 |
| Y U No Work? |
So, unlike my normal blog posts;,we will start with something personal. I haven’t posted in over three months, almost going on four. It wasn’t for lack of wanting, oh no, I wanted to it’s just I hit a personal low; and actually LOST internet so I couldn’t do reviews. So what did I do? I read for the whole freaking month that I happened not to have internet. But you’re asking yourself: Darth Thought why haven’t you posted in three if you got your net back in one? Simply put, just because I got internet back didn’t mean that my personal life was any calmer, I won’t go into dirty disgusting details but let’s just say that I’ve come back a little more harried and ready to try and get back in the swing of things. As it is, my video series has to be put on the back burner for another month; this I am sad about. But I will say this: I’m going to come out swinging. My video series will not be Why the Fuck is this Being Published no, that doesn’t fit my video personality. The video series will be named Lost in Transition and it will be hosted on the site that these text bits appear on, thanks to the patience of the group and my patience with myself.
Anyway, into the trenches and ready to bounce we start off with:
 |
| Robert A Heinlein |
Author Spotlight Robert A Heinlein
This article is going to be a little different. While yes, it will be two in one, but really it will be a spotlight on Robert A Heinlein, a name I’m sure many of you have heard of but for arguments sake and because I want to be an expositing whore here we go:
Robert A Heinlein was and still is a very influential writer in the science fiction genre; he is also one of the most controversial authors in said genre. I personally like to think of him as Jules Verne reincarnated, why well the authors have many similarities between them, both were very well versed in sciences and took to meticulously researching the books, both are considered prophets in a way because many of their books were inspirations for technology. One such example for Heinlein would be the Screensaver, or actually the things we take for granted today Cell Phones/Mobile Phones. But the one that many people probably don’t realize is the Water Bed; his descriptions of it in three of his books including one I am reviewing today constituted enough prior art to stop the US Patent on it.
But aside from that, he is considered one of three authors (Issac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke are the other two) to become known as the masters of science fiction, the three helped catapult Science Fiction from Pulp Fiction Ghetto to mainstream success. You can still find a majority of his works in stores today, and his books and short stories have helped influence a lot of authors that we talk about today: Neil Gaiman George R.R Martin and Spider Robinson to name three that I know many of you will have heard of.
His constant themes of individualism, race, and sexual liberation have often made him fodder for controversy. Starship Troopers, the first of the two books in this review is often regarded as The Most Controversial Military Science Fiction Novel, whereas the equally controversial Stranger in a Strange Land often carries the moniker of The Most Famous Science Fiction Novel Ever Written both have been in publication since their first run. Starship Troopers has even been made into a movie (which I will discuss in video form some time soon).
Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers is set in the midst of an interstellar war between the Humans of the Terran Federation (Earth) and the Arachnids (referred to as “The Bugs”) of Kledathu and is narrated by the protagonist Juan Rico, a soldier in the Terran Federation’s Mobile Infantry. The majority of the book takes place in flashbacks rarely seeing action of any kind except for the beginning and end of the book. Most of the flashes are concerned with the military training and education that Rico receives. It also serves as narration on how the units are organized, and this while leading to great success with both real and arm chair generals of many generations has caused a lot of dissent in the ranks of sci-fi readers.
 |
| Uh...don't you think you should be looking behind you? |
My experience with the book has left its inevitable mark; I consider the book to be well structured and informative for the future. Iis it his battle cry for Nuclear testing like many people have posited? I can see that, but also it is more or less a cry to generations to see the purpose for war. In one of the more poignant moments of the books the character (which is considered by many to be a stand in for Heinlein) Retired Lt Col Jean V Dubois exposits on violence and how “it has settled more disputes in history than any other factor”. Running counter to that argument is the recruiting officer Fleet Sergeant Ho, who goes to calculated strides to see that those who are signing up are doing so for the right reasons, his tirades have been classed as Anti-Military but I see them as they are meant to be, the first culling that the service gets before Boot Camp which takes it’s deliberate time to bust the ones that need it.
In the book the society that Rico lives in is controlled by the military, but is not militaristic in my eyes; because the citizens who don’t go into the army are still given free right to speak their mind, and not go through the military. It is only through voluntary service that a man gains full citizenship though and gains the right to vote. This point has caused even the director of the silver screen adaptation to call the book “Fascist Propaganda”. I don’t see it, but then again what I see is a shockingly clear picture of the society we live in today at points. The society that I largely see is one where people are awarded by their merits instead of just given free reign with their rights. Many of the passages make comments about the twentieth century government and which had faltered because “people thought they could vote for whatever they wanted and could get it without toil, blood, sweat, and tears”, Heinlein through Dubois criticizes the “unrealistic” US Declaration of Independence line concerning “life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” because nobody can take away happiness; but life and liberty are sought bought and paid for, something that many tend to disagree with in our world.
All in all, I can say this of Starship Troopers; I enjoyed it immensely and not just because it is your common sci-fi fare. More because it has a social conscience and seeks to inform the reader about things I deem important. My verdict is to tell you this: I know you may not like it, you may shun it, but read it. It will make you think and that is all I ask of my books
Stranger in a Strange Land
“Thou Art God, God is all that groks” a phrase that I am more familiar with now then I was five days ago, I admittedly went into Stranger with a more cynical ease, if only because the book’s cover boasts it as “The most read science fiction novel ever”. I have an adverse reaction to most books that try to claim fame, call me cynical but I just can’t take it at its word, yet what I walked away with is not only a book that is the exact opposite of Starship Troopers; but one that resonates more closely with me. While I walked away from Troopers with a heavy load to think about, I was majorly through most of the issues of it in a week, not so with this book. I just finished it and I can tell you that I will be thinking about it for more than most of my life on this earth.
Like I mentioned before this is almost the antithesis of Troopers, where that book was concerned with military action and politics, this book flaunts an almost anarchist message on the surface. It deserves the controversy; if you know me, you know how I was more or less thinking over Stranger from the first page to the very last word. It is because of the engaging story that it tells.
The book centers itself around Michael Valentine Smith; a human found amongst the inhabitants of Mars, and his road to become human as he learns are customs and qualities. He flips the world upside down for a cast of characters who are as memorable as Smith himself, Gillan “Jill” Boardman, Ben Caxton, and Jubal E Harshaw for while he is trying to ‘grok’ our ways, they in return learn more from him than he ever does.
I’m almost afraid to talk about this book for the fact that I love it so much I don’t want to spoil it for any of my readers because I want you to read it. Heck I’m not even sure I can convey what this book is; I can tell you that the book itself made someone found the “Church of All Worlds” and that many consider it a slap in the face of Christianity, but that isn’t even half of it. When the book itself was published, it was only 1961 it spawned the sexual revolution; but it also had its hand in Charles Manson and his family.
The book is more or less the story of a messiah, who gave the world a great peace by teaching it customs that it had never seen before, it also surrounds a lot of importance on sexual liberation so I can see where many of the hippies got it. This book deserves praise and courts scorn. All I can say is in the end, you need to read it and see if you can grok it.
Parting words
You’ll see that I have done away with the scoring scale; well that is because I can’t rightfully score these books without scorn. Both of these books are beloved by many, hated by even more, and not known to a lot. When I was doing the score it was because I thought I should, but in truth I think I need to do away with it and just give you my impressions on it plus the synopsis of it or something close to that; I love reading books and my main goal with Why the F is this being published is to get more people to look for books to read. So I hope you enjoyed it, and until next we meet may you drink deep.
No comments:
Post a Comment