h e i n l e i n b l o g

2010-06-13T02:55:00.000-05:00

I am testing a post to all bogs feature in Bloggar.

I'VE MOVED

2006-02-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

heinleinblog has moved to http://heinleinblog.blogpeoria.com. Adjust your blogroll accordingly. Thank you.

Heinlein Award winners named

2005-07-19T15:47:00.000-05:00

The Heinlein Society (www.heinleinsociety.org) announced today that its panel of judges for the Robert A. Heinlein Award for outstanding published work in hard science fiction or technical writings inspiring the human exploration of space has chosen Mr. Larry Niven and Dr. Jerry Pournelle to be the 2005 recipients.

Words of wisdom

2004-07-16T03:01:00.000-05:00

"Violence never solves anything." -- Virtually every peacenik and protestor who carries a sign in protest of the War on Terror.

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms." -- Robert A. Heinlein.

It is with these words that I announce the following: I am shutting down heinleinblog. As was the case with my involvement with the Heinlein Society, I simply do not have time to give this blog the attention it deserves. But these posts -- which have grown so infrequent as to classify this blog as defunct -- will be moved to my man blog, Peoria Pundit. Soon, I'll erase the posts from the server and leave up a static page noting the move. I plan to move the entire site to a new hosting company within the month, so it was time to make the move, anyway.

Rocket Ship Galileo remembered

2004-06-21T03:21:00.000-05:00

If the private SpaceShipOne project reminds you of one or more Heinlein novels, you are not alone:

Doug Roberts, 58, of Burien, was one of the first to arrive in his camper early yesterday morning. "I read 'Rocket Ship Galileo' when I was 10 years old, so I've been waiting for this for years," he said. The book by Robert Heinlein told of some high-school graduates who built a rocket ship in the desert. It's the book that got Allen hooked on science fiction. If today's flight is successful, SpaceShipOne is later expected to contend for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, a competition to launch three people into suborbital space, bring them back safely and do it again within two weeks using the same vehicle. Several private groups are in contention for the prize.

Oddly enough, Rocket Ship Galileo is the only Heinlein novel I haven't read. I haven't been able to find it, new or used.

2004-05-25T03:06:00.000-05:00

Another newspaper invokes Heinlein

• Green Bay News-Chronicle: A pitch for 'rational anarchy' The author uses 'The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" to explain the concept of holding office holders persobnally responsibile for their own behavior. It's a radical concept, I admit:

Wyoming Knott, our heroine, challenges the concept: "Too much power in the hands of individuals - surely you would not want, well, H-missiles for example - to be controlled by one irresponsible person?" "My point is that one person is responsible. Always," de la Paz replies. "If H-bombs exist - and they do - some man controls them. In terms of morals there is no such thing as 'state.' Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts." Might sound like gobbledygook to many folks, but it sounds like common sense to me. Commit a misdeed, and the devil didn't make me do it, the company didn't make me do it, not even the government made me do it - and I certainly cannot fall back on the old standby "I was just following orders," because only I am responsible for my actions.

Paging D.D. Heriman ...

2004-05-18T12:26:00.000-05:00

Paging D.D. Harriman ...

• BBC: Amateur rocket fired into space

An amateur unmanned rocket has been launched into space from the Nevada desert - the first time this has been achieved by a privately-built vehicle. The Civilian Space eXploration Team's 6.5m (21ft) GoFast rocket is understood to have exceeded an altitude of 100km. "It just roared off the pad and flew into space," said rocketeer and CSXT avionics manager Eric Knight. The GoFast vehicle and its payload sent back signals from space before falling down to Earth for recovery. --- The achievement comes at a time when it is widely expected that the first private astronaut will go into space in the next few weeks.

In the "The Man Who Sold The Moon" and "Requiem," millionaire D.D. Harriman finances the first manned mission to the Moon. It was a private, not public, endeavor done for commercial purposes. No human has stepped on the face of the Moon since the last NASA trip, financed by the U.S. government.

2004-05-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

Sixteen years without Heinlein

Sixteen years ago today, Robert A. Heinlein died. He remains the greatest science fiction writer ever, even though he is not the household name as is Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury. RAH fandom is notoriously fervent in their admiration. Many, including myself. Consider him some sort of guru. I got most of my political beliefs from Heinlein. Heinlein's politics baffled many. And they baffled me, at first. He was a liberal who campaigned for socialist Upton Sinclair in the 1930s. He campaigned against a ban on nuclear testing in the 1950s and for Barry Goldwater in the 1960s. He advocated free love in "Stranger in a Strange Land." He seemed to advocate letting only veterans have the power to vote in "Starship Troopers." That book earned him an undeserved reputation as a "fascist," an opinion held by ignoramuses who don't understand the true meanign of the term. His novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is a primer in libertarian philosophy. He would have been disgusted by modern members of the Libertarian Party, who recently seem to blame America itself for the attacks against us. Heinlein would have enlisted on Sept. 11, had he been able. More than anyone else, Heinlein is responsible for my evolution from a liberal Democrat into a libertarian. It didn't happen all at once, of course. I read his books because I enjoyed them, but was disturbed by some of the radical ideas. I tried to not read any more, but doggone it, the first one was so much fun, I had to pick up another. Then another. I made a pact with myself: I would read every single thing the man wrote, but I would not let them change my mind about anything. Nosiree. I was a liberal and I knew that was the right position because anything not liberal was conservative, and conservatives were bigots, they wanted to keep the work class down and were pro war. So I read and enjoyed. After Heinlein died, I could only re-read his stuff. I began to admit to myself that a lot of what he was saying made sense. He certainly didn't seem like the hateful conservative monster my parents warned me about. I read an interview in which Heinlein described himself as essentially a libertarian. I was baffled. Wasn't the Libertarian Party those strange people who based their campaigns on legalizing drug use and prostitution? Oh, yeah, they want the government to stop interfering with people's lives. Heh. 'In a perfect world, sure,' I thought. 'But we need the government to help us.' The older I got, the more I realized that the government isn't helping. I think it was during Clinton's second term in office when I realized that the party for which I had been voting since I was able to do so was every bit as bad the Republicans, and that both parties were more concerned about staying in office than in living up to their principles. Besides, two decades of paying taxes so that others get rich or at least avoid their own responsibilities had taken their toll. I joined the LP. Of course, I quit two years later after 9/11 because the LP's position on the War on Terror is that it's all America's fault. Screw 'em. Heinlein would have punched Harry Browne in the nose if he could. Heinlein hated to be considered anyone's guru. His books were designed to make people think and to ask questions about what they really think about what is wrong or right. They were also about fun. But make no mistake: If more people read Heinlein's books and paid attention to what he was trying to say, then the world would be a better place. Heinlein set his stories on the Moon and Mars, in the future and in alternative universes. But, they were about politics, culture, society, family, religion and sex (lots of sex). In the end, readers come away with a simple philosophy: Assume responsibility for yourself, let other people do the same, and things just might work out for the better. It's certainly a small-"L" libertarian system of belief. It certainly had its effect on me. Don't take my word for it. Go down to your bookstore and see for yourself. You won't get brainwashed. But it might brush away some of those cobwebs in your brain. What's the matter? Afraid you might learn something? UPDATE: I cannot think of a better essay on why Heinlein is important that this article by J. Neil Schulman, posted on the Heinlein Society Website.

2004-05-01T12:54:00.000-05:00

Great Scott! Heinlein invoked in editorial

The Scotsman newspaper doesn't like changes being planned for universities and invoked Robert Heinlein and other science fiction writers to explain why:

THE PRIME contractor for the first manned expedition to Mars was Edinburgh University - at least according to the renowned science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein, in his classic 1961 novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein was not the first to set the future in Edinburgh. And Jules Verne has an Edinburgh University professor of geology, Oliver Lindenbrook, set out on a Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Along the way, he discovers the secrets of evolution and what happened to the dinosaurs. Of course, that discovery might be disputed by Arthur Conan Doyle?s Professor Challenger - he who discovered "The Lost World" - whom Doyle informs us was a famous graduate of Edinburgh University. Scotland?s universities are our local pride and joy, but they are much more than that: they have helped shape the entire western imagination, as well as created the modern scientific and technical world. From the pre-Reformation world when Scottish Latin scholars at Aberdeen and St Andrews universities dominated European thinking, through the 18th-century Enlightenment, which gave us Adam Smith and David Hume, to the age of science, which gave us Lord Kelvin, Clerk Maxwell and Darwin, Scottish higher education institutions have predominated. So it is not surprising that generations of science fiction writers, American and European, have seen our universities as blazing an intellectual trail into the future. Unfortunately, Robert Heinlein and Jules Verne did not imagine that the Scots themselves might one day deliberately sabotage the very institutions that have served humanity so well, never mind laid the foundations for the modern Scottish economy.

I also find that my arguments make more sense when I toss in a Heinlein quote or two. I only borrow from the best.

2004-04-30T16:14:00.000-05:00

Mission accomplished

I just want to report another successful day perverting the minds of America's youth. I took a substitute teaching assignment today. Little did the school district know that I didn't take the job for the paltry $78.50 they pay for a day of babysitting kids while they watch educational videos. I took the job for the opportunity it gave me to distribute the Master's materials. I successfully handed out "Podkayne of Mars" and "Starman Jones" to two different students. I also convinced one of these students that if he was *really* into sword and sorcery, he should check out "Glory Road." Soon, all will be converted! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

2004-04-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

I suggest they just let astronauts take matters into their own hands ...

Valentine Michael Smith -- the hero of Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" -- was the result of an extramarital affair during a long voyage to Mars. He ended up in the soup -- literally. NASA, according to this article anyway, is talking steps to make sure that doesn't happen:

In the First World War, frontline troops who were away from their loved ones for long periods famously had bromide put into their tea to reduce the distraction of their sexual drive. But yesterday it was suggested that such measures might be taken a lot further - to Mars, in fact. Dr Rachel Armstrong, speaking yesterday at a British Interplanetary Society symposium on the Human Future and Space, said the US space agency NASA was considering how to deal with the natural urges of astronauts travelling on long journeys such as a three-year trip to Mars, where the six-strong crew would be likely to include two women. "NASA is talking about the chemical sterilization of astronauts on longer journeys," Dr Armstrong said, in a talk discussing the problems humanity may face in trying to reach the planets and, eventually, the stars. NASA was nonplussed by the suggestion yesterday. "I haven't heard anything about that," said a spokesman at NASA's Johnson Space Centre, where the long-range trips announced by President George Bush in January are being planned. But that denial may hide a reluctance, in a nation where the showing of a nipple on national television provokes a religious outcry, to discuss the rather delicate subject of sex in space. Certainly, some scientists believe it is a topic that should be dealt with head on. Douglas Powell, a psychology professor at Harvard University who was recruited in 1999 by NASA to investigate the behavioral needs of long-term space trips, said: "Like anywhere, these are normal healthy people in their prime and they are sexually active so they are going to get involved with each other. So what's going to happen in space? It's a serious question and it needs to be confronted." --- Interestingly, there is no NASA ban on sex between crew members. "We depend and rely on the professionalism and good judgement of our astronauts," said a NASA spokesman in 2000. "There is nothing specifically or formally written down." And that may be part of the problem. A crew heading to Mars would potentially be away for three years: six months travelling out, two years on the Red Planet waiting for the Earth to come back into alignment for the six-month trip back. The psychological strains of such a trip would be huge, noted Dr Joanna Wood of NASA's National Space Biomedical Research Institute, who compares it with the isolation experienced by scientists in Antarctica. But they have the comparative luxury that they can be rescued if necessary. With a Mars trip, there comes a point of no return determined by fuel and the planets' positions. "Interpersonal relations is a big issue, but we leave sexual stuff to the discretion of the individuals," said Dr Wood.

