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A review by oleksandr
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein by Farah Mendlesohn
3.0
This is a non-fic about the works of one of the greatest SF authors, [a:Robert A. Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]. The book gives a short biography and then follows with discussing some aspects and views on the basis of Heinlein’s works. It is recommended to people to have read the master, for while this book gives rather detailed descriptions of the discussed works, the greater context and ‘knowledge of the lore’ is highly desirable.
There are the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Biography. Describes both his life and political views. He was married three times, two in ‘free marriages’, his political views shifted from Democrat to Republican (or more precisely Libertarian with a strong social security net, which sounds surprising), he tried himself in politics.
Chapter 2: Heinlein’s Narrative Arc. A chronological review, from early short stories to rambling later novels, his History of Future – the author insists that works fit there from the start, not attempt to hornshoe them later.
Chapter 3: Technique. His second wife was with Hollywood and his early works have a lot of Cinematic approach in them, as well as some allusions. Unlike most other authors, who write a hero, his protagonist is often a Sidekick, a person who helps the true hero.
Chapter 4: Rhetoric. In many of his works he follows the tradition of the Picaresque novels, where a picaro (rogue) changes the world and lives around him, but doesn’t character progress a lot.
Chapter 5: Heinlein and Civic Society. His view on how the society should be setup, with freedom and duty as paramount issues. He was childless and it seems had a great yearning for the family. Family and Childrearing are things that made people from children to adults and lack of a family means that a person is still unable to bear responsibility.
Chapter 6: Heinlein and the Civic Revolution. He was an active advocate of the 2nd amendment, his phrase ‘an armed society is a polite society’ is often quoted. However, in novel after novel guns fail to be useful: individuals are overpowered when they attempt to defend themselves; attackers (even government attackers) are overwhelmed by the angry and determined unarmed (a position possible to hold in the days before mass shooters went in with AR-15s). so while he was pro-gun, guns never solve a problem in his book, but exaggerate some. Another important issue is Disability: from his earliest stories there are disabled people around, quite ahead of times. His blind poet Rhysling is now the title of SFF Award, he has a person with (what we now describe as) Asperger as a protagonist in the 1940s; there are quite a lot of amputees…
Chapter 7: Racism, Anti-Racism and the Construction of Civic Society. One of the hardest issues. Heinlein himself clearly seen as anti-racist, not only having non-white characters (including Jews) in the 1940s and 50s. it is fascinating that in [b:Tunnel in the Sky|16683|Tunnel in the Sky (Heinlein's Juveniles, #9)|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922500l/16683._SY75_.jpg|18353] Rod Walker is never described, but it is said that his scars are long and white: more like keloids than the long red scars on white skin; there is a family resemblance: Rod looks like Caroline’s (who is black) little brother. Of course the most controversial is [b:Farnham's Freehold|50840|Farnham's Freehold|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170371993l/50840._SX50_.jpg|2942974], where after the nuclear war people of Africa (who weren’t bombed) form a society with whites as slaves. Moreover, following Swift’s [b:A Modest Proposal|5206937|A Modest Proposal|Jonathan Swift|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348659670l/5206937._SX50_.jpg|6627040] he makes them cannibals, which on a surface may look not like a satire but as a prejudice against ‘black savages’
Chapter 8: The Right Ordering of Self. One of the most important themes are Personal Honour and Sexual Integrity. In order for society to be right-ordered in a Heinlein world, individuals need to be right-ordered. This is a directional relationship: a right-ordered society cannot create right-ordered individuals, since for Heinlein right-ordered individuals must make the right-ordered society. Without a clear sense of oneself as an individuated person, there can be no such thing as honour. Heinlein reserves a special place in his pantheon of evils for sexual hypocrisy. He maybe goes too far for modern sensibility basing personal integrity on sexual one, esp. for women, but if one takes into account that he grew up in the 1920s and the very fact that women can enjoy sex like men was almost a heresy back then.
Chapter 9: Heinlein’s Gendered Self. Heinlein’s understanding of what a man should be and do emerges is that the concept of the ‘Heinlein hero’ or the ‘competent man’. Note that most male protagonists are sidekicks, not ‘heroes’ or alfas. Where there are male leaders in Heinlein novels they tend to be older men, and they tend to be distanced. Also they are far from physically perfect: they are (if described at all) can be small, bold, pot-bellied, overweight, hairy. They often dress ‘unmanly’: kilts, earrings, make-up, garish colors. One aspect of Heinlein’s work on identity is his use and expression of alternative genders, esp. in ‘“[b:All You Zombies|13030110|All You Zombies|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338513108l/13030110._SX50_.jpg|18193411]’” and [b:I Will Fear No Evil|175325|I Will Fear No Evil|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303411477l/175325._SY75_.jpg|45662].
