Everything I Needed To Know, I Learned from Heinlein.

Cafe Society
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Unabashed Gloat alert: If you don’t like…um…well…gloating, skip down to the row of ********s
There’s two kinds of gloating. Horrid “rubbing it in someone else’s face” gloating, and the happy, inner gloating feeling knowing you have something that you’ve wanted and hunted/worked for for a long time (Think about Unca $crooge and his money). I’m trying for the second, but I’m afraid I’m ending up with the first. If so, I apologize.

I got two new, unreprinted(!!!) Heinlein essays about Science Fiction! (“Science Fiction, It’s Nature, Faults and Virtues” and “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction”) Heee! I’d searched everywhere and just about given up on finding them, and BAM! there they were in my friendly neighborhood used-book store! :smiley: :slight_smile:

<ahem> I apologize. Gloating is never pretty. [sub]hehehe[/sub]

Anyway, reading new stuff by Heinlein made me realize how much his writings taught me.

Not his political opinions: he was always vague about what HE believed. He wasn’t a “Randite”, in an interview with J. Neil Schulman, he had some pretty strong things to say about and to Libertarians (despite Schulman’s attempts to get him to agree) and his political views were all over the spectrum. So who knows?

And not his religion, either. We don’t know what Heinlein believed. We knew he knew lots about Wicca, but he knew lots about Bible-Belt fundimentalism to, so again…who knows?

I’m talking about his ideas of self-reliance and character.

From Peewee’s dad, I learned (in the first Heinlein I ever read) “‘Good luck’ follows careful preparation; ‘bad luck’ comes from sloppiness.” and “The best things in history are accomplished by people who get ‘tired of being shoved around’”

From Dora Long I learned that it’s not how long you live, it’s how you live.

From Lazarus Long I learned “If it can’t be expressed in figures, it’s not science, it’s opinion.”

From Gloria McNye and Betty Sorenson (and many others), I was shocked to learn (at about age 9) that women in the workplace could be as good as or better than men, but sometimes had higher (and unfair) hurdles to overcome.

From Professor De La Paz I learned about the values of and challenges to freedom.

I could go on and on, but what would be the fun of that? Feel free to add to the list.

(And please, how 'bout taking the inevitable "Heinlein was a racist/Nazi/“fag” (seriously…because he had the guys in Starship Troopers wearing earrings and “real men” don’t wear earrings :rolleyes: )/sexist/etc. comments and not putting 'em in this thread. Just this once? Please? Thanks.)

Fenris

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I learned from Mike that life is and isnt just number crunching.

I learned from Valentine Michael Smith that acceptance by all is not always possible.

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Well, he wasn’t actually a fascist by strict defintion, nor a Nazi. Let’s just say it is pretty clear he was a believer in the whole ubermensch thingy… seldom the sign of a convinced democrat (small “d”).

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No. He. Wasn’t.

And open your own damned thread if you want to discuss this further.

Fenris

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Gawddamn. One legit post before they start crawling out from under their rocks.

One f*cking legit post. <shakes head in total disgust>

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touchy, touchy, touchy… time for you dosage to be adjusted is it?

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Only took two replies. Tough luck, Fenris.

I learned that violence does settle things. Not my favorite lesson, but you can’t pick your truths.

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I’m always shocked by how few of my students have even heard of Heinlein. I have to mention him as the author of Starship Troopers (and add that the book has but a tenuous connection to the movie).

Anyway, whenever I teach the 1st Law of Thermodynamics, I always want to mention TANSTAAFL, but as I mentioned, fewer and fewer students appreciate the joke each year.

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Heilein was one of the first voices that pulled me out to the stars,and showed me that mathematics was a way of knowing the universe.

He took me skating along the martian iceways, and for adventure along the glory road. He taught how to make Igli swallow himself, and that love can be a terrible hunger.

I went with him through tunnels in the sky, to fight bugs in their holes, and to speak with dragons on Venus.

He taught me the strength of mother-things, and who really belongs to whom (with help from Lummox).

He disappointed me terribly sometimes, with his unwavering chauvinism, but a part of me today wishes still that I could whistle my sincere appreciation to some fine gosphaza without fear of gender recrimination.

Some of his later works make me shudder, but even Shakespeare wrote some real duds.

I still go back and visit Sam, the Pirate, Hazel, the twins, and others from time to time.

Even though I can never read his stuff again for the first time, I am looking forward to sharing the best of Heinlein with my own children, hoping that he will be as good a guide for them as he was for me into some truly wonderful sights and stories.

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Fenris, The Notebooks of Lazurus Long have gotten me through many a shitty situation. Heinlein taught me how to(NOT what to!) think about sex, politics and survival. I was also the only nine year old on the block that knew how beer was properly stored. :slight_smile:

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From RAH I learned what honor means, that there are few things more wonderful than girls, how an engineer should design something and what a family should be like.

I also learned that if we had the necessary “man bits” we could build a ship which could go from Earth to Mars in roughly two weeks! :Grrrr!

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In Tunnel In The Sky I learned life isn’t always fair, but you have to work with that and not just be a whiner. I learned how to really look at art from Jubal Harshaw. His talk with Ben Caxton on how to look at his statues is my second favorite piece of Heinlein.(My favorite is all of “The Man Who Traveled In Elephants.”) Citizen of the Galaxy and Starship Troopers taught me about the nature of duty. I could go on, but suffice it to say I agree with Spider Robinson, Rah, Rah, RAH!

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Geniuses make their own rules.

Know when to rub blue mud in your belly button.

Keep your writing on the market until it sells.

And Fenris, feel free to ignore bagkitty. He’s got issues, and a predilection for prescribing drugs without a license.
[sub]scroll down until you see my description of the man[/sub]

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I barely remember the details–I haven’t read Heinlein in years–but I remember being heavily affected by the notebooks of Lazarus Long. There was a list in there, IIRC, of things that all humans, male or female, ought to be able to do. Among them: cook a good meal, change a baby, slaughter a pig, and I forget what else. The general impression that stayed with me from childhood was an emphasis on self-reliance, and I thought of that book recently when trying to teach some of those things to my son. (Not the pig one.)

Think I’ll find that on Amazon, if it’s there. Good thing to keep around, and doesn’t take a week to reread.

Thanks, Fenris! Good thread!

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Theobroma: I loved that quote too

Barbarian: Thanks for the link. Suddenly much becomes clear. Regarding the rules for writers, one of the two essays I found is the complete essay that those rules for writers came from! Best quote so far

Baker: Jubal’s sculpture discussion is one of Heinlein’s best pieces and “The Man Who Travelled in Elephants” always brings a lump to my throat. But I think “The Tale of the Adopted Daughter/Dora’s Story” is the one that moves me the most.

Czar: re: the Notebooks…“me too” :slight_smile:

Yondan this:

was beautiful. Seriously. And I feel exactly the same way.

Fenris

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Well, let’s see…I learned a lot of things, most of which have been mentioned here, but several of which haven’t.

I learned that if I’m not a natural redhead, I’m inferior.

I learned that my inability to wrap my head around mathematics is a personal failing and a symptom of how much I suck as a human being in general.

I learned that having depression is also a personal failing…which is part of why I endured it for as long as I can remember without any kind of medication until less than three months ago.

On the plus side, though, I did learn that it was possible to love, emotionally and sensually, more than one person at a time…which got me in a hell of a lot of trouble in relationships.

Don’t get me wrong…he was a fantastic author and I’m as much a fan as anyone. It’s just that, honestly, that guy can wreck a teenage girl’s self-esteem almost as quickly as your average brainless high school wrestler.

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Thanks to RAH, this is part of what I believe.

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Calling Heinlein a fascist is a superb example of oversimplifaction a fairly complex philosophy, and the charge is usually made by people unable to handle the fact that reality isn’t in black and white.

At most, Heinlein advocated a “strong leader,” even in a democracy (think “Double Star”). Considering that’s exactly what every presidential candidate nowadays tries to appear to be, that’s hardly fascist theory.

Heinlein also wrote a lot of things solely for the sake of story (and for the sake of argument), so it’s treading on some very thin ice to make any sort of generalizations about him. And remember: at the same time the right wing fans were saying, “TANSTAAFL,” the hippies were trying to grok each other.

One thing is clear – he’s one of the major authors of the genre. His future history was extremely influential, as were books like “Starship Troopers,” “Stranger in a Strange Land,” “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” and “Double Star.”

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I can certainly see how that could happen, and good for you for seeing it. I am frankly impressed that you have been come to such a revelation and yet still retain a sense of appreciation for RAH’s work.

Some other authors who might feel more affirming: Sheri S. Tepper, Leslie Marmon Silko, Steven Brust, Emma Bull.

Enjoy!

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Glad to hear it, O Wolf. Thanks for the thread!