fantastic Voyage... and lo... more vegetarians, then Nemesis, then Nightfall, then Tales of the Black Widowers -- (all unchanged from their current overall form, except all filled with enthusiastic vegetarians).
No, that's not 'extrapolation' anymore, that's just pontificating about vegetarianism.
Heinlein wrote a great deal of interesting stuff. But many recurrent themes in his work are merely a reflection of the man, and don't get explored at all in his novels. All authors do this, but in heinlein's case they are particularly jarring because well.. an enthusiastic acceptance or even fetish for recreational incest is a little more unusual that the usual stuff you see.
If he'd explored it, you could argue it was part of the SF, and it might be an interesting read, but he doesn't really, in the vast majority of his work. Its just there. A reflection of the man behind the novels. (And that may be interesting too... if you are studying Heinlein, the man, but it really has no bearing on the meaning of the novel, and ultimately detracts from them, IMO.
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In Farnham's Freehold, there was little alternative, they were cooped up in a bomb shelter for years! What had to happen, happened. You can't just switch it off, you know --- there was no "supposed" reluctance, it was unmitigated zeal alright! And entirely normal, very human,
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In Farnham's Freehold, there was little alternative, they were cooped up in a bomb shelter for years! What had to happen, happened. You can't just switch it off, you know --- there was no "supposed" reluctance, it was unmitigated zeal alright! And entirely normal, very human, and honest.
No. We are mostly hardwired to find incestuous reproduction distasteful and repugnant. For a good biological reason.
But you know what, living in
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When you make promiscuous sex with incredibly beautiful people boring, then you're doing something wrong. Heinlein is boring, and I can pretty much only read his short stories and juvenile novels now.
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Well said. (Score:2)
Maybe I'll rant about his 'rugged individualist' ideals later
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It is not his 100th Birthday (Score:2)
He is one of my favourite writers, oddly enough. I think it's because he is so right wing he ended up being a bit of a leftie with common sense. The moon is a harsh mistress is a perfect demonstration of why regulation is key to human survival, on top of a really outstanding story.
Re:It is not his 100th Birthday (Score:4, Informative)
His libertarian individualism is really only workable in a frontier society, which is why he tended to write about them so much. Here, that kind of thing results in the trends we see in the world today. At least that's my take on it. "Friday" in my opinion, is late Heinlein at his finest. It's about the Earth, crowded, technologically advanced, paranoid, with various wealthy individuals and corporations pretty well controlling every aspect of peoples lives. (No similarity with the present day at all!)
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Nor am I particularly concerned with how Asimov assigns 'blame'. Prolific science writer, and I'd love to have me
Robert, Virginia, and political views (Score:2, Informative)
I have to comment. Somewhere around here, I have a letter from Virginia Heinlein.
Sometime in the mid-90's I managed to lay hands on one of Mr. Heinlein's few nonfiction works, a book called 'Take Back Your Government!' in which he talks quite a bit about how to be politically active in your community. He drew on a lot of his own activist experiences. Anyhow, I wanted to be able to quote passages from the book in an online forum (WWIV BBS network, if anyone cares).
Virginia wrote back, graciously grantin
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Which ones? Just curious
SB
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Wow. Yeah, it's a really outstanding story (and my favourite of Heinlein's work), but if you think that book demonstrations that *regulation* is the key to human survival, I think you missed the entire point of the story.
And I think I'd also have to take issue with your assessment of Heinlein as 'right wing,' but that would depend entirely on your definition of right
I'm sure I'm really celebrating this... (Score:3, Funny)
Current Sci-Fi Author who you enjoy as much? (Score:5, Interesting)
For me: Dan Simmons, Peter Hamilton, Vernor Vinge, Neal Stephenson, John Varley, and John Barnes all are on my short list of favorite authors. What authors can always count on you buying their new Hardback and damn the expense?
Re:Current Sci-Fi Author who you enjoy as much? (Score:5, Informative)
Charles Stross [antipope.org] - fun. I read Accelerando [accelerando.org] (free book!), then bought all his other stuff and wasn't disappointed.
Richard Morgan [richardkmorgan.co.uk] - really likes his Lone Genetically Modified Male protagonists, but luckily he does them well enough for it not to get old.
Alastair Reynolds [tripod.com] - the Revelation Space [wikipedia.org] universe is one of my favourites.
Iain (M.) Banks [iainbanks.net] - The Culture novels are quite interesting, and his other books aren't bad either.
Honourable mentions:
Peter Watts [rifters.com] - all his books [rifters.com] appear to be online. Blindsight is very, very good, but I've not read much else from him yet.
Greg Bear [gregbear.com] - some of his older works are among my favourites. Queen of Angels, Slant (literally "/") and Moving Mars are one of my favourite trilogies. I'm behind on his newer stuff though, and his latest "terrorist thriller" makes me suspicious.
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John Scalzi - Old Man's War, Ghost Brigades, etc (Score:2)
Definitely second Vinge. (Score:2)
(Actually, I've been considering writing a review of his most recent book, Rainbows End [sic], because I think it's right up the alley of many Slashdot readers, at least those of whom haven't already read
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But which Heinlein are we talking about?
