Internal consistencies in Heinlein's Future History

Cafe Society
1

I recently picked up a copy of Heinlein’s collection The Past Through Tomorrow (gotta love used-book sales), and was naturally re-reading it. It occured to me that we’re rather taking the editor’s word that these stories all occur in the same universe. So I decided to go through and pick out all of the cross-references and see which were connected and which weren’t.

First of all, Harriman is mentioned directly or indirectly in “Blowups Happen”, “The Man who Sold the Moon” (of course), “Delilah and the Space Rigger”, “Space Jockey”, “Requiem”, “The Black Pits of Luna”, “‘It’s Great to be Back’”, “The Green Hills of Earth”, and Methuselah’s Children. That gives us a good base to work on. Further, “Misfit” and Methuselah’s Children are definitely tied together by A. J. Libby, and Lazarus mentions having consulted with Dr. Pinero, the hero of “Lifeline”, so we can fold those in, too, and several of Blind Rhysling’s songs show up in “Logic of Empire”.

“Logic of Empire”, meanwhile, contains the first mention of Nehemiah Scudder, the First Prophet. So that means that “If This Goes On–” is also in the Future History. In turn, Dr. Micah Novak, one of the leaders of the Cabal and later drafter of the Covenant, ties “If This Goes On–” together with “Coventry”. So that connects all of the stories in The Past Through Tomorrow, except for seven: “The Roads must Roll”, “The Long Watch”, “Gentlemen, Be Seated”, “’–We Also Walk Dogs’”, “Searchlight”, “Ordeal in Space”, and “The Menace from Earth”.

There are also other connections between the stories, of course: I believe there’s a mention in “The Man who Sold the Moon” to Erickson and Harper, inventors of the isotope fuels; “The Black Pits of Luna” and “‘It’s Great to Be Back’” both mention Rutherford radiation lab on the Moon; and “The Green Hills of Earth” and Methuselah’s Children both mention the patronage/indenture system on Venus. “Coventry” and Methuselah’s Children, meanwhile, both refer to the Interregnum of the Prophets and the Second American Revolution, and in Methuselah’s Children there’s also a skyscraper named after Novak.

But as for those other seven stories: The Harriman stories refer to the mechanized Roads, and “If This Goes On–” and Methuselah’s Children mention the ruins of the old Roadcities, with the latter also referring to the “Strike of '76”. There’s nothing firm to make an absolute connection (there might be other timelines with mechanized roads), but it’s pretty safe to say that “The Roads Must Roll” is probably part of the Future History.

I can find nothing in “The Long Watch” to connect it with the Future History, and in “Gentlemen, Be Seated”, the closest thing to a clue as to what timeline it takes place in is that there’s a Richardson Observatory on the Moon (which, so far as I know, isn’t mentioned elsewhere). “Searchlight” is very short on details of any kind (understandable, considering the length restrictions under which it was written), so about all we can say is that there are military bases on the Moon. And “Ordeal in Space” has nothing to connect it to the other Future History stories, but there are many clues that might help place it with some of Heinlein’s other lines: There are things called “drop chutes” which may possibly work by gravity manipulation, there’s a Three Planets treaty, Mars is inhabited by old, tired beings, one of whom is named “Knath Sooth” (I’m almost certain that I’ve seen that name elsewhere in Heinlein’s works), and the Valkyrie was built sometime before the discovery of artificial gravity.

The remaining two stories, “’–We Also Walk Dogs’” and “The Menace from Earth”, I do not believe are properly part of the Future History, and were presumably included due to editorial error. “’–We Also Walk Dogs’” is the most blatent: Earth is governed by a sovreign planetary administration, totally at odds with the independent countries of the other works; the inhabited worlds of the Solar System include Venus, Mars, Titan, Jupiter, and Callisto, whereas the Jovian satellites, at least, are uninhabited in the Future History; and it’s O’Neil who invents the gravity modulator, not Libby in “Misfit”. For “The Menace from Earth”, the evidence isn’t absolute, but neither of the first two starships was designed by the engineering firm of Jones and Hardesty (or Hardesty and Hardesty) or named Prometheus, and I find it hard to believe that Holly wouldn’t have managed to wrangle that contract for the first starship.

