what the Heinlein?

[calimac]

Suddenly, on this first day of 2025, I am finding allusions in my reading to Robert A. Heinlein.

One is this anecdote from Mark Evanier, in which Mark tells of the time in 1984 that he found himself assigned at a comics convention to moderate a panel on Heinlein. Only problem was that Mark had never read any Heinlein, and then, it turned out, neither had any of the panelists, who'd been assigned as blithely as he had, nor any of the audience, who were there mostly out of curiosity as to who this Heinlein was.
And that, I guess, shows a difference between comics conventions and science-fiction conventions. Today would be different, but in 1984 you could have staffed a pretty good and discursive, probably even contentious, panel on Heinlein at an SF con by just grabbing half a dozen random people from the hallway. Because even if they didn't know his work well, they'd have had opinions.

The other is Kevin Drum's 20 favorite books of all time, which includes Time Enough for Love (or, as I like to call it, Time for Enough Love). Oh, is it really? Not just your favorite Heinlein - personally I'd only feel easy about anyone's choice for that honor if it was published before about 1960 - but one of your favorite books of all time? Many of the other choices left me equally gobsmacked - Stephen R. Donaldson, oh god - and all I can say is, people sure are different.

Comments

[sartorias]

There's a lot on that list that makes me think who is Kevin Drum? Never mind, our likes are very unlikely to cross. I'm surprised not to see A Confederacy of Dunces on his list.

[brithistorian]

Yeah, that was certainly a list. Or something. I've read about half of the things on that list, enjoyed some of them, but I don't think any of them would make my top 20 of all time list. To be honest, if he had led with Infinite Jest, I probably wouldn't have bothered to read the rest of the list.

[sartorias]

Yup.

[sturgeonslawyer]

H'mmm. I'm not so daft as to have a favorite Heinlein book, but I still do like one post-1960 novel fairly well -- that being The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress -- and TEfL, bulging as it is with dreck, still contains some of his best writing (I refer to "The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail" and to a lesser extent "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter," disturbingly perverse as the latter is). And Stranger is ... interesting. Not quite good, but interesting.

Donaldson will never make any top ten list of mine (not that I have any interest in creating one), but I think you underrate him. Yes, he is a would-be stylist who started out with a tin ear. He got rather better.

[calimac]

“Started out” - it’s his first trilogy that was picked,

[wild_patience]

Oh, it could be worse. I'm currently re-reading Geoff Ryman's Was, which I will privately think of as Why? Why would he write the most bleak and joyless book I've ever read? It intertwines three narratives: Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz) and her life in Kansas, a realistic view of a Dorothy who had no magic adventure in Oz; the life of Judy Garland; and a modern (1980s I believe) young gay actor who is going to play the Scarecrow in some production of Wizard of Oz. His sections are the only ones which are not horribly depressing, but so far, they are taking up a lot less space. I read this when it was new (most likely it was on the long list for the Mythopoeic Award when I was on the committee - it is woefully unsuited for that) so I don't remember much other than my overall impression of hating it. I am fully expecting the only pleasant character to die horribly from AIDS later in the book.