heinleinblog

If you are not familiar with the work of Robert A. Heinlein, do not read his posthumously published novel, “For Us, The Living.”

If you are a casual fan of his work, do not read it, either.

You will not enjoy this book.

Hell, I’ll be the first to say it: It’s boring. Relatively speaking.

But, if you are a serious fan, or consider Heinlein to be a teacher or a personal guru of some sort – then buy the book, turn off the television and take the phone off the hook. You will learn much about the First Grandmaster of Science Fiction and see the germs of ideas that permeated his fiction for the following 50 years.

There are people who have compared FUTL to some of RAH’s supposedly weaker work, such as those written under his “Anson MacDonald” pseudonym. This novel aspires to reach that level.

The sparse plot is this: Navy pilot Perry Nelson dies in a car crash in 1939 and awakes in the body of a catatonic man in the year 2089. He stumbles almost immediately into a relationship with a young, beautiful dancer who starts to teach him the ways of late 21st century society. Very little happens plot-wise, except that Perry is the recipient of one lecture after another about how the United States achieved near Utopian perfection.

What are the lectures about? Perry is taught that prosperity was achieved by adopting the Social Credit Theory and passing out newly-minted money to everyone, and by reigning in the power of the banking industry. RAH’s libertarian-minded fan base must be grinding their teeth at the very idea.

Perry also learns that this society has adopted a new libertarian-minded Constitution that bans any law establishing victimless crimes and also establishes an explicit right to privacy. That sounds more like it.

Of course, free love is the rule of the day, and the climax of the story (pun intended) comes when Our Hero comes to terms with his antiquated notions of propriety and overcomes his sexual jealousy.

Serious Heinlein fans will notice bits and pieces that were mined for future works. Nasty old Nehemiah Scudder is here, as is Coventry and the roads that must roll. Essentially, FUTL was the first of his groundbreaking Future History. FUTL doesn’t fit into the FH, because the dates and details are inconsistent.

And for those who claim that Heinlein became a fascist when “Starship Troopers” (1959) proposed giving only veterans the vote, FUTL contained the germ of that idea as well — before World War II and before he met future wife Virginia Gerstenfeld, later accused by Isaac Asimov and others of seducing him away from liberalism.

This book was rejected by at least two publishers. There is speculation about why Heinlein refused to seek its publication later in his career when publishers would be more than willing to publish anything he had written.

Simply put, as a piece of fiction, this book is weak. But it wasn’t written to be commercial, pulp-style science fiction. It is science fiction only in the sense that it is set in the future. It’s a book about politics and culture.

Well, sure, almost all of Heinlein’s books were about politics and culture, but that stuff didn’t get in the way of the fun. There is nothing fun about this book, including all the (very mild as it turns out) sex scenes people are talking about. It lacks any humor or wit. It’s dry to the bone.

In his introduction, Spider Robinson postulated that Heinlein intended this novel to change the world. That didn’t happen, but Heinlein realized he liked science fiction writing and needed to pay a mortgage, so he set out to be the best he could be. For that to happen, his stories had to be what people wanted to read. Because FUTL failed to meet the high standards he set for himself, he set it aside. Instead, he contented himself to mine the ideas from FUTL for the rip-roaring science fiction that paid.

It’s good that this book was published because it sheds some light on the man and his work. It’s probably better that it was published after his and Virginia’s deaths, because neither would care for the academic discussion and the idle speculation this book will create.

As a member of the Heinlein Society, I want this book to be a best-seller. But I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone who isn’t really into Heinlein. But, if you are really into Heinlein, then run to the bookstore or The Heinlein Society to buy a copy. Dr. Robert James’ afterword alone was worth the price to me.