To double-pick the nit, the quote that Civil Guy is thinking of is from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress:
From chapter 28, page 365 in my edition. Changing a variable is not the same thing as solving a part of a problem.
Which is also incidentally one of my favorite Heinleins (it goes back and forth between Mistress, The Door into Summer, and Space Cadet). Overall, Mistress is probably the best of the lot, but I’m a sucker for the happy ending in Door, and I consider Cadet to be the best of the juvies, almost all of which are very good.
But let’s not neglect the short stories, either: “By his own Bootstraps” is the best time-travel story which ever has been or ever will be written, and “The Man who Sold the Moon” gives me hope for the future every time I read it. And “The Green Hills of Earth”, “Requiem”, and “The Long Watch” never fail to bring me to tears (my eyes are moistening now just thinking of them).
Heinlein was a classic SF genius. Hell, even his first published story (“Lifeline”) was a classic.
On the other hand, a lot of his later books (I’m thinking of most of the ones from Number of the Beast onward) kind of sucked. Fortunately, his earlier works remain worth reading, and re-re-re-re-reading.
Hm. Been a while since I dipped into that bookshelf. Overdue, I think …
It’s a much better-constructed story than Beyond This Horizon, which has two or three storylines that don’t mesh well and don’t work on their own. Furthermore, it assumes a world where Technocracy actually works – everybody is a “shareholder” in the global economy and is paid an annual dividend. (In view of how RAH’s politics developed, I bet he looked back on that with some embarrassment later in life! ) Of course, that was his very first published novel. And a book people read “only because Heinlein wrote it” is still better than most stuff you’ll find on the SF shelf.
I dunno . . . they might have to change the basic premise: The Loonies had to revolt because Earth was using the Moon as a farm, regularly shipping food to Earth, which also meant shipping water to Earth and never replacing it, which meant if they didn’t shake off F.N. rule there would be mass starvation in a few years. I can’t buy either half of that. Even if we had a space elevator, food prices would have to be really high to make Lunar farming economical. We have no shortage of farmland on Earth, constantly improving techniques, and prosperity tends to depress population growth. (Many Heinlein stories, such as [url=]Farmer in the Sky, are predicated on the premise that Malthusian catastrophes are inevitable, an idea now largely discredited.) Furthermore, why would a Lunar colony run short of water? As I understand, there’s oxygen in the rock and hydrogen is (relatively) easy to gather.
But then, why am I expecting logical and scientific thinking from Hollywood in the first place?
Except the whole point of Mistress was that it didn’t make sense. The only reason the FN had Loonies farming and shipping them grain was that the Loonies were essentially slave labor. Everything they did in underground tunnels under Tycho, they could just as easily (if not more so) have done in underground tunnels under Calcutta. Except the Indians had a choice in the matter, and the Loonies didn’t. That said, though, shipping from the Moon to the Earth is a lot cheaper than the reverse, for the reasons expounded in the book.
And hydrogen is, indeed, easily gathered… On Earth. Do you know where we gather it from? Water. A lunar colony that was regularly shipping water to Earth would, indeed, run short with time. It’d be different with a spacefaring society in the outer solar system, where you could just grab some comet-like moons or ring particles, but the Loonies were neither.
Well, not exactly . . . A lot of them started as convicts but, as in Australia, they were not permanently enslaved as individuals. (In fact, in Luna’s case (unlike Australia’s) even the violent criminals seem to have been free from the moment they disembarked – not free to leave Luna, but free otherwise; there were no jails or cells or detention facilities. Or slave drivers/overseers.) Whatever they worked at, they got paid for it and had the option of quitting. Their problem was they had no voice in the Warden’s administration, which had absolute control over everything Earth cared about, including what was to be done with Luna’s agricultural products. And no, it didn’t make sense, in the long run, even from Earth’s POV – the system was bound to break down eventually; which is why the Loonies had to rebel or die. But that’s my objection: Would such a system (1) exist in the first place (that is, would the F.N. view it as economical in the first place) and (2) be doomed to long-term failure from lack of water? Aren’t their ways (now) to find or make water on the Moon? I think I recall someone saying so in a Dope thread but I can’t recall the original topic or even the forum.
As much as I’ve enjoyed Heinlein, it seems that his major characters are almost always the same person. Full disclosure: I’ve read about half of his major novels and short stories.
The first Heinlein story that really hooked me was ‘Time enough for Love’ mostly because the character of Lazarus Long seemed to have the characteristics of a man who actually had lived for 2000 years. He was accomplished at so much, his instincts were had the certainty of one who had honed them over centuries; a really larger than life person. Those who surrounded him where cut from much of the same cloth although not nearly as surefooted and obviously enamored of him.
But upon reading more Heinlein, so many of his characters where cast from the same mold and after awhile these specimens of near perfection and extraordinary attributes with few faults seemed to wear on me, making some of his work much the same at least in terms of little character development. In fact Long seemed to have more faults displayed than many of Heinlein’s other characters.
Of course he remains one of the most imaginative SF writers, and he cut many paths in the genre, but I’d quit reading him after a while knowing that much of the story would tend towards a bit too much predictability in this aspect.
But I also must admit that after reading TEFL, I’ve found that few works by any SF author meet that standard. In any case, happy B’day Robert and I’m sure the world is a less interesting place without you.
My favorite writer, my most often re-read writer, the writer (along with his spiritual heirs Spider Robinson and John Varley) I pick up when I need to feel better about life. I buy any inexpensive copy of his books I can find just so I have some on hand to lend to friends, expecting I’ll never get them back–this keeps my precious Steele Savage* cover books right where they belong, on my shelf. I even have a signed first edition of Job that’s one of my most prized possessions.
I cried when he died, I was depressed for years about it and I still think to myself that there’s a looooong list of people I’d really rather see dead than he–why do the good ones leave us when the crappy and evil flourish like the green bay tree?
I miss you more than I can tell–RIP, you wonderful man!
) Of course, that was his very first published novel. And a book people read “only because Heinlein wrote it” is still better than most stuff you’ll find on the SF shelf.
