Any Heinlein freaks here?

[Bebeslut]

I have been a fan of Robert A. Heinlein since my college years, so that's a long time now. Anyone in a mood to discuss Heinlein?

For instance, who is his strongest character, both male and female?

Male: Manual Garcia O'Kelly Davis.
Female: Grandmother from Starman Jones or Mum from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I'm a fan but it's been so long since I read any of his works...high school and into college...I'm really old.

Personally, I like...

Male: Zeb Carter (of course)
Female: Hildagard Burroughs (forgot her maiden name)

Both are from The Number of the Beast which has stuck in my mind for a long time, along with To Sail Beyond the Sunset, The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls and Friday. All of these were later works.

I do remember bits and pieces from earlier works such as Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Poddikane of Mars, The Rolling Stones, etc. I believe I have read everything he published at least twice if not more.

 

[mynameisben]

It's been ages since I've read Heinlein, but there was a time when I was really into him. I'll have to go read some of his novels again. I remember nothing, other than I really loved his stories and his characters. I loved the cynical, yet highly pragmatic bluster of Jubal Harshaw. I think he appeared in more than one novel. There was a sentient computer in one of them? Lazarus or something.

Damn, this is embarrassing.

 

[Tyro999]

In the heyday of the Usenet newsgroups, that was the subject of one of the longest running multi-year threads on the primary Heinlein group, alt.fan.heinlein. I've been reading and rereading Heinlein for fifty-mumble years, and have never been able to settle, permanently, on who my favorite male and female characters are. Or on my favorite alien character, for that matter, albeit there were fewer to select from.

With the slow death of the old Usenet newsgroups (my ISP, a national, Comcast, stopped providing them a few years ago. By that time, a.f.h had degenerated into a cliques and flame-war ridden mess, when you could wade through all the spam to try to read it.

Some refugees from a.f.h started a web-based forum, The Heinlein Nexus Forum, which for the last couple of years has operated under the aegis of The Heinlein Society as The Heinlien Society Nexus Forum at http://www.heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

It's been ages since I've read Heinlein, but there was a time when I was really into him. I'll have to go read some of his novels again. I remember nothing, other than I really loved his stories and his characters. I loved the cynical, yet highly pragmatic bluster of Jubal Harshaw. I think he appeared in more than one novel. There was a sentient computer in one of them? Lazarus or something.

Damn, this is embarrassing.

Jubal is from...damn I can't remember the novel...Man From Mars??? He also appeared in The Number of the Beast.

Lazarus Long was in a bunch of novels...the first was Methuselahs Children, the last was To Sail Beyond the Sunset I believe. He also appeared in Beast and The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls.

The sentient computer was Mike or Mycroft Holmes from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

In the heyday of the Usenet newsgroups, that was the subject of one of the longest running multi-year threads on the primary Heinlein group, alt.fan.heinlein. I've been reading and rereading Heinlein for fifty-mumble years, and have never been able to settle, permanently, on who my favorite male and female characters are. Or on my favorite alien character, for that matter, albeit there were fewer to select from.

With the slow death of the old Usenet newsgroups (my ISP, a national, Comcast, stopped providing them a few years ago. By that time, a.f.h had degenerated into a cliques and flame-war ridden mess, when you could wade through all the spam to try to read it.

Some refugees from a.f.h started a web-based forum, The Heinlein Nexus Forum, which for the last couple of years has operated under the aegis of The Heinlein Society as The Heinlien Society Nexus Forum at http://www.heinleinsociety.org/thsnexus/.

Best alien character has to go to Sir Isaac Newton the Venusian Dragon in ... was it Citizen of the Galaxy? or Have Spacesuit Will Travel? The all blur together after so long.

 

[mynameisben]

Jubal is from...damn I can't remember the novel...Man From Mars??? He also appeared in The Number of the Beast.

Lazarus Long was in a bunch of novels...the first was Methuselahs Children, the last was To Sail Beyond the Sunset I believe. He also appeared in Beast and The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls.

The sentient computer was Mike or Mycroft Holmes from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Thanks!

I think Jubal was in Stranger from a Strange Land.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Thanks!

I think Jubal was in Stranger from a Strange Land.

Yeah that was it...but he spent a lot of time on Mars. This was just Heinlein's version of the coming of Christ.

 

[Bebeslut]

Best alien character has to go to Sir Isaac Newton the Venusian Dragon in ... was it Citizen of the Galaxy? or Have Spacesuit Will Travel? The all blur together after so long.

It was Between Planets.

Sir Isaac more interesting than Michael Valentine Smith?

 

[Bebeslut]

Yeah that was it...but he spent a lot of time on Mars. This was just Heinlein's version of the coming of Christ.

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

 

[Stella_Omega]

I loved Heinlein for a long time, and then overdosed on him. Now I'm starting to think about rediscovering him. In carefully metered doses, I figure the self-congratulatory subtext won't be so nauseating-- because he IS a lot of fun. I am looking at "Glory Road" at the moment.

 

[Carnevil9]

Stranger IN A Strange Land, not from a strange land. It was about a young human who was raised on Mars by Martians, and returned to Earth in his early adulthood. To him, human society was strange, and through his eyes, we get to see exactly how strange it is. Standard concept in many works of fiction (Alf, My Favorite Martian, Mr. Ed., to name a few TV examples.... how it takes an outsider to show us how fucked up we all are).