Overall a very interesting analysis, with which I mostly agree and it made me want to re-read the master
There are the following chapters:
Chapter 1: Biography. Describes both his life and political views. He was married three times, two in ‘free marriages’, his political views shifted from Democrat to Republican (or more precisely Libertarian with a strong social security net, which sounds surprising), he tried himself in politics.
Chapter 2: Heinlein’s Narrative Arc. A chronological review, from early short stories to rambling later novels, his History of Future – the author insists that works fit there from the start, not attempt to hornshoe them later.
Chapter 3: Technique. His second wife was with Hollywood and his early works have a lot of Cinematic approach in them, as well as some allusions. Unlike most other authors, who write a hero, his protagonist is often a Sidekick, a person who helps the true hero.
Chapter 4: Rhetoric. In many of his works he follows the tradition of the Picaresque novels, where a picaro (rogue) changes the world and lives around him, but doesn’t character progress a lot.
Chapter 5: Heinlein and Civic Society. His view on how the society should be setup, with freedom and duty as paramount issues. He was childless and it seems had a great yearning for the family. Family and Childrearing are things that made people from children to adults and lack of a family means that a person is still unable to bear responsibility.
Chapter 6: Heinlein and the Civic Revolution. He was an active advocate of the 2nd amendment, his phrase ‘an armed society is a polite society’ is often quoted. However, in novel after novel guns fail to be useful: individuals are overpowered when they attempt to defend themselves; attackers (even government attackers) are overwhelmed by the angry and determined unarmed (a position possible to hold in the days before mass shooters went in with AR-15s). so while he was pro-gun, guns never solve a problem in his book, but exaggerate some. Another important issue is Disability: from his earliest stories there are disabled people around, quite ahead of times. His blind poet Rhysling is now the title of SFF Award, he has a person with (what we now describe as) Asperger as a protagonist in the 1940s; there are quite a lot of amputees…
Chapter 7: Racism, Anti-Racism and the Construction of Civic Society. One of the hardest issues. Heinlein himself clearly seen as anti-racist, not only having non-white characters (including Jews) in the 1940s and 50s. it is fascinating that in [b:Tunnel in the Sky|16683|Tunnel in the Sky (Heinlein's Juveniles, #9)|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922500l/16683._SY75_.jpg|18353] Rod Walker is never described, but it is said that his scars are long and white: more like keloids than the long red scars on white skin; there is a family resemblance: Rod looks like Caroline’s (who is black) little brother. Of course the most controversial is [b:Farnham's Freehold|50840|Farnham's Freehold|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170371993l/50840._SX50_.jpg|2942974], where after the nuclear war people of Africa (who weren’t bombed) form a society with whites as slaves. Moreover, following Swift’s [b:A Modest Proposal|5206937|A Modest Proposal|Jonathan Swift|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348659670l/5206937._SX50_.jpg|6627040] he makes them cannibals, which on a surface may look not like a satire but as a prejudice against ‘black savages’
Chapter 8: The Right Ordering of Self. One of the most important themes are Personal Honour and Sexual Integrity. In order for society to be right-ordered in a Heinlein world, individuals need to be right-ordered. This is a directional relationship: a right-ordered society cannot create right-ordered individuals, since for Heinlein right-ordered individuals must make the right-ordered society. Without a clear sense of oneself as an individuated person, there can be no such thing as honour. Heinlein reserves a special place in his pantheon of evils for sexual hypocrisy. He maybe goes too far for modern sensibility basing personal integrity on sexual one, esp. for women, but if one takes into account that he grew up in the 1920s and the very fact that women can enjoy sex like men was almost a heresy back then.
Chapter 9: Heinlein’s Gendered Self. Heinlein’s understanding of what a man should be and do emerges is that the concept of the ‘Heinlein hero’ or the ‘competent man’. Note that most male protagonists are sidekicks, not ‘heroes’ or alfas. Where there are male leaders in Heinlein novels they tend to be older men, and they tend to be distanced. Also they are far from physically perfect: they are (if described at all) can be small, bold, pot-bellied, overweight, hairy. They often dress ‘unmanly’: kilts, earrings, make-up, garish colors. One aspect of Heinlein’s work on identity is his use and expression of alternative genders, esp. in ‘“[b:All You Zombies|13030110|All You Zombies|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1338513108l/13030110._SX50_.jpg|18193411]’” and [b:I Will Fear No Evil|175325|I Will Fear No Evil|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303411477l/175325._SY75_.jpg|45662].
Overall a very interesting analysis, with which I mostly agree and it made me want to re-read the master