Replies

Bear, I haven't been much of a Heinlein reader. I tried one 10 years or so ago, it was written in the first person, but as a female. Made me think Heinlein wanted to be a female and I was generally uncomfortable with it.

That one sounds like "I Will Fear No Evil", generally conceded to tie "Number of the Beast" as his worst novel. He didn't do a good job of thinking as a woman.

I tried one 10 years or so ago, it was written in the first person, but as a female

That one sounds like "I Will Fear No Evil",

Or "To Sail beyond the Sunset", or "Friday", or "Podkayne of Mars".

Made me think Heinlein wanted to be a female and I was generally uncomfortable with it.

The danger of speculating on too little evidence. Did "Double Star" mean he wanted to be a egotistical actor? or "Job: a comedy of justice" mean he wanted to be a small minded religious bigot?
In any case which female did Heinlein want to be? Eunice, Maureen, Friday, Podkayne, Holly?

Heinlein wrote 90% of works as first-person, speculating that he wanted to be one particular character out of a hundred is not particulary productive.

He didn't do a good job of thinking as woman.

Sounds like a sub-set of Alleged Literary Lapse (2):"Heinlein can't create believable woman characters" examined by Spider Robinson in his essay "Rah Rah R.A.H!". (massively recommended by the way)

As it comes down to opinion any view on these question can be justified on the ground of "well. I (don't/)believe it".

So IMO. without seeing the author's name I would have believed that "Menace from Earth", et.al. were written by women.

That one sounds like "I Will Fear No Evil", generally conceded to tie "Number of the Beast" as his worst novel.

Or Friday ... which is considered by many to be one of his finest.

The funny thing about Heinlein is tht most people love _either_ his early or his late works.

Me? I reckon that The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is an excellent novel .. as is Number of the Beast (well, except for the last chapter of NOTB which had too many pop-culture references that I simply didn't get).

And that Stranger in a Strange Land is a masterwork .. but that so is Tunnel in the Sky.

Sure, he wrote some stuff that I didn't like (I found Job to be too 'shrill' for my taste, and thought Johnny Rico in Troopers was a gormless twit who agreed with the last person he met) ... but RAH _always_ made me think.

I wish the same could be said for most other writers.

His politics is somewhat different to Heinlein, but I like Kim Stanley Robinson's stuff for the same reason, and think that authors like Gregory Benford show potential.

Unfortunately most writers fall into the Michael Crichton / Jonathon Kellerman / Steven King mould, and write formulaic pap :-(

Oh well.

Even bad literature is better than no literature :-)

Sadim