On Re-reading all of Robert Heinlein via The Virginia Edition

[Jonathan_Chance]

I Will Fear No Evil Vol. 1 of The Virginia Edition

A more interesting read than anticipated, and not as bad as I remembered.

Let me get this part out of the way early, and I don’t know if this is correct. Here’s my thesis: I Will Fear No Evil is a deliberate attempt to recreate the success of Stranger in a Strange Land.

The books bear striking resemblances.

1. Titles pulled from the Bible.
2. Chapter lead-ins that refer to crazy, off-putting current events.
3. A story centered on a lead character (last name Smith!) attempting to navigate a world that is strange and yet familiar.

There is a strange sort of relationship between the two books in how they’re written and presented. Semi-formulaic, in my opinion. It’s possible that, had Heinlein been able to do the editing this book missed, the two might have been even more similar.

Which isn’t to say it’s a bad book. To an extent it suffers from not aging well. Heinlein’s extrapolations about how bad crime and society would get are wildly off, but that’s part of the hazard (as David Brin once said) of only setting a book 30-50 years in the future. You run the risk of living to see your predictions being wrong. Or the book will still be read and poked at for your predictions being wrong.

Summary: The story is of an elderly man who causes his brain to be transplanted into the body of a young woman. It turns out she was employed by him and, through no fault of either, ends up being the ‘body donor’. He takes it poorly.

That’s the jumping off point. After he survives the surgery he begins hearing her voice inside his head and the cohabit the body (with him doing the driving). Blah blah, sex. Blah Blah female points of view. Blah Blah love. It goes on and on.

Look, I don’t mean to denigrate it there, but I did find it dragging a bit, especially in the middle. Then it wraps up hellishly fast in the last 40 pages or so. She gives birth, she dies, the end. Fade to black.

However, given that I read this for the first time before I was 20 (and I don’t think since) at the time I simply accepted the otherworldly aspect that Eunice stayed resident inside the mind of Johann Sebastian Bach Smith at face value. Now, however, it seems more likely that she’s dead and he’s delusional.

This is borne out by the introduction on the book. In it, it’s laid of that Heinlein wanted to write a book that would show the ‘new wave’ writers that an old guy could deliver the goods on their turf. It also indicates that Heinlein did about half of the first-pass editing that NitroPress mentioned upthread but that, before he fell ill, he felt it needed another 25,000 words cut (on his edits he’d cut about 20,000 words from the 132,000 word manuscript).

In any event, I find I lean more towards the interpretation that the lead character, male brain in female body, is mad from the get-go and is, over the course of the book, slowly going more and more insane as the body rejects the brain. Whether the apparent hallucination of Eunice Branca in his head is caused by the rejection or by his madness is unanswerable in context…

Look, it’s not a bad book. But it’s not his best work. Not his worst, either. There’s always Farnham’s Freehold and For Us, the Living out there, after all. But this was experimental, sort of, and not entirely successful for a number of reasons.

Now, I’m on to the second half of the Future History. I want to get Methuselah’s Children under my belt so I can move through the World as Myth soon. Then I’ll end up eating more veggies with some of the screenplays and such.

Read so far:
Vol 1: I Will Fear No Evil
Vol 3: Starship Troopers
Vol 9: How to Be a Politician
Vol 10: Rocket Ship Galileo
Vol 11: Space Cadet
Vol 14: Between Planets
Vol 18: Tunnel in the Sky
Vol 20: Citizen of the Galaxy
Vol 22: The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
Vol 26: Job: A Comedy of Justice
Vol 32: Creating a Genre (short stories)
Vol 35: Glory Road
Vol 36: The Puppet Masters

[Jonathan_Chance]

"If This Goes On - " from The Future History of Robert Heinlein: Volume II

The first story in the second half of the Future History in The Virginia Edition, ITGO- covers the downfall of the American theocracy hinted as coming in the earlier Logic of Empire from the first book covering the Future History.

There’s a long period, perhaps as much as 150-200 years between the end of LoE and the beginning of ITGO-. During that time the first prophet, Nehemiah Scudder, took control of the United States and cut it off from most of the rest of the world and solar system.