The aging Grokster or the Heinlein whose early stories can be read as a plausible alternative history?
The interaction of technology - and very interesting tech it is too, even after fifty years - society and individuals with a very important role to play: the entrepreneurial capitalist like
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Spider Robinson, when I want to be entertained, or challenged emotionally.
I Attended Yesterday (Score:5, Informative)
BTW for Heinlein fans I really recommend Spider and Allen for those that like Heinlein's early stuff the influence is obvious in their writing. Both deal more with what if near future better than most anyone else in the genre.
For those that are more into the deeper novel era of Heinlein's writings Robin Wayne Bailey and James Gunn are both good choices.
BTW the surprise guest speaker is Ray Bradbury unfortunately its via satellite due to health reasons like Arthur C Clarke's presentation. Both are happening today.
Great (Score:2)
When interviewed, he said (Score:3, Funny)
Blowups Happen (1940 version) (Score:2)
The figure of 100 million tons of TNT for the equivalent explosive
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is anyone else (Score:2)
Also, stranger in a strange land was kind of stupid. I mean, they had a social revolution made possible by farie magic... common...
Thanks (Score:2)
Slashdot lemme introduce your dad.... (Score:2)
SLASHDOT
He told me enough! It was you who killed him.
CLARK FRIES
No. I am your father.
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Personally, I always liked "Glory Road" the best, and it's almost a fantasy novel. "Friday" still holds up amazingly well.
The real problem with reading Heinlein is that there is lots of sex and sexual themes in his novels, and the sex is completely juvenile and ridiculous. His later novels do better, but it's still fairly cheesy.
Overall, most of Heinlein's seems pretty outdated. But it's a lot less dated than the work of his
"the sex is completely juvenile and ridiculous" (Score:4, Funny)
(Take it from and Old Guy.)
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He was an excellent storyteller.
His attempt at theology in "Job: a Comedy of Justice" fell short of exciting me.
Pretty cheap and easy to criticize Christianity. More or less any negative thing you can think of since the Carpenter has historical basis.
Ah, but can you offer an alternative? Heinlein's was about as effective as Ayn Rand's.
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Until the three abrahamic religions (judism, christianity and islam) came along it was mostly just polytheism - and groups of people seldom fought religious wars.
Bullshit. Go look up the Roman moral precepts. You'll find two. Romans are allowed to kill whomever they want because their people are descended from Romulus, the son of Mars. Romans are allowed to fuck whomever they want because their people are descended from Aeneas, the son of Venus. People talk about the "murderous god of the Old Testament" but Yahweh has nothing on Mars.
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Most of Heinlein's works take place in a future that doesnt seem too far out of reach. Granted most of it was written in an era where people believed in the possibility of life in our own solar system so there are lots of Martians, V
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Yes, I beleive they are, too.
I'm quit esuprised that noone's ever bases a movie on one of those, particularly 'Mistress'. Or even just an anime.
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I'm quite suprised that no one's ever based a movie on one of those, particularly 'Mistress'. Or even just an anime.
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There's no doubt that he inspired a lot of people to join NASA, etc., through his juvenile works. He absolutely was responsible for programming me to think of science and engineering as cool, as just one lame example.
So far as the test of time--no. There are a lot of arguments about him being too 'preachy', etc., in his later work. I can sympathize with most of t
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(fi
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Yes [imdb.com].
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Re:Heinlein's Originals (Score:2, Insightful)
As far as the "service breeds citizenship" equation is concerned, he simply reduced to an individual level what is a tautology at the societal level
'service breeds citizenship' wasn't miliarist (Score:2)
I'm not sure you are demonstrating any more understanding or insight than those you despise, which is typical IMHO. Also, did you bother to read the book or just watch the movie? If you had bothered to read Heinlen's actual writing you would have found that military service was *not* required for citizenship. That the
if starship troopers is getting you down... (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill,_the_Galactic_He ro [wikipedia.org]
and here it is on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Galactic-Hero-Harry-Har rison/dp/0743487079/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7428068-27096 66?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1183845880&sr=1-1 [amazon.com]
holy shit, original paperbacks going for $70. Note to self: must dig thru paperbacks to see if I still have this. Anyhow, this was a great parody of the fascist sci fi from heinlen...
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In the introduction to the 1980 short story collection "The Golden Man," Dick wrote: "Several years ago, when I was ill, Heinlein offered his help, anything he could do, and we had never met; he would phone me to cheer me up and see how I was doing. He wanted to buy me an electric typewriter, God bless himone of the few true gentlemen in this world. I don't agree with any ideas he puts forth in his writing, but that is neither here nor there. One time when I o
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Or he thought Heinlein's ideas sucked, but was at the same time impressed by his willingness to help people who thought his ideas sucked. Just like Dick wrote in the text you quoted.
In Radio Free Albemuth (written in 1976), he still dissed Heinlein's writing. The U.S. government intends to use the name of Phil Dick, a well-known SF writer, to publish fascist propaganda as a pulp SF novel called The Mind-Screwers. "Clark Ashton Smith [.