Posted on 07/26/2007 9:43:31 PM PDT by B-Chan
...As Arthur C. Clarke put it: "Almost every good scientist I know has read science fiction." And the greatest writer who produced them was Robert Anson Heinlein, born in Butler, Mo., 100 years ago this month.
The list of technologies, concepts and events that he anticipated in his fiction is long and varied...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I always thought RAH jumped the shark with STRANGER, but his “juveniles” shaped my political thinking, and will be strewn temptingly around our house when my children are of an age to read and get hooked on them!
Yes, and if you compare Heinlein's ROLLING STONES with the Star Trek TRIBBLES episode, you will see that it even contains "The bombastic Harcourt Fenton Mudd" in the form of an asteroid miner.
I own every book he wrote, had the honor of a brief e-mail exchange with Virginia before she died (I had some questions about his archives at the college), and reread his books frequently. I see his influence everywhere.
The best thing anyone ever wrote about him, is along the lines of “He did’nt bother you with paragraphs of how stuff worked, it was just there. Another writer would describe an automatic door in glorious description, RAH would simply write “the door irised behind him.” It may have been Niven who said that, and it’s too true - while I’d kill to get a better idea of what his armored suits in Starship Trooper looked like in his mind, he only teased us with vague descriptions, mostly as they were used.
I agree his later stuff is talky, but there’s some incredible stuff - The Number Of The Beast, Friday, Tha Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls - I dare anyone to pick up Cat, read the first paragraph, and not be hooked on the story.
He did have some stinkers, like I Will Fear No Evil, but when you consider his output, he had nothing to be ashamed of.
And of course, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I envy those who havent read it, because of the fun you’ll have the first time. The truths he wrote about in that book are so relevant now, and I’d love to start “delivering” some rocks to a few particular people and institutions.
RIP, RAH. I never knew you, but you’ll be remembered in another 100 years, and I’ll never forget you.
I’ve found Heinlein’s “juveniles” to be better than most of the “adult” SF being published now. I hated Stranger in a Strange Land, though.
His short stories were also marvelous reading—lots of great exploration of ideas, where the juvies were great explorations of character.
Odd how his biggest defender is ultra-liberal Spider RObinson. I believe he reworked a Heinlein novel published this year, which includes an explicit anti-WOT paragraph.
“Star Beast” bump!
Thoughts for the ‘08 election:
“Any man who asks for greater authority
does not deserve to have it”
- Xavier Harkonnen
That’s a great story. I read it in 7th grade.
Heinlein ping.....
He could stare outward and actually see the future.
Great mind.
“Have Space Suit Will Travel” wow! just hearing that made me have goosebumps! That was the first science fiction book I ever read (4th grade), been hooked ever since. It was so good I was sad when the book was over. I didnt know there were books like that.
I have “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” sitting on my bookcase at work. I think one of my all time favorite books. Ive read it probably 10 times.
O'Connor is too much of a bowser for my tastes.
Love him. Great writer.
That was the first science fiction novel I ever read, at 11. And then I read the rest of the juveniles and I’ve had my head all messed up ever since.
I agree 100%. My all time favorite book.
I started the boys with Have Space Suit -- Will Travel. And I started the girls on The Star Beast. Those who are old enough to read are now voracious recreational readers -- especially of science fiction.
I read and enjoyed almost everything Heinlein wrote, but, in his latter years he "ran off the rails" toward free sex and pedophilia with his last few novels...
"In a mature society the term 'civil servant' is semantically equal to the term 'civil master'." - Lazarus Long
Does anyone remember the one about the “Pan-Asian” conquest of America? I think “Revolt in 2010” was the title I read it under in the 8th grade, for a book report. I had a teacher criticize it as “racist”.
The lady didn’t know what to say when I pointed out that one of the heroes was black and another was Japanese-American, and that the writer’s enmity was directed at the invaders, traitors and collaboraters, one of whom very satisfyingly gets his throat cut after a sort of drum head trial conducted with scopalomine, “It’s war, he just confessed”, or words to that effect.
Heinlein, aside from his own merits, got me interested in all sorts of other literature as well. I’m glad I discovered him first in sf though, he was a gateway to all the Golden Age sf I subsequently read.
I think if I had started with the “New Wave” sf I would have been turned off and never discovered people like Sturgeon, Kornbluth, Asimov, Bester, van Vogt, Laumer, Anderson....Thanks RAH.
I saw that one, “Variable Star” its called. Got it from the library. I really like Spider Robinson for his “Callaghan’s” stories, but I didn’t care that much for this one, part of the reason is the anti-WOT paragraph you cite. That and the book just didn’t feel like Heinlein. The intro and end notes are interesting tho, glad I borrowed instead of buying.
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