quint@RU-BLUE.ARPA (02/10/84)
From: Anne Marie Quint [/amqueue] <quint@RU-BLUE.ARPA>
Thank you, Rob Warnock! I was beginning to think that all other
Heinlein fans were willing to stick their head in the sand and let others
disseminate their own opinion, no matter how wrong it is. The Number of the
Beast is entirely a parody of Heinlein himself! The last chapter is a
parody of Science Fiction conventions in general, with almost all of the
people there being a character from one of his books. I got sort of
irritated when Lazarus showed up, it seemed a real cop-out, but it was
really the only way to get him into the convention.....if he wasn't running
it, he wouldn't have bothered to show up.
Spider Robinson's essay was first printed, I believe, as a review of
T#otB for whatever magazine he was/is doing book reviews for. In his book,
Expanded Universe, Heinlein himself says that the philosophies espoused in
his books do not necessarily have anything to do with his own personal
philosophies. As far as I can tell, his main philosophy is Homo Sapiens
Uber Alles! Since most of his books are set in a situation where people are
trying to survive in a hostile environment, obviously there must be more
humans to accomplish this, which means pregnant women, who are therefore
helping in the holy cause of survival. This is the only part of his books
that I gag on, since I don't see anything great in being preggie. However,
I am willing to concede that a man may find this extraordinarily
fascinating, especially one who has lived through a war when more bodies
were needed.
In any case, I think Friday could have been better; the return to the style
of his juvenile books left it sort of dry. It is not my favorite by him; but it
isn't the worst by far. Whatever bouts of senility he has had, and there have
been some, due to disease and medication, neither Friday nor The Number of the
Beast are the products thereof.
Any flamers out there, please reply to me directly, but don't expect me to
reply; I don't have the ability to mail to the sundry nets.
RAH!RAH!RAH!
/amqueue
quint@ru-blue.arpa
-------