The young Martian-raised human was Valentine Michael Smith; Jubal Harshaw was a crusty old geezer of a lawyer/physician who took Michael in and protected him from the establishment that sought to exploit him.

I think I've read every Heinlein novel at least twice, and Glory Road is definitely my favorite, although it is hardly typical of his style.

 

[mynameisben]

Stranger IN A Strange Land, not from a strange land.

Well, I'll just go tuck my teeny little tail between my legs now and go read me some Heinlein.

 

[AllardChardon]

Farnum's Freehold, I think that was the name, really impressed me as a youth. This one dealt with racism. Anyone read it?

 

[MagicaPractica]

I have read many of his books and enjoyed them tremendously, over a decade ago. I remember loving the humor. Job was one of my favorites. I also greatly enjoyed another fan of his, Spider Robinson and his series, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. I wonder whatever happened to Spider?

 

[AllardChardon]

I looked it up and here is what Wiki said about this Heinlein novel.

"Both Farnham's Freehold and Sixth Column, another novel by Heinlein, deal extensively with issues of race, but whereas Sixth Column is perceived as racist by some readers, Farnham's Freehold depends for its impact on twisting the racial roles: in a future dominated by people of African ancestry, a culture technologically advanced enough to develop time travel also practices race-based slavery and institutionalized cannibalism.

Some have argued that the portrayal of the black ruling caste as cannibalistic, polygynous tyrants with a preference for Caucasian women uses most of the available racist stereotypes about Africans and African-Americans. Another interpretation posits that the cannibalism and sexual predation of the dark-skinned masters is allegorical, representing the way that black slaves were historically taken advantage of by their masters. This is similar to the "Durham's Pure Leaf Lard" theme in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Proponents of the allegory theory point out that in the second half of the story, Farnham describes a place in the West Indies where the blacks are cultured and sophisticated, and whites are feckless and shiftless, and that Heinlein then plays out a traditional slave narrative with Farnham as the narrator. From this point of view, the story is not about Africans and Caucasians, but rather about masters and slaves, regardless of race. It is also interesting to note Farnham's second in command was not his son, but their black domestic servant. This servant, Joseph, was also going to college to become an accountant, and was also described as the best bridge player of the group."

It was a great read, but my favorite Heinlein character will always be;

VALENTINE MICHAEL SMITH!

 

[Bebeslut]

In my opinion, Glory Road is typcial Heinlein; what makes it seem different is that it's not science fiction, per se, as much as it's good ole Conan-style adventure. A tour de force, too.

Stranger IN A Strange Land, not from a strange land. It was about a young human who was raised on Mars by Martians, and returned to Earth in his early adulthood. To him, human society was strange, and through his eyes, we get to see exactly how strange it is. Standard concept in many works of fiction (Alf, My Favorite Martian, Mr. Ed., to name a few TV examples.... how it takes an outsider to show us how fucked up we all are).

The young Martian-raised human was Valentine Michael Smith; Jubal Harshaw was a crusty old geezer of a lawyer/physician who took Michael in and protected him from the establishment that sought to exploit him.

I think I've read every Heinlein novel at least twice, and Glory Road is definitely my favorite, although it is hardly typical of his style.

 

[Bebeslut]

Farnum's Freehold, I think that was the name, really impressed me as a youth. This one dealt with racism. Anyone read it?

Yes, Farnham is a great novel; it made me think twice when I first read it long ago, since it is a conservative's take on racism, and I was definitely more into the liberal interpretation.

I read it every year now; it's one of my favcorites.

Heinlein often dealt with slavery in his work, though he wrote two novels that dealt with the civil rights movement. The earlier, in the Fifties, was the Star Beast; the characters Kiku and Greenberg were Heinlein's comment on the absurdity of judging people by their ethnicities. Farnham's Freehold explored the topic of rights -- actually the topic of man's inhumanity to man -- in miuch more adult ways. Fitting, as FF was aimed at the adult market, while Star Beast was aimed at the juvenile market.

 

[Bebeslut]

I have read many of his books and enjoyed them tremendously, over a decade ago. I remember loving the humor. Job was one of my favorites. I also greatly enjoyed another fan of his, Spider Robinson and his series, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. I wonder whatever happened to Spider?

Robinson is still writing, and in fact "co-wrote" a novel with Heinlein. Actually, he took an old "treatment" Heinlein wrote and wrote an entirely new novel, which I eventually just had to give up on, it was so bad. Robinson also used Virginia Heinlein as a character in a later Callaghan novel. I also gave up on that one.

 

[oggbashan]

From Heinlein's Double Star:

Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, a.k.a. "The Great Lorenzo").

Og

 

[trysail]

"Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort."

-Robert A. Heinlein

 

[trysail]

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.''

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

 

[Bebeslut]

Hmmmm....most of the humans I know can't even spell.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.''

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

 

[trysail]

"Never try to teach a pig to sing- it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

-Robert A. Heinlein

 

[trysail]

"Never appeal to a man's conscience— he might not have one."



"History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it."


-Robert A. Heinlein
Time Enough For Love