Time Enough For Love, 1988 ed., Robert A. Heinlein
I’ve often thought the influence of Heinlein on the genre is possibly one of the reasons why there is so much pseudo-libertarian palaver amongst the nerd classes. There’s certainly enough of it in the man’s work. Along with the usual inability to understand that a political philosophy that works for fictional macho immortal space-people might not be so hot in the real world.
There’s also a rather explicit pro-incest argument in the man’s work.
Just sayin’.
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I loved his books though. Terrific stories. (Yes, yes, I know, towards the end it got a bit … umm … ‘twee’… but I’m talking about the body of his work.) Definitely some of his focus elicits a “huh?” response — you’re right, Dorian — his idea of ‘kissing cousins’ is very, very kissy — overall I think his attitudes towards sexuality and transgenderism were incredibly forward thinking.
Time Enough To Love? Did Heinlein originally write this one for Harlequin’s “Silhouette of Cheese” line?
I’ve only attempted to read Stranger in a Strange Land, which I found interesting until the book turned into a one character lecturing another occasionally interrupted by the other character saying “Oh, I see.”, “But what about…” or “Tell me more about…” Ugh, if you were looking to lecture me, write me a bleeding essay, not a novel where you’ve created situations to give yourself the ideal strawman argument.
Which explains exactly why I couldn’t make it far in Atlas Shrugged.
There’s also a trope that women are interchangeable sex-toys for man’s amusement. I guarantee none of the women on that cover have any backstory longer than two paragraphs.
My blogging big brother over at Bill in Exile (www.billinexile.com NSFW!) is actually Heinlein’s great-nephew. He’s a bit of a perv as well.
Ugh…Heinlein. In addition to the often-repugnant ideology (the book above also contains a quote about how shooting a pacifist ought not to be considered murder on grounds of self-defense–yes, really) the stories just weren’t usually that great–they tend to be just “a string of things that happen” rather than some carefully constructed narrative with rising action and a climax. Though I will give him points for writing books that will spring very sex-positive and pro-homosexuality (and yeah, pro-incest) attitudes on the right-wingers who eagerly devour them.
I still enjoy his earlier, more adventure-y books like Space Cadets and Tunnel In The Sky. You can almost read the cardboard sets and rubber alien costumes.
You’d be wrong there. One of the women is his mother. :) Rather reinforces the incest point, though.
He thought incest was dandy, government sucked, and that women should have tons of babies and tote guns around everywhere to defend their property.
He also thought that women should have the same rights as men, and that what people did with other consenting adults was fantastic and none of anyone else’ goddamn business, and that race was irrelevant beyond aesthetics- during a time in history where this was not a popular view. Which makes his sillier libertarian points easier to ignore.
History is rich enough for us to find figures that espouse all of Heinlein’s positive views without advocating the murder of pacifists, subjugation of women, etc. I can’t imagine why anyone unsympathetic to his faults would gloss over those faults to defend him.
Yep. I totally advocate the murder of pacifists. You caught me out there, Scott, just too dang smart for me. :)
People like his books because they are good. If they were crap, noone would give a crap about his views one way or the other. And people who completely adhere to all of your cherished beliefs are pretty damn rare, so learn to enjoy something by someone who is a dick in some ways or live an impoverished life.
Just sayin’.
It’s actually a decent story about the world’s oldest codependent man….and he decides to commit suicide after he discovers true love with a woman who dies within a normal life span.
A little preachy in places. Very accepting of incest as long as there’s no chance of pregnancy (ewwww!)
But still one of the strangely more human book that he wrote.
People like Ayn Rand’s books: they aren’t particularly good, and they’re mainly just straw men for her to set her ideological arguments against. Like Heinlein, some people read these books because they share philosophical views with the author and some people read these books because they’ll read anything. It was another sci-fi writer, Theodore Sturgeon, who proclaimed that “Ninety percent of everything is crud.” The fact that people buy it doesn’t elevate it into the 10% that is worth reading.
I don’t think an author’s personal views should necessarily be taken into account when reading his work but when the work is as preachy as Heinlein can be, without characterization or structure, the author’s personal opinions are all there is left to consider. I don’t care what Ray Bradbury thinks or how he votes because his work doesn’t exist to promulgate his personal opinions(the way Heinlein or Rand’s works do).
This was one of those books I was horribly ambivalent about; there were parts I rather liked, and others…WTF?
There was one adage, however, that I follow to this day: see to it that she has her own desk…and keep your hands off it!
(The only sad part is that it used to be MY desk…)
Can somebody clue me in to the ‘subjugation of women’ part of Heinlein’s works? Granted, it’s been while, but I remember it differently.
He’s a natalist, so all of his women(and occasionally his men) end up pregnant and barefoot and loving it.
H. Bruce Franklin: “Heinlein had no problem imagining a female starship captain or even a female president, but when a woman relates to a man, she has to know who’s boss.” And he wrote this before Heinlein had come up with the novel about the ass-kicking interplanetary agent who marries her rapist and settles down on a farm.