Heh heh heh. Her name is "Dr. Wood." Sorry. I'm having a Beavis and Butthead moment here. Seriously, the article also discusses a rumor that two astronauts have already engaged in sex -- at the behest of NASA scientists wanting to study the prospects of long-term survival in outer space Boy, talk about taking one for the team.

2004-04-27T01:44:00.000-05:00

Heinlein and 'Futurama'

"I've loved science fiction ever since I was a little kid, mainly from looking at the covers of science-fiction magazines and books, and I've read quite extensively as an adult. About three or four years ago, I decided to reacquaint myself with literary science-fiction and I went back and read everything from H.G. Wells to the new guys, Neal Stephenson and Rudy Rucker and those guys, and what I was surprised to find was that I'd read so much of it... "But a lot of my old favorites I thought really held up, I liked [Robert] Heinlein and [Philip K.] Dick and Cordwainer Smith and Theodore Sturgeon and Robert Sheckley -- the funny guys, the guys who have a sense of humor." --Matt Groening, interviewed by Brian Doherty in Mother Jones (March/April 1999)

That's the opening to this Locus review of Groening's hilarious, albeit canceled, show. It was too smart for it's target audience.

2004-04-22T22:24:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I have to agree

The Star Online looks at what makes a successful movie based on a science fiction novel. The conclusion:

So it�s not surprising that the �better� sci-fi movies are only loosely based on their sources. Dutch director Paul Verhoeven�s 1997 Starship Troopers was a fun but forgettable, alien-busting special-effects romp based on Robert Heinlein�s book of the same name. The book was a satirical socio-political study of war and society; the movie was a shoot-�em-up with some witty, G.I. Joe gung-ho moments. Verhoeven knows his medium, and his audience. Folks don�t want sci-fi movies that provoke thought; they want to go for an SFX ride. If you can inject some thought-provoking moments or issues, then that�s just icing on the cake of visual sci-fi. Steal some of the ideas from the sci-fi book, but regurgitate it as an SFX-laden action-adventure. The latter keeps the audience glued to their seats, the former at least gives many talking points to the movie.

Because the writer tossed quotation marks around the word "successful," I can agree with this assessment. Verhoeven's movie was a financial, but not artistic, success. The average video-game-loving male geek in his late teens and early 20s loved that movie. Lots of blood, guns, special effects and naked boobs, with no troublesome messages -- other than Verhoeven's simplistic military-equals-fascism message.

2004-04-22T03:13:00.000-05:00

'Harmless' Heinlein

From The Alien Online:

Fantasy author Juliet McKenna is always full of enthusiasm for these kind of events. "I'm a great fan of public libraries and think they deserve all the support we writers can give them," she said. "As a kid, I read everything I could get my hands on and my local branch library in Dorset was a god-send. My early inclination to SF&F was very well served since when the nice twin-set and pearls ladies had to agree I'd read absolutely everything in the kids section, they gave me permission to take SF&F books out of the adult section, despite the fact I was technically not old enough, because, obviously, if Robert Heinlein had books in the kids section, his adult stuff must be fairly harmless as well...

Harmless? How little they knew ;-)

2004-04-01T12:12:00.000-06:00

'Operation: Suntan' begins

From The Price of Liberty:

In Robert Heinlein's classic 1951 science fiction novel "The Puppet Masters", a slug-like alien race capable of attaching themselves to human being's spinal cord and controlling their minds secretly invades earth. A shadowy intelligence operation detects the alien menace, and led by the protagonist "Sam" and his partner "Mary" manages to defeat them. One of their biggest challenges after they understood what they were up against was preventing infiltration of "Zone Green", the areas known to be free of puppet masters. One of the measures necessary to defeat the alien menace was "Schedule Suntan", ordering uninfected civilians to wear a bare minimum of clothing (or less) so that the slugs would have no place to hide. Desperate measures for desperate times. --- Ignoring for the moment the obvious allusion to the invisible spread of insidiously dangerous political ideas like trading fundamental liberties for the illusion of safety, I was reminded of Heinlein's bare-skin solution by a discussion about so-called "airport security" on the Liberty Round Table's mailing list recently. One of the ladies joked that an effective protest against the comically ineffective airport "security" screeners and their frequent groping of women was to arrange a protest by "a gaggle of freedom lovers" who present themselves to the screeners wearing nothing but a trench coat. As she put it, "What a way to protest the increasingly inane 'security' measures... show up and strip naked right there in front of God, goons, and everybody else!" --- Most of us are willing to show that much skin in public on the beach for recreation. We should be willing to sacrifice a little dignity to fight for our freedom. Identify yourself as both somebody who is no threat to the other passengers, and somebody who wants everyone to know they have utter disdain for the whole farcical proceedings. Be tasteful and respectful, and remember that there are probably kids watching. I'd suggest wearing a jacket over your bathing suit until you actually reach the screening area. Be sure to pointedly tell anyone who asks WHY you are under-dressed for the occasion. If possible, be prepared with flyers and information presenting alternatives. One good source of information you might find useful is the Project: Safe Skies web site I maintain at www.projectsafeskies.org.

Not a bad idea. Perhaps it will catch on.

2004-04-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

Here are some ... interesting ... movie reviews

Posted at Christian Cinema

Compromise would be so easy...Conviction is so costly. Taylor Mitchell desperately needs his scholarship to stay in school. Physics Professor, Dr. Heinlein, insists that Taylor abandon his "mythological religious approach" to creation and base his thinking on "fact and the scientific method." Taylor's final grade will depend on his fulfillment of Dr. Heinlein's assignment - a scientifically sound paper on evolution. His professor's constant harassment about this "unscientific view of creation" has wearied Taylor. Is this truly a Test of Faith or an "assignment on reality?" Is Professor Heinlein's claim true, that "faith is an obstacle, an enemy to clear scientific thinking?" How would you approach this test? Will Taylor pass? Would you?

When I checked it out about a dozen reviews had been added. The reviewers/ None other than Theodore Bronson, Fader McGee, Reverend Nehemiah Scudder, John Rico, Hugh Farnham, Patty Paiwonski, Alex Hergensheimer, V. Michael Smith, and this onereviewers? by Simon D. Gester:

What a truly remarkababel piece of cinema! I was in a froth of fervent ecstacy! And ever since I have given up Ecstasy, the evil of the world has become all the clearer to me! Demonic forces in the form of filthy, evil Doktor Heinlein, played by the dastardly David Robey and his pointy goatee are personified with passion. I wonder how anyone could merely PLAY the part of evil like this man does without BEING evil! He obviously read the works, if you can call them that, of the anti-Christian Robert A. Heinlein; may his body rot in the ground. Hiding behind the ideas of thinking for yourself, Heinlein was directly attacking the Christain faith. While I have never read any of the works of Heinlein (my fingers would burst into flames) I am assured that this is the case. While the cinematography has something to be desired, these actors do a wonderful job of working with what they have got. And I am so glad to see Kirk Cameron back on the screen! His role as an angst driven teen in Growing Pains is so far away from this poor maligned teen forced to think outside what he is normally comfortable with. Evolution! Rage and cheer at the struggles of the hero! Cheer with him as he rails against the attempts to make him, forcefully, accept the ideas of evolution. Creation remains triumphant in this great movie!

I can see it now: Roger dumps that other guy and changes the name of the show to "Ebert and Gester At The Movies." UPDATE: Oh, Bummer. I visited the site and they pulled all the reviews. I guess my review from "John Thomas" won't make it ...

Updates at The Heinlein Society

2004-03-29T12:21:00.000-06:00

Geo Rule tells alt.fan.heinlein that there are some new articles at the Heinlein Society site. They include: David Silver on "The Long Watch" A review of Methusaleh's Children. Robert & Rex Heinlein at the Naval Academy, collected & compiled by DH Rule and GE Rule. And, for devotees of our "Upcoming Additions" on the Updates page, please note J. Neil Schulman, Spider Robinson, and Tom Corbett on the horizon.

Paying it forward

2004-03-29T11:57:00.000-06:00

Here is an article (registration required) about a veteran and the numerous charities and other activities in which he participates. The kicker:

He also loves reading, and that's reflected in his choices for company at his fantasy dinner party � Samuel Clemens, Robert Heinlein, Tom Clancy and Herman Wouk. The book he would most recommend to others is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Mr. Heinlein, he said, because "it's a great, fun story with some great ideas."

2004-03-07T21:22:00.000-06:00

A whole bunch of updates to report

First, The Heinlein Society site just added a gallery of Bonny Doon pics. Second, James Gifford's site:RAH also added sections to the Heinlein FAQ page, as well as nice essay. Nice to be back, BTW.

2004-01-20T23:39:00.000-06:00

Angel producer to pen 'Moon' screenplay

From scifi.com:

Genre TV producer Tim Minear (Angel, Wonderfalls) told SCI FI Wire that he has been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. The novel deals with a 2076 rebellion on a former penal colony on the moon and has been read as an allegory about libertarianism and its costs. "I'm going to write the script," Minear, an avowed Heinlein fan, said in an interview. "My take on the story is to try to stay as close to Heinlein's politics and Heinlein's vision of the future that I can, while still taking the story and trying to make it into a movie. You know, that book is not a movie. There's a lot of very interesting talk about cells and sort of the anatomy of a revolution, which is not that interesting in a movie. But there are other elements." Minear got hired to adapt the book when he set out to discover who held the rights to Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. That turned out to be producer David Heyman (the Harry Potter movies). Heyman and producer Mike Medavoy eventually hired Minear to adapt the other Heinlein work, Minear said. Minear said that he wants to follow the example of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, who adapted J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings for the screen. "Those are magnificently adapted screenplays," he said. "Things are moved around. Things are changed. Just like you would have to when you're adapting something that extensive. But really, really an impressive job of staying so close to ... Tolkien. ... Like, it smells the same as the novels."

2004-01-09T01:44:00.000-06:00

Back to the Moon, then on to Mars It's about damn time! MSNBC: Bush to announce return to the moon

President Bush is preparing to unveil a new space initiative with a long-range goal of returning humans to the moon and establishing a permanent presence there, NBC News confirmed Thursday. Government officials said there were still final details that the president had yet to sign off on, but that the announcement was likely to come next week. White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with the president Thursday that Bush would have more to say about the space program next week. --- Experts said the goal should be to set up a research base on the moon to test technologies that would be useful on a mission to Mars. "The idea is to go to Mars. And the way you get to Mars is you go to the moon, and you practice three days from home. It's the equivalent of climbing Mount Rainier and preparing for Mount Everest," Edward McCurdy, a space-policy expert at American University in Washington, told Reuters.

