Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential and controversial authors in science fiction. He was the first science-fiction writer to break into mainstream general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction, and he was among the first authors of bestselling novel-length science fiction in the 1960s. For many years he, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the Big Three of science fiction. He won seven Hugo awards for his novels and the first Grand Master Award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for lifetime achievement.

Ideas, themes, and influence

Politics

Heinlein's writing may appear to have oscillated wildly across the political spectrum. His first novel, For Us, The Living, consists largely of speeches advocating the social credit system, and the early story "Misfit" deals with an organization which seems to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps translated into outer space. Stranger in a Strange Land was embraced by the hippie counterculture, and Glory Road can be read as an antiwar piece, while Starship Troopers has been deemed militaristic, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset, published during the Reagan administration, is stridently right-wing, with, for example, the sympathetically portrayed first-person character referring to illegal immigrants as "wetbacks."

Related Topics:
Social credit - Misfit - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Civilian Conservation Corps - Hippie - Counterculture - Glory Road - To Sail Beyond the Sunset - Reagan - Right-wing - Illegal immigrant

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There are, however, certain threads in Heinlein's political thought that remain constant. A strong current of libertarianism runs through his work, as expressed most eloquently in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. His early juvenile novels often contain a surprisingly strong antiauthoritarian message, as in his first published novel Rocket Ship Galileo, which has a group of boys blasting off in a rocket ship in defiance of a court order. In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, the unjust Lunar Authority that controls the lunar colony is usually referred to simply as "Authority," which leads to an obvious interpretation of the book as a parable for the evils of authority in general, rather than the evils of one particular authority.

Related Topics:
Libertarianism - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress - Rocket Ship Galileo

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Heinlein was opposed to any encroachment of religion into government, and pilloried organized religion in Job, A Comedy of Justice, and, with more subtlety and ambivalence, in Stranger in a Strange Land. His future history includes a period called the Interregnum, in which a backwoods revivalist becomes dictator of the United States. Positive descriptions of the military (Between Planets, Red Planet, Starship Troopers) tend to emphasize the individual actions of volunteers in the spirit of the Minutemen, while the draft and the military as an extension of government are portrayed with skepticism in Time Enough for Love, Glory Road, and Starship Troopers.

Related Topics:
Organized religion - Job, A Comedy of Justice - Revivalist - Dictator - Between Planets - Red Planet - Starship Troopers - Minutemen - Draft - Time Enough for Love - Glory Road

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Despite Heinlein's work with the socialist EPIC and social credit movements in his early life, he was an ardent, lifelong anticommunist. In the political world of the 1930s, there was no perceived contradiction between being a socialist and being passionately anticommunist. Heinlein's nonfiction includes "Who are the heirs of Patrick Henry?," an anticommunist polemic, published as an ad, and articles such as "'Pravda' Means 'Truth'" and "Inside Intourist," in which he recounts his visit to the USSR and advises western readers on how to evade official supervision on such a trip.

Related Topics:
Socialist - EPIC - Social credit - 1930s - Patrick Henry - USSR - Western

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Many of Heinlein's stories explicitly spell out a view of history which could be compared to Marx's: social structures are dictated by the materialistic environment. Heinlein would perhaps have been more comfortable with a comparison with Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis. In Red Planet, Doctor MacRae links attempts at gun control to the increase in population density on Mars. (This discussion was edited out of the original version of the book at the insistence of the publisher.) In Farmer in the Sky, overpopulation of Earth has led to hunger, and emigration to Ganymede provides a "life insurance policy" for the species as a whole; Heinlein puts a lecture in the mouth of one of his characters toward the end of the book in which it is explained that the mathematical logic of Malthusianism can lead only to disaster for the home planet. A subplot in Time Enough for Love involves demands by farmers upon Lazarus Long's bank, which Heinlein portrays as the inevitable tendency of a pioneer society evolving into a more dense (and, by implication, more decadent and less free) society. This episode is an interesting example of Heinlein's tendency (in opposition to Marx) to view history as cyclical rather than progressive. Another good example of this is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, in which a revolution deposes the Authority, but immediately thereafter, the new government falls prey to the inevitable tendency to legislate people's personal lives, despite the attempts of one of the characters, who describes himself as a "rational anarchist."

Related Topics:
Marx - Frederick Jackson Turner's - Frontier thesis - Gun control - Malthusianism - Time Enough for Love

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Race

Heinlein grew up in the era of racial segregation in the United States and wrote some of his most influential fiction at the height of the U.S. civil rights movement. Race was sometimes an important topic in his work. The most prominent example is Farnham's Freehold, which casts a white family into a future in which white people are the slaves of African rulers. Heinlein enjoyed challenging his readers' possible racial stereotypes by introducing strong, sympathetic characters, only to reveal much later that they were of African descent, e.g., in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Tunnel in the Sky,{{ref|race1}} and Friday. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Podkayne of Mars both contain incidents of racial prejudice or injustice against their protagonists.{{ref|race2}} In the context of science fiction before the 1960s, the mere existence of dark-skinned characters is a remarkable novelty; in the science fiction genre of that era, green occurred more often than brown. Heinlein repeatedly denounces racism in his non-fiction works, including numerous examples in Expanded Universe.

Related Topics:
Racial segregation - Civil rights - Farnham's Freehold - White - Africa - The Cat Who Walks Through Walls - Tunnel in the Sky - Friday - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Podkayne of Mars - 1960s - Expanded Universe

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Asian civilization is sometimes treated negatively in Heinlein's work, as in his 1949 novel Sixth Column, in which the U.S. defends itself against invasion using a ray that only kills people with "Asiatic blood"; the idea for the story was pushed on Heinlein by editor John W. Campbell, and Heinlein wrote later that he was embarrassed by it.{{ref|sixthcolumn}} Tunnel in the Sky and Farmer in the Sky both contain negative depictions of overpopulation in Asia. Some readers may mistake Heinlein's dislike of communist China for a dislike of Asians.{{ref|communistchina}} Heinlein did include sympathetic Asian characters in several of his stories.{{ref|race3}}

Related Topics:
Asia - 1949 - Sixth Column - John W. Campbell - Tunnel in the Sky - Farmer in the Sky

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It is interesting, although perhaps risky, to interpret some of the alien species in Heinlein's fiction in terms of an allegorical representation of human ethnic groups. Double Star, Red Planet, and Stranger in a Strange Land all deal with tolerance and understanding between humans and Martians. Several of his stories, such as "Jerry Was a Man," The Star Beast, and Red Planet, involve the idea of nonhumans who are incorrectly judged as being less than human. Although it has been suggested that the strongly hierarchical and anti-individualistic "bugs" in Starship Troopers were meant to represent the Chinese or Japanese, Heinlein wrote the book in response to the unilateral ending of nuclear testing by the U.S., so it is more likely that they were intended to represent communism. The slugs in The Puppet Masters are likewise clearly and explicitly identified as metaphors for communism. A problem with interpreting aliens as stand-ins for races of Homo sapiens is that Heinlein's aliens generally occupy an entirely different mental world than humans. For example, Methuselah's Children depicts two alien races: the Jockaira are sentient domesticated animals ruled by a second, godlike species. In his early juvenile fiction, the Martians and Venerians are depicted as ancient, wise races who seldom deign to interfere in human affairs.

Related Topics:
Double Star - Red Planet - Stranger in a Strange Land - Jerry Was a Man - The Star Beast - Communism - Methuselah's Children

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Individualism and self-determination

Many of Heinlein's novels are stories of revolts against political oppression, for example:

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• Residents of a Lunar penal colony, aided by a self-aware computer, rebel against the Warden and Lunar Authority (and eventually Earth) in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Colonists rebel against Earth in Between Planets and Red Planet.
• Secularists overthrow a religious dictatorship in "If This Goes On—".

But in keeping with his belief in individualism, his more sophisticated work for adults often portrays both the oppressors and the oppressed with considerable ambiguity. In Farnham's Freehold, the protagonist's son accepts the security that comes with being castrated. In The Star Beast and Glory Road, absolute monarchs are depicted positively. In The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, prerevolutionary life under the Lunar Authority is portrayed as a kind of anarchist or libertarian utopia; projections of economic disaster are the true (and secret) justification for the revolution, which brings with it the evils of republican government. Novels such as Stranger in a Strange Land and Friday revolve around individual rebellions against oppression by society rather than by government. The common thread, then, is the struggle for self-determination of individuals, rather than of nations. The ability of the individual to create himself is explored deeply in stories such as I Will Fear No Evil, "?All You Zombies?", and "By His Bootstraps". We are invited to wonder, what would humanity be if we shaped customs to our benefit, and not the other way around? In Heinlein's view, as outlined in For Us, the Living, humanity would not only be happier, but perceptually, behaviorally, and morally aligned with reality.

Related Topics:
Farnham's Freehold - Stranger in a Strange Land - Friday - I Will Fear No Evil - "?All You Zombies?" - By His Bootstraps - For Us, the Living

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Sexual liberation

For Heinlein, personal liberation included sexual liberation, and free love was a major subject of his writing starting from the 1939 . Beyond This Horizon (1942) cleverly subverts traditional gender roles in a scene in which the protagonist demonstrates his archaic gunpowder gun for his friend and discusses how useful it would be in dueling --- after which the discussion turns to the shade of his nail polish. "?All You Zombies?" (1959) is the story of a person who undergoes a sex change operation, goes back in time, has sex with herself, and gives birth to herself.

Related Topics:
Beyond This Horizon - "?All You Zombies?"

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Sexual freedom and the elimination of sexual jealousy are a major theme of Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), in which the straitlaced nurse Jill acts as a dramatic foil for the less parochial characters Jubal and Mike. Over the course of the story, Jill learns to embrace her innate tendency toward exhibitionism, and to be more accepting of other people's sexuality (e.g., Duke's fondness for sadomasochistic pornography). As discussed in more detail in the book's article, two brief negative references to homosexuality have been interpreted by some readers as being homophobic, but both deal with Jill's hang-ups, and one is a discussion of Jill's thoughts. Homosexuality is treated with approval -- even gusto -- in books such as the 1970 I Will Fear No Evil, which posits the social recognition of six innate genders, consisting of all the combinations of male and female with straight, gay, and bisexual.

Related Topics:
Stranger in a Strange Land - I Will Fear No Evil

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In later books, Heinlein dealt with incest and the sexual nature of children, topics that, Freud notwithstanding, touch a raw nerve with many readers. In Time Enough For Love, Lazarus Long uses genetic arguments to dissuade a brother and sister he's adopted from sexual experimentation with each other. A common shtick in many of the books is that a young girl climbs into her father's lap or bed, but he kicks her out. The protagonist of The Cat Who Walks Through Walls recalls a homosexual experience with a boy scout leader, which he didn't find unpleasant, and the same novel deals with Long's strong sexual attraction to his own mother, whom he goes back in time to rescue. In Heinlein's treatment of the possibility of sex between adults and children, some readers may feel that he dodges many of the valid reasons for the taboo by portraying the sexual attractions or actual sex as taking place only between Nietzschean supermen, who are so enlightened that they can avoid all the ethical and emotional pitfalls.

Related Topics:
Incest - Time Enough For Love - The Cat Who Walks Through Walls - Nietzschean - Supermen

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Philosophy

In his book To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Heinlein has the main character, Maureen, state that the purpose of metaphysics is to ask questions: Why are we here? Where are we going after we die? (and so on), and that you are not allowed to answer the questions. Asking the questions is the point for metaphysics, but answering them is not, because once you answer them, you cross the line into religion. Maureen does not state a reason for this; she simply remarks that such questions are "beautiful" but lack answers. The implication seems to be as follows: because (as Heinlein held) deductive reasoning is strictly tautological and because inductive reasoning is always subject to doubt, the only source of reliable "answers" to such questions is direct experience—which we do not have. Maureen's son/lover Lazarus Long makes a related remark in Time Enough For Love. In order for us to answer the "big questions" about the universe, Lazarus states at one point, it would be necessary to stand outside the universe.

Related Topics:
Metaphysics - Deductive reasoning - Inductive reasoning - Lazarus Long - Time Enough For Love

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During the 1930s and 1940s, Heinlein was deeply interested in Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics and attended a number of seminars on the subject. His views on epistemology seem to have flowed from that interest, and his fictional characters continue to express Korzybskian views to the very end of his writing career. Many of his stories, such as Gulf, "If This Goes On?", and Stranger in a Strange Land, depend strongly on the premise, extrapolated from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that by using a correctly designed language, one can liberate oneself mentally, or even become a superman. He was also strongly affected by the religious philosopher P.D. Ouspensky.{{ref|ouspensky}} Freudianism and psychoanalysis were at the height of their influence during the peak of Heinlein's career, and stories such as Time for the Stars indulged in psychoanalysis. However, he was skeptical about Freudianism, especially after a struggle with an editor who insisted on reading Freudian sexual symbolism into his juvenile novels. He was strongly committed to cultural relativism, and the sociologist Margaret Mader in his novel Citizen of the Galaxy is clearly a reference to Margaret Mead; in the World War II era, cultural relativism was the only intellectual framework that offered a clearly reasoned alternative to racism, which Heinlein was ahead of his time in opposing. Many of these sociological and psychological theories have been criticized, debunked, or heavily modified in the last fifty years, and Heinlein's use of them may now appear credulous and dated to many readers. The critic Patterson says "Korzybski is now widely regarded as a crank,"{{ref|crank}} although others disagree.

Related Topics:
1930s - 1940s - Alfred Korzybski - General Semantics - Epistemology - Gulf - "If This Goes On?" - Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - P.D. Ouspensky - Freudianism - Psychoanalysis - Time for the Stars - Cultural relativism - Citizen of the Galaxy - Margaret Mead - World War II - Racism

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Influence

Heinlein is usually identified, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, as one of the three masters of science fiction to arise in the so-called Golden Age of science fiction, associated with John W. Campbell and his magazine Astounding Science Fiction. However, in the 1950s he was a leader in bringing science fiction out of the low-paying and less prestigious pulp ghetto.

Related Topics:
Isaac Asimov - Arthur C. Clarke - John W. Campbell - Astounding Science Fiction - Pulp

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He was at the top of his form during, and himself helped to initiate, the trend toward social science fiction, which went along with a general maturing of the genre away from space opera to a more literary approach touching on such adult issues as politics and sexuality. In reaction to this trend, hard science fiction began to be distinguished as a separate subgenre, but paradoxically Heinlein is also considered a seminal figure in hard science fiction, due to his extensive knowledge of engineering, and the careful scientific research demonstrated in his stories.

Related Topics:
Social science fiction - Space opera - Hard science fiction

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Outside the science fiction community, several words coined by Heinlein have passed into common English usage: waldo, TANSTAAFL, and grok. He was influential in making space exploration seem to the public more like a practical possibility. His stories in publications such as the Saturday Evening Post took a matter-of-fact approach to their outer-space setting, rather than the "gee whiz" tone that had previously been common. The documentary-like film Destination Moon advocated a space race with the Soviets almost a decade before such an idea became commonplace, and was promoted by an unprecedented publicity campaign in print publications. Many of the astronauts and others working in the U.S. space program grew up on a diet of the Heinlein juveniles, as shown by the naming of a crater on Mars after him, and a tribute interspersed by the Apollo 15 astronauts into their radio conversations while on the moon.{{ref|apollo}} Heinlein also was guest commentator for Walter Cronkite during Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 moon landing.

Related Topics:
Waldo - TANSTAAFL - Grok - Saturday Evening Post - Destination Moon - Space race - Walter Cronkite - Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11

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