That covers all of the stories in The Past through Tomorrow; what about Heinlein’s other books? Time Enough for Love is obviously part of the Future History; less obviously, Farmer in the Sky is as well (one of the characters in that book has a verse from “The Green Hills of Earth” inscibed on his tombstone). Space Cadet is clearly in the same universe as “The Long Watch”, since Johnny Dalquist is one of the Four who are always called on the roster, but although the Venusians in Space Cadet are portrayed consistently with those in “Logic of Empire”, I remain unconvinced that these two stories are part of the Future History. Orphans of the Sky may or may not be; I seem to recall Lazarus referring to the events of that story in Time Enough for Love, but with the name of the ship changed.

Time for the Stars, Tunnel in the Sky, and Citizen of the Galaxy are definitely not Future History, as each has a different method of FTL, with no mention of the Libby hyperspace drive. Likewise, Rocket Ship Gallileo has a different account of the first Moon landing. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and, by extension, The Rolling Stones, is probably not in the Future History: In the Future History, the residents of Luna are all the best and brightest, which seems rather inconsistent with the Moon’s use as a penal colony. Friday, with a Balkanized United States, and The Puppet Masters, with an alien threat from Titan, can likewise be probably ruled out as being part of the Future History. Offhand, I can’t think of any other stories which I can definitively place one way or the other, although I have suspicions that Stranger in a Strange Land, Podkayne of Mars, and Red Planet are all in the same timeline, as well.

Any I missed?

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First, I have to say that I’m impressed with the amount of thought and work you’ve put into this. I don’t have much to add, except that Heinlein himself did comment on this at one point.

In one of his later books, possibly The Number of the Beast, there is talk of certain numbers given to each timeline. Unfortunately, I don’t have my copy of the book handy, but I do recall that the timeline in which the future history existed, along with Maureen and Lazarus Long, was Timeline #2 (codename “Leslie Lecroix”). Also, IIRC, Jubal Harshaw was around and established as being part of Timeline #3 (codename “Armstrong”). My gut feeling is that I Shall Fear No Evil is also of this timeline, but that could be wrong. All in all, at least 3 or 4 were enumerated.

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Yeah, I’m aware of the explicit sorting in The Cat who Walked through Walls, but I’m deliberately ignoring it, as well as The Number of the Beast and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. I’m one of those who maintains that Heinlein was senile by the time that he wrote those, and could not be trusted to get his own stories straight. Besides, where’s the fun in an author coming out and saying “This book was in this timeline, that book was in that timeline, and these other books were in that timeline”? It’s much more interesting to work from internal clues.

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My question: is the Hazel Meade Stone of The Rolling Stones the same character as the Hazel Stone AKA Gwen Novak of To Sail Beyond The Sunset and (I believe) The Cat Who Walks Through Walls?

As for Heinlein being “senile” I will say some of the quasi-liberatarian notions he espouses in his later books leave me cold. Incest is acceptable (as long as it’s kept private and doesn’t lead to pregnancy) but smoking pot is a hanging offense?!?! Jeezus! Just who did Heinlein think were buying all those copies of Stranger in a Strange Land* back in the sixties? It sure weren’t the Rotarians!

5

Waiting for Fenris to jump in here, as he is more grounded in The Canon than I am.

Ordeal in space is probably connected to Double Star, since the Three Planets Treaty is mentioned in both. This makes a certain amount of sense, I suppose. Also, the Martian names seem to meme the same, although that could be a Heinlein thing.

And yes, I think the Hazel/Gwen is the same character. It’s a good thing to be rescued from old age by time traveling hedonists…

Also, wasn’t the Prometheus the name of the ship that ended up drifting with the stagnant culture that had lost it’s tech? Or am I imagining things… you know the story, the one with knives being the primary weapon, and mutants are in the fore-section…? If so, it’s mentioned in one of those books you don’t want to allow… LL mentions it during the dinner party, citing the fact that the descendants on the moon of a planet are fierce fighters, who seem to be killing more scientists than vice-versa.

