[ExI] Looking back at Heinlein's Future History - coming true before our eyes.

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of 

 

 

>>…spike wrote -  best work was later than this however.  Agreed Heinlein’s visions of the future were stunning.  I see his contribution as having moved SciFi from being all spaceships and ray guns, kids stuff really, to be more of its own legitimate genre

 

>…I wonder what kids thought of his later works - incest, homosexuality, orgies.  We know that in 'real life' he had sex parties, swapped wives, was a closet nudist (what does that mean?).  All of which bothers me not at all, real life or fiction.  But none of his later works won any prizes, I think.  If you read Grumbles from the Grave and the one about his trip to Australia, he could be a super neurotic grouch and obsessive-compulsive.  It must have been hard to be around him and follow all his customs and manners and rules.    He was a genre writer and a great one.  I wonder what his fiction might have been had he written some mainstream books.  Still great, I think.  bill w

 

 

This is something I have often pondered.  I heard of Heinlein’s weirdness, but wrote it off, ignored it, noting that weirdness is very common among celebrities and artists.  I can only think of one real exception: the actor Jimmy Stewart: great actor, great person, love him.  The rest of them: crazy, to a man.  Weird.  Can’t relate.

 

Consider the actors/performers who play a role-model sort of persona.  Do let me skip Bill Cosby please, draw the curtain of mercy upon that scene, for our sake.  Consider the character played by singer John Denver: wholesome upstanding lad, ja?  Outdoors, conservation, all the things I am about, loved his music.  If you are in that situation, do not read his autobiography.  Hold the pleasant illusion.  One cannot unread Denver’s autobio, but suffice it to say, I would be grateful had he stayed in character and written as John Denver rather than John Deuchendorf, and had he not opened his heart.  Read Jimmy Stewart’s life instead.  We long for entertainers and writers we can actually respect as people.

 

Heinlein: the orgy stuff, oy vey, I don’t see why that is SciFi.  If we wish to theorize that society will cast off all social taboos as a result of robust birth control, well OK then, if we must.  Hurray for us, we did it.  Are we enlightened yet?  I kinda liked it better in some ways being unenlightened.  The music was better.

 

spike

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