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

[David Stockhoff]

Of all the Land Across interpretations I have read so far, this is the 
most immediately useful. Handy, even.

On 1/28/2020 7:57 AM, Norwood, Frederick Hudson wrote:
>
> Other Heinlein parallels/satires in The Land Across: Grafton is 
> Heinlein’s classic “man who learns better” turned inside out. What 
> Grafton learns is what Heinlein “learned” in his long career. 
> Heinlein, like Grafton, starts out as a liberal, (who like Heinlein, 
> loves travel) and “learns” to love a military dictatorship, with a 
> mysterious Hitler-like dictator serving as Heinlein’s “grand old man”.
>
> Rick Norwood
>
> *From:*Urth [mailto:urth-bounces at lists.urth.net] *On Behalf Of 
> *Stephen Hoy
> *Sent:* Monday, January 27, 2020 4:47 PM
> *To:* The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net>
> *Subject:* Re: (urth) [EXTERNAL] Re: Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun
>
> 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 <mailto: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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