John Millen: Robert Heinlein at 100

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: June 25, 2007 6:03:32 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] John Millen: Robert Heinlein at 100

[Note:  This item comes from friend John McMullen.  DLH]

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: June 25, 2007 12:59:00 PM PDT
To: "johnmac's living room" <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: John Millen: Robert Heinlein at 100

From National Review -- <http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/? 
q=YjE5OGQwZDgzODc5OTYwODRkNTIzM2Y5ZWZhNDUwNTE=>

In a Strange Land
by JOHN J. MILLER

When Robert A. Heinlein opened his Colorado Springs newspaper on  
April 5, 1958, he read a full-page ad demanding that the Eisenhower  
administration stop testing nuclear weapons. The science-fiction  
author was flabbergasted. He called for the formation of the Patrick  
Henry League and spent the next several weeks writing and publishing  
his own polemic that lambasted RCommunist-line goals concealed in  
idealistic-sounding nonsenseS and urged Americans not to become Rsoft- 
headed.S

Then Heinlein made an important professional decision. He quit  
writing the manuscript he had been working on - eventually it would  
become one of his best-known books, Stranger in a Strange Land - and  
started work on a new novel. Starship Troopers was published the next  
year, and it quickly became perhaps the most controversial sci-fi  
tale of all time. Critics labeled Heinlein everything from a Nazi to  
a racist. RThe 'Patrick Henry' ad shocked 'em,S he wrote many years  
later. RStarship Troopers outraged 'em.S

Almost half a century later, the book continues to outrage, shock -  
and awe. It still has critics, but also armies of admirers. As a  
coming-of-age story about duty, citizenship, and the role of the  
military in a free society, Starship Troopers certainly speaks to  
modern concerns. The U.S. armed services frequently put it on  
recommended-reading lists. (RFor today's Sailor, this novel is  
extremely worthwhile,S says a Navy website.) Director Paul Verhoeven  
turned it into an unfaithful movie in 1997, and a new edition,  
released last year, features a sand-and-choppers cover that looks  
curiously like a scene from Iraq. There's even a grassroots campaign  
to have a next-generation, Zumwalt-class destroyer named the USS  
Robert A. Heinlein.

Heinlein's influence reaches far beyond a single book, of course. He  
was the first sci-fi author to make the bestseller lists, the winner  
of multiple awards, and the inspiration for a legion of prot s and  
imitators whose own volumes now weigh down bookstore shelves. He was  
not the most accomplished literary stylist in his genre, but he spun  
a good yarn, grappled with big ideas, and left an enduring imprint on  
a popular field. He was arguably the preeminent sci-fi author of the  
20th century. One of the key differences between him and the two men  
who might also compete for this title - Isaac Asimov and Arthur C.  
Clarke - is that whereas they were political liberals, Heinlein was a  
man of the Right.

Robert Anson Heinlein was born in Butler, Mo., on July 7, 1907. (His  
centenary is now upon us.) Growing up, he became an avid reader of  
everything from Mark Twain to Jack London. As biographer Bill  
Patterson has pointed out, sci-fi pioneer H. G. Wells made a big  
impression - and not just because he wrote about Martian tripods in  
The War of the Worlds. Young Heinlein picked up Wells's twin devotion  
to science and socialism.

The boy followed his brother to the Naval Academy and graduated high  
in his class in 1929. Seasickness and other health problems plagued  
him, however, and five years later he left the Navy with a medical  
disability. He settled in Los Angeles and threw himself into left- 
wing politics, joining the campaign to elect the muckraking novelist  
Upton Sinclair to California's governorship in 1934. This effort  
failed, but Heinlein remained a leader among local Democrats. He ran  
for the state assembly from Hollywood in 1938 and lost the primary.

There is some mystery in Heinlein's early biography, partly because  
Heinlein liked it that way. Virtually nothing is known about a short  
first marriage, and fairly little is known about a second one that  
lasted from 1932 to 1947. Only in recent years have researchers come  
to appreciate the full extent of his radical activism. What's clear  
is that shortly after his 1938 political defeat, he tried his hand at  
professional writing. A first novel, For Us, the Living, was not  
published until a posthumous edition came out in 2003, but he kept at  
it. Following World War II, his career blasted off.

For a while, Heinlein concentrated on short stories for the pulps and  
short novels for teenage boys. As with all great science fiction, his  
constantly speculated about technology, social progress, good  
government, and so on. By the early 1950s, married for a third and  
final time, he was drifting away from his left-wing past and adopting  
a new brand of politics. In The Puppet Masters, a 1951 novel meant  
for an adult audience, slug-like alien parasites land in Iowa and  
take over the minds of Americans. It falls upon a secret agency  
within the U.S. government to fight back, and the fate of the world  
hangs in the balance. The Puppet Masters may be read as a classic  
invasion-of-the-body-snatchers story - and also as an anti-Communist  
metaphor during the era of Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, and Joe McCarthy.

