Reminds Me of Heinlein

Here. Excerpts:

All the laws in the world can at best only paper over the very primal compulsion of people to value the life of the average woman more than the life of the average man, and sympathize accordingly. Railing against it is akin to shaking a fist at sunspots and gamma rays. It’s therefore folly or self-serving disingenuousness to act like there’s some moral high ground to stake out by imparting culpable agency to an indifferent, organically emergent biomechanical phenomenon. Rationalizing favoritism toward women as some sort of payback for male privilege, or refusing to acknowledge this favoritism altogether, is an example of the cognitive calisthenics and evasive sophistry most people will indulge to avoid grappling with the cold, black void of an uncaring evolutionary replication machine.

(...)

In sober moments free of maudlin introspection, you will understand there is no other game to play save this one. This is why to live as a man is to TAKE what you want. Not to wait for it to be given to you. Because it will never be given. Not to anticipate the empathy of the overseers. Because they will never empathize. Not to expect the coddling of the crowd. Because they will never coddle. Not to assume the wagon circling of kindreds. Because they will never circle for you. You got the short stick, now what? Do you contemplate it and hope for a longer one? No.

You sharpen it and jab it into the heart of every obstacle that sets itself in your way.

Fakir and Shinobi

In The Rolling Stones, Hazel Stone survives running out of oxygen by quickly going into a coma-like state, as Heinlein wrote, like the Indian fakirs (the italicization is important!). When I read it at age 12, the context made it basically clear what a fakir is, but it inspired me to hit the dictionary and encyclopedia and I ended up learing a whole lot about India and its traditional holy men and various wonder workers.

A few days ago, my eight-year-old son and I were reading together (to each his own book, though) before his bed time; he Naruto (the Japanese manga) and me, Tunnel in the Sky. This is the first Heinlein I ever read, age 11, and the idea of a high schooler trained to kill with his bare hands fascinated me, back then.

I came to the reference to a shinobi move. Bing! "Hey Kid, look at this--shinobi move in Robert Heinlein's book. See, he knew what a shinobi was long before the guy who wrote Naruto was born!"



The Kid admitted he was impressed. Now I'm getting him a copy of Red Planet, the uncut version. Probably the best one to get him started. The "boys with handguns" will keep him interested, and the bigger ideas will sneak their way in...

Pre-ordering the Heinlein Biography, V. II

Update to the previous post: I see that you can now pre-order the biography v. II, The Man Who Learned Better on Amazon. Be the first on your block to get it, and all that (heh).

Update on Volume II of the Heinlein Biography

It's been quite awhile since I posted anything here, but the interregnum ( a word I learned from Heinlein!) has built up a fair back log of ideas, items and images.

Heinlein biographer Bill Patterson announced on his blog in June that "the re-recut manuscript for volume 2 of the Heinlein Biography" has been accepted.

"My title for volume 2 is 'The Man Who Learned Better.'"

Very interesting title, indeed. My take is that Heinlein (unlike many humans) kept learning all of his life. In particular, some of the political and economic ideas that we saw in volume 1 ("Learning Curve") were modified by experience.

So we will likely see The Man Who Learned Better in 2014.

Prophet of Science Fiction

If you haven't had the opportunity to see the Science Channel series "Prophets of Science Fiction" it's now on YouTube. Of course I was most interested in the Heinlein episode! It features commentary by Bill Patterson and Robert James.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Next post will probably be in 2013.