2004-01-04T11:05:00.000-06:00

FUTL gets a C-

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

As a novel, For Us is not very good. It reads like a cross between a movie script and a rather dry series of lectures on how to create a utopian society, over which Heinlein attempted to drape a slender plot. --- Heinlein fanatics, and there are many, will no doubt find many of the criticisms here overwrought. But Heinlein first-timers would do better to dip their reading toes in Stranger in a Strange Land or Starship Troopers. Only after immersion in Heinlein's superior works can For Us, the Living be appreciated for what it is -- a rather bad novel, but an essential one for those interested in exploring the birth of the Heinlein oeuvre.

Ouch.

2004-01-03T01:57:00.000-06:00

The New York Times on Heinlein

It's not a review, per se, as much as it is an article about the release of For Us, The Living.

Although he set the manuscript aside and later destroyed all the copies in his possession, Heinlein went on to mine this material for his most distinctive short stories and novels. For this reason alone, the belated publication of this early work is a major contribution to the history of the genre.

There's nothing in this article that I and other's haven't said. Frankly, I was hoping for something a little more in-depth.

2003-12-02T02:49:00.000-06:00

FUTL: For serious fans only

If you are not familiar with the work of Robert A. Heinlein, do not read his posthumously published novel, "For Us, The Living." If you are a casual fan of his work, do not read it, either. You will not enjoy this book. Hell, I'll be the first to say it: It's boring. But, if you are a serious fan, or consider Heinlein to be a teacher or a personal guru of some sort - then buy the book, turn off the television and take the phone off the hook. You will learn much about the First Grandmaster of Science Fiction and see the germs of ideas that permeated his fiction for the following 50 years. There are people who have compared FUTL to some of RAH's supposedly weaker work, such as those written under his "Anson MacDonald" pseudonym. This novel aspires to reach that level. The sparse plot is this: Navy pilot Perry Nelson dies in a car crash in 1939 and awakes in the body of a catatonic man in the year 2089. He stumbles almost immediately into a relationship with a young, beautiful dancer who starts to teach him the ways of late 21st century society. Very little happens plot-wise, except that Perry is the recipient of one lecture after another about how the United States achieved near Utopian perfection. What are the lectures about? Perry is taught that prosperity was achieved by adopting the Social Credit Theory and passing out newly-minted money to everyone, and by reigning in the power of the banking industry. RAH's libertarian-minded fan base must be grinding their teeth at the very idea. Perry also learns that this society has adopted a new libertarian-minded Constitution that bans any law establishing victimless crimes and also establishes an explicit right to privacy. That sounds more like it. Of course, free love is the rule of the day, and the climax of the story (pun intended) comes when Our Hero comes to terms with his antiquated notions of propriety and overcomes his sexual jealousy. Serious Heinlein fans will notice bits and pieces that were mined for future works. Nasty old Nehemiah Scudder is here, as is Coventry and the roads that must roll. Essentially, FUTL was the first of his groundbreaking Future History. FUTL doesn't fit into the FH, because the dates and details are inconsistent. And for those who claim that Heinlein became a fascist when "Starship Troopers" (1959) proposed giving only veterans the vote, FUTL contained the germ of that idea as well --- before World War II and before he met future wife Virginia Gerstenfeld, later accused by Isaac Asimov and others of seducing him away from liberalism. This book was rejected by at least two publishers. There is speculation about why Heinlein refused to seek its publication later in his career when publishers would be more than willing to publish anything he had written. Simply put, as a piece of fiction, this book is weak. But it wasn't written to be commercial, pulp-style science fiction. It is science fiction only in the sense that it is set in the future. It's a book about politics and culture. Well, sure, almost all of Heinlein's books were about politics and culture, but that stuff didn't get in the way of the fun. There is nothing fun about this book, including all the (very mild as it turns out) sex scenes people are talking about. It lacks any humor or wit. It's dry to the bone. In his introduction, Spider Robinson postulated that Heinlein intended this novel to change the world. That didn't happen, but Heinlein realized he liked science fiction writing and needed to pay a mortgage, so he set out to be the best he could be. For that to happen, his stories had to be what people wanted to read. Because FUTL failed to meet the high standards he set for himself, he set it aside. Instead, he contented himself to mine the ideas from FUTL for the rip-roaring science fiction that paid. It's good that this book was published because it sheds some light on the man and his work. It's probably better that it was published after his and Virginia's deaths, because neither would care for the academic discussion and the idle speculation this book will create. As a member of the Heinlein Society, I want this book to be a best-seller. But I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone who isn't really into Heinlein. But, if you are really into Heinlein, then run to the bookstore or The Heinlein Society to buy a copy. Dr. Robert James' afterword alone was worth the price to me.

2003-12-01T21:08:00.000-06:00

Waiting is ...

OVER! Barnes & Noble called about 45 minutes ago. "For Us, The Living" is in and I can pick up my copy. I broke speed records getting there and I have a copy in my hot little hands right now. I'll have my reaction -- not a review, I am not worthy and don't want to be tossed into the Critic's Lounge -- up and posted later tonight. For those of you with Paypal accounts and valid credit cards, click on over to The Heinlein Society and order from their link. The Society is good people and can use the revenue.

2003-11-13T20:42:00.000-06:00

Another new Heinlein novel!

This great news was posted on alt.fan.heinlein:

Brethren and sistren, I've been saying for thirty years now that shared joy increases. If so, we're all gonna be neck-deep in the stuff in a second. I am collaborating on a novel with Robert A. Heinlein. No, really. I have just been given final approval by the Heinlein Trust to write a novel based on a detailed outline created by Robert in 1955. It will be billed as "Robert A. Heinlein's VARIABLE STAR, by Spider Robinson." The book proposal is even now being prepared for market by my (and Robert's) agent Eleanor Wood. The first 10,000 words are already written. I don't suppose any of you need to be told what this means to me, nor could I express it. Honoured . terrified . exhilarated . all those are in there, and more. Some writers enjoy writing. I'm the other kind: I enjoy *having written*. But these last few weeks, for almost the first time in thirty years, the writing itself has been a pure and holy joy. Which I share now with you. Wish me luck. --Spider Robinson

Spider is known to one and all as the creator of the Callahan's Bar series (my favorites), and he also penned a chapter in "Requiem." He's a member of The Heinlein Society and will do a wonderful job. I can barely contain myself waiting for publication of the recently discovered first Heinlein novel, 'For Us, The Living."

2003-11-11T04:06:00.000-06:00

Powered armor in the news

Courtesy of this article about the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA):

One such DARPA effort - Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation - could transform today's infantry "grunts" into high-tech supersoldiers similar to those imagined by Robert Heinlein's 1959 science-fiction classic Starship Troopers. The $40 million program - already midway through its six-year run - is experimenting with power suits meant to increase by orders of magnitude the toughness and lethality of the average foot soldier. DARPA's plans call for the exoskeleton to be built around a "haptic interface," a series of sensors distributed throughout the suit to read and amplify even the smallest of human muscle movements. According to the agency's Web site, soldiers encased in this futuristic battle armor will be able to "handle more firepower, wear more ballistic protection, carry larger-caliber weapons and more ammunition, and carry supplies greater distances." They might also be able to jump to extreme heights and even fly short distances. Peter Parker's "spidey sense" is tingling just thinking about it. The exoskeleton research has met with at least a few notable, if modest, successes. At the University of California (Berkeley) Human Engineering Laboratory, a team of researchers has built what might ultimately become the legs of tomorrow's robo-warrior. According to the lab's Web site, the "Lower Extremity Enhancer" gives its owner the "ability to carry weights on the order of 120 pounds over any sort of terrain for extended periods of time without undue effort."

2003-11-05T01:12:00.000-06:00

Good space blog

Visit The Eternal Golden Braid, a Blogspot site operated by recent commentor Fred Kiesche. It's got a ton of posts about space, space exploration and the Golden Age of science fiction. No wonder he visits heinleinblog.

2003-11-05T01:04:00.000-06:00

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, (1910-2003) publisher of Heinlein works

From Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach died Oct. 29 at 3:50 a.m. in the Evangelical Congregational Church Retirement Village in Myerstown, PA where he had resided since March 2001. Born June 20, 1910 in Palm, Pennsylvania, Eshbach, grew up in Reading. He discovered science fiction at age 15 and began writing letters to the magazines, then his own stories. In 1929, the third story he wrote sold to Science Wonder Stories. Continuing to write stories and articles, Lloyd briefly published two magazines in the early 1930s, Marvel Tales and The Galleon. In 1946 he founded Fantasy Press a small press which published the work of authors such as E. E. Smith, Jack Williamson, Robert Heinlein and John W. Campbell Jr.

From Locus Online:

He was best known as a publisher, having founded Fantasy Press in 1946, one of the earliest small presses that preserved in book form novels and stories first published in the early SF magazines, including works by A.E. van Vogt, John W. Campbell, L. Sprague de Camp, Stanley G. Weinbaum, and P. Schuyler Miller, as well as the first nonfiction book about science fiction, an anthology of essays titled Of Worlds Beyond: The Science of Science Fiction Writing (1947) with contributions from Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, Edward E. Smith Ph.D., and others.

2003-11-04T01:12:00.000-06:00

Heinlein-esque manga

From an Anime News Network review:

So the question then becomes, just what is Five Star Stories? As the title suggests, the storyline revolves around the various political, military, and social interactions within a galaxy of five stars and six inhabitable planets. More so than most other manga, it draws on two Western traditions, that of the “future history” and of the realist novel of the 19th century. The “future history” genre, seen in the science fiction writings of authors like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Cordwainer Smith, establishes a timeline of human development for thousands of years from a given start point; stories illustrate both the everyday and the truly enormous events over a span of thousands of years.

For those who don't know, manga refers to Japanese comic books, characterized by characters with exaggerated eyes and larger-than-normal heads. It's a very cartoonish style, but sometimes with very sophisticated storylines. I'm not sure that Heinlein could be adapted very easily to comic book format. I think some of the juveniles could be done, maybe "Starship Troopers."

B-movie feel to Starship Troopers 2

2003-11-03T14:28:00.000-06:00

Director Jon Davison, quoted on Ain't It Cool News (WARNING: slow server):

Having just done “Starship Troopers 2” a direct to DVD title, I can only equate the experience to making drive-in exploitation movies in the 70's for Roger Corman. Fast, cheap and with little adult supervision. Most studio movies experience a lot of "input" from executives and are tooled for a broad market. The classic drive-in movies were solely the product of whoever was standing near the camera. Perhaps the direct to titles are the equivalent of today's B pictures; to be approached with lower expectations in the hope of finding little gems. I'm too close to it really judge it at this point but I think people will be surprised at the quality of the special effects. Some of the shots are better than most of the ones in the summer movies. I'm very interested in hearing what the fans say on the internet after they see it. The reaction to this movie will exist only on the internet. It will be reviewed in very few hardcopy rags. It's really a web only movie. And as we all know, some of these fans can be brutal.

I don't even own the DVD to the first monstrosity. Looks like I won't be buying this one either.

2003-11-02T02:41:00.000-06:00

Gravity is a harsh mistress

From Space.com:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Safely back on the ground in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Ed Lu enjoys a well earned nap aboard a Russian helicopter in this image captured by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls and released by the space agency today. Lu and fellow Expedition Seven crewmember Yuri Malenchenko landed on the Kazakh steppes at 9:41 p.m. EST on Oct. 27, having spent 185 days in space. Also on board was European Space Agency astronaut Pedro Duque.

Lu has to be feeling a bit of what Mannie and Prof. de la Paz felt when they experienced Earth's gravity for the first time.