The 1950s were probably Heinlein's most prolific period, and the  
decade culminated with the publication of Starship Troopers. The  
story focuses on Juan Rico as he graduates from high school, joins  
the space marines, and wages interplanetary war on a belligerent race  
of RbugsS whose ant-like collectivism makes them natural-born  
Communists. Most of the story focuses on Rico's boot camp - Starship  
Troopers is dedicated Rto all sargeants [sic] anywhere who have  
labored to make men out of boys.S The basic training is both physical  
and intellectual, with readers treated to a colorful denunciation of  
Rthe disheveled old mystic of Das Kapital, turgid, tortured,  
confused, and neurotic, unscientific, illogical, this pompous fraud  
Karl Marx.S

One of the main non-ideological complaints about Starship Troopers  
involves the plotting - too much talk and not enough shoot-'em-up  
scenes against those extraterrestrial creepy-crawlies. Yet the  
richness of the novel lies in these more thought-provoking sections,  
where Heinlein inserts miniature monologues that sound like outtakes  
from Zell Miller's GOP convention address. RMy mother says that  
violence never settles anything,S comments one character. A teacher  
who doubles as Heinlein's mouthpiece then pounces: RViolence, naked  
force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor,  
and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds  
that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives  
and freedoms.S


For those with delicate sensibilities - the type of people who would  
pay for newspaper ads that demand nuclear-test bans - this is sheer  
bombast. But Heinlein doesn't stop there. He goes on to describe a  
society in which citizens gain the right to vote through military  
service. His conjectures about Rthe decadence and collapseS of 20th- 
century democracies are also designed to raise liberal hackles:  
RThose noble experiments failed because the people had been led to  
believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted . . .  
and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears.S The notion  
that you can't get something for nothing would become a major theme  
for Heinlein.

Detractors called Heinlein a fascist and a militarist - a strange  
charge, given that he was also an outspoken critic of conscription.  
RIf a country can't save itself through the volunteer service of its  
own free people, then I say: Let the damned thing go down the drain,S  
he once said. As for labels, around the time Starship Troopers came  
out, he called himself Ra pragmatic libertarian.S

Heinlein certainly wasn't a conservative traditionalist. His most  
popular book, in terms of copies sold, was Stranger in a Strange Land  
- a paean to sexual liberation and an attack on organized religion.  
Published in 1961, it resonated with hippies and gave Heinlein a mass  
following. Yet the author, despite a lifelong interest in unusual  
family arrangements, remained aloof from the counterculture: In 1964,  
he and his wife Virginia were enthusiastically for Barry Goldwater. A  
few years later, according to Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader's  
Companion, he signed a magazine ad that supported U.S. military  
involvement in Vietnam.

In his recent book Radicals for Capitalism, Brian Doherty observes  
that Ra youthful love for Heinlein's tales of rugged individualists  
often lies in the past of dedicated libertarian activistsS - a  
statement that's possible in large measure because of the 1966 novel  
that many regard as Heinlein's greatest: The Moon Is a Harsh  
Mistress. The story takes place mostly within a lunar colony, where  
the residents grow restless under a command-and-control economy  
imposed by the Lunar Authority, a government that operates for the  
benefit of earthlings. RHere in Luna we're rich. Three million  
hardworking, smart, skilled people, enough water, plenty of  
everything, endless power, endless cubic,S says one of the moon- 
dwelling Loonies. RWhat we don't have is a free market. We must get  
rid of the Authority!S A few pages later: RIt strikes me as the most  
basic human right, the right to bargain in a free marketplace.S

The Loonies rebel in ways that echo the American Revolution, such as  
declaring independence on July 4, 2076. There are battles, diplomatic  
missions, debates on hydroponic-food exports - plus lots of  
discussion about how societies ought to organize themselves. Heinlein  
makes his distaste for taxes abundantly clear. There's even some  
chatter about immigration policy: RLuna has room . . . the mind  
cannot imagine the day when Luna would refuse another shipload of  
weary homeless.S For a catchy slogan, the Loonies use RThere ain't no  
such thing as a free lunch.S Frequently expressed as the acronym  
RTANSTAAFL,S the Milton Friedmanesque phrase is probably the most  
famous line in Heinlein's large oeuvre.