Hmm. Possibly less, even though it seems longer in the text the Future History chart puts it as occurring around 2075. Then again, Heinlein himself said the chart was advisory only as printing limitations placed a limit on how finely times and such could be assigned.

The story concerns the revolution to overthrow the American theocracy and is presented through the eyes of a young officer in the Prophet’s army who, for love, changes allegiances and joins the revolution. Simple enough.

“If This Goes On-” is one of the earliest Future History stories, having been started in the first half of 1939 and published in 1940. It’s plotting and such is coincident with his earliest stories such as Misfit and Life-Line and it shares some of the flaws that those earlier stories show. I’m particularly fond of the fact that the critical final part of the revolution - the fact that the rebels can interrupt a broadcast of a ‘reincarnation of Nehemiah Scudder’ - isn’t mentioned at all before suddenly they need to do so to move their plans forward towards the end of the story. It’s just sort of a ‘hey, I know!’ kind of event. A better plotted story would have worked the existence of this miracle-on-demand earlier, in a casual way.

Still, it’s interesting how the story plays out. It’s a worm’s eye view of revolution as major enterprise that we see more of in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress 20 years later. And God knows it’s not the only time we hear about rebels and revolution from Heinlein.

There are only two woman in the story, effectively. The two present entirely different characters. The first, sister Judith, is in the service of the current Prophet when our hero meets and falls in love with her. After some early adventures she’s offscreen and Dear John’s him, never to be seen again. The second is another sister in service of the Prophet, Magdalene. She’s a lot more developed a character and more worldly than either Judith of the hero. She ends up in a semi-secretarial role and marries John Lyle. Neither are what you’d call fully formed characters, but none of the others outside of John Lyle truly are. This is more a story about the process than the characters.

Which is likely why John W. Campbell liked it so much. While it started with the title, “The Captains and The Priests” and ended up “Vine and Fig Tree”, Campbell retitled it “If This Goes On-”. That’s what it’s been called ever since.

Interestingly, when first published it came in at 35,000 words A long story or a novella. But for the ill-fated collection Revolt in 2100 (ill-fated because the deal with Shasta Press irritated Heinlein) he reworked and expanded it to 55,000 words…more of a short novel.

Read so far:
Vol 1: I Will Fear No Evil
Vol 3: Starship Troopers
Vol 9: How to Be a Politician
Vol 10: Rocket Ship Galileo
Vol 11: Space Cadet
Vol 14: Between Planets
Vol 18: Tunnel in the Sky
Vol 20: Citizen of the Galaxy
Vol 22: The Future History of Robert Heinlein Vol. 1
Vol 26: Job: A Comedy of Justice
Vol 32: Creating a Genre (short stories)
Vol 35: Glory Road
Vol 36: The Puppet Masters

[Andy_L]

@Jonathan_Chance

There are only two woman in the story, effectively. The two present entirely different characters. The first, sister Judith, is in the service of the current Prophet when our hero meets and falls in love with her. After some early adventures she’s offscreen and Dear John’s him, never to be seen again. The second is another sister in service of the Prophet, Magdalene. She’s a lot more developed a character and more worldly than either Judith of the hero. She ends up in a semi-secretarial role and marries John Lyle. Neither are what you’d call fully formed characters, but none of the others outside of John Lyle truly are. This is more a story about the process than the characters.

It’s interesting that Judith is the classic early-sf heroine - a virginal figure who needs to be saved, while Magdalene is a woman with a past (she had been one of the Prophet’s mistresses when younger, but had been been set aside, as I recall). It’s been a while since I read this one, but I didn’t think that she married John - he proposed, but she turned him down, didn’t she? I’ll have to find my copy of The Past through Tomorrow.

[colander]

Wake me when you get to Farnham’s Freehold.

[Jonathan_Chance]

We’ll ignore colander for the moment.

@Andy_L

It’s interesting that Judith is the classic early-sf heroine - a virginal figure who needs to be saved, while Magdalene is a woman with a past (she had been one of the Prophet’s mistresses when younger, but had been been set aside, as I recall). It’s been a while since I read this one, but I didn’t think that she married John - he proposed, but she turned him down, didn’t she? I’ll have to find my copy of The Past through Tomorrow.