2003-10-30T09:57:00.000-06:00

Forry on Heinlein

Forrest J. Ackerman is profiled in the Los Angeles City Beat: The Day After the Night of the Living Dead

He also became a kind of ad-hoc museum curator. From time to time, he opens his home so the public can view the props, costumes, and art, and just hang around and talk. Conversations with Ackerman are generally the highlight of the visit. Though he is elderly and sometimes speaks slowly, he has an excellent memory and casually recalls conversations with Lugosi, Vincent Price, Robert Heinlein, and even H.G. Wells.

Actually Ackerman and Heinlein had a falling out over Ackerman's unauthorized publication of a speech Heinlein gave at the 3d World Science Fiction Convention. I also Googled up an earlier interview with Ackerman in which he discusses how "Solution Unsatisfactory" was inspired by a lecture by H.G. Wells that both Ackerman and (presumably) Heinlein attended. There also is a brief mention of a visit by Ackerman to the set of "Destination: Moon."

Hal Clement, a Grandmaster of Science Fiction, Dies

From the LOCUS Website:

Harry Clement Stubbs, who wrote science fiction as Hal Clement, died in his sleep earlier today, October 29, 2003, at his home in Milton, Massachusetts. Born in 1922, Clement was a high school school teacher whose fiction gained a reputation as quintessential hard SF -- science fiction firmly based on established physics, chemistry, and astronomy. His novels often depicted highly imagined alien worlds; the most famous was Mission of Gravity, set on a heavy, fast-spinning planet where the force of gravity is several times greater at the poles than at the equator. His last novel, Noise, was published earlier this year. Clement was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1999. Among other honors was a Retro-Hugo Award in 1996 for his 1945 story "Uncommon Sense".

2003-10-26T03:42:00.000-06:00

Sounds like Heinlein to me

I'm in favor of encouraging people to read new types of books. But, was it necessary to pitch this book by dissing Heinlein and other golden age greats?

The City Trilogy," by Chang Hsi-Kuo. This science-fiction novel (actually a collection of three novellas that are tied together in an arc) is the first English translation of this noted Taiwanese writer's work. Banish from your mind thoughts of Heinlein, Asimov and Clark, and enjoy this look at the way Chinese culture has shaped thoughts of the future. As the Huhui people try to overthrow their interstellar overlords, the Han, they must gain the cooperation of the several other races that share their planet. Alliances continually shift, and political machinations abound, keeping readers on their toes in this very different allegorical tale.

Hrumph! Actually, the person who wrote this blurb doesn't know his/her Heinlein. Fighting to overthrow oppressors? Political machinations? Sounds like any number of Heinlein books -- "If This Goes On ...," "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," "Red Planet," etc.

2003-10-21T23:25:00.000-05:00

Let the subversion of America's youth BEGIN! BWAHAHAHA!

My master plan went into effect today. On the last of a three-day-long substitute teaching assignment, I nonchalantly asked the class: "Anyone here like to read science fiction?" "Yes!" One teenage girl answered. "I like the older stuff." "Really?" I said, twirling my mustache is a Snidely Whiplash fashion. "I just *happened* to be reorganizing my bookshelves yesterday, and I found that I had more than one copy of these books ..." I placed five paperbacks on the desk -- "Tunnel in the Sky," "Time For the Stars," "Orphans in the Sky" "Double Star" and "Starman Jones." "You can have any of these or all of them if you like," I said, hiding my sinister enthusiasm. "Heinlein is one of the masters of the golden age of science fiction. He's won a ton of awards -- this one won a Hugo -- and they've done some movies of some of his work, although the books are much, much better." She grabbed them all, which is what any real science fan would do. Later on, I mentioned that she could visit http://heinleinsociety.org if she wanted to learn more. Now I must visit the used book store and restock. I went and gave away my last copy of Starman Jones. I keep this up, soon every student in Central Illinois will be reading Heinlein! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

2003-10-18T21:25:00.000-05:00

Cool Website alert

This guy runs a site that real-life lists inventions that made their first appearance in science fiction. Heinlein has two full pages. There stuff on this list I forgot about, or barely remembered because of the matter-of-a-fact way RAH managed to slip them into his stories.

2003-10-15T04:44:00.000-05:00

'Where do we go from here'

The following article for "immediate and general release was written by sci-fi author L. Neil Smith and posted on sci.space.shuttle and again on alt.fan.heinlein. I am reprinting it here:

The October, 2003 issue of _Discover_ contains one of the saddest letters I've ever read. Gil Bell, of Duluth, Georgia, writes " ... one would have to conclude that travel out of our solar system is impossible. The fusion, fission, and antimatter engines require too much fuel ... The laser sail is doomed by the fact that building a 6,600-mile-wide collecting mirror is simply not feasible, and ... a 600-mile-wide sail would be torn apart by cosmic debris on a daily basis. And why build a fusion ramjet when there's no fuel in space to run it, and its design would not allow it to attain the speed it needs? "The fusion or fission engine concepts would be useful in getting around out own solar system, but what's the use in traveling to other planets in our neighborhood? Venus will never be inhabitable and neither will Mars or any of the Jovian planets or their moons, and changing the environment on another planet will never be within our capabilities. It is fun to speculate on way that humans might accomplish interstellar travel, but in the end it is just more science fiction." There are lot of unsupported assertions in Mr. Bell's letter, and a great many factual errors (most of them, I'm afraid, based on an incredible ignorance of history), but the saddest thing about it is its spirit of defeat. As I said in a recent essay, Americans seem to have given up on the future. This letter from _Discover_ is typical and symptomatic. But it doesn't speak for everyone. I've been reading the works of Robert A. Heinlein (as the Brits say, "man and boy") for forty-six years, having found his books when I was sent to the school library to spend several afternoons there as a punishment. After all these years, I don't recall what for, more's the pity. In all that time (and earlier, in fact) I always expected that, sooner or later, I'd end up space myself, maybe even die there (after living a couple hundred years, like Lazarus Long). And although I didn't necessarily want to move there, the one sight I always wanted most to see in person was Saturn and its rings, from one of its inner moons. As I grew up, I became disappointed and disillusioned. The Mercury program came and went, the Gemini program came and went, the Apollo program came and went, followed by SkyLab, the Shuttle program, and the International so-called Space Station. What they all taught us (unless you actually care about fruitfly reproduction in microgravity) was that the only individuals who would _ever_ be allowed to get into space were precisely the kind of government-approved jockstraps who were on the varsity football team when you were in high school -- oh yes, and an occasional cheerleader -- oops, make that public school teacher. To all the rest of us, meaning those who are "encouraged" (at the point of a gun) to pay for these programs, the message was clear: "Get lost. Outer space, 99.99999999999999999999999999999999 percent of all there is, is government property, like the Lincoln Monument and Area 51." Nothing has happened in all that time to change that. Just look at the bewildering maze of impossible regulations the government relies on to keep anyone else from trying out a new vehicle design, or from launching anything without their permission and supervision. Or the way they squirmed and struggled, trying to keep that zillionaire space "tourist" on the ground. Or the way they're employing the handy (if illegal) Homeland Security concept in an attempt to shut down model rocketry. Novelist Victor Koman was dead right, when he said (in his great work, _Kings of the High Frontier_) that the actual mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- its not-so-hidden agenda, having nothing to do with the development of space travel and exploration -- is to keep scum like you and me from ever getting into space. At the same time (as Victor also points out), NASA mouthpieces have been telling the public since the 1960s that our being able to visit space, perhaps even vacationing on the Moon, or in zero gravity at a space station, was "only about thirty years away". That's what they said in the 60s, that's what they said in the 70s, that's what they said in the 80s, that's what they said in the 90s, and that's what they're still saying today. It's _always_ just about thirty years away. In a way, you can't blame the government. Being what they are, politicians and bureaucrats, they have a very unhealthy tendency to project their own ethical and psychological shortcomings onto others, especially members of the unwashed public. Even before September 11, 2001 -- and before Luis and Walter Alvarez discovered what it really was that killed the dinosaurs -- someone in government read Heinlein's _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ (individuals are paid to do that; see James Grady's _Six Days of the Condor_), in which penal colonists on the Moon ultimately achieve their independence by threatening major cities on Earth with boxcar-sized rocks, launched from an electric catapult. Like politicians who push victim disarmament (erroneously known as gun control), they're afraid they're going to get what they deserve. So if you ever want to see Saturn's rings (or any other astronomical wonder) up close, you must absorb the following truth and never forget it: given their way, governments will _never_ let ordinary people into space. Never. Quite aside from the question of boxcar-sized rocks, think of the historically unprecedented savagery with which the Union prosecuted the War between the States. Think of similar savagery at Waco. Think about the War on Drugs -- and recall why many folks use drugs to begin with. You're not allowed to escape. Governments will do anything -- absolutely anything, no matter how violent or morally repulsive it happens to be -- to prevent anybody from getting out from under their authoritarian thumb. If you don't shut your mouth, sit up straight, fold your hands, look at them when they're lecturing you, and spit that gum out this minute, they'll kill you. However if there's on thing I've learned about politics over the last half century, it's that, when there's something you need to do, and government (or anybody else) stands in your way, you simply say you're doing it "for the children" -- and it helps if you really mean it. I really mean it. I have a little daughter I sometimes regret having brought into this world because it's become such a dark and horrifying place. If I believed that she could live her life in some of the places I've described in my novels -- that I'm describing again in the novels I'm writing now -- I would do virtually anything I could just to make that happen. And if I could go there myself ... Well, there just might be a way. Roughly a hundred years ago, Lord Robert Baden-Powell was having a tough time, don't you know, in one of Britain's last fun wars, because the soldiers she shipped to South Africa by the, er, shipload, didn't have a clue how to survive in the open country. Their foes were Dutch- African settlers -- "Boer" means "farmer" -- who lived and worked there very day. They knew what plants to eat and where to find decent water. When Baden-Powell got home to Old Blighty, he created the group that was to become known as the Boy Scouts, to fix the shortcomings he'd seen in Africa. The idea was imitated in many other countries, including the United States to impressive effect. I was in the program myself, from 1954 as a Bear Cub, to about 1963, by which time I was an Explorer Scout, an Eagle, and a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow. I also held 23 merit badges, a God & Country Award (believe it or not), a translator bar (German), and a whole ladderful of BSA/NRA sharpshooter bars. Although the roots of the Boy Scouts are sordidly statist, scouting was practically my whole childhood, and a very good one. About the same time I first got into scouting -- and well before the Soviets' Sputnik scared the Eisenhower Administration shitless, spitless, and witless -- I began to collect newspaper clippings and magazine articles about space and space exploration. I also bought a book about going to the Moon on a visit to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry -- the author opined that no single government would ever be able to afford such a trip, so the idea must be turned over to the United Nations; and wouldn't that have been interesting? -- and I'd vowed that very evening to stand, someday, on the Moon, myself. So what have I found in all my experiences that might be useful in solving our little space problem? The basic idea is simple, it's just a lot of hard work. At the moment, I'm writing _Ceres_ (a sequel to my 1993 novel _Pallas_) which concerns itself with terraforming asteroids and preventing "extinction level events" like the one 65 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs. _Ceres_ is not meant to be anybody's fantasy (although one of my former editors informed me that I'm not qualified to write on this subject); it's meant as a blueprint for the future. I'm also doing research now for another novel, _Ares_, which will stand, chronologically, right between _Pallas_ and _Ceres_. It's about the men and women who terraform Mars, despite violent opposition from Earth. At the same time, I've begun collecting ideas and material for a third book, the working title of which will be (for lack of anything better) _The Space Scout Manual_. That book will try to do three things. First, it will help young people (I'm aiming the book at a certain mindset, rather than a given age group; it should appeal at some level to everyone of both sexes between the ages of 5 and 20) to prepare themselves for working, living, and eventually settling in space, in more or less the same way that my old Boy Scouts of America manual, _A Handbook For Boys_ (1955 edition), helped to prepare me to survive -- and even prosper -- in several different kinds of wilderness on this planet. The book will also contain detailed instructions and suggestions for establishing your own local chapter of what I'm presently calling (again, for lack of anything better) the "Space Scouts" and everything necessary to affiliate it with a national organization of the same name. Unlike a great many other organizations I've been involved with, I want this one always to grow from the ground up, not from the top down. The _Space Scout Manual_'s third mission will be to establish a political constituency for abolishing NASA and getting government out of the way of space exploration. If the book, and the organization it creates, are useful and interesting enough, then within a few years, there should be hundreds of thousands of young Space Scouts and maybe, a few years after that, millions. Politicians and bureaucrats will eventually be up against an enormous group of voters who are educated, tough, who won't take "No" (or even "Give us another 30 years") for an answer. I want this book to get into conventional distribution channels and to show up on paperback racks everywhere. I want this book in airports and grocery stores where the words SPACE SCOUT MANUAL will leap out at all those who had almost -- but not quite -- given up the dream. Please note that the manual will not be about the current hardware of government space exploration (which is constantly changing anyway) but about personal physical, mental, and moral preparation. It will draw on history, and on both factual and fictional sources. Also, it will give its readers the beginnings of a decent science education (another thing public schools were never up to), and encourage in them a proper skepticism with regard to public education and the democratic process. Another reason not to get bogged down in such details is that there's no telling what methods of spaceflight will evolve if this idea works. The book's moral outlook will be rooted in the Bill of Rights and the libertarian Zero Aggression Principle, but it will not preach. It will assume from the outset that individuals own their own lives and the products of their lives, and that no one has a right to initiate force against another human -- no, make that _sapient_ -- being for any reason. The book will advocate "Reconstitutive Unanimous Consent" as the preferred means of making group decisions and settling disputes. It will also advise politicians and bureaucrats that, from the moment that the first off-planet settlement is created, on Mars, on the Moon, in the Asteroid Belt, or wherever, it should reasonably be expected to become politically independent of Earth whenever its people want it to be. Don't let any of the above mislead you, however. This will not be a book about libertarian or constitutionalist philosphy. It will be a book about getting into space and staying there. It will be guided as much by the scientific method as it will be by the Zero Aggression Principle. Its largest section, by far, will be a detailed survey and commentary (despite that editor's view that I'm not qualified to write it) on everything that's known, at the moment, about the Solar System, including its constituent star, its planets, moons, planetoids, and comets. It will also talk -- again in detail -- about all of the many reasons we might want to see these things close up, and even go to live on, in, or among them. Those reasons will range from what might be called the "spiritual" -- because it's the destiny of humankind and a good first step to the stars -- to the exceedingly practical: our species won't survive another rock like the one that put an end the Cretacious; we're 15 million years overdue, so we have to go out and stop it, the topic of a lecture I delivered to the Eris Society in 2000. Your thirty years are up, NASA. They've been up a couple of times over. There will be no more waiting politely. Even if it has to be done like the moldy old joke -- the hotel clerk admits that a room is available, but you'll have to make your own bed; upstairs you find you've been supplied with a hammer, saw, and lumber -- it _will_ be done. So this is what I've given up electoral politics for -- at least this decade, when the goodguys are powerless. But I think I've traded up. I'm ready to make my own bed. And to plant the seedlings for the lumber. How about you?

