Any Heinlein freaks here?

[trysail]

"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best."


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"Never frighten a little man— he'll kill you."


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"Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make messes in the house.''


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"Lawyers settle the trivial disputes of petty people."


-Robert A. Heinlein
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
"Time Enough For Love"

 

[Volunteerlover]

Honestly, there are too many great characters for me to pick just one favorite. Valentine Michael Smith, Maureen Johnson Smith Long, and Woodrow Wilson Smith (a.k.a. Bill Smith a.k.a. Ernest Gibbons a.k.a. Lafe Hubert a.k.a. Aaron Sheffield a.k.a. Lazarus Long), are personal favorites, though.

I have a much handled and dog eared copy, purchased new, of a Heinlein anthology of much of his early works up to and including Methusaleh's Children, and I have to say it is one of the best books I have ever read, showing a progression in his style, an expansion of the world he wrote about, and the basis for all the stories I found so entertaining in my youth: Friday, Job, The Number of the Beast, Farnham's Freehold, The Rolling Stones, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and so many others...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It was Between Planets.

Sir Isaac more interesting than Michael Valentine Smith?

Jubal never made if off-planet. Except in that later book.

Thanks that it.

The problem is that MVS was human. He may have had alien abilities but he was all human. And I was talking about MVS not Jubal.

 

[Bebeslut]

I list Manual Garcia O'Kelly Davis of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress as my favorite male Heinlein character -- maybe you can strike "male" from that description -- because I believe he is the best realized character in the entire Heinlein ouvre. Hugh Farnham is also pretty well realized. But Manny is just so charming. He's a great, normal guy -- way unlike me -- thrust into extraordinary circumstances. I just don't think RAH limned another character as well. Manny deserves a place among all the immortal characters of English literature, in my most humble opinion. I certainly feel I know Manny better than I do Sherlock Holmes -- and I love Sherlock, too.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There are several anthologies that follow a timeline of Heinlein's future world history...

The Roads Must Roll
The Man Who Sold the Moon

So many that they all run together after such a long time.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

If it weren't for Heinlein I might have never developed any taste for fiction at all. I started reading his juveniles in sixth grade or thereabouts and devoured them for years. In time, though, I became more devoted to Clifford Simak. SF's great pastoralist is my favorite of the genre but I owe Heinlein a great deal for introducing me to it.



Try not to make irrevocable decisions when either hungry or tired. -- Robert Heinlein.

 

[amicus]

I be gettin' frisson's all over me bod just reading each thread and recalling the novels and characters...I be grok'n it all ~! Thank you so very much!

ah...maybe just me...most likely just me...but I read each character, male or female, as if it were Heinlein speaking...a magnificent mind and writer.

Ami

 

[Bebeslut]

I be gettin' frisson's all over me bod just reading each thread and recalling the novels and characters...I be grok'n it all ~! Thank you so very much!

ah...maybe just me...most likely just me...but I read each character, male or female, as if it were Heinlein speaking...a magnificent mind and writer.

Ami

You are welcome.

It's perhaps not just you who reads RAH into each of his characters. The guy who introduced me to Heinlein told me there's always a "Heinlein figure" in each of the novels. Rufo in Glory Road, Jubal in Stranger, Prof in Mistress, etc.
In fact, many readers dislike Heinlein because he does seem to put so much of himself into each of his stories. If that turns you off, don't read John D. McDonald, either.
I think there is very much a place for authors like Heinlein.

 

[Tyro999]

Different strokes, bebe

A good Heinlein reference site maintained by James Gifford, a well known Heinlein scholar:

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/index.html - Site: RAH Robert A. Heinlein, The Home Page for Science Fiction's Grand Master

This page on that site is a short bibliography of Heinlein's work (compared to JG's massive Opus list, which list all editions of RAH's published works. I'm currently using this list to guide a chronological reread of all of Heinlein, starting with short stories, then the juvenile novels, then the main novels, etc.

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/rahpubs.html - The Published RAH, A reader's List of Published Works by Robert A. Heinlein

 

[Stella_Omega]

ah...maybe just me...most likely just me...but I read each character, male or female, as if it were Heinlein speaking...a magnificent mind and writer.

Ami

No, it's not only you. There is definitely a monotony of voice. I find it tedious and unskilled and masturbatory-- evidence of a lack of imagination, in fact.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

No, it's not only you. There is definitely a monotony of voice. I find it tedious and unskilled and masturbatory-- evidence of a lack of imagination, in fact.

Well, he never claimed to write great literature. As I recall he once said something like "The most beautiful words in the English language begin 'pay to the order of . . .'"

I can identify with that.

 

[TxRad]

Well, he never claimed to write great literature. As I recall he once said something like "The most beautiful words in the English language begin 'pay to the order of . . .'"

I can identify with that.

I think he was talking as the "Writer" Jubal at the time he said that. Been a long time ago. I see I have some reading to do again.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I think he was talking as the "Writer" Jubal at the time he said that. Been a long time ago. I see I have some reading to do again.

I remember reading several items from him in the old Analog mag where he said he only wrote because he was getting paid. Ten cents a word back then I think he said. I also believe reading where he said he never wrote to win prizes, just to make a living. And to tell the truth, anyone who has written to win prizes isn't worth reading in my humble opinion. I much rather read what RAH has to say than say the latest Pulitzer Prize winner.

