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Robert A. Heinlein's Legacy
The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 26, 2007 | Taylor Dinerman

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; US: Missouri
KEYWORDS: centenary; futurist; heinlein; sciencefiction; scifi; space
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran

Thanks, Huntsville, B-Chan. Perhaps “Revolt” was the one about the religious dictatorship in America.


61 posted on 07/27/2007 7:33:42 AM PDT by skepsel
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To: skepsel

Yep “Revolt in 2100”


62 posted on 07/27/2007 7:37:26 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: tarheelswamprat

Be wary of strong drink.
It can make you shoot at tax collectors, and miss.

Maybe Jesus was right when he said the meek shall inherit the earth -
but they inherit very small plots, about two meters by one meter.

A monarch’s neck should always have a noose around it -
it keeps him upright.

You can have peace.
Or you can have freedom.
Don’t ever count on having both at once.

How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?
Almost all crime depends on the cooperation of the victim. If the victim refuses his assigned role, the criminal is placed at a disadvantage,
one so severe that it usually takes an understanding and compassionate judge to set right.

LAZARUS LONG


63 posted on 07/27/2007 7:44:05 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: B-Chan
Methuselah's Children
The Man Who Sold The Moon
The Green Hills of Earth
Farmer in the Sky
The Menace From Earth

I can't imagine growing up without reading these.

64 posted on 07/27/2007 7:45:31 AM PDT by Tokra (I think I'll retire to Bedlam.)
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To: All

Have Spacesuit Will Travel -BUMP!


65 posted on 07/27/2007 7:46:05 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: patriciaruth
I am glad Glory Road was not the first novel of his I read as I would have missed out on his great novels!
66 posted on 07/27/2007 7:48:32 AM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: NewRomeTacitus; All

“To the ever lasting glory of the infantry!”

Bump


67 posted on 07/27/2007 7:52:03 AM PDT by TMSuchman (American by birth, Rebel by choice, Marine by act of GOD!)
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To: ByDesign
I agree his later stuff is talky, but there’s some incredible stuff...

All the people who say, "I love his juveniles but hate the later stuff," are not exactly covering themselves with glory. The juveniles are very good, straightforward, escapist fiction. The later works (Starship Troopers from on) are where Heinlein really challenges the reader with deeper, interpretive stories and complex themes. Even the books written during his illness, though less carefully edited, offer far more subtlety and depth than the juveniles.

The juveniles are generally "safe" for the religious reader - nothing there to challenge orthodoxy - thus their overweighting in the general esteem of Free Republic readers.

68 posted on 07/27/2007 7:58:35 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("Wise men don't need to debate; men who need to debate are not wise." -- Tao Te Ching)
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To: Mr. Jeeves
Nigga please. I have no problem reading books that "challenge orthodoxy"; I have trouble with poorly written, dull, and prurient sexual fantasies masquerading as books that "challenge orthodoxy". You know, like Time Enough For Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. RAH's lame attempts in his later works to justify his latent incestuousness and ephebophilia are embarassing and unintentionally laughable.

His kid books rock, however.

Other great writers of juvenile science fiction include G. Harry Stine (aka "Lee Correy") and the incomparable H. Beam Piper. Read Piper's Space Viking and know the meaning of good science fiction.

69 posted on 07/27/2007 9:08:03 AM PDT by B-Chan (Catholic. Monarchist. Texan. Any questions?)
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran

Glory Road was a bit of fun, nothing more. But it is fun that I revisit every few years.


70 posted on 07/27/2007 1:14:46 PM PDT by patriciaruth (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562436/posts)
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To: Mr. Jeeves

I agree with the reader who labeled the last thick tomes his “dirty old man” phase.

He was either having old men have promiscuous sex with young cute sex kittens or they were taking showers. Too bad they weren’t cold showers.

I wasn’t particularly religious during the years I was a disappointed reader of these novels; but I was a pretty young thing who had been hit on too many times by older male employers and coworkers (one of whom physically assaulted me after I slapped him for grabbing my breast in the workplace) and I thought Heinlein was just writing out his wet dreams, not well crafted novels.


71 posted on 07/27/2007 1:21:34 PM PDT by patriciaruth (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1562436/posts)
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To: TMSuchman

I like some of his epitaphs and minor characters, Noisy somebody or other (Rawlings, Rhysling?) the blind space bard in The Green Hills of Earth. Sgt. Somebody, Imperial Space Marines, ‘He Ate What Was Set Before Him’, RIP.

There was a bit of Kipling and some Hemingway in RAH’s work w/out a doubt.


72 posted on 07/27/2007 3:57:26 PM PDT by skepsel
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To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran; skepsel
Nehemiah Scudder was the President and First Prophet that began the American Interregnum that lead up to the Second American Revolution in the novella “If This Goes On—” - 1940

In 1953 it was rewriten and extended into Revolt in 2100

73 posted on 07/27/2007 5:28:46 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: higgmeister

Yes several of his shorter stories were fleshed out into full novels.


74 posted on 07/27/2007 6:00:20 PM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto)
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To: TMSuchman

Read your About Page and saw that, despite (or because of) disability and a challenged child you are a very blessed man. Semper Fi!


75 posted on 07/27/2007 6:10:13 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
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To: higgmeister

Hey thanks for the link, cool site.


76 posted on 07/27/2007 8:55:59 PM PDT by skepsel
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To: joebuck
Lazarus Long was one of the cooler characters in American fiction.

Whaddaya mean WAS bub?

77 posted on 07/27/2007 9:00:54 PM PDT by humblegunner (Word up!)
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To: skepsel; AdamSelene235
Your welcome! You know what I just noticed?

AdamSelene235 has not been on this thread yet. You there Mike?

78 posted on 07/27/2007 9:43:43 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
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To: higgmeister

Of course, my only higg friend.


79 posted on 07/27/2007 9:46:57 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Truth has become so rare and precious she is always attended to by a bodyguard of lies.)
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To: Mr. Mojo
At least he didn't end up with a career like L. Ron Hubbard. He commanded the sub-chaser PC-815 during WW2, but his brief stint as commander sounds like something out of McHale's Navy.

Among his various misadventures was an incident when he decided that his crew needed gunnery practice and had them start shooting at a nearby island. Unfortunately for his career, the island was not only inhabited, but it belonged to Mexico.

80 posted on 07/27/2007 9:58:43 PM PDT by Stonewall Jackson (The Hunt for FRed November. 11/04/08)
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