(urth) [EXTERNAL] Re: Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun

Matthew Keeley matthew.keeley.1 at gmail.com
Mon Jan 27 14:31:12 PST 2020


As a younger reader, Heinlein has always seemed like the distant past to
me, but of course he's not.

Surely Wolfe and Heinlein must have met, and probably more than once? I
think there was a period when both were David Hartwell authors too, though
I think Hartwell only worked with Heinlein towards the end of the author's
career, when he seemed allergic to editing.

-Matt

On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 5:25 PM Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:

> What also needs mentioning is that the "generation starship" was not a new
> concept with Heinlein either. What he originated (as far as I know) is the
> idea that the people aboard might forget the nature of their habitation.
>
> Leave it to Wolfe to nuance the hell out of that idea.
>
> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
>
> *Maka ki ecela tehani yanke lo!*
> *--*Tȟašúŋke Witkó
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 1:47 PM Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy15 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Appreciating the Heinlein connections noted by Gem and Gerry; a reminder
>> that RAH is still relevant in the 21st century, as Christopher Nuttall
>> might put it.
>>
>> The interesting bit about the conveyor belt roads of Heinlein's The
>> Roads Must Roll is that it has a precedent, and a much better fit with TLA,
>> in H.G.Wells' When the Sleeper Awakens (1899). Wells' title recalls a
>> noticeable sentence in TLA Chapter One "Now it seems to me that I must have
>> been asleep a long time before I got into bed" followed by several
>> "awakenings" throughout TLA.
>>
>> Note that Wells and Wolfe each relate the struggle of a potential ruler
>> of a dystopian society who gets caught up in a struggle between opposing
>> factions. I don't think the parallels go much beyond this. It's a lot like
>> Wolfe's choice of Baskin-Robbins as an allusion to Andromeda (Messier-31
>> Flavors) in An Evil Guest, or the allusion to Boris Badenov in a
>> conversation at a cafe in TLA, "I don't trust that conductor. Why is he so
>> short?" to draw attention to Papa Zenon's lack of stature.
>>
>> Aramini's Black-Red-White trichotomy helps us think about a lot of TLA's
>> mysteries, although I suspect there is a lot of cloning going on along with
>> the imprinting of personalities. Imprinting is found in Home Fires, TLA, A
>> Borrowed Man. There's cloning/imprinting of some sort in A Borrowed Man,
>> and I think something similar is happening in The Land Across.
>>
>> - Stephen
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 10:21 AM Norwood, Frederick Hudson <
>> NORWOODR at mail.etsu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Another Wolfe novel, The Land Across, is, I think strongly influenced by
>>> Heinlein, and essentially a satire of Heinlein. This is just my opinion,
>>> I’ve never heard anyone else say this. But the Rolling Roads early in the
>>> novel, which play no other part in the plot, I take as a hint.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Rick
>>>
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