2003-10-15T04:29:00.000-05:00

Mixed feelings

On one hand, I'm glad some nation is serious about space exploration. On the other, I'm P.O.ed that it's not the United States of America. I suppose a nation can afford a real space program when it's military owns and operates businesses, a right either denied it citizens or heavily regulated.

2003-10-11T15:58:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder

Heinlein Prize Trust Makes Matching Funds Pledge AUGUST 27, 2003-The trustees of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust pledged that they will match contributions to the Heinlein Society for the remainder of 2003 up to a total of $15,000. Between August 27 and September 1 the Heinlein Society has raised a total of $3,400, leaving more than $11,000 in the matching funds pledge. We have until the end of December. Please help us gain the full benefit of the Heinlein Prize Trust's generous offer. Pay it Forward! Contribute Now (Hat tip to David Wright)

2003-10-08T01:43:00.000-05:00

New Red Planet photos:

• New Mars photos astound scientists The white stuff is believed to be frozen water that remains throughout the Martian summer.

2003-10-07T17:34:00.000-05:00

'It's in the genes'

Here's a Time article about an Italian village brimming with octogenarians that makes me think of the Howard Foundation.

But Agostino Vargiu, who serves up those same ingredients at his downtown restaurant, has another hypothesis. "The food and the air probably help," Vargiu says. "But the point is that there's very little intermarrying with outsiders here. In Orroli, we're all practically relatives. It's in the genes." That same logic — and the same noted propensity for long life in nearby towns — prompted molecular biologist Luca Deiana to launch a sweeping genetic study of every 100-plus person across the entire island. "You look at a Sardinian phone book and you see there are relatively few last names," says Deiana, a researcher at the University of Sassari in northwest Sardinia. The project — dubbed A Kent'Annos after an old Sardinian salute meaning, "May you live to be 100" — confirmed that the island has the world's highest documented percentage of people who have passed the century threshold. Of 1.6 million Sardinians, there are at least 220 who have reached 100, twice the typical ratio. Five of the world's 40 oldest people live on the island, and until the January death of Antonio Todde at 112, Sardinia boasted the oldest of them all.

Hat tip to Kate from alt.fan.heinlein and member of The Heinlein Society.

2003-10-07T12:04:00.000-05:00

Heinlein Society membership gets a boost

Newly elected chairman/president David Silver reports that they signed up more than 50 new members at the Torcon 3, held Aug. 3-Sept. 1 in Toronto, Canada. Also, science fiction author Michael Flynn and the late Virginia Heinlein were awarded the first Heinlein Awards at The Heinlein Society Dinner held during TorCon. As a matter of fact, there's a whole bunch of Heinlein news available at The Heinlein Society Website, which as been redesigned and looks just spiffy. And the latest THS Newsletter will be in the mail this week.

2003-10-07T11:54:00.000-05:00

That Bob Heinlein sure gets around

I saw this while waiting in line to use the ATM. I was able to snap a picture, but I didn't get to ask the driver if the plate had anything to do with RAH.

2003-09-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

Heinlein censored

Or he will be if Mrs. Grundy gets her way:

Four parents of Science Academy sophomores are determined to protect their children. From books. The board of directors for the South Texas Independent School District is expected to decide tonight whether to ban two books ? Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World and Robert Heinlein?s Stranger in a Strange Land ? from the high school?s 10th grade English Advanced Placement curriculum. The books, part of the class? summer reading list, may lead to ?inappropriate sexual arousal of young teens,? parent Julie Wilde wrote in her complaint to the district. ?We feel this is inappropriate for the ages of the students at (the) Science Academy or at any South Texas ISD High School,? she continued in her letter, specifically citing Brave New World. ?This is pornographic literature and we do not feel it has a place in any school funded by taxpayer dollars.? --- Each of the titles has received praise from teachers, professors and critics alike. Stranger in a Strange Land ? which Wilde said she did not read ? is a 1962 Hugo Award winner about a boy raised by Martians who returned to Earth as a true innocent without knowledge of sex or religion, and is viewed by many as a science fiction masterpiece. Brave New World has been called one of the most brilliant satires written in English, about a dystopia where babies are born in laboratories, people pop ?happy? pills like candy and sex is a casual act. ?The references to sexual behavior which the complainants cited as leading to sexual arousal are non-explicit attempts by the author to engage the reader in critical thought about human values and societal codes of conduct,? the committee wrote in its report on Stranger in a Strange Land. ?The book addresses sexuality and portrays groups with radically different approaches to sexuality than that generally accepted as our societal norm. The book does not promote these lifestyles as desirable. The book does not give graphic descriptions of sexual acts.?

Rational analysis of "Stranger" and "Brave New World" will not impress these people. It's the ideas to which they really object, not just the sex. I read Stranger on my own while in high school. But I read "Brave New World" as a high school junior for a science fiction and mystery literature class. At that time, Peoria School District 150 was known for it's blue-nosed attitude. If this book wasn't too risque for Peoria in the 1979-1980, I have a hard time believe anyone would object to it in 2003, the era of "Temptation Island" and lesbian kissing on television. In fact, I would think that Huxley's negative portrayal loveless sexuality would counteract some of the loveless sexuality these children are bombarded with every day. Why not write letters to the school board encouraging them to keep both these great novels? The contact information is: South Texas Independent School District, 100 Med High Drive - Mercedes, Texas 78570 -- Phone (956) 565-2454 - Fax (956) 565-4639. Via Obscure Store. UPDATE: The School Board passed. The books stay.

2003-09-17T01:09:00.000-05:00

Lookee here

heinleinprize.com Check it out.

2003-09-07T01:45:00.000-05:00

A better look

Thanks to a flyer given to me by David Silver, sec. treasurer of The Heinlein Society.

BTW: If you are ordering the book, please click on the above link, then follow the link to Amazon. The Society benefits from each Amazon purchase made that way.

2003-09-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

'For Us, The Living' cover!

Heinlein Society member Deb Houdek Rule has an article describing how the book by Robert A. Heinlein, the late, great Grandmaster of Science Fiction, was discovered and published. It can be ordered by clicking here.

2003-08-15T09:33:00.000-05:00

Joe Haldeman joins Heinlein Society board

From a press release:

Joe Haldeman has been elected by unanimous vote to the board of The Heinlein Society. He joins the other board members Bill Patterson (President and Chairman), David M. Silver (Secretary-Treasurer), Charles N. Brown, Yoji Kondo, and Alan Milner. The Heinlein Society, formed in 2000 under the auspices of Virginia Heinlein (1916 - 2003) is a non-profit corporation formed to advance the fiction and pay forward ideals of Robert A. Heinlein (1907 - 1988), the leading Science Fiction writer of all time. Joe Haldeman has been one of the leading SF writers for nearly 30 years. He is a multi-winner of all the leading SF awards, and has served as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He is one of the writers most influenced by Heinlein, and was a personal friend. The Heinlein Society is honored to have him on its Board of Directors.

Haldeman is a Heinlein fan, to be sure, but most of the reviews I've read about the Hugo- and Nebula-award winning "The Forever War" describe it as a refutation of the politics in "Starship Troopers." That's inaccurate. In TFW, the military is comprised of draftees and in SST, all are volunteers. Heinlein was totally opposed to the draft because it props up the type of government that Haldeman writes about. I don't think Heinlein would disagree with much on The Forever War. But that's my opinion.

