Posted on 11/13/2004 12:26:56 PM PST by WillRain
Calling for assistance from my fellow Heinlein fans here.
I'm an education student (and a Social Science major) who has an assignment which is related to using literature to teach Social Studies.
I'd like to use, for this project, an excerpt from Starship Troopers in which the political philosophy of earning the franchise through a term of service is most concisely described.
Do any of you know of an on-line source that makes reference to these ideas?
In the absence of that, can you specify for me the place in the novel which has the clearest and most concise reference to the ideas (I'm thinking of a passage in which Rico remembers a class in which his instructor described the reasoning behind the service for franchise system). I've read the book a dozen times but I'm having trouble finding the exact passage i want. I'm asking because it strikes me as the sort of think that might have been excerpted on some blog or other somewhere on the net.
Anyone have a suggestion? I'm on a deadline and the project must be completed this weekend.
Thanks in advance.
Well, basicly, a great number of Heinlein's characters were...pretty randy. And since most of his protaganists were male, it came across as if the women, besides being very smart, capable, bold and resourceful, were also highly decrative and posesed of a more than healthy sex drive. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing (other than perhaps inflating the hopes of a teenage virgin regarding the proclivities of the average female) just making an observation.
Frankly, I would have liked to think (in those days) that all wemon were of the sort Heinlein described.
Hmm...let me think about this. I have an assignment to write a research paper on a topic relating to Social Studies educational methods - mine in particular being the use of literature in the teaching of social studies. this paper must be sourced to three scholarly or academic journals and written in a formal style. In addition, I must prepare an example of the sort of lesson which might illustrate the thesis, including providing a copy of the material I would use to teach it.
I selected Starship Troopers (though I could have as easily went with Animal Farm or Brave New World because I was very familiar with the book and the philosophy contained therein. From the selected book, I would draw an excerpt which summarized as briefly as possible, the philosophical point about government the author was trying to express. Then I would prepare a series of 3-5 short answer questions for the students to react to what they had read and be able to discuss in class a comparison and contrast between the author's thesis, and our own system.
I erred in that I had presumed too much on my ability to find the passage I was thinking of in short order and so I ask for a bit of advice into where the already selected passage was to be found so as to accurately excerpt it.
Yes.
In all the many details of this project, all the time it takes to research and write it (on my own) I debased myself to ask for some help in finding the particular chapter number for a passage I've read myself a dozen times.
I am indeed a massive fraud and an embarrassment to the human race and am henceforth unworthy of my degree and shall immediately resign and take a job picking fruit.
Are you picking up ANY sarcasam at all yet? Critics I got plenty of, bud, best you look for a job with more demand for your services, m'kay?
Ugh... tough one.. I think you're referring to the Tnuctipun. At least, the story "There Is A Tide" in Tales of Known Space refers repeatedly to the "Slaver-Tnuctipun War", although I'm still not sure if there's a difference between the thrintun and the Tnuctipun. Far as I can tell, they're the same species.
Qwinn
You are right, but I am right also.
You see, the problem is how we define the word "magic".
In letter 131, Tolkien admits this problem, and connects it with the fall of man and fall of the angels (i.e. Melkor, the angel who did not follow God but decided to make the earth as his own fiefdom, so earth and all things in it are tainted with evil).
"I have not used 'magic' consistently, and indeed the Elven queen Galadriel is obliged to remonstrate with the Hobbits on their confused use of the word both for the devices and operations of the Enemy, and for those of the Elves. I have not, because there is not a word for the latter (since all human stories have suffered the same confusion). But the Elves are there (in my tales) to demonstrate the difference. Their 'magic' is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations...and its object is Art, not Power, subcreation, not domination and the tyrannous reforming of Creation...The Enemy, in successive forms, is always 'naturally' concerned with sheer Domination, and so (is) the Lord of Magic and machines; but the problem (is): that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root: the desire to benefit the world and others...according to the benefactor's own plans..."
The men in Tolkien who use this "power" actually have elven blood, and so it is licit for them to use it (Aragorn and the Kings are descended from Elrond Halfelven's brother, who decided to remain mortal...
the elven rings were meant to preserve and to create new things, and to obtain wisdom, not to conquer.
The bad news is that Tolkien regarded modern machinery and technology as similar temptations to evil...since they, like "magic" were being used to manipulate and control creation..
Guess I hit the target straight on. maybe you should submit that treatise reply as your paper. If you can't take the heat ....
So, at this point you're just yanking chains for the heck of it them?
Okay. s'cool. Glad to see you occupied with such productive work.
Carry on then.
Dude I can't yank a chainless person.
This is why I like his so-called "juvenile fiction" the best--Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, The Rolling Stones, Podkayne of Mars, Red Planet, Starman Jones, etc.. I remember reading Glory Road and waiting for the good parts that never came.
Read The Golden Globe if you haven't. It is set in the Steel Beach universe. It's about an gypsy actor on the run from the interplanetary mob.
And so they are. Technology is the art of tool use, and tools are subject to the will of the user. Tools make things easier.
There are "Albert Schweitzer"s and "Josef Mengele"s in the world. The difference lies in how they used their knowledge and technology.
Thanks, Lex...I'll pick it up ASAP!
Regards,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.