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...

[killjoy]

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.

A little bit misleading. IIRC, you did not have to serve in the military. It could be any form of civil service.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

The short story of “the man too lazy to fail” in “Time Enough for Love” is my favorite !

[Lancey Howard]

I read everything Heinlein wrote, and ‘Tunnel’ is at the top of my list, followed (in no particular order) by ‘Puppet Masters’, ‘Sixth Column’, ‘Door into Summer’, ‘Starship Troopers’, ‘Double Star’, ‘Time for the Stars’, ‘Starman Jones’, ‘Farnham’s Freehold.... Ahh, what the heck - - ALL of them!

[philman_36]

Quotes from the Notebooks of Lazarus LongWhen a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

[Bender2]

BUMP to read later when I awake from this buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

[2ndDivisionVet]

I propose that non-veterans still get to vote, but that veterans votes count twice, since they have served. Any comments?

[dr_lew]

I’ve read it twice. Once as a kid, and then as an adult, although that’s been a while now. I didn’t require my son to read it, but I did recommend it to him and he did read it, as far as I could tell.

I’ve always claimed it is the basis for the “drop” sequence in ALIENS, and I think this is when I reread it, and why my son got interested in it. I found out that the first chapter was 90% of what I remembered of the book, and the rest is incredibly talky, although I did remember various scenes.

His most amazing prediction : Sinead O’Connor

“But, do you know, once you get used to it, it’s rather cute. I mean, if a girl looks all right to start with, she still looks all right with her head smooth.”

[Little_shoe]

I really loved that book, though I didn't pick it up until after the movie came out. But when I did discover it I read it over and over and over. Starship Troopers, Enders Game, Captain Blood, and the Count of Monte Cristo have to be the most read of my whole book collection.

He has this chanty used for saluting guns at the start of one of the chapters. Which I would say to myself when I was doing parades and they had the gun salutes.

"He's bound to be guilty 'r he wouldn't be here!
Starboard gun . . . FIRE!
Shooting' too good for 'im, kick the louse out!
Port gun . . . FIRE!"
- Ancient chanty used to time saluting guns I personally enjoyed the chapter "The man who was too lazy to fail" in his book "Time Enough For Love"

[Little_shoe]

I really loved that book, though I didn't pick it up until after the movie came out. But when I did discover it I read it over and over and over. Starship Troopers, Enders Game, Captain Blood, and the Count of Monte Cristo have to be the most read of my whole book collection.

He has this chanty used for saluting guns at the start of one of the chapters.
"He's bound to be guilty 'r he wouldn't be here!
Starboard gun . . . FIRE!
Shooting' too good for 'im, kick the louse out!
Port gun . . . FIRE!"
- Ancient chanty used to time saluting guns

When I was at the Academy during the parades I would repeat that to myself during gun salutes. I personally enjoyed the chapter "The man who was too lazy to fail" in his book "Time Enough For Love". It allowed me to see what the academy was like when he was going there back in the 1930s.

[patriciaruth]

I have your take on Heinlein.

In his dotage he didn’t self edit as he wrote. Avoid all the thick books. Just read the normal size or slim ones is my advice.

[Little_shoe]

The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail concerns a 20th-century U.S. Navy cadet who manages to move up the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself wholeheartedly to the principle of “constructive laziness”. The events and descriptions parallel Heinlein’s own Navy career. After the Naval Academy the protagonist becomes rich by taking advantage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid farmers not to farm their land. Heinlein disdained government interference in business, especially in the form of handouts, and the level of taxation necessary to sustain such programs.

[Daaave]

Starman Jones

Between Planets

"Seems so real you almost catch yourself thinking you may take the next bus down to the spaceport." The New York Times review of Between Planets.

[patriciaruth]

Puppet Masters bump!

[patriciaruth]

Glory Road bump!

[patriciaruth]

Double Star bump!

[patriciaruth]

Time for the Stars (half bump, as it doesn’t have a good ending, but the rest is a lot of fun)!

[patriciaruth]

Ever read In the Wet by Nevil Shute?

He proposed that some people could get extra votes for various achievements. Can’t remember if military service was one of them.

[50sDad]

Freehold is chilling in today’s Islamic light.

[WireAndWood]

At one point I had a long mental list of Heinlein ideas that rather blatantly slipped into Rodenberry’s Star Trek. I haven’t read RAH in years, so the list is lost to me now except for one item.

It seems obvious to me that Heinlein’s Flatcats became Tribbles.

I know there were plenty more. Anyone have any to share?

[Company Man]

His 1958 juvenile title, ‘Have Spacesuit Will Travel’ had a very good depiction of early home built computing, some 20 years before Appple II, C64 and Atari.