2003-08-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

Details emerge about new Heinlein book

Dr. Robert James, who wrote the afterward for "-- For Us The Living --," reported in the alt.fan.heinlein newsgroup that he has been given permission to discuss some details of the novel, which will be published in mid-to-late November. He says that while it isn't as polished as RAH's later novels, it has frank discussion of sexuality that we didn't see until "Stranger in a Strange Land." Some have speculated that the novel went unpublished because it was "substandard" Heinlein, but it may simply have been ahead of its time. I am awaiting permission from Dr. James before I post his brief plot synopsis. UPDATE: The good doctor says that the publisher wants as much publicity as possible, so here goes:

"Basic plot of the novel: young naval aviator is killed in 1939, wakes up in another body in the future, wherein he meets a beautiful young dancer -- and has to cope with all the major changes of the future, including (but not limited to) a completely different set of social and sexual mores, and a radically different economy. "Many of Heinlein's more famous stories can be traced directly to this book, including 'If This Goes On', 'Coventry', 'Roads Must Roll', 'Beyond This Horizon', and 'Starship Troopers.' "I enjoyed the book greatly, although it isn't as polished as his later work -- but as I say in my afterword, you might think of this as the first step on the moon. "Or the future."

Another alt.fan.heinlein member asked Dr. James if one of the reasons this novel was considered 'unpublishable" was its sexual content. He replied:

"Yes, that's absolutely correct -- one of the really eye-opening things about the novel is the degree to which the RAH of Stranger and the later novels was present from the very beginning. The book reads like late Heinlein in many ways -- one of which is his advocacy of sexual openness and freedom, in the context of love. "Jealousy, as always, is the enemy in his work. "I want to be careful not to spoil anybody's enjoyment of the novel -- two people have already posted saying they don't want to know any more about the book. "I surely understand that -- so I will avoid spoilers. "That said, let's just say that there's a scene in the novel that would not have been publishable until a good 20 years later."

And again:

"I don't think it's sub-standard at all -- but it is quite different from anything that would be published today, and it is quite different from commercial fiction then and now. "It's a very unique work that will force a considerable amount of realignment in our perception of the arc of RAH's career. "And bring on numerous discussions of his work in its context."

Another poster commented that it is ironic that Scribner's is publishing the novel, since it rejected ~~"Stranger in a Strange Land"~~ "Starship Troopers." ~~content, and that Heinlein himself was put off by their rather brusk refusal, considering how much of his work they published.~~

2003-08-10T22:35:00.000-05:00

Elementary, Mr. Dennis

I gotta admit, this one surprised me. Generally, I can tell from the ham-handed questioning what the results would be. I didn't think I was that analytical. As a rule, I take these little quizzes with a larked sized grain of salt.

2003-08-09T19:58:00.000-05:00

Red Planet closer than ever

From MSNBC:

Aug. 8 — Communicating with spacecraft at Mars always involves a wait. Depending on how far apart the planets are, it can take up to 21 minutes to get a signal from Earth to the red planet, resulting in a round-trip time of more than 40 minutes. The lag can be agonizing for an engineer trying to steer a surface probe or debug a software problem. On Aug. 27, when Mars is closer to Earth than ever in human history, the one-way travel time of light and radio signals will be just 3 minutes and 6 seconds.

Private spaceflight closer to reality

From MSNBC:

Aug. 9 — A project to create a passenger-carrying suborbital rocket took a major step forward on Thursday, with the first glide flight of SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif. The spaceship was hauled skyward attached to the White Knight carrier craft, then released from altitude to glide under a pilot’s control to a desert landing.

2003-08-08T22:07:00.000-05:00

Institute of General Semantics moves

The Institute, whose ideas on increasing the preciseness of language were incorporated into Robert A. Heinlein's novels, has made news recently. From the July 23, 2003, Dallas Business Journal:

Founded on the principal that the language of science is more precise -- and less prone to misunderstanding and chaos -- than everyday communication, the nonprofit has attracted as trustees, teachers and students the likes of Buckminster Fuller, a world-famous architect who conceived the geodesic dome; comedian and former talk show host Steve Allen; botanist David Fairchild, the son-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell; science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein; and Dave Garroway, an original host on NBC Today.

Wikipedia has an article about general semantics. Here are exerpts:

General Semantics is a school of thought founded by Alfred Korzybski in about 1933 in response to his observations that most people had difficulty defining human and social discussions and problems and could almost never predictably resolve them into elements that were responsive to successful intervention or correction. In contrast, he noted that engineers could almost always successfully analyze a structural problem prospectively or a failure of structure retrospectively, and arrive at a solution which the engineers first of all could predict to work and secondly could observe to work. He found especially significant the fact that engineers had a language which helped them to do this, in mathematics. Mathematics has such properties that it appears to mimic its referents and thereby simulate or emulate the behavior of the observed physical universe with some precision. This gives physical scientists and engineers a valuable tool. ---- These ideas, retold in more accessible form by Samuel Hayakawa's Language In Thought And Action (1941), Stuart P. Chase's The Tyranny of Words, and other secondary sources, achieved considerable initial success in the 1940s and early 1950s. During that period they entered the idiom of science fiction, notably through the works of A.E. van Vogt and Robert A. Heinlein. After 1955 they became popularly (and unfairly) associated with scientology but continued to exert considerable influence in psychology, anthropology and linguistics (notably, the development of Neuro-Linguistic Programming shows very obvious debts to General Semantics).

2003-08-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry ... no nude pics of Dina Meyer

My referral logs show a visitor came here from a Google search for ' "starship troopers" stills shower.' Sorry to disappoint. It's funny how so many critics of the movie complain about deviations from the book (no powered armor, fascist imagery, sadistic drill instructors, bugs shooting plasma out of their butts into outer space, etc.), but I don't hear as many complaints about the infamous co-ed shower scene. They must not have minded all that much. While other Heinlein books had plenty of wet and naked frolicking, it was a totally inappropriate in "Starship Troopers," which tried to represent conditions inside the traditional infantry, albeit in a futuristic setting. I remember cringing at the scene when I saw it at the theater. It seemed like such an invasion of privacy. It certainly didn't strike me as sexy. I considered that it might be the director's attempt to demonstrate equality of the sexes and a sense of fraternity among the recruits. But, I've concluded that it was simple exploitation. And no, I will not post pics or videos of the scene.

2003-08-06T09:59:00.000-05:00

I was sure it would have been 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress'

I found the following link on alt.fan.heinlein.

You belong in the Cat Who Walks Through Walls. You
are creative and cunning. Your works often
feel empty to you, though others love them.
You suspect that the universe and everyone in
it are just characters in someone else's story.

Which Heinlein Book Should You Have Been A Character In?

2003-08-05T09:14:00.000-05:00

Another reason to alert D.D. Herriman

From the Baltimore Sun:

LISSIE, Texas - On a rice farm west of Houston, in a pasture littered with cow droppings, Jim Akkerman is immersed in the work of the future. Flanked by industrial gas tanks and wearing a straw hat, he rummages through his 1978 Ford Club Wagon van for pliers as a crop-dusting plane drones overhead. The retired NASA engineer pays it no mind. He's too busy connecting copper tubing to the 27-foot propulsion system of his homemade spaceship. That's right, spaceship. Amid the dusty plains, the inventor, hands stained with oil, is preparing to test the system of Mayflower, a 35-foot winged rocket that he believes will revolutionize space flight.

With NASA mired in navel-gazing and bureaucracy, it makes sense to support private development of outer space. Maybe someone will try to get to the moon to round up all that valuable Helium-3. Not to mention all those diamonds littering the lunar surface.

2003-07-29T17:28:00.000-05:00

Someone inform D.D. Harriman

In Robert A. Heinlein's classic tale, "The Man Who Sold the Moon," billionaire D.D. Harriman resorted to planting diamonds on the moon's surface to promote interest in commercial development of the moon. This article suggests a very good economic reason to return: Helium-3, the "perfect fuel source," is as common as dirt on the lunar surface.

2003-07-28T01:19:00.000-05:00

Heinlein, L. Neil Smith and libertarian futures

Stephen Dawson has published his 1988 essay on libertarianism in science fiction on his Website.

2003-07-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

Orders being taken for new Heinlein novel!

I'm supposed to be concentrating on my column, but I had to take a break to post this breaking news story: The hardcover Simon and Shuster edition of "-- For Us, The Living --" will cost $25. Click here for details. I found this on alt.fan.heinlein. Already, Heinleinophiles are calling it by its initials -- FUTL. The dashes are also part of the official title. Please note that the book's subtitle is "A Comedy of Manners." The book has been described as a "utopian" novel and similar to "Beyond This Horizon," a novel in which manners and customs of a future, utopian society played a large role in the plot.

2003-07-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

More news on new Heinlein novel

I am hearing from sources in The Heinlein Society who have read the book that it is a good read. But, we may have to wait until the end of the year to actually see it on bookshelves.

2003-07-22T00:43:00.000-05:00

ST2 update and it isn't pretty

Ain't It Cool News has posted a report from Comic-Con 2003 in which the writer attended a panel on the upcoming Starship Troopers 2:

Next, I stumbled into an intriguing panel on Starship Troopers 2. Paul M. Sammon, Ed Neumier, and Brenda Strong gave an intriguing panel. Ed discussed the reason for the changes in the first film and why their message was very different from what Heinlein was trying to say in the 1950's. A very interesting discussion about how war and militarism breeds fascism ensued, [Good Lord! -- Bill] and how a movie made during the first gulf war is even more relevant during our current altercation in Iraq. The sequel is going to be more of a horror movie along the lines of Alien (a trapped group that has to get out of a messy situation), compared to the politically/socially conscious first film.

This doesn't offer much hope that this movie will be closer to what RAH intended with Starship Troopers.

If they wanted to make a movie about fascists out killing alien bugs, why didn't they wrote their own movie, instead of perverting ST? Why? Because they wanted to cash in on the Heinlein name, but lacked the reasoning power to understand the theme of the book (let alone the science), which is decidedly anti-fascist.

2003-07-21T22:19:00.000-05:00

Star Trek great dies

Matt Jefferies, the art director who designed the original Starship Enterprise and probably contributed to the franchises success as anyone else, had died after a long bout with cancer. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gave Jefferies the task of designing a starship unlike the rocket ships and flying saucers used in virtually every other science fiction medium. The result was a saucer section atop a tubular engineering section, from which also sprouted two other tubular warp nacelles. This remained the essential design for all other starships in every Star Trek movie, series and cartoon that followed. Also, Jefferies' revolutionary design of a circular bridge set allowed for all sort of dramatic scenes to be shot there because it gave the show's central character, the captain, access to other station, as well as made him the center of attention as he sat in the "captain's chair." Trek Nation has an article, as does the official Star Trek site. Why post Star Trek news here? Because RAH was a Star Trek fan. I've seen pictures of him flashing the traditional Vulcan salute. You could say that Heinlein "grokked Spock."

