Robert A. Heinlein's Legacy

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 26, 2007 | Taylor Dinerman

[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...

[B-Chan]

Given the tragedy that occurred at Scaled Composites' SpaceShipTwo facility in Mojave today, this column is particularly meaningful. Ad Astra Per Ardua isn't just a pretty saying.

[malamute]

tanstaafl

[clilly54]

We’ll get there, despite Islam...

[Pablo64]

Heinlein is my favorite sc-fi author. I am working to complete my collection of all his books and short stories.

I had forgotten that this is his centennial year.

[Mr. Mojo]

After Pearl Harbor, to his great disappointment, he was not called back into uniformed service. He ended the war at the Philadelphia Naval Aircraft Factory, working with fellow writers L. Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov.

I suspect those three threw around some mighty thought-provoking material in conversation.

In 1958, in response to what he saw as a liberal effort to weaken America's military.....

In '58? He's lucky he didn't live to see the mid-90s.

[RonDog]

From the article:

...In 1958, in response to what he saw as a liberal effort to weaken America's military, he set aside the "Sex and God" book on which he had been working and wrote "Starship Troopers."

This was probably his most controversial book. In it he imagines a future society in which the right to vote must be earned by volunteering for service, including service in the military.

In response to claims that the book glorifies the military, he wrote: "It does indeed..."

R.I.P. RAH!

[Spyder]

Just curious if the comment I made regarding Starship Troopers on an earlier thread had anything to do with your finding this? We've had Heinlein's stuff sitting on the shelf since the 70s but I'd never gotten into it until I read a review in National Review on Starship Troopers (just in the past issue or two). Anyhow, I picked up the book since we already had it and started reading. Talk about prescient. The guy is incredible! He knew today's whiny liberal in 1959.

[Pablo64]

I would say that I have probably read Starship Troopers 10 or 12 times easily over the years. When my son is a little older I am going to require that he read it (we homeschool, so I can make it an assignment). Too many good lessons on honor and duty, etc., to let that one pass by.

[ElkGroveDan]

He was an anti-communist. I had a collection of social commentary essays he wrote in the 50s. Good stuff, had a sense of humor too.

[Dave Olson]

One of my favorite quotes: "A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!" Robert Heinlein, Stranger In A Strange Land

An apt description when it comes to government's funding of the NEA.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Starship Troopers made me join the Army and it was the best decision I ever made. Service for a significant chunk of time is GOOD for most youths. It makes them consider their politics, usefulness and possible influence on society while away from negative influences.

Service SHOULD equate Citizenship while liberals who won’t put their lives on the line should be excluded from major decisions.

[higgmeister]

“Door into Summer” bump!

[higgmeister]

Tunnel in the Sky - bump

[joebuck]

Lazarus Long was one of the cooler characters in American fiction.

[higgmeister]

The bulletin board outside lecture hall 1712-A of Patrick Henry High School showed a flashing red light. Rod Walker pushed his way into a knot of students and tried to see what the special notice had to say. He received an elbow in the stomach, accompanied by: “Hey! Quit shoving!”

“Sorry. Take it easy, Jimmy.” Rod locked the elbow in a bone breaker but put no pressure on, craned his neck to look over Jimmy Throxton’s head. “What’s on the board?”

“No class today.”

“Why not?”

A voice near the board answered him. “Because tomorrow it’s ‘Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die—’ ”

“So?” Rod felt his stomach tighten as it always did before an examination. Someone moved aside and he managed to read the notice:

PATRICK HENRY HIGH SCHOOL

Department of Social Studies

SPECIAL NOTICE to all students Course 410

(elective senior seminar) Advanced Survival,

instr. Dr. Matson, 1712-A MWF  1. There will be no class Friday the 14th.

 2. Twenty-Four Hour Notice is hereby given of final examination in Solo Survival. Students will present themselves for physical check at 0900 Saturday in the dispensary of Templeton Gate and will start passing through the gate at 1000, using three-minute intervals by lot.

 3. TEST CONDITIONS: (a) any planet, any climate, any terrain; (b) no rules, all weapons, any equipment; (c) teaming is permitted but teams will not be allowed to pass through the gate in company; (d) test duration is not less than forty-eight hours, not more than ten days.

 4. Dr. Matson will be available for advice and consultation until 1700 Friday.

 5. Test may be postponed only on recommendation of examining physician, but any student may withdraw from the course without administrative penalty up until 1000 Saturday.

 6. Good luck and long life to you all!

(s) B. P. Matson, Sc.D.

Approved:

j. r. roerich, for the Board

Rod Walker reread the notice slowly, while trying to quiet the quiver in his nerves. He checked off the test conditions—why, those were not “conditions” but a total lack of conditions, no limits of any sort! They could dump you through the gate and the next instant you might be facing a polar bear at forty below—or wrestling an octopus deep in warm salt water.

Or, he added, faced up to some three-headed horror on a planet you had never heard of.

He heard a soprano voice complaining, “ ‘Twenty-four hour notice!’ Why, it’s less than twenty hours now. That’s not fair.”

Another girl answered, “What’s the difference? I wish we were starting this minute. I won’t get a wink of sleep tonight.”

“If we are supposed to have twenty-four hours to get ready, then we ought to have them. Fair is fair.”

Another student, a tall, husky Zulu girl, chuckled softly. “Go on in. Tell the Deacon that.”

Rod backed out of the press, taking Jimmy Throxton with him. He felt that he knew what “Deacon” Matson would say . . . something about the irrelevancy of fairness to survival. He chewed over the bait in paragraph five; nobody would say boo if he dropped the course. After all, “Advanced Survival” was properly a college course; he would graduate without it.

But he knew down deep that if he lost his nerve now, he would never take the course later.

[irv]

Decent article, though it glossed over the greatness of much of his work, not just the couple most famous ones. I grew up loving books like Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Tunnel in the Sky (read and re-read until it fell apart), The Door into Summer and one of my favorites (go ahead and snicker): Podkayne of Mars.

Nobody wrote them like Heinlein did. Even when the story was not his best (Time Enough for Love comes to mind), the writing kept you riveted.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I like his Coventry for thugs you don’t kill!

[irv]

Tunnel in the Sky - Lord of the Flies for humans.

[B-Chan]

I'll be honest: I only like his juveniles. Space Cadet and Citizen Of The Galaxy are probably my favorites, but I like them all. The stuff he wrote during his "dirty old man" period (i.e. post-Starship Troopers) leaves me cold.

It would have been neat if my high school had possessed an armory like Patrick Henry High did in Tunnel In The Sky...

[philman_36]

Lazarus Long BUMP