dmcanzi@watdcsu.UUCP (David Canzi) (09/13/86)
In article <1084@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes: >It is highly questionable whether any quote eight paragraphs long can be >reasonably said to be "out of context". ... >Oh, I forgot. HEINLEIN said it. Therefore, it can't say anything wrong. >If it does say something wrong, just squint during that sentence. I notice >not one of you Heinlein supporters has had the balls to include the relevant >quotes I gave from "Farnham's Freehold", because if you did, the discussion >would be over. Here is a quick summary of what I remember of the story from having read it long ago: Farnham lives in a city and has a shelter under his house. Just before the nuke hits, Farnham and his wife go down to the shelter. The bomb hits. They stay in the shelter for some period, not knowing that they have been bumped into the distant future. When they emerge, they discover that the blacks are in power and whites are kept as slaves. Unable, after some effort, to housebreak Mr. & Mrs. Farnham, their masters get rid of them by sending them back in a time machine. I have left out some details to save space, and so as not to spoil the story too much for those who haven't read it. Now, it most definitely *is* possible for an eight-paragraph quote to be out of context. If, for example, Farnham made his little speech about how nuclear war is good for the country and/or species while they were huddled in the shelter, then emerged into the future to have his nose rubbed in reality, it means something quite different from what you take it to mean. I suppose that I'll have to reread the book to find out when Farnham made that speech. Now, I tend to wonder, Tim, about your motivations... you could be harping on this subject in order to force us to check out the facts and *think*, and if necessary re-evaluate our attitudes towards Heinlein, and to discourage us from reflexive knee-jerk thinking. Such an interpretation is suggested by the last paragraph of your article, which I have included above. On the other hand, what seems more likely, you could just be motivated by a dislike for Heinlein or some of his ideas, and you use out-of-context quotes to make him seem like some kind of monster, so that people who are not familiar with him will be discouraged from reading his books. Regardless of your intentions, your articles are most likely to have the latter effect... -- David Canzi "If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?"