2003-07-21T10:01:00.000-05:00

(Relatively) New Heinlein book

According to a post in the alt.fan.heinlein newsgroup, the Master's first novel, "-- For Us, the Living -- ," has been sold to Scribner's and Pocket Books. It had been thought that all copies of the unpublished novel were been lost or destroyed. A copy was found recently and given to the Heinlein Society, which turned it over to Heinlein's literary estate. No publication date has been announced. It is believed Heinlein wrote the book between late 1938 and April 1939. Bill Patterson's online biographical sketch of Heinlein has this to say about the novel:

"Heinlein's politics at this period were decidedly left- wing, though his registration was with the Democratic Party. Almost all the events he recollects in TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT! took place between 1935 and 1938, and there are almost no other references to this period. His interest in Sinclair and the Social Credit movement, which was also active at the time of the EPIC movement, were to appear in later writings, particularly in the unusual economic theory that would shape BEYOND THIS HORIZON. It was not until recently known that in or about 1937, Heinlein wrote a cadet novel, his Opus 1, FOR US, THE LIVING (the title a quotation from The Gettysburg Address), highly influenced by Wells' THINGS TO COME, which had been released in 1936. Leon Stover discovered the existence of this unpublished novel while doing research for an authorized Heinlein biography. Its economic system is virtually the same as that portrayed in BEYOND THIS HORIZON. (Mrs. Heinlein reports that they destroyed all copies of this manuscript when they moved out of the Bonny Doon house in 1987.)"

"Beyond This Horizon" is my least favorite of Heinlein's works. Even though " -- For Us, The Living -- " looks to be similar in tone and philosophy. Still, even mediocre Heinlein is better than most other stuff out there.

2003-07-16T20:14:00.000-05:00

ST2 blog

"Geek Roar" has a running post about Starship Troopers 2. Also, here is a cast photo from Dark Horizons: And Movie Hole has a whole bunch of movie stills.

2003-07-16T18:59:00.000-05:00

Heinlein Society newsletter released

The latest verson is available online here (Adobe Acrobat needed).

2003-07-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

Catch the reference?

I noticed the following entry at Jay's Solo Verbosity:

It's No Hugo Pinero... I took the Death Test and learned I will die on July 23, 2033 at the age of 72 years old, most likely of heart disease. It doesn't ask about life expectancy in your family, which I would think would be a factor. In my case, 72 would be fairly young, even being male. Not that it would be surprising, but my grandfathers lived to 84 and a few month shy of 90, and were at greater apparent risk than I am. It's an entertaining test, if morbid. Found via Pascale Soleil.

The reference is to he The Master's very first published story, "Life Line," about a scientist who invents a machine that can predict the time and date of a person's death.

2003-06-01T02:48:00.000-05:00

'Starship Trooperization'

You might be familiar with James Pinkerton through his appearances as a conservative pundit on FOX News Watch. He's also a big fan of Heinlein. He wrote these words in an article for Tech Central Station (which I came across in my search for information about the next movie):

And for what it's worth, while the real Heinlein had a militaristic streak, he was the opposite of a fascist. Instead, he was mostly a libertarian; in the novel, a character brags, "Personal freedom for all is greatest in history, laws are few, taxes are low, living standards are as high as productivity permits, crime is at its lowest ebb." And in addition, the real Heinlein always opposed the draft. Fifteen years after his death, his work retains its power to shake things up. And Heinlein, who lived till he was 80, would have liked that. As he once put it, "To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." And what are the falsehoods of today? One is that America doesn't face serious threats. And another is that the world doesn't face serious threats. As Heinlein said in a 1973 speech to his alma mater, the Naval Academy:
"In this complex world, the scientific method, and the consequences of the scientific method are central to everything the human race is doing and to wherever we are going. If we blow ourselves up we will do it by misapplication of science; if we manage to keep from blowing ourselves up, it will be through the intelligent application of science. Science fiction is the only form of fiction which takes into account this central force in our lives and futures. Other sorts of fiction, if they notice science at all, simply deplore it… But we will never get out of the mess we are in by wringing our hands."
Now that's enduring wisdom. Starship Troopers may have anticipated the future of infantry, but Heinlein himself anticipated the overall danger to the species, and to the planet. The Pentagon has been learning its transformational lesson; the question for the rest of us is whether or not we can be equally ambitious in transforming ourselves, so that we can keep ourselves from blowing up this globe. Either that, or use technology to travel elsewhere in the big and beckoning universe.

Go read the whole article, which is about the "Starship Trooperization" of the armed forces into specialized mobile strike teams. It's also about duty and honor.

2003-05-31T19:45:00.000-05:00

'Spacesuit,' 'Mistress' coming to a theater near you

I found these two articles on Sci-Fi Wire:

Heinlein's Moon Optioned Producer David Heyman and Mike Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures have teamed to option the feature-film rights to Robert Heinlein's classic SF novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Variety reported. Published in 1966, the book centers on a computer repairman and moon resident who gets caught up in a rebellion against the authority that controls it from Earth, the trade paper reported. DreamWorks previously optioned the novel. Heyman's Heyday Films also holds the option to the late author's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel," the trade paper reported. Heyman told Variety that Heinlein's widow, Virginia, gave her blessing to their acquisition of the project shortly before her death Jan. 26. "She wanted to know who was going to do it," he said. "She looked at our bios and decided that it seemed like we wouldn't screw it up."

Well, Heyman's bio includes the Harry Potter flicks and some clunkers, including "The Stoned Age" a comedy about two stoners out on the town one night, and "Ravenous," about cannibalism.

Also, this:

Heinlein's 'Spacesuit' Optioned
Warner Brothers has optioned film rights to Robert Heinlein's classic SF tale "Have Spacesuit—Will Travel" for Harry Potter producer David Heyman, via his Heyday Films banner, Variety reported. Vince Gerardis and Ralph Vicinaza will executive produce under their Created By banner. No screenwriter has been hired. The film will tell the story of a teenager who loses a contest that will take the first teen into space, but wins the consolation prize: a spacesuit from the original Apollo missions. When he discovers the spacesuit has made alien contact, the boy is propelled into an adventure of intergalactic proportions, the trade paper reported. Heyman is now in production in London on the third installment in the Potter franchise, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."

I'm not worried so much about HSS-WT. Remember, it is one of Heinlein's juvenile novels. It wont hurt the movie to be produced by someone who knows how to produce movies based on juvenile books.

Praise the Creator that Paul ~~Verhoaxen~~ Verhoeven will have nothing to do with it either one.

However, I am not sure Heyman is the person to produce TMiaHM. "Moon" is a very adult, overtly political novel. In addition to being a science fiction classic, it is a also a libertarian manifesto. Nothing Heyman has done in the past indicates an an ability to portray these ideas on the screen.

2003-05-31T10:20:00.000-05:00

Starship Troopers 2: More of the same?

Most Heinlein purists hated the movie version of "Starship Troopers." They hated the fascist imagery. They hated the bad science (spaceships banking in zero gravity, insects shooting plasma out of their butts). They hated the portrayal of professional soldiers as sadistic. They hated that a minor character changed sexes and because a love interest. They hated the bad acting. Most of the ire was directed at director Paul Verhoeven.

Well, Verhoeven isn't involved in the sequel, now in production. But from this brief report from the Dark Horizons Web site, it looks like the sequel now in production probably won't be much better:

It takes place 5 years after the first movie, the opening scenes are of the propaganda commercial stating why you should join the Federation Troopers, lots of scenes of Troopers running and then a scene that is a copy of the Iowa Shima [that's spelled Iwo Jima, dumbass]Flag Lifting. Immediately cuts to planet Zulu where the troopers are surrounded on a cliff by bugs and they are blasting away and are told to retreat. Nearly ¾ of the troopers are killed as they retreat towards an abandoned military base. They arrive at the base and get no response from the Federation when they ask for evacuation and pick up, meaning they are stranded there. There is also a subplot that the bugs have engendered a virus that infects some of the troopers and the bugs are trying to get the infection to go all the way up to the heads of the Federation. This virus turns it’s victims into Zombies of sorts." [Producer Jon] Davison told me he was off to a zombie test last week – now that does sound captivating.

Other changes: No Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, no guy who played Doogie Howzer (Neil Patrick Harris).

The movie sequel cannot be faulted for failure to follow the book because Heinlein wrote no sequel. I am not anticipating any great improvement in Starship Troopers 2, considering the use of "propaganda" commercials. I also thing the idea of a virus that turns people into zombies wouldn't pass muster with Heinlein, either.

At the time I saw this movie, it had been 10 years since I read Starship Troopers. My reaction was that I didn't recall the book portraying the Federation as fascists. My impression was the opposite. I missed seeing the powered armor. I didn't mind the co-ed army, but I was appalled at the co-ed shower scenes. I don't mind nudity in movies. Hell, I usually enjoy the hell out of it. But I thought the scenes were intrusive, embarrassing and an insult to the characters.

I think Heinlein fans -- myself included -- would not have minded the changes between book and movie had the movie not treated the concept of honor, duty and responsibility as a source of campy humor.

After the movie came out, there was a syndicated show called "Starship Troopers: Roughnecks." It was computer animated and a much better representation of the novel. It also had powered armor. Maybe they should put the people who did this version in charge of the next sequel.

2003-05-29T02:09:00.000-05:00

New URL

I'm migrating this blog to my own hosted server. The new address will be http://ariel.affordablehost.com/~content/heinleinblog.htm. Soon, it will be at heinlein.billscontent.com.

2003-05-29T00:09:00.000-05:00

Changes are a-comin'

My last post to this blog was on March 30. That's a long time in the Blogosphere. But I simply don't have the time to post as much as I would like. Also, there are others more deeply involved in Heinlein fandom that I am. That's why I am asking anyone who is interested in posting to let me know, and I will add them to the list of people who can add articles to this site.

By the way, as soon as my new domain (billscontent.com) goes online, I'll be giving The Robert A. Heinlein News Page a new name (I haven't decided on one yet) its own subdomain (probably heinlein.billscontent.com). I'm also going to work on a new template and go through my earlier articles and sites about Heinlein and do some much-needed copyediting. It's not that big an assignment. I'm sure I have five minutes free. UPDATE: I am hard at work copyediting articles submitted for the upcoming Heinlein Society newsletter. It will have tons of news about the convention in Missouri and follow-ups on services for Ginny. UPDATE, 2: OK, so I decided on a name: heinleinblog.

2003-03-30T02:03:00.000-06:00

Dealing with peace activists

I an sure I am the last warblogger to post this humerous, yet wise advice, which I found here. But it is remarkably consistant with the philosophy behind the Robert A. Heinlein quote from my previous post.
With all of this talk of war, many of us will encounter "Peace Activists" who will try and convince us that we must refrain from retaliating against the ones who terrorized us all on September 11, 2001, and those who support terror. These activists may be alone or in a gathering.....most of us don't know how to react to them. When you come upon one of these people, or one of their rallies, here are the proper rules of etiquette: 1. Listen politely while this person explains their views. Strike up a conversation if necessary and look very interested in their ideas. They will tell you how revenge is immoral, and that by attacking the people who did this to us, we will only bring on more violence. They will probably use many arguments, ranging from political to religious to humanitarian. 2. In the middle of their remarks, without any warning, punch them in the nose. 3. When the person gets up off of the ground, they will be very angry and they may try to hit you, so be careful. 4. Very quickly and calmly remind the person that violence only brings about more violence and remind them of their stand on this matter. Tell them if they are really committed to a nonviolent approach to undeserved attacks, they will turn the other cheek and negotiate a solution. Tell them they must lead by example if they really believe what they are saying. 5. Most of them will think for a moment and then agree that you are correct. 6. As soon as they do that, hit them again. Only this time hit them much harder. Square in the nose. 7. Repeat steps 2-5 until the desired results are obtained and the idiot realizes how stupid of an argument he/she is making. 8. There is no difference in an individual attacking an unsuspecting victim or a group of terrorists attacking a nation of people. It is unacceptable and must be dealt with. Perhaps at a high cost. We owe our military a huge debt for what they are about to do for us and our children. We must support them and our leaders at times like these. We have no choice. We either strike back, VERY HARD, or we will keep getting hit in the nose. Lesson over, class dismissed.

