Posted on 05/16/2021 12:19:39 PM PDT by narses
A Man should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Robert Heinlein
I haven’t read The Number of the Beast, but I found this review in the wiki article:
“ Heinlein buff David Potter explained on alt.fan.heinlein, in a posting reprinted on the Heinlein Society, that the entire book is actually “one of the greatest textbooks on narrative fiction ever produced, with a truly magnificent set of examples of how not to do it right there in the foreground, and constant explanations of how to do it right, with literary references to people and books that did do it right, in the background.” He noted that “every single time there’s a boring lecture or tedious character interaction going on in the foreground, there’s an example of how to do it right in the background.”[4]
“I’m thinking there was a reason why it wasn’t published in his lifetime. A good artist knows when something he’s made is worthy of putting his name to.”
Maybe, but I remember reading Frank Herbert’s original version of Dune when it was finally published by his son in The Road to Dune and thoroughly enjoying it.
One of my favorite Heinlein quotes.
Fun fact: I am, by marriage, a great-nephew of RHH.
My wife’s mother’s maiden name is Heinlein, and RHH was her great uncle, or something.
My favorite quote by my great uncle by marriage.
He knew what buttons to push.
Unfortunately, he also pushed a very "progressive" view of reality.
Heilien, in the 1930's, was a very doctrinaire "progressive" as shown in his first novel, which was only published after his death.
His disdain of Christianity; his unlimited faith in human "supermen", clearly including himself, to do things and make their own morality; his abberant hyper-sexuality; his treatment of his own opinions as "fact" in his novels; did a great deal to undermine American culture.
I was a great fan of RAH for decades. With age, I see his faults.
Hi.
I could be wrong, but didn’t Heinlein write a book with the plot that the Chicoms released a deadly disease in the U.S. and subdued America until this one scientist in CO developed a force field?
I wish I could remember the title.
5.56mm
Gee whiz, we already have the “Orwellian of Things”, do we really need to hear about all things “Heinleinnian” too?
Political tags--such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and. so forth--are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.--The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
Sixth Column, also known under the title The Day After Tomorrow.
Just easy remembered highlights include; dumbed-down education, work ethic, self-reliance, joy of engineering, practical problem solving by changing a variable at a time and how being prepared makes the difference between good and bad luck. Show me a contemporary YA that matches that!
AND ..., for a 1958 youth novel, this quote seems awfully contemporary! "I wonder how harmless such people are? To what extent civilization is retarded by the laughing jackasses, the empty minded belittlers."
“The book, The Pursuit of the Pankera, is based on Heinlein’s manuscript from his series, The Number of the Beast.”
Based on?
Did he write it or not?
And you are an author as well, no?
ALL of RAHs Juvies are worth reading!
He ran for Congress as a socialist!
All too true.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded - here and there, now and then - are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.This is known as "bad luck."
Thank you.
5.56mm
De nada, ducks.
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