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Tristan, you’re thinking of Orphans of the Sky, half of which (the first half, IIRC) is called “Universe.”

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Hazel Stone is also the young Hazel that appears in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” as leader of the Baker Street Irregulars. And I believe “The Rolling Stones” has the same martians as “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “Red Planet”, and that therefore ties them all together with “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. And aren’t they the same martians that appear in “Double Star”, and “Between Planets”? I also got the impression that “The Green Hills of Earth” was set in that universe, which would tie them all back in to the future history.

8

That’s it, thank you.

After learning the hard way about loaning out books, and moving 2 times in a year, and a divorce where we fought over the books more than the kids, my RAH juveniles are almost totally gone.

sob

9

Although I like Heinlein (in fact I wrote to him once) (oh, yes, and I’ve read some of his manuscripts in Special Collections at UCSC), I’ve never had the feeling that every single one of his stories were connected by a common universe. If that’s what he intended from the beginning (very doubtful), then he failed.

More likely, we’ve got an editor/publisher who noted early on that the stories didn’t absolutely contradict one another, and could be represented as a “set”: In the sense of a “set” the buyer would want to get a complete collection of.

Reading his manuscripts – just to add a little to my contribution here – it’s evident that Heinlein sat down at the typewriter, wrote a story, corrected the original by hand, and sent it to the publisher. The final versions published correspond with the long, cheap yellow newsprint he used. He typed one draft. Unless he had this entire universe in his head, it’s hard not to conclude that he was just telling stories as they came to him. Without any, fixed, grand plan.

10

What a great post Chronos! A couple of points for the moment:

  1. There’s a missing story from The Past Through Tomorrow: “Let there be Light” which can be found in the collection The Man Who Sold The Moon that was left out because Heinlein didn’t like the slang in it (he was wrong: it’s charming). (There’s also two versions of it: but the differences are maybe 50 words: one is mildly risque, the other not)

  2. The martians of Red Planet are certainly the martians of Stranger (and there’s a line in Stranger about “young nymphs” and another about "considering throwing the colonists off Mars). Rolling Stone’s Martians aren’t seen on-panel, all we know is that Lowell is strangely subdued and thoughtful after seeing them. So maybe.

IIRC we see the Martians of Between Planets and they’re nothing like the other Martians.

In addition, we can be sure that Space Cadet and Between Planets are in completely different universes: their Venusians are completely incompatible, despite the common tie of both of them having a peace-keeping sattilite that orbits the Earth, prepared to drop bombs on anyone who causes trouble.

  1. The story “The Sound of his Wings” listed in the unwritten stories section of the timeline eventually morphed into Stranger. We know I Will Fear No Evil is part of the Future History 'cause Lazarus specifically mentions the events.

  2. Friday ties into “Gulf” and “Gulf” has bombs that make suns go Super-Nova and “self-styled supermen”. No way can I see a connection between them and the Future History. The characters from Job visit Friday’s world at one point (IIRC the Texas scene), but those three are off in their own corner (with Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag very, VERY loosely tied in too, more thematically than anything else.)

More later…

Fenris

11

It’s not true that all of Heinlein’s stories are connected in a single universe. I don’t of any author for whom that’s true.

But Heinlein’s “Future History” is not some editor’s creation – Heinlein himself set it up and named it. He made up a huge chart laying it all out back in the 1940s, and added to it since. The chart appears – with variations – in several places, notably in the omnibus vo9lume The Past Through Tomorrow. IIRC, Heinlein himself said which stories belong to it, and has changed his mind through time. Some stories have only a peripheral connection. “Lifeline”, for instance, is only linked to the others because Lazarus Long says at one point that the Doctor tried to measure his Lifeline, but didn’t give him an answer and returned his money. The implication is that Long has an unnaturally long life. I’m sure Heinlein added this throwaway bit because of his sentimental attachment to the story – it was the first he published.

There’s more info on the Future History chart in A Heinlein Companion and in Heinlein in Dimension, and maybe in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia.