Although idealistic, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress steers clear of  
libertarian fantasyland. Heinlein is well aware that revolutions  
don't lead to utopia, and the successful lunar revolt is no  
different. By the novel's end, the moon's new government has rejected  
the innovations that Heinlein apparently believes it should have  
embraced: RSeems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making  
everything compulsory that isn't forbidden,S complains the narrator,  
who considers lighting out for the asteroids. There's certainly no  
point in fighting human nature: RI long ago quit being disappointed  
in men for what they are not and never can be,S says another  
character, expressing a sentiment that is nothing if not conservative.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress was Heinlein's last great work. He  
continued to write until his death in 1988, overcoming health  
problems to do it and engaging in politics when it seemed  
appropriate. Heinlein was an early backer of the Strategic Defense  
Initiative and, according to his friend and fellow sci-fi author  
Jerry Pournelle, he helped develop some of the language President  
Reagan used in his speech introducing the concept.

At the time, Reagan's domestic foes derided SDI as pure science  
fiction. To drive home the point, they even dubbed it RStar Wars.S If  
Heinlein had lived to his 100th birthday - and witnessed recent  
advances in missile-defense technology - he might have smiled at  
their fulminations, and maybe even written a book about the subject.

* * *

Robert A. Heinlein wasn't the only author to write sci-fi novels that  
resonate with conservatives - the genre is full of books that lean  
rightward. Here's a list of recommended titles, drawn from my own  
experience as well as suggestions from readers of National Review  
Online.

We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin: Soviet censors banned this landmark novel  
shortly after it was written in 1921 because they correctly  
interpreted its portrayal of the ROne StateS as a hammering critique  
of their own emerging totalitarianism. Two better-known dystopian  
successors - Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's 1984  
- stand upon its broad shoulders.

Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, by  
C. S. Lewis: Before he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis wrote  
this space trilogy, which blends interplanetary adventure with subtle  
theology. The books were started partly in response to Lewis's  
concern that (in his words) Ra 'scientific' hope of defeating death  
is a real rival to Christianity.S

The Weapon Shops of Isher, by A. E. van Vogt: In this 1951 novel by a  
sci-fi pioneer, the only check on imperial power is a network of  
weapon shops whose motto is Rthe right to buy weapons is the right to  
be free.S But beware of invisibility shields!

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury: Often hailed as a simple cautionary  
tale about book-burning censorship, this perennial favorite of  
librarians is really about much more, from the perils of a dumbed- 
down culture to the importance of preserving traditions. Russell Kirk  
called it Ra passionate and tender and terrifying description of a  
democratic despotism.S Aficionados of the book will appreciate Match  
to Flame, a brand-new volume edited by Donn Albright that collects  
precursors to Bradbury's 1953 masterpiece.

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller Jr.: Just as Irish  
monks are said to have Rsaved Western civilization,S the Catholic  
Church keeps tradition alive in the barbaric years following a  
nuclear apocalypse. The final section of this three-part novel,  
written in the 1950s, makes a powerful moral argument against  
euthanasia. Ironically, the author committed suicide in 1996.

RHarrison Bergeron,S by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Although Vonnegut was a  
man of the Left, this tale is so conservative that NR reprinted it in  
1965. The opener: RThe year was 2081, and everybody was finally  
equal . . . due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the  
Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United  
States Handicapper General.S Coming in at just a little more than  
2,000 words, this is a short-short story. RHarrison BergeronS may be  
found in Welcome to the Monkey House, a collection of Vonnegut's work.

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke: A classic work of hard sci- 
fi - a subgenre that emphasizes technical accuracy and detail - this  
1972 story focuses on the discovery of a derelict alien spacecraft.  
It turns out that modern science can't solve every enigma. Fans of  
tidy and conclusive endings will come away disappointed, others with  
much to ponder.

The Mote in God's Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: It's hard  
to go wrong with Niven and Pournelle, whether they're writing  
separately or as a team. This 1974 novel of first contact carries  
lessons for conservative hawks and liberal doves. Heinlein called it  
Rpossibly the best science-fiction novel I have ever read.S Other  
Niven-Pournelle collaborations worth checking out include Oath of  
Fealty, about urban conflict in the future, and Fallen Angels (with a  
third co-author, Michael Flynn), which is a forerunner to Michael  
Crichton's anti-global-warming thriller State of Fear.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry: This powerful and disturbing book won the  
Newbery Medal for children's literature in 1994. Just beneath the  
surface of a seemingly utopian society lurks a menacing culture of  
death, built upon a foundation of euphemisms and lies.

- JOHN J. MILLER


-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com