Cyril Maithily Gupta's Blog

Farnham’s Freehold from Robert A Heinlein has upset me a little. Robert Heinlein finds it very hard to be uncontroversial I guess. He apparently wrote every book with a mission to show a different and not necessarily beautiful facet of this world.

It says on the cover of this book that it is science-fiction’s ‘Most controversial novel’. Most controversial? I don’t think it deserves that title, there have been others with more dangerous themes. But it certainly would have been very controversial in the 60s when it was written. But I think it was controversial for all the wrong reasons.

Back in the 60s when the black people of America had only just gained a better standing in the society, a novel like Farnham’s Freehold which turns racism head-over-heels would certainly cause a ruckus. After all which white person could come to terms with a society of black rulers who have mindless white slaves who they consider animals and have doctors called ‘vets’ to treat them. Heinlein’s concoction was a slap on the face to white-supremacists. It was a mirror of the most ugly sorts showing them what they were by exaggerating the treatment they mete out to blacks, only this time the recipients were white.

So it was controversial and it had more than a few people fuming and damning. But that’s not what got my goose. Living in India and in this millennia, I am a bit immune to color-racism, but living in India there is a different picture of family that I have. I think people totally missed that point. They totally didn’t bring family into picture when they struck up a controversy. The family portrayed in Heinlein’s book is more than dysfunctional, it’s a victim. It’s a victim of an overbearing, ego-maniacal, paranoid father figure who apparently doesn’t give a damn about the rest of the people in the family even though he pretends to think that he does. That guy is also the book’s protagonist.

Only in a Heinlein book can a protagonist be so vile, disgusting, selfish, uncaring, and totally get away with it. I didn’t feel much sympathy for the lead in the novel at all even though Heinlein made an effort to make him seem fair and just in many places. But that’s a useless sort of a complain, because why should anyone expect any lead character of any book to be a moral example?

Leaving the characters be, the most interesting aspect of the book is how it compares the contemporary civilization with a possible future, and how the customs and rituals of the imaginary civilization seem so horrific while our own savage and unfair practices can be easily ignored.

Going back two thousand years we are appalled at the savagery of human civilization. Heinlein makes you appalled at the savagery two thousand years on, while the people in the future of Heinlein’s book are just as appalled at ours.

I received ‘The Orphans of the Sky’ by R A Heinlein yesterday. The book is pretty small, pocket-book sized. It didn’t take me long to finish it off again. Again because I have read it once earlier a long time ago and didn’t remember the title so I ordered it again.

I am left with a deep sense of dissatisfaction not because the book was not good, but because I could remember the story before it unfolded and by ordering a book that I had already read earlier I missed reading a fresh Heinlein book. But on to the review:

The book is about a giant spaceship that has set sail for a distant star. It’s apparently a slower than light generations ship because too many years have passed. The residents of the ship have forgotten their origins and believe the ship is the entire world. Operating the ship has become a religion and the society has re-structured itself in accordance. The manuals of the ship’s operation are relics of the past, and hardly anybody understands physics anymore.

Adding to the complexities is a bunch of human beings mutated by radiation who’re outcasts from the society and live hiding in the unexplored areas of the ship. The story is about how one man discovers the truth and prods others to accept and take the ship to its destiny. He is not a politician unfortunately and fails in the game of power. He and some of his friends make it to a habitable planet, but most of the other residents of the ship are still ‘making the trip’.

This is an adventure story by Heinlein, but yet again the book reminded me of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. It’s humorous only in parts, but the character Joe-Jim, a two-headed mutant of the story is quite like ‘Zaphod’ of Hitch-hiker’s guide to the galaxy. It is easy to see that Douglas Adams did base Zaphod on Joe-Jim. Zaphod has the same disrespect for others and disproportionate sense of self-worth just like Joe-Jim.

Heinlein has been inspiration to too many people. I can be no exception. I am a big fan of Heinlein’s writing style and I guess I’ve consciously or unconsciously used that style in my own writing. But more than that not a long time ago I had begun writing a fresh story that I called ‘Savants All’, which was also about a bunch of people who are trying to make a similar long journey, but they are immortal humans. The story was about their expectations, disappointments, a trip back home, and a war that was on a brink of being lost. I haven’t finished that story yet. But I hope I will one day.

What would you do if you won a spacesuit in a contest? Wear it in your backyard of course, and then be kidnapped by an alien spacecraft and visit the Moon, Pluto another star and then another galaxy. Sounds like some adventure eh? And what if you could come back from all that in a few weeks time. That’s what Russ does in Heinlein’s epic tale that spans distances that the human mind will break down before imagining.

This is the kind of work that books like Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy are inspired from. Of course HGTTG is much more awesome. After all, Arther Dent just needed his bath-towel robe and multiple strokes of luck to save the galaxy, while it took Russ a spacesuit, a near genius IQ and an ultra-sharp survival instinct to fight off the aliens.

This book strongly reminded me of Douglas Adams’ HGTTG (which was written much later incidentally, and on a bigger scale). It had the same irreverent humor in tough situations. Delightful characters who were a treat to watch. Aliens that managed to be both bumbling and frightful at the same time and a journey that’s beyond anything you’d ever expect.

Heinlein set the bar when he takes you the Magellanic Cloud at the Federation of the Three Galaxies at the meeting of the Security Council which is going to judge whether to kill all humanity by putting to trial on behalf of our race: a Neanderthal man, a Roman Centurion, A high-school pass out boy, and a thirteen year old girl.

Awesome!

This could only be upped by something like The Restaurant at the End of Time.

So like I said this was a wholly enjoyable read which is evident from the fact that I got this book yesterday night and I am through with it today night between Work, food, bath and family.

This is a great book and everyone who is interested in quality space humor should own a copy.

Oh, and the next time you go out into the backyard decked in your space-suit, don’t call on Radio for an imaginary person called ‘Peewee’, no telling who might pick you up.

 Don’t read this book if you have eyebrows, because you’re going to raise them if you do. Heinlein in his days has caused quite a few controversies for his radical views about a lot of things that most of the world is traditional about. Things like religion, marriage, society, economy, and sex. How can you mention Heinlein and not talk about that.

I Will Fear No Evil is Heinlein’s ode to human sexuality. But it is not graphic and it is definitely not obscene and even without being these two things, this topic still manages to remain the single point agenda of this entire book. I’ve read several of Heinlein’s books and his radicalism filters through in all of them, but I didn’t expect even him to write something like this. So  yes, I was a little taken aback and since I have eyebrows (two of ‘em) I raised them quite a few times.

The premise is simple, a 90 year old filthy-rich (and filthy in other ways too) old tycoon gets his brain transplanted into a young woman’s body after she dies and then is caught in a giant mess of emotions about his/her identity and the carnal aspect of his body.

There is not much ‘science’ fiction in this book, but with Heinlein there never usually is. He deals in the future of the society, not technology and he’s a master when he does that.

In his day 30 years ago, he talked about many things which were taboo then and slowly they are and will be included in the mainstream. I guess Heinlein believed that deep-down everyone wants to be a liberal. He could be right.

This book is readable but I won’t hand it to a minor and I won’t hand it to someone who has not read Heinlein before. They could end up misunderstanding his message.

Read it only if you have faith in Heinlein.

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein is a classic so popular that it is a required reading for any science fiction fan. This book has consistently made it to top ten of almost every sf book list ever conceived and for a reason. This is the original space military saga, everything else came later.

I’ve already watched the three starship trooper movies and I liked them because of their chic originality and their take on society, politics, religion and of course the startling concept of closed citizenship.

Starship Troopers Paperback

The book tells the story of one Johnnie Rico, a young lad who signs up in the army because it’s the cool thing to do, and because the girl he likes is signing up. The story maps the growth of Rico from a fresh recruit in training to a splendid soldier, an officer and then the commander of his platoon.

As Rico tells his story we learn about the times, the lives, the rules, the science, the conflicts and the issues in a society that is like ours and unlike ours in so many ways.

I’ve read three books from Heinlein till now: Friday, Stranger in a strange land and now Starship Troopers. In each one of the books Heinlein creates a new world, a very believable new world where the people are very real even though they think differently and they live by different rules.

That is why Heinlein’s books are so amazing. His future is not just about aliens, ships, planets, galaxies, it’s also about evolving societies and truthfully that’s what he is concerned about the most, the rest just a facade to make the analysis look good.

In this book it was the idea of a closed franchise, where citizenship and the right to elect and govern was not given to you at birth. It had to be earned. Before you could vote or stand for office you had to prove you were ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for Earth if needed.

Heinlein brought out all the glaring failures in our system that gives the election franchise to all and sundry without checking whether they are fit morally or mentally to elect the right leader.

The world that Heinlein concocts in this book has found a solution, but there are new questions.

Read the book, it’s by R A Heinlein.