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what the Heinlein?
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.
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.
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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.
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