May 20, 2022·edited May 20, 2022Liked by Max Gladstone
It is nice to see someone take Heinlein seriously, especially when you focus on what may be his best novel. Many fans (including myself) have always taken a nuanced approach to the genre's flawed past, but recently there are some in fandom that have not just rinsed the baby but decided to toss the young-un out the door and into the street. Just to make it clear, I think it is worth learning all of the lessons from the past (good and bad) but I am not ready to totally throw out the "old canon" yet.
I love this! This is an essay that made me laugh out loud several times, a sad rarity in my all-too-serious times. I have not read Heinlein, but really appreciated your discussion both about how he's perceived and of the story itself! And I definitely agree -- the classics are worth reading!
If you had further read Stranger in a Strange Land, you would have found your emotional Heinlein earlier. I’m not saying you should have — there is no should — just what would have happened had things been otherwise.
Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers are companion pieces — I’m sure everyone knows the story that Heinlein took a break from writing Stranger to write Starship Troopers. And I think because of that, those two books together really comprise all of Heinlein. Because he believed deeply in both stories (this is based on interviews and books about and above all, bar conversation). So you have the one story which can be reduced (as you have pointed out Hamlet has been reduced) to a hippy love fest, and the other which can be reduced to pro-military. But it’s the full range of nuance in both books that really shows off his writing (more Stranger, but just because it’s longer). Also full of Heinlein girls, exactly as you summed them up.
My 2¢ on all the Heinlein one needs to read.
How was the ending of Moon? Because I think the man just can’t end a book. But maybe a wider reading would discover an ending that doesn’t just abruptly cut off. 4 full acts, 1000 pages (or 200) and a fifth act of a couple paragraphs. I am possibly exaggerating for effect, but not by much.
It is nice to see someone take Heinlein seriously, especially when you focus on what may be his best novel. Many fans (including myself) have always taken a nuanced approach to the genre's flawed past, but recently there are some in fandom that have not just rinsed the baby but decided to toss the young-un out the door and into the street. Just to make it clear, I think it is worth learning all of the lessons from the past (good and bad) but I am not ready to totally throw out the "old canon" yet.
I love this! This is an essay that made me laugh out loud several times, a sad rarity in my all-too-serious times. I have not read Heinlein, but really appreciated your discussion both about how he's perceived and of the story itself! And I definitely agree -- the classics are worth reading!
If you had further read Stranger in a Strange Land, you would have found your emotional Heinlein earlier. I’m not saying you should have — there is no should — just what would have happened had things been otherwise.
Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Troopers are companion pieces — I’m sure everyone knows the story that Heinlein took a break from writing Stranger to write Starship Troopers. And I think because of that, those two books together really comprise all of Heinlein. Because he believed deeply in both stories (this is based on interviews and books about and above all, bar conversation). So you have the one story which can be reduced (as you have pointed out Hamlet has been reduced) to a hippy love fest, and the other which can be reduced to pro-military. But it’s the full range of nuance in both books that really shows off his writing (more Stranger, but just because it’s longer). Also full of Heinlein girls, exactly as you summed them up.
My 2¢ on all the Heinlein one needs to read.
How was the ending of Moon? Because I think the man just can’t end a book. But maybe a wider reading would discover an ending that doesn’t just abruptly cut off. 4 full acts, 1000 pages (or 200) and a fifth act of a couple paragraphs. I am possibly exaggerating for effect, but not by much.