# Mitt Romney's Favorite Novel is ---- Battlefield Earth! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020 "2007-05-14T12:27:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/1 "2007-05-14T12:27:44Z")
[http://www.boston.com/news/education/k\_12/articles/2007/05/13/pulp\_affection/](http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/05/13/pulp_affection/) I saw this at the front of Boston Globe’s editorial section yesterday and couldn’t believe it. Mormonism and Scientology in one package. It’s as if Mitt wants to lose. He started backpedalling immediately – his staff says this is his favorite _science fiction_ novel. **Huckleberry Finn** is _really_ his favorite novel. (Can’t go wrong with the classics). Just so you know , I’ve got nothing against Mitt being LDS – i lived in Utah for years, and I’ve lived under the Ronmey regime here in Massachusetts. Nor do I think there’s anything heavily Scieno about BE, except that buying a copy adds bucks to the Scieno funds. (There’s some Scientologist propaganda in there, though, but it’s buried deeper than you’d expect) What really bugs me is that Mitt would even own up to this being his favorite SF novel. I wouldn’t have voted for the very conservative Romney in the first place, but this reveals that he’s got no taste. Ordinarily I say “de gustibus…”, but BE is pretty damned bad. And Joshua Glenn, the guy who wrote the Glove piece, could use a little more education, too. > [@](#): > > That said, “Battlefield” is no worse than some of the lesser works of, say, science-fiction giant Robert Heinlein (who called it “a terrific story”). This is only true if you count the worst of Heinlein’s “stinkeroos” – the ones he wouldn’t let be republished. On second thought, not even then. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/2 "2007-05-14T12:32:38Z")
Link to Globe piece: [http://www.boston.com/news/education/k\_12/articles/2007/05/13/pulp\_affection/](http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/05/13/pulp_affection/) ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/3 "2007-05-14T13:20:45Z")
Battlefield Earth wasn’t so bad. It was entertaining, which is what I look for in entertainment literature. Here’s my beef with it: it’s insidiously anti-feminist. It’s over a thousand pages long and peopled entirely with male characters. There are three female characters of any note whatsover. The only prominent one is one of the aliens. I believe she was something akin to a file clerk. She is portrayed as repulsive in every possible way, and treacherous, to boot. Some of this is because that’s how the alien race behave and look and smell. Anyway, she has a minor, clerical job in the alien regime, and our hero uses her for a few chapters to get something he wants. And that’s the only female role that moves any action in this very, very long novel full of men doing exciting things. Then there’s the hero’s love interest. At the beginning of the book, the hero, his love interest, and their whole society live like cavemen. No literacy, no plumbing, no feats of engineering, just tribal living. They’re a lot like a pack of dogs, despite being human. At the end of the book, after our hero has used his cunning and bravery and ability to take advantage of a situation to make himself RULER OF THE UNIVERSE, his love interest is still illiterate. And he likes her that way. Then there’s the last female character, their daughter. Our hero has married his love interest and they have a son and a daughter. The son is being groomed to take over after his father, as supreme ruler of the universe. This, of course, includes learning to read. Also calculus and quantum physics and advanced economics and lots of other stuff that you’d need to know to be supreme ruler of the universe. The daughter, though,…our hero thinks it’s best if she stay true to her roots, so he doesn’t teach her to read. No, she is learning the important things a woman should know, such as how to tan hides and weave baskets. It’s insidious because you’d never notice it unless you were looking for it. I doubt very many men read the novel and wonder where all the female characters are. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/4 "2007-05-14T13:59:02Z")
[QUOTE=bluethree] Battlefield Earth wasn’t so bad. It was entertaining, which is what I look for in entertainment literature. [/QUOTE] Yup, it was pretty much your classic episodic page burner; one cliffhanging crisis after another. It’s too bad they made it into a movie instead of a matinee serial _ala_ [Flash Gordon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_(serial)) It would have translated much better that way. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/5 "2007-05-14T17:15:43Z")
A Mormon presidential candidate says he likes a Scientology space opera? The jokes just write themselves these days… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/6 "2007-05-14T17:29:08Z")
