Heinlein’s original idea for “Gulf” was to going to be the book that turned into Stranger–Ginny suggested it (“Write a Mowgli story”) but Heinlein and Campbell thought the idea was too big for a short story.
Might be that, or it might be a sop to the times.
Remember, in most of the juveniles where there’s a significant romantic interest, the ending implies something in the future while the lead is contemplating what he’s going to do next.
In TSB, John Thomas Stuart and Betty Sorenson are moving off to a hell of a long way off to be semi-isolated with a small cadre. It might have been easier for Heinlein to ‘make an honest man/woman of him/her’ as they head out to begin adult lives. Remember, too, that Betty has agreed to her role of producer of the next generation of John Thomases. That implies some banging in their future.
He’s not quite that bad–the few times he stands up for himself (at Lummox’s first trial, for instance), he Does The Right Thing, despite everyone objecting. (Where he offers to pay for the roses and the greenhouse.) He shows a bit of character there, a bit when arguing with his mom when she wants to sell Lummox (but he’s stymied every time she says “We’ll talk about it later” or “We’ll say no more about it”…he has no defense against those phrases)
The problem with JT is that he’s spent his life being a professional descendant (to swipe a phrase from Pratchett). His ancestors are so illustrious that I think he feels it’s pointless to strive–why bother? Anything he could do that interests him, his ancestors have done first and better. And his mom (who’s up there in the “Worst Heinlein Mother” competition*) doesn’t help matters.
Keep in mind that Lummox is only 200 years old or so. They’re near-immortals. I got the feeling that she’s about an 8 year old to them.
Kiku is also a nice antidote to the silly Damon Knight/Panshin criticism that there are only three Heinlein males. Kiku is absolutely nothing like the Knight/Panshin claim of what the elder Heinlein male is like–he doesn’t bluster, he doesn’t lecture, he doesn’t pontificiate and he’s not always perfectly correct.
*Overall, in the bad Heinlein mom category, JT’s mom is only third runner up–she’s a money-hungry moral-less person who wants to keep JT tied to her apron-strings, but given the choice between money (or her happiness) and JT, she’ll sell him out every time.
Second runner-up is Max’s mom in Starman Jones–who’s willing to let an incredibly abusive creep beat the crap out of her son, if it’ll keep him in her bed.
Winner is Momma Farnham, who is willing to whore herself out so her son can be lobotomized and castrated (as such) to keep him tied to her.
Johnathan Chance: At the end of The Star Beast, Mr. Kiku speculates that John Thomas is starting to grow a backbone because Betty doesn’t wear one of her fantastic patterns of makeup at the wedding.
I think myself that John Thomas is like Don Harvey of Between Planets. He’s a typical middle-class kid, of above average, but not genius intelligence, and sheltered upbringing, who is put in a situation where he must deal with major events happening very quickly. I don’t think he did that bad a job.
Glad to see all this discussion. I’ve always thought *The Star Beast *was a wonderful novel.
Gotta admit, I’m avoiding Farnham’s Freehold for a reason.
The “prophecy” issue of Astounding is an interesting story - here’s some background information Science Fiction Prophecy (basically a fan wrote a letter to Astounding about an issue from the next year - and Campbell made sure that he had stories of the right titles by the right authors, to fulfill the prophecy). Here’s a contemporary account from Time magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801009,00.html
P.S Hope you’re okay, Polycarp. I recently read about a sudden spurt of typos being a sign of trouble Dystextia: jumbled text messages as stroke symptom.
By the way, Robert Asprin’s Myth books feature a character that appears to be inspired by Lummox (the main characters see the character as an unintelligent animal, but from its own point of view, it’s clearly highly intelligent, amused by the behaviour of its apparent owners, and capable of manipulating them and their circumstances)
Yeah, that’s one of the bits of “Friday” that has the old Heinlein feel.
Leave it until last. Maybe you’ll win the lottery and be able to pay someone else to read it.
Or perhaps you’ll die first. Assuming you end up in the appropriate afterlife, you’re safe then.
Of course, if you go the other way you might end up reading it over and over and over. And discussing it.
Oh, come on, Farnham wasn’t the worst thing Heinlein ever wrote.
Yeah, I’ll grant that it’s pretty bad. But it’s still better than any of the world-as-myth garbage.
Well, we can agree to disagree, Chronos, ol’ buddy. I always found the WaM books pretty entertaining.
Don’t save it for absolute last–save a really good one for your finale Have Spacesuit, maybe. You’ll want to wash the taste of Farnham’s out of your mouth and finish on a high note.
Farnham has it’s good points. There’s a cat in it, for one. And…
A little help here…
James Peak is a cool local reference to an alternate-timeline Pikes Peak.
Other than that, I can’t help.
I learned about what you get when you mix ammonia with iodine.
Depending on your edition, the spelling is good.
Farnham is a Hugo-Nebula-Locus-Pulitzer winner up against For Us, The Living.
I think there are points of value in it for the serious Heinlein aficionado, but it’s at the very bottom of the list - even after FUTL - for pleasure reading. I think I’ve had more interesting discussions about Heinlein’s early-1960s writing and Hugh Farnham than many, many other more common topics.
The ending with him giving food in exchange for books in his second fallout shelter?
You could have stopped after the first one and a half words, you know.
Oh, stop, you guys.
Yeah, it’s a weak one, and an uncomfortable read as well. But it’s still out there and we’ll have to deal with it sooner or later.
Kinda like a prostate exam.