 

[Weird Harold]

Well, he never claimed to write great literature. As I recall he once said something like "The most beautiful words in the English language begin 'pay to the order of . . .'"

I can identify with that.

I think he was talking as the "Writer" Jubal at the time he said that. Been a long time ago. I see I have some reading to do again.

IIRC, that sentiment -- along with others denigrating the profession of writer -- can be attributed to several different characters, including the Protaganist of Cat Who Walked Through Walls and Lazarus Long as well as Jubal Hershaw.

 

[jomar]

Sheesh, read him so long ago the books will be new again. I did pick up Starship Troopers after seeing the movie for the umpteenth time awhile back...different of course, but liked it.

 

[amicus]

Different strokes, bebe

A good Heinlein reference site maintained by James Gifford, a well known Heinlein scholar:

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/index.html - Site: RAH Robert A. Heinlein, The Home Page for Science Fiction's Grand Master

This page on that site is a short bibliography of Heinlein's work (compared to JG's massive Opus list, which list all editions of RAH's published works. I'm currently using this list to guide a chronological reread of all of Heinlein, starting with short stories, then the juvenile novels, then the main novels, etc.

http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/rahpubs.html - The Published RAH, A reader's List of Published Works by Robert A. Heinlein

~~~

Hello, tyro, and welcome to the forum...and a thank you, I copied your links and sent the one with a bibliography to my children and some friends and thought how lovely it would be to have never read Heinlein and to have him to read all over again, from the beginning...

regards...

amicus

 

[rgraham666]

Nowhere near as fond of Heinlein as I used to be. I didn't read any of his work after I Will Fear No Evil because that book was so silly it put me off Heinlein for ages.

Starship Troopers, the movie, blew great big chunks. The war against the Bugs was only incidental to the book, which was mostly Heinlein's philosophizing about society and what makes it work. I don't agree with some of it but the book still had enormous impact on my political thought.

 

[AllardChardon]

I can see myself walking into the next bookstore to find out what they have on their shelves.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yeah, as a veteran I can't help but believe that some of what he had to say seems perfectly reasonable.

 

[fuckwaffle]

I can see myself walking into the next bookstore to find out what they have on their shelves.

or you can go here...all but two of his books are for sale at Amazon. click the link under the cover that will take you to the Amazon page for that book.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Well, he never claimed to write great literature. As I recall he once said something like "The most beautiful words in the English language begin 'pay to the order of . . .'"

I can identify with that.

Honest-- I like that. I have to laugh when people talk about him as if he were a literaturist though.

or you can go here...all but two of his books are for sale at Amazon. click the link under the cover that will take you to the Amazon page for that book.

Not nearly as much fun!

I miss my old neighborhood used book store-- myopic books, in Wicker Park area of Chicago.

You can't be sure you'll find what you're looking for in a used bookstore, of course. The thrill of the chase...

 

[rgraham666]

Yeah, as a veteran I can't help but believe that some of what he had to say seems perfectly reasonable.

People miss the point of that in Starship Troopers. 'Veteran' in that book was 'veteran of Federal Service', which might, or more likely not mean you served in the military. As the main character did.

But what was over looked is the Federation had to find you work if you volunteered, and the only reason they could turn you away is if you couldn't understand the oath. In the words of the recruiting officer, "If you came in blind and in a wheelchair we'd have to find something for you to do. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch perhaps."

Anyway, the point was that before a person could vote or hold public office they had to prove they were willing to sacrifice for society. At least two years of their lives, maybe more, maybe theirs life itself. I think that's a good idea. Too many people these days won't give up anything so that society might be a better place. Yet they get to vote and hold public office.

 

[Volunteerlover]

People miss the point of that in Starship Troopers. 'Veteran' in that book was 'veteran of Federal Service', which might, or more likely not mean you served in the military. As the main character did.

But what was over looked is the Federation had to find you work if you volunteered, and the only reason they could turn you away is if you couldn't understand the oath. In the words of the recruiting officer, "If you came in blind and in a wheelchair we'd have to find something for you to do. Counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch perhaps."

Anyway, the point was that before a person could vote or hold public office they had to prove they were willing to sacrifice for society. At least two years of their lives, maybe more, maybe theirs life itself. I think that's a good idea. Too many people these days won't give up anything so that society might be a better place. Yet they get to vote and hold public office.

I always thought that "Citizenship through Service" was much more noble than our current system of Entitlement to Adulthood.

 

[TE999]

I started out on Heinlein's juveniles when I was about 8yo and have never stopped reading him. I particularly enjoyed the likes of 'Starship Troopers', 'If This Goes On...', 'Sixth Column', 'Time Enough for Love', 'The Door into Summer', etc.

His short story collections are fun to read as well.

In re: a specific character...there are so many...Lazarus Long, Johnny Rico, Daniel Boone Davis, Jonathan Lyle...all memorable.

Along with Asimov, Clarke and Pohl, he's one of the giants in SF.

 

[jomar]

...
Starship Troopers, the movie, blew great big chunks. The war against the Bugs was only incidental to the book, which was mostly Heinlein's philosophizing about society and what makes it work. I don't agree with some of it but the book still had enormous impact on my political thought.

Nah, the first Troopers movie was brilliant.

As for "Heinlein's philosophizing about society and what makes it work," I should probably reread the book...I tend to read surface level the first time around.