**bluethree** , you missed one. There’s also the old lady who serves the shark-alien herb tea to calm a stomachache. Yes, I’ll admit to having read _Battlefield Earth_. It was the book which finally convinced me (too late) that just because something is on the shelves at the library, doesn’t mean I have to read it. I can’t imagine anyone calling it their favorite anything, other than folks paid off by the Scientologists. This might be a fruitful angle to pursue. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/7 "2007-05-14T17:53:49Z")
I read it in the eighties, for shits and giggles. “Beware the evil alien Psychlo Catrists and their mind-control conspiracy!” The author of that article says _Battlefield Earth_ has nothing to do with Scientology. Hoo-hah. Not explicit, but every page is loaded with Scientology dogma – and not very subtle stuff, either. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/8 "2007-05-14T17:57:40Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Yup, it was pretty much your classic episodic page burner; one cliffhanging crisis after another. It’s too bad they made it into a movie instead of a matinee serial _ala_ [Flash Gordon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon_(serial)) It would have translated much better that way. [/QUOTE] Making that movie LONGER would not have made it BETTER. Unless you meant to say “If the government sent a team of agents back in time, kidnapped every single person associated with that film in any way, shape or form, and sank them in the Marianas Trench with cement blocks tied to their ankles before they could conceive of that celluloid travesty, it would have been better”. That I’d agree with. Not that I have an opinion. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/9 "2007-05-14T18:04:08Z")
[QUOTE=bluethree] Here’s my beef with it: it’s insidiously anti-feminist. It’s over a thousand pages long and peopled entirely with male characters. There are three female characters of any note whatsover. [/QUOTE] Hmm…1000 pages long? Almost devoid of female characters? Only three of any note? Did their names happen to be Galadriel, Arwen and Eowyn? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/10 "2007-05-14T18:06:41Z")
It would be even scarier if he said it was his favorite movie. I’ll never read the book, but the movie was stunningly bad. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/11 "2007-05-14T18:14:58Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Mudd] I read it in the eighties, for shits and giggles. “Beware the evil alien Psychlo Catrists and their mind-control conspiracy!” The author of that article says _Battlefield Earth_ has nothing to do with Scientology. Hoo-hah. Not explicit, but every page is loaded with Scientology dogma – and not very subtle stuff, either. [/QUOTE] Yeah, even at the time I thought the anti-psychology stuff was overbearing. And Scientology adherents obviously were attracted to the movie. I’m sure Mitt’s reading just doesn’t run too deep. That book is in every library on the face of the earth, and we are not drowning in scientologists. It was likely the first book he could think of, having recently read it on a plane or something. God only knows what I’d say if asked that question at random. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/12 "2007-05-14T18:19:42Z")
I remember liking the book but I don’t remember much about it. It helps that I never heard of Hubbard or Scientology before I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/13 "2007-05-14T20:13:51Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] …“If the government sent a team of agents back in time, kidnapped every single person associated with that film in any way, shape or form, and sank them in the Marianas Trench with cement blocks tied to their ankles…” [/QUOTE] For a LOT longer than 20 minutes, I’d suggest. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/14 "2007-05-14T20:17:07Z")
From the New York Times: > [@](#): > > “What is the last work of fiction you’ve read?” > > DEMOCRATS > Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: ‘‘Runaway Jury’’ by John Grisham. > New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: ‘‘Team of Rivals’’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin > Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: ‘‘The Broker’’ by John Grisham. > Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: ‘‘Exile’’ by Richard North Patterson. > Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: ‘‘Einstein’s Dreams’’ by Alan Lightman. > Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: ‘‘Gilead’’ by Marilynne Robinson. > New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: ‘‘The administration’s energy plan.’’ > > REPUBLICANS > > Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: ‘‘The Dream Giver’’ by Bruce Wilkinson with David and Heather Kopp. > Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: ‘‘The Beach House’’ by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge. > Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: ‘‘My oldest son’s screenplay.’’ > California Rep. Duncan Hunter: ‘‘The Democrats’ proposal to balance the budget.’’ > Arizona Sen. John McCain: ‘‘A Farewell to Arms’’ by Ernest Hemingway. > Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: ‘‘Term Limits’’ by Vince Flynn. > Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo: ‘‘An Inconvenient Truth’’ by Al Gore. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/15 "2007-05-14T20:19:37Z")