2003-03-29T19:25:00.000-06:00

Heinlein and Gulf War II protestors

Blogger Rachel Lucas invoked the Grand Master of Science Fiction to explain silly anti-war protestors.

2003-03-03T14:48:00.000-06:00

Heinlein in sci-fi’s Top Ten

The editors of the Science Fiction Book Club has included Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” to its list of the top 50 most important science fiction/fantasy works of all time. It was fourth on the list, behind (1.) J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” (2.) Isaac Asimov’s "Foundation Trilogy,” and (3.) Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” According to a press release:

Ellen Asher, Science Fiction Book Club Senior Editor, described Heinlein, author of “Stranger in a Strange Land,” as “the single most popular and widest-read science fiction writer of all time. ‘Stranger’ was not only a phenomenon for science fiction readers. It jumped the borders into the wider culture, giving a new lexicon to the late ’60s and a new way of looking at the world.”

USA Today reporter Bob Minzesheimer chose a more sarcastic description:

Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” (1961) features a child from Mars who adapts to life on Earth and founds his own church, which resembles a swinger”s club.

Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” was listed as 46th on the full list, while Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War,” sort of a liberal’s version of “SST,” was 24th on the list while Heinlein”s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” didn’t make the list at all. Did Heinlein get the respect he was due in this list? Well, you can’t really complain about finishing fourth. And as much as I love and respect Heinlein’s work, Tolkein's masterpiece is much more influential. I like Asimov‘s work, too. I think his Robot novels were more influential than the Foundation novels (although he later merged them into the same universe). I could never get past the first few pages of “Dune.” I also would have included L. Neil Smith’s “The Probability Broach” and Spider Robinson’s “Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.”

UPDATE: All complaints, criticisms and insults directed at this list concerning numbers 11-50 are invalid. It was just pointed out to me that except for the top 10, the books are listed in alphabetical order. In my defense, there is no explanation of this anywhere on the site, and it took someone with a better eye for detail than I to catch it.

2003-03-02T02:08:00.000-06:00

Heinlein's 100th birthday approaches

The Heinlein Society plans to celebrate the 100th anniversary of science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein's birth with a variety of events, products, and programs. A special Web page has been set up to detail these events as they unfold.

2003-01-25T11:41:00.000-06:00

In Memory of Virginia Heinlein

Ginny, the wife of the late Robert A. Heinlein, died this weekend after a long illness. Heinlein is considered by many to be the greatest science fiction writer of the modern era. He wrote "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." He was the first recipient of the title Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Nebula Awards. His beloved Ginny was his partner for most of his professional life. It was her idea that sparks the novel that was to evolve into Valentine Michael Smith, the protagonist of "Stranger." She helped keep Robert alive through two serious illnesses that could have kept Heinlein from completing the final handful of novels before his death. She served as a sounding board for all of his many wonderful ideas. Heinlein's novels are populated with strong women, and Ginny was the model for all of them. She will be missed by all who knew her, myself included. The full obituary is available. More information is available at The Heinlein Society Web site.

2002-07-01T18:43:00.000-05:00

Heinlein meets Star Trek

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. According to the TrekToday Web site: Andrew Robinson, the actor who played Cardassian spy Elim Garak, has announced that he has started work on a new novel based around the popular character. The novel will be written in the vein of Robert A. Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land.' The article described 'Stranger in a Strange Land' as a 1960's cult classic about a man raised by Martians who teaches humanity a new life philosophy. Robinson's earlier Star Trek novel, "A Stitch in Time," dealth with Garak's return to a Cardassia devasted by the Dominion War.

2002-06-11T22:03:00.000-05:00

Heinlein Society creates Heinlein Award

The Heinlein Society announced that it is establishing the Heinlein Award, for outstanding published works in hard SF and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space, Locus magazine reported. The award is named for legendary SF author Robert A. Heinlein. The award will be given periodically, but no more often than annually, and will consist of a certificate and a trophy, the magazine reported. The winner will be selected by an advisory board, currently consisting of Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Yoji Kondo, Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, Stanley Schmidt and Charles Sheffield, plus U.S. Naval Academy English professors Herb Gilliland and John Hill.

2002-06-01T21:36:00.000-05:00

Prototype for powered armor?

Discover Magazine:
Battle Fatigues by Wendy Marston John Munroe spends his days thinking about how to avoid getting killed in the new millennium. He's not paranoid--he's doing his job. As warrior systems integration team leader at the Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts, Munroe is developing a vision of what American soldiers will be wearing in combat a quarter century hence. The U.S. Army is preparing to roll out uniforms that include video-display goggles and a chest-mounted mouse for weapons and radio controls. Munroe's Future Warrior 2025 concept draws on much more far-out engineering. Night vision glasses correct for the distortion caused by the curvature of the visor. The helmet, called "headgear subsystem--information central," links with the soldier's suit and firearm so that the soldier need only look at a target and the voice-activated gun is locked on and ready to shoot. The suit itself is a bullet-resistant mesh of carbon nanotubes. It circulates hot or cold water to keep the wearer comfortable and contains embedded enzymes to neutralize biological or chemical weapons. For now, Future Warrior 2025 is just a dream--or a nightmare. The necessary technology is years off, and the mockup at the Natick Soldier Center isn't a working prototype--it's a "conceptual simulation" to stimulate the imagination. So how does one decide what a conceptual simulation of tomorrow's soldier should look like? "The black suit shows you he's of the future," Munroe explains.

2002-05-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Horrible, horrible news

The people who brought us the Starship Troopers are planning a sequel, called "Hero of the Federation." Paul Verhoeven's movie implied the world created by Robert A. Heinlein was fascist in nature. This next movie is likley to do the same. This sequel has not received a "green light" from Sony and it may in fact never see the light of day. I always thought it would make a good miniseries, as would "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" of "Stranger in a Strange Land." The original article can be found here.

2002-05-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Heinlein News goes international

I went "googling" the other day. I searched the Web for the name Bill Dennis and found this site, from Belgium of all places, which had a link to THIS SITE. Think about it, Belgian people seeking information about Libertarian ideas were directed to my site. It is a frightening thought. Anyway, here is a reciprocal link.

2002-03-23T14:53:00.000-06:00

Sorry folks

I jumped the gun posting Randi's "pic." Soon as I get permission, I'll post it. For those who saw it, I hope you enjoyed it.

2002-03-21T22:41:00.000-06:00

Faces to names

The RAH Picture page is up and running, thanks to Stephen (Jump101). One pic he was afriad to put up really isn't a pic at all, but a line drawing of the lovely "Randi." Here she is: (Picture missing)

2002-02-17T03:06:00.000-06:00

News for PJ Farmer fans

This is kind of "off topic," but it is of interest for fans of Philip Jose Farmer: Kevin Smith, who portrayed war-god Ares on the syndicated television series "Hercules" and Xena: Warrior Princess" died at a Beijing, China, hospital from injures sustained in an accident. He had just completed filming a movie "Warriors of Virtue II" and was due to appear in the Bruce Willis movie "Man of War." Smith, a New Zealand native, portrayed the character "Valdemar" in the movie "Riverworld," based on the science fiction series by Philip Jose Farmer.

2002-01-25T01:45:00.000-06:00

Death in the family

Cats are always on-topic in any discussion of Robert Heinlein. alt.fan.heinlein Bill Reich regular reported on the recent death of long-time family member Feather. All A.F.H. regulars offered Bill their condolences.

2002-01-18T12:53:00.000-06:00

News on the powered armor front

The Department of Defense is developing an exoskeleton that could lead to the type of powered armor Robert Heinlein invented in "Starship Troopers." Check out this article in Discover magazine.

2002-01-16T22:37:00.000-06:00

L. Neil Smith's 'American Zone' preaches to choir

"The American Zone," like most of the books set in L. Neil Smith's North American Confederacy universe, suffers from preachiness. Which is understandable, considering Robert A. Heinlein's great influence on Smith. Heinlein has been accused of preachiness. But, unlike the first grandmaster of science fiction, Smith lets the preaching get in the way of the action. For every page devoted to advancing the plot, it seems there are five that portray characters doing little more that sitting and standing around telling each other, in no uncertain terms, what an evil thing government is. It's hard to blame Neil for this. Becoming a libertarian is a, well, liberating experience. It's like a damn bursts in your soul. Suddenly, even the slightest government intrusion -- especially those once considered innocuous -- are the horrible violations of personal liberty. Neil's characters -- unless they're the statist villians -- almost universally seem to be in the early stage of post-Libertarian conversion. It seems unnatural that people who are the products of 200-plus years of libertarian civilization would be that worked up about the evils of a form of government they have never experienced first-hand. Smith is preaching to the choir. Anyone uninitiated into libertarianism is going to be very put off by this book, and write it off as far-right dogma. True believers aren't going to learn anything new and will get bored quickly. "Yeah, we get it Neil. Got anything new to say?" I had hoped to see Neil's insights into the events of Sept. 11. Nothing. There are glimmers of hope. At the end of the book, a bad, pro-government character is portrayed at having a sense of honor. Much the same thing happened to a different pro-government character at the end of "The Probability Broach." Neither redeemed character was developed further. I recommend "Probability Broach" and others book in this fictional universe, like "Tom Paine Maru" and "Brightsuit MacBear." Both are libertarian science fiction at its best. In "The American Zone," Smith neglected the science fiction part.

2002-01-15T22:15:00.000-06:00

I'm about half-way through The American Zone and folks ... it ain't looking good.

2002-01-13T16:09:00.000-06:00

L. Neil Smith's new book, "The American Zone," is out in bookstores right now. It is a sequel to his award-winning "The Probability Broach." It features the newest adventure of Detective "Win" Bear, who escaped from an oppressive United States of America to the parallel universe of the "North American Confederacy." Why is this news Heinlein-related? Heinlein greatly influenced L. Neil Smith. Readers of TPB and TAZ will notice Heinleinesque elements. Like his hero, Neil likes to toss out concepts that challenge our concepts of freedom, liberty, honor and responsibility. Also of note, in the universe of the North American Confederacy, Heinlein became a famous, war-hero admiral. (maybe the next sequel will have Heinlein as a character) Neil has been a guest on the Heinelin AIM chat. I am just getting started on TAZ and will post a review as soon as possible (it may be a while now that I have a day job).

2002-01-12T09:35:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Heinlein reports that the content of the new British edition of "Citizen of the Galaxy" will be virtually identical to the U.S. version, except spelling of some words will be changed. ("Color" changed to "colour," I would imagine). The exact changes depends on who does the editing. The book will be available throughout the British Commonwealth. It is a hardback trade edition. Maybe I'll be able to post an image of the cover. Check back.

2002-01-11T19:46:00.000-06:00

Mrs. Virginia Heinlein reports that today's mail included a copy of the new British edition of "Citizen of the Galaxy." Details to follow.