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Posted By: serf13 Dec 09, 1999 - 08:36 am

Personally, Robert A. Heinlein is one of my favorite authors ever. The first book I read by him, "Stranger in a Strange Land", changed my life. It was so incredible. I have re-read it numerous times. Many critics recommend that you read his other work first, but it is still my fave book of his. Also check out "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

Posted By: Charmed9800 Mar 14, 2000 - 05:18 pm

Hi. I have a question for all you scifi fans about Robert Heinlein's book, "Stranger in a Strange Land". I was wondering if anyone thought most of his ideas for the book were influenced by historical events?

Posted By: T5 Nov 17, 2000 - 01:22 pm

Any specific events in mind?
I´m one of the lucky people who has managed to collect all of his fiction books.
Plus a few of his other works as well (like TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT)
Space Cadet was my first Heinlein book, read it!

Posted By: Karen Baker Apr 05, 2001 - 05:33 pm

Hrm. I read Stranger in a Strange Land and disliked it. In the beginning it was great...but then I stopped caring about the characters, I felt I lost contact with them or why they behaved as they did. It was a couple years ago, but I don't know... we just didn't get along. I hated his portrayal of women, and even the men seemed very 2 dimensional. And Heinlein's beliefs were...odd and didn't make me think he knew much of what he spoke of. But that's just my opinion.

Posted By: Nighteye Mar 23, 2002 - 12:28 pm

I am actually reading Stranger in a strange land right now, and so I'm beginning to have an opinion about that book (too).

Hmm, it's good in the beginning, but then, I don't know. It's not at all the best sci fi book I've read, to say so. But what I found most interesting is the picture of the man from mars, the other characters seems, as Baker above me says, a little two-dimensional sometimes.

What is the historical events Heinlein has been inspired of, I'd like to know then...

Posted By: Pat0214 Jun 20, 2002 - 08:28 pm

I just join this most interesting web site and forum. Please excuse my english as I do much better in french. I find that Heinlein best book is probably Time Enough For Love. Unlike Strange In A Strange Land I never got bored with that book while midway in Stranger I started to struggle to finnish it.

Posted By: Thuvia Aug 19, 2002 - 02:30 pm

It seems Heinlein is a love him or hate him author. I love about half of his books and hate the other half. I can't explain why that happens.

Anyway, Stranger in a Strange Land is Heinlein's satiracle view on the L.D.S. church. If you live in Utah it is very hard to find books by Heinlein in the stores or librarys.

Posted By: jubal Sep 12, 2002 - 12:29 am

Interesting! Heinlein has always been my favorite author. I have read and re-read everything he has ever written. Although I haven't always agreed with all of his ideas, I find many of them quite good. For the critics of Stranger, I think the time it was written should be taken into consideration. Stranger had a major influence on popular culture during its heyday. It had many radical ideas and introduced new words into our vocabulary such as waterbed and grok (which has been added to many dictionaries). I have read literally thousands of SF novels many of them very good, but I feel I shall never outgrown my love for Heinlein's writings.

Posted By: Odrade Sep 16, 2002 - 09:56 am

I guess the last and only time i read Heinlein was about 7 years ago. I read Stranger in a Strange Land. And i couldn't get through it. But reading these comments about it has made me want to try again. Thanks!!!

Posted By: Simontemplar Sep 29, 2002 - 08:31 pm

Halfway through rereading "Stranger" right now and I'm amazed with the historical references I couldn't have caught when I was 18. The most peculiar & recent--Jill works in Bethesda hospital, where in actuality a nurse was threatened by the military not to reveal that she'd seen alien bodies brought there from the Area 51 wreckage. This happened just 14 years prior to 1st publication of the book & can be found in almost every account of the Area 51 story. The astrologer Allie Vesant was clearly based on Annie Besant, also an astrologer who was very close to Krishnamurti (was Mike loosely based on him with the numerous meditations & references to Hinduism?). Allie's late husband--Simon Magus of Biblical fame. It goes on and on and I expect to find much more when I finish. Can you believe no one's made a film version yet? I suspect that's a blessing.

Posted By: jubal Oct 04, 2002 - 10:22 pm

Quite a while back I had heard that David Bowie was very interested in making the movie of
"Stranger in a Strange Land" and wanted to play the part of Mike.

Posted By: RongFo Apr 07, 2003 - 12:08 pm

I dug SiaSL enough to read it twice, but both times I got bored in the last quarter. I think he's written much better. Job is a hoot. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is whopping good fun. And IMHO, Friday is one of his best. I'm not a huge fan, but when I'm in the mood for it, Heinlein hits the spot.

Posted By: Daelish Jul 08, 2003 - 08:10 pm

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Job were both fantabulous, you grok? Anyway, all of his books make some point about something, you just have to find the point. He was a satirist posing as a sci-fi writer. And I agree that it's either love or hate with Heinlein, I just happen to fall on the love side. For those of you who are into the more traditional stories and want to try Heinlein try starting with Glory Road. It's one of his more tame books.

Posted By: Trey Jul 25, 2003 - 12:16 pm

I am a sometimes writer of non-fiction for an Internet news site and I once wrote an article about Heinlein, my favorite Sci-Fi author, and how prophetic his work was. The article is politically motivated and was written last September when war with Iraq was nearing Here is a copy of the article and a link to the published piece.

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0902/0902pastadvice.htm

Advice from the past

Science fiction writers have long been known for their prophetic works. Jules Verne, the father of science fiction, started us out with Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and introduced us to the concept of submarines. Now on the eve of war with Iraq, I am reminded of another science fiction author whose predictions of the future were both bright and terrible.

Robert Anson Heinlein, 1907 - 1988, often wrote about the human condition wrapped in the trappings of science fiction. He showed people of the future dealing with the problems of his present and past. But now we are in Heinlein's future, his present is our past and his words come to us with both advice and prophecy.

One quote of Heinleins that is especially poignant today is from the 1973 novel Time Enough For Love. Heinlein's immortal hero Lazarus Long says:

"Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind, it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate, and quickly."

This is perfect advice concerning our dealings with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Certainly Saddam doesn't think that he is the villain. His narcissistic personality is incapable of seeing himself as anything but the perfect leader of his people and quite possible the world itself.

We certainly tried every way to make him our friend. For the last ten years Saddam has been given every chance possible to join the global community as a respected national leader. He has chosen to remain an enemy of the West and indeed, of civilization itself.

And now President George W. Bush has offered Saddam Hussein an ultimatum. In his address to the United Nations on September 12 Bush outlined the immediate actions that Saddam must take to avoid the destruction of his regime. It is very unlikely that Saddam will give the matter a second thought and President Bush will be forced to eliminate his regime.

It is important to note that Heinlein's quote includes the words "without hate". President Bush has been very careful to not fall prey to the preaching of hate against Islam. Our removal of Saddam's regime and the continuing war on terrorism must remain clinical and emotionless. Surgical strikes that cut out the cancer without killing the patient.

Even with all the evidence that President Bush has against Saddam, there are still those in the United Nations and across the globe who are against our use of violence to solve the Iraqi situation. In the book Starship Troopers Heinlein illustrates the fallacy of this kind of thinking.

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue - and thoroughly immoral - doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghost of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

We all wish that there was a diplomatic solution to the current crisis we find ourselves in but there comes a time when we have to admit the failure of these attempts and resort to the only option left, force. As Heinlein says, violence has settled more issues in history than any other factor and it will settle this one.

Some of Heinlein's writings can be very frightening as well. Another quote from the book Starship Troopers tells us what the United States was like before its collapse.

"Law-abiding people hardly dared go into a public park at night. To do so was to risk attack by wolf packs of children, armed with chains, knives, homemade guns, bludgeon... to be hurt at least, robbed most certainly, injured for life probably - or even killed. This went on for years, right up to the war between the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance and the Chinese Hegemony. Murder, drug addiction, larceny, assault, and vandalism were commonplace. Nor were parks the only places - these things happened also on the streets in daylight, on school grounds, even inside school buildings. But parks were so notoriously unsafe that honest people stayed clear of them after dark."

Starship Troopers was published in 1959 and yet Heinlein was able to predict 21st century America exactly. Even the alliance between Russia, England and America against China doesn't sound very far-fetched considering the massive military buildup currently being done by Communist China. At least Heinlein saw a stronger human race rise up and reach for the stars.

The future is something very much on the minds of Americans right now. We stand on the edge of the unknown, facing an enemy whose goal is the total destruction of our culture. In these times we must steel our resolve and face the challenge. These challenges are not new, they have been faced by countless generations before us. Robert Heinlein was a part of one of those generations and through his writing he offers advice on the future. It would be unwise to ignore it.

Posted By: Aldan Aug 06, 2003 - 05:33 pm

Robert Heinlein was the first SciFi author that I ever read. I picked up "Orphans of the Sky" when I was in 5th grade, because I was an orphan. However, I found that, although the story wasn't truly about orphans, it WAS about stuff that I really enjoyed.
I've recently been going back through my Heinlein books (I have them all) and have recently re-read Friday (a great book), Stranger in a Strange Land (the last portion is difficult to get through, but I think it is worth it - but try to find the uncut version), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (one of my favorites), Glory Road (a fun one), Time Enough for Love, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, The Number of the Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy (a book that IS about an orphan), and Starship Troopers (a great military SciFi novel).
Also, I would recommend STRONGLY "The Door into Summer," about time travel in both directions.
Two things that you'll probably pick up: 1)Heinlein was a cat person. 2)Heinlein loved redheads (his wife Ginny was, if I remember correctly).
Heinlein wrote about HUMANS more than about science. His stories were about the things that drive people: loneliness (the door into summer), politics (the moon is a harsh mistress), religion (stranger in a strange land), love (just about all of his books), and fear/hate (starship troopers).