> [@](#): > > “What is the last work of **fiction** you’ve read?” > > DEMOCRATS > Delaware Sen. Joe Biden: ‘‘Runaway Jury’’ by John Grisham. > New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: ‘‘Team of Rivals’’ by Doris Kearns Goodwin > Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd: ‘‘The Broker’’ by John Grisham. > Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards: ‘‘Exile’’ by Richard North Patterson. > Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich: ‘‘Einstein’s Dreams’’ by Alan Lightman. > Illinois Sen. Barack Obama: ‘‘Gilead’’ by Marilynne Robinson. > **New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson: '‘The administration’s energy plan.’** ’ > > REPUBLICANS > > Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: ‘‘The Dream Giver’’ by Bruce Wilkinson with David and Heather Kopp. > Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: ‘‘The Beach House’’ by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge. > Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: ‘‘My oldest son’s screenplay.’’ > **California Rep. Duncan Hunter: ‘‘The Democrats’ proposal to balance the budget.’’** > Arizona Sen. John McCain: ‘‘A Farewell to Arms’’ by Ernest Hemingway. > Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: ‘‘Term Limits’’ by Vince Flynn. > **Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo: ‘‘An Inconvenient Truth’’ by Al Gore.** (Bolding mine) Cute. We gotta buncha comedians. In both parties. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/16 "2007-05-14T21:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > Cute. > > We gotta buncha comedians. In both parties. Yeah, there’s probably a time and a place for that sort of cheapshot, but I’m not sure this is it. An interview with Jay Leno or Conan O’Brian, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/17 "2007-05-14T22:15:03Z")
I’m wondering what HRC’s beef with Goodwin is. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/18 "2007-05-14T23:03:04Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] We gotta buncha comedians. In both parties. [/QUOTE] I’m still trying to figure out if McCain’s answer is supposed to be sarcastic as well. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/19 "2007-05-15T22:57:18Z")
The very next day, his campaign office said Mitt thought the question was about his favorite _science-fiction_ novel (yeah, right), and his overall favorite is (the safe answer) _Huckleberry Finn_. The guy’ll flip-flop about _anything_. ---
**Author:** ![Atrael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Atrael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atrael)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2007, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020/20 "2007-05-16T14:54:22Z")
Eh…I like _BattleField Earth_. It’s a classic space opera. There are a lot of works in fiction that don’t treat the both men and women equally. That didn’t really bother me. Sure if BE was the **only** book you ever read you might get a warped view of the world, but I think the odds of that are pretty slim. The only nit-pick I have is: > [@](#): > > Then there’s the last female character, their daughter. Our hero has married his love interest and they have a son and a daughter. The son is being groomed to take over after his father, as supreme ruler of the universe. This, of course, includes learning to read. Also calculus and quantum physics and advanced economics and lots of other stuff that you’d need to know to be supreme ruler of the universe. > > The daughter, though,…our hero thinks it’s best if she stay true to her roots, so he doesn’t teach her to read. No, she is learning the important things a woman should know, such as how to tan hides and weave baskets. To be fair to the book, JGT wanted to get his son away from learning all that stuff, and teach him hunting, tracking and other skills that he thought were important for a man to learn. Just like he wanted his daughter to learn the skills that **traditionally** a woman performed in that universe. Now you might argue that he should have been teaching his daughter to hunt too, but you can’t say that he wanted his son to have all that ‘edjumication’ so that he could take over. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mitt-romneys-favorite-novel-is-battlefield-earth/404020.md?page=2)