12

I understand, Cal, I just don’t believe Heinlein was always trying to do that. The only support I have to add is subjective: Heinlein’s stories almost never seem to me to have much of a connection. In fact, the Lazarus Long books seem to be about entirely different people. Just my 2 cents.

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I disagree. He mentions in those manuscripts that he kept extensive notes on the stories he had in mind (he began writing Stranger in a Strange Land on several different occasions, and had binders full of information he wanted to use for it).

Also, having worked in the publishing industry, I have no problem with the idea that somebody who could have a story go from his head to the printers with two (2) rounds of revision could do this while keeping an overarching world history in his head, and making his stories stick to it.

14

Well, I’m reporting what I saw, not making a value judgment.

It may be true that he handled his later books differently, but the earlier ones, such as “Door into Summer”, were written once, corrected, and submitted. The entire manuscript fits into a 2 inch high box. He wrote on yellow newspaper. The cheapest thing he could get, I guess. He typed straight through. His notes (which I do not have handy) indicate that he went back and corrected them with a pen. Directly on the original. After that, there are practically no differences between the hand corrected copy, and the published version.

Many of the corrections he made, by the way, were not to sentence structure, or choice of wording, but to mechanical details such as how long it would take a spacecraft to orbit a planet.

15

P.S. I am willing to go back and review his manuscripts, if anyone feels there’s something else that needs looking into. It would take about a month, at this point, though.

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Double Star and Red Planet / Stranger are certainly not the same universe. In the former, the Martians are somewhat shorter than humans, a bit blobby, and reproduce asexually by fission. In the latter (someone might correct me on this; I never managed to finish Stranger), the Martians are tall and gangly (when mature), trilaterally symmetric, and reproduce sexually, with the younger forms female and the older forms male. I don’t think that we’re given a clear description of the Martians in Podkayne of Mars, other than the fact that a Martian doesn’t have a definite sex (hence Podkayne is just as appropriate as a female name as as a male), but this could be interpreted as consistent with either Double Star or Stranger. I get the impression that Podkayne Martians are the same as Stranger / Red Planet Martians, but I’m not sure on what I’m basing that.

I had forgotten about the Three Planets Treaty being in Between Planets (that was the one with Venusian dragons, no?), but it could well be consistent with “Ordeal in Space”. I’ve also considered the possibility that the conference in “’–We Also Walk Dogs’” was to hammer out the Three Planets Treaty, but I don’t think there’s enough detail there to be sure.

I don’t have a copy of Orphans of the Sky handy, but the ship might have been the Prometheus there, and the name of the engineering firm which designed it was certainly mentioned (was it Hardesty & Hardesty?). All I remember for sure is that when Lazarus tells essentially the same story, he uses a different name for the ship. This might mean that the name of the ship was changed, or it might mean that similar events occured in both universes.

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The “older sister” of the New Frontiers? The Vanguard.

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With regard to consistency, how do Heinlein’s “Future History” stories stand up against Larry Niven’s “Known Space” stories?

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About the same, if you ignore obvious “We need to fill space” stories like “We Also Walk Dogs” and add back in stories like “Let There Be Light” which has to be included and wasn’t for ‘artistic’ reasons.

If you go by Heinlein’s timeline, not quite as well.

Fenris

20

Boy, that’s difficult to answer. But don’t be too sure that ‘Known Space’ would have ever happened without the Future History having occured.

We Also Walk Dogs is clearly the odd story out in the future history. I’m certain I once read an interview with RAH wherein he stated that he wasn’t certain about its inclusion but decided he liked the story enough to do so. I mean, where else are Jovians mentioned in the Future history.

Or here’s a puzzler for you…

If you accept the races in the FH we have Terrans, Venusians, Martians and Jovians in the Solar System. That’s 4 species of intelligent life right there. Toss in the Little People and the Jockaira during Methusalah’s children and we’re up to six.

Yet beyond the FH the other stories set it Timeline Leslie LeCroix feature no extraterrestrial intelligences. Is Heinlein’s solar system the only one that produced intelligent life in abundance?