In the one I read, he asks and she tries to persuade him not to marry her because of her history. But she eventually relents and does marry him. He describes their honeymoon as twenty minutes on a balcony talking before open rebellion breaks out. She’s still defined by her relationship to men, but hey, that’s an issue we still have ongoing today.

[Andy_L]

@Jonathan_Chance

We’ll ignore colander for the moment.

In the one I read, he asks and she tries to persuade him not to marry her because of her history. But she eventually relents and does marry him. He describes their honeymoon as twenty minutes on a balcony talking before open rebellion breaks out. She’s still defined by her relationship to men, but hey, that’s an issue we still have ongoing today.

I’m probably misremembering then. Thanks.

[silenus]

That’s the way it is in my copy too. First sentence of Chapter 15, in fact.

This story is one of the ones I use to get students hooked on SF. In fact, Revolt In 2100 is on my booklist for my American Government classes.

[Andy_L]

@Andy_L

I’m probably misremembering then. Thanks.

(P.S. The Internet tells me that in the magazine version of the story, John ended up with Judith after all…

[Jonathan_Chance]

Is it, Silenus? Why?

[silenus]

Because 1) it explores some of the underlying ideas about rebellion and responsibility behind the USA, 2) it examines a USA under the control of a religious dictatorship, something I find all too probable, and 3) I like it and want my students to read it.

I have all sorts of fun stuff on the list, but the thing I’ve gotten the most comments from parent groups on is The Communist Manifesto.

I have it listed under “Fiction.”

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Andy_L

It’s interesting that Judith is the classic early-sf heroine - a virginal figure who needs to be saved, while Magdalene is a woman with a past (she had been one of the Prophet’s mistresses when younger, but had been been set aside, as I recall). It’s been a while since I read this one, but I didn’t think that she married John - he proposed, but she turned him down, didn’t she? I’ll have to find my copy of The Past through Tomorrow.

There are two very different versions of ITGO. It’s one of the few stories Heinlein substantially rewrote in between magazine and book appearances, and there are some startling changes of direction.

Besides making the female characters much more involved (and, IIRC, doubling their number - I think Maggie is a whole-cloth addition), the magazine version assumes that conditioning will be used on the population to bring them back to “right thinking”… and in the book version, Heinlein denounces such conditioning in the most dramatic way possible.

[Jonathan_Chance]

Concerning Stories Never Written - from The Future History of Robert Heinlein, Volume 2

This is a brief essay by Heinlein about several stories that are on the Future History Chart that never actually made it to print. Hell, he never even wrote them.

The four stories would have been placed in the space between the optimistic world of The Green Hills of Earth and the initial exploration of the solar system and the events of the second American revolution of “If This Goes On-”.

The stories were thus:

*The Sound of His Wings *- The rise to power of the first prophet, Nehemiah Scudder. This is, as mentioned before, set up by a short conversation in Logic of Empire. Scudder was to have used a substantial bequest, some savvy public relations and his own charisma to get himself elected president of the United States and end free elections.

Eclipse - This story was to detail the growing independence of the independence of both the Mars and Venus colonies as they throw off their colonial status.

The Stone Pillow - This concerns the development of the theocracy in the United States under the prophets and the development of counter-revolutionary forces in an underground.

The Fire Down Below - This would again have been a revolutionary tale, this time about the miners in Antarctica fighting for independence.

I detect a theme. Mainly in this essay, Heinlein makes a point that he hadn’t written the stories, particularly about Scudder and the Prophets because he didn’t like the character much. Of course, we also have further background that he was unhappy with the publishing deal with Shasta about collecting The Future History and simply decided to largely abandon the timeline to do other projects.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@silenus

Because 1) it explores some of the underlying ideas about rebellion and responsibility behind the USA, 2) it examines a USA under the control of a religious dictatorship, something I find all too probable, and 3) I like it and want my students to read it.

I have all sorts of fun stuff on the list, but the thing I’ve gotten the most comments from parent groups on is The Communist Manifesto.

I have it listed under “Fiction.”

Hell, I have my journalism students read ‘Transmetropolitan’ as an example of how go-to-hell a real journalist should be. I can’t really argue with you, there.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@NitroPress

There are two very different versions of ITGO. It’s one of the few stories Heinlein substantially rewrote in between magazine and book appearances, and there are some startling changes of direction.

Besides making the female characters much more involved (and, IIRC, doubling their number - I think Maggie is a whole-cloth addition), the magazine version assumes that conditioning will be used on the population to bring them back to “right thinking”… and in the book version, Heinlein denounces such conditioning in the most dramatic way possible.

Interesting, NitroPress. I’ll have to go looking for the original someplace.

Question: The tale of the rise of Nehemiah Scudder is, to me, a lost opportunity. I wonder if there might be room for such a story that portrays him as less than a ravenous ideologue and more of a sympathetic figure. It’s entirely possible to present a person like that as both A) a committed man who believes he’s doing right and B) a complete totalitarian dickhead.

It would, of course, take permission of the estate to get such a thing published. But it would be worth it, just for the exercise.

[silenus]

The other Heinlein on the list are of course TMiaHM and Starship Troopers. Other SF on the list include Niven and Purnelle’s Oath of Fealty and L. Neil Schulman’s Alongside Night.

I agree that “The Stone Pillow” is a story that really should have been written. The problem with having it commisioned now is that we have lived through 50 years of history that would color any author’s approach. It really needed to be written back in the 40’s, before the rise of the Religious Right. That time had its own religious extremists, and I would have liked to have read Heinlein’s take on the whole matter.

[Andy_L]

@silenus

The other Heinlein on the list are of course TMiaHM and Starship Troopers. Other SF on the list include Niven and Purnelle’s Oath of Fealty and L. Neil Schulman’s Alongside Night.

I agree that “The Stone Pillow” is a story that really should have been written. The problem with having it commisioned now is that we have lived through 50 years of history that would color any author’s approach. It really needed to be written back in the 40’s, before the rise of the Religious Right. That time had its own religious extremists, and I would have liked to have read Heinlein’s take on the whole matter.

Me too. In 1996, F&SF had a story that purported to be a “long lost” draft of “The Stone Pillow” but it was (intentionally) clear that this was a modern pastiche, with Scudder described as looking much like Newt Gingrich.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@silenus

…I have all sorts of fun stuff on the list, but the thing I’ve gotten the most comments from parent groups on is The Communist Manifesto.

I have it listed under “Fiction.”

“New Bruce will be teaching political science - Machiavelli, Bentham, Locke, Hobbes, Sutcliffe, Bradman, Lindwall, Miller, Hassett, and Benet… In addition, as he’s going to be teaching politics, I’ve told him he’s welcome to teach any of the great socialist thinkers, provided he makes it clear that they were wrong.” - Monty Python, Philosophy Department of the University of Woolamaloo

[Jonathan_Chance]

@silenus

I agree that “The Stone Pillow” is a story that really should have been written. The problem with having it commisioned now is that we have lived through 50 years of history that would color any author’s approach. It really needed to be written back in the 40’s, before the rise of the Religious Right. That time had its own religious extremists, and I would have liked to have read Heinlein’s take on the whole matter.

That’s the problem with a lot of the older SF stories, pace of change in some ways way so much outstripped what was predicted that they’re almost quaint.

But, heck, in ‘Concerning Stories Never Written’ specifically warns about the religious influence in America.

As for the second notion, the idea that we could lose our freedom by succumbing to a wave of religious hysteria, I am sorry to say that I consider it possible. I hope that it is not probable. But there is a latent deep strain of religious fanaticism in this out culture; it is rooted in our history and it has broken out many times in the past. It is with us now; there has been a sharp rise in strongly evangelical sects in this country in recent years, some of which hold beliefs theocratic in the extreme, anti-intellectual, ant-scientific, and anti-libertarian.

Boom, baby.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

I think that Heinlein was scarily accurate with the Secretary General and his wife in SIASL. TELL me that this couple was not modeled on Ron and Nancy Reagan!

[Amateur_Barbarian]

@Lynn_Bodoni

I think that Heinlein was scarily accurate with the Secretary General and his wife in SIASL. TELL me that this couple was not modeled on Ron and Nancy Reagan!

A number of newspapers had top or above-the-fold headlines about the White House astrologer, with a notice of Heinlein’s death below the fold.

Ya just can’t buy that kinda publicity.