heinleinblog

Paul Malmont made RAH a charcter in his homage to the pulