Robert A. Heinlein

Heinlein and his Wife

For those of you unaware of the history of science fiction as a genre, I present the master, Robert A. Heinlein. Certainly one of the greatest authors of our time, Heinlein was instrumental in popularizing early science fiction literature, along with his contemporaries (he kept good company – Asimov, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith and Arthur C. Clarke to name a few). He was a patriot, a veteran and a boy scout. His most popular work, ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ became a cult classic in the 60’s. Heinlein first impacted my life when I was 11. Although he wrote extensively for young adult audiences, much to my eventual ‘scarring for life’ I picked up one of his adult novels which had somehow (mistakenly I am sure) made its way into my elementary school library. That’s a review for another day, but needless to say I knew enough at 11 to recognize the inappropriateness of the content – and also to be irrevocably hooked.

‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress’ tells the story of a Libertarian Revolution on a colony of Earth. Although it explores some of Heinlein’s stock-in-trade themes regarding marriage and monogamy, this is not a sexually risqué book. The book is told from the perspective of ‘Mannie’, a computer tech who discovers that the computer used to run the colony has woken up. Yes folks, one of science fictions earliest sentient computers. If only the humans in the Matrix trilogy had demonstrated as much humanity and good sense as Mannie… because it is his relationship with Mike that is the eventual lynchpin of the Revolution. The book is rife with political commentary as it carefully unfolds the steps necessary to carry out a successful revolution and the subsequent creation of new government. I mean seriously, this should be required reading for revolutionaries. It is basically an instruction manual with a plot.

The book is a tough read – hard science, harder politics, and an at-times distracting personal narrative style in a futuristic dialect. Of course, it’s not a terribly long book, so you won’t have to make too great a commitment! I haven’t read this book in years, but I was reminded of it during a political discussion with a friend. At the time, we were nearing a historic presidential election here in the United States.  I was bemoaning the lack of real choice in the American system. Ah, I miss the great white North where multiple political parties duke it out at an attempt for real representation.

One of the other main themes of the book is the idea of Libertarianism. It raises important questions for all of us, now that we have elected new leadership – what should our government do for us? What should we do for ourselves? Heinlein teaches us that TANSTAAFL!! (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). Tough lesson, eh folks? I am reminded, as I write this, of hurricane Ike’s devastation of the Texas coastal cities earlier this year. The government issued a mandatory evacuation notice with a ‘certain death’ classification, and of course the news media broadcast plenty of stories of folks staying behind to protect their property. Protect your property from a hurricane? Whatcha gonna do, stand on the roof (if it’s not under water yet) and flail your fists at the sky? In any case, the question arose in my mind – these fools who needed rescuing – who should foot the bill for that? Heinlein’s answer would be definitively that if they wanted to be rescued, they’d better be ready to pay. Using tax money to pay for stupidity is quite simply involuntary taxation.

So if Heinlein would make a poor farmer, standing on his roof in a storm, pay however many thousands of dollars to be rescued… what do you suppose he and his comrades would think of our current bailout situation? I don’t remember voting on the bailout. We are now told that the first round of bailout money has all but disappeared into the ether. No one seems accountable for our tax money effectively saving obscenely rich investment bankers who were doing a lot worse than trying to protect their home from the weather. While the storm raged down around us, these folks were throwing expensive parties and decorating their offices.

Here’s my favorite quote from the book, when the salty old professor (one of the three initiators of the revolution, and obviously the ‘voice’ of Heinlein in the book) is instructing the fledgling government how to write a constitution:

‘Accentuate the Negative! Let your document be studded with things the government is forever forbidden to do. No conscript armies…no interference however slight with freedom of press, or speech, or travel, or assembly, or of religion, or of instruction, or communication, or occupation…no involuntary taxation. Comrades, if you were to spend five years…thinking of more and more things that your government should promise never to do…I would not fear the outcome. What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to Do Something that appears to need Doing.’

I love that old man. I’m glad he’s not alive to see the state of his Beloved Nation today. Maybe a part of our political shake up will be the creation of some new political voices in our communities. Maybe one day we’ll have a Libertarian Party for whom to cast our vote. I think it’s safe to say that The Critic Who Counts would heartily endorse the reading of any of the works of Heinlein. Honestly, this isn’t the best place to start if you’re new to his work (I’ve also added a link below to ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’, which is a better choice). But if you’re already a fan of his work, check out this Libertarian Manifesto and get your minds to thinkin’.

The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (Unabridged):

Stranger In A Strange Land (Unabridged):

© Copyright 2009.

All Rights Reserved. All Wrongs Avenged.

by Lewis DeSoto

So I’ve recently been depressed. I am not talking about your garden-variety down in the dumps. Oh no, as with everything else, if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna do it big. In any case, as a side effect of my depression, I lost the attention span to read. The fact that this loss didn’t totally devastate me is an indication of how lost in the woods I was. Well, I’ve healed, thanks to therapy, drugs and a few close comrades. About mid-way through my climb back to sanity, reading came back. At first I could only read books I had read and loved before – it was like reconnecting with old friends, sorely missed and deeply needed. In time I became ready to branch out to new material. I had never stopped buying books – a deep seated need – so I had a rather hefty to-read pile from which to choose. Why, why, why I chose to read this book remains a mystery. It was recommended to me by a close friend from Canada, whose tastes in reading have been rather similar to my own. If only I had stopped to recall what those tastes were. As a good Celtic Canadian, melancholy was neither a new nor an unwelcome emotion. Many great Canadian authors have a broad streak of despair in their novels. So…. Spoiler alert. I’m about to tell you how this book ends.

‘A Blade of Grass’ is the beautifully written story of an unlikely friendship between two women. Marit is an orphaned British woman, who moved to South Africa with her new husband to run a farm. Tembi is a slave on her plantation. The novel is set during the death-throes of apartheid, and Lewis DeSoto does a positively lyrical job of describing the country, the people, and the terrifying conflict. Apartheid did not go easily. Power is never relinquished without a fight, regardless of how illegitimate its origins.

I found myself relating rather a lot with Marit. She is a young woman, once hopeful and optimistic, who systematically loses everything that gave her life meaning. When her husband dies, and war erupts in the community around the farm, Marit and Tembi are the only two left, and they make a heroic effort to save the farm, and their lives. Literally, at every turn they are thwarted. Now I wasn’t worried at first. They were strong, and resilient, and their friendship, though complicated, was true. I honestly can’t bring myself to recount the list of tragedies these two women endured. The novel was almost completely bereft of any happiness. As it progressed, and I got closer and closer to the end, I got more and more worried. There just wasn’t much time left. If things were going to look up, they’d better hurry.

Sadly, it was not to be. At the end of the novel, all is lost. The only person who remains is Tembi, and she will go on mostly because the only other choice is choosing to lay down your burdens – literally. Turns out the first book I picked up after a debilitating depression had a character who I identified strongly with. And at the end of the book, she drowns herself in the river.

Even after an emergency visit to my shrink (God Bless Her, really) I still couldn’t take a bath for a couple of weeks….just to be on the safe side. I’m sorry if I ruined the ending for you, but you were fairly warned. If you have an interest in South Africa, Apartheid, female relationships or politics and world history you might love this book. Just so long as you’re happy when you read it. Trust me, you’re gonna need a buffer.

© Copyright 2008.

All Rights Reserved. All Wrongs Avenged.

eat pray love

by Elizabeth Gilbert

I’ve never been a big fan of the memoir style of writing. I mean really, we all know that important people have everyday life experiences. I guess I’m generally too wrapped up in my own life to worry about theirs (I have been called insufferably self-absorbed…I prefer to think of myself as focused on consciously evolving myself). For this reason I was reluctant to read ‘eat pray love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert. Here is a normal person writing a memoir. I mean really. But while sitting in Borders one day, innocently enjoying an iced coffee (my new crack), it kept staring at me. Have you ever had a book stare at you? like the way that sometimes the cat litter box stares at you. You know you should go look. You know it needs your attention. It is relentless. So, in the spirit of adventure (which as it turns out was very appropriate to the experience) I picked it up. And almost didn’t put it back down until I was finished.

The book is billed as ‘One woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia’. The search for everything? OK, I’m in. I like a girl with ambition. The book recounts the author’s experience with divorce, and her corresponding catastrophic clinical depression. She writes ‘I took on my depression like it was the fight of my life, which, of course, it was’. She relates the turning point in her recovery as akin to sitting down in the middle of the road, in the middle of her life, and not walking one step further until she received some help. Through a series of important baby steps on her part and a bit of good fortune (I honestly believe this is necessary to any good turning point), she winds up traveling across the globe, writing this very memoir as her job - Lemonade! This is a brilliant woman. She turned the fight of her life into a fabulous career opportunity. Even if the book sucked, it would have been worth reading for this reason alone.

As is often my wont when starting a new book, I scooted over to Amazon.com to see what other readers had to say about the book. Although it scored almost 4 out of 5 stars with over 1600 reviews, the top three featured reviews were unanimously abysmal. These three reviewers ripped the book apart, calling the author ‘narcissistic, needy, and shallow’ among other things. Welllll folks, it is a book about her experience with her divorce and her depression…one would think the focus would be rather inward-searching. Two of the reviwers were men, and it’s possible they simply were not interested in what can be, admittedly, a rather girly book (during her time in Rome, the author spends a vast sum of money on pretty underwear…and then doesn’t have sex until two countries and several months later. Surely this is enough to frustrate the most patient male readers). The third reviewer was a woman who had five children, and who admitted she couldn’t understand nor relate to a woman who left a marriage ’simply’ because she didn’t want to have children. The point of the book, my dear friend, is that the decision was not simple at all.

Elizabeth Gilbert writes about her experiences with divorce, depression, travel, and spirituality with such personal style that it began to feel like she was my friend. OK, it’s possible I make friends too easily, but she was so present in the book, and so relentless in her journey toward self-awareness that it was impossible not to be drawn in. She has a beautiful yet conspiratorial writing style and a way with analogy and metaphor that bring her most intimate experiences to life. During one section of the book, she personifies Depression and Loneliness as a couple of Pinkerton Detectives who come to shake her down and interrogate her while wielding billy clubs and stinky cigars. It is truly brilliant writing, and certainly the most accurate evocation of those two miserable emotions as I’ve ever read. Now for those of you who have never suffered a bone-crushing depression and who are wondering why you would even want to read about one, I will say (spoiler alert!) that the book has a satisfyingly happy ending and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Besides which, everyone knows someone who has been depressed. If you’ve ever wondered why the heck a loved one just can’t be happy…this book may be for you. Besides which, now I want to travel to Italy, India and Indonesia. I’ll be sure to put them on the list of things to review.

© Copyright 2008

All Rights Reserved. All Wrongs Avenged.