SSteinberg.SoftArts%MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP (07/15/83)
For those of you who didn't read my original note I did NOT SLUR The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I merely pointed out that it conforms very well to the basic Marxist mythos! I suggest a few people out there read some Marx or better Lenin who expounded the revolutionary ideals. If I had explained that this book was in reality a Christian allegory in which a creature part man, part god acts as a savior I would have stirred up much less controversy although this does not fit the story as well. As far as I am concerned Marxists and Libertarians are so similar that I can barely tell them apart and I know a good number of both. One of my friends keeps turning up on my ballot so I know she is still a libertarian and my Marxist friends still feel guilty about how well computer hacking pays. Unfortunately, both camps are full of ideologs. If you are familiar with the "computer scientist" Dijkstra you know a lot about ideologs. Ideologs tend to be very naive and a lot of them are terribly informed. I remember a friend of mine explaining the dangers of the Iranian revolution to a group of Marxists who didn't realize that the typical mullah was not the typical South American revolutionary priest. Both factions claim to have a well defined utopia although making it work merely involves circumventing human nature and sometimes the laws of physics as well. Once and for all, I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I think Heinlein used to be a great author. I think he has fallen on hard times and that his later work does not measure up to his earlier stuff. If nothing else his novels are structurally weaker and seem to be two separate books shoved together in the middle. I know this is very fashionable nowadays (e.g. Gravity's Rainbow) but I demand a story. P.S. I wish to categorically assert (for those who are also on the SPACE mailing list) that I AM NOT the person who proposed sending a major science fiction author in the space shuttle and pushing him/her out.
SSteinberg.SoftArts%MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP (07/15/83)
For those of you who didn't read my original note I did NOT SLUR The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I merely pointed out that it conforms very well to the basic Marxist mythos! I suggest a few people out there read some Marx or better Lenin who expounded the revolutionary ideals. If I had explained that this book was in reality a Christian allegory in which a creature part man, part god acts as a savior I would have stirred up much less controversy although this does not fit the story as well. As far as I am concerned Marxists and Libertarians are so similar that I can barely tell them apart and I know a good number of both. One of my friends keeps turning up on my ballot so I know she is still a libertarian and my Marxist friends still feel guilty about how well computer hacking pays. Unfortunately, both camps are full of ideologs. If you are familiar with the "computer scientist" Dijkstra you know a lot about ideologs. Ideologs tend to be very naive and a lot of them are terribly informed. I remember a friend of mine explaining the dangers of the Iranian revolution to a group of Marxists who didn't realize that the typical mullah was not the typical South American revolutionary priest. Both factions claim to have a well defined utopia although making it work merely involves circumventing human nature and sometimes the laws of physics as well. Once and for all, I liked The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I think Heinlein used to be a great author. I think he has fallen on hard times and that his later work does not measure up to his earlier stuff. If nothing else his novels are structurally weaker and seem to be two separate books shoved together in the middle. I know this is very fashionable nowadays (e.g. Gravity's Rainbow) but I demand a story. P.S. I wish to categorically assert (for those who are also on the SPACE mailing list) that I AM NOT the person who proposed sending a major science fiction author in the space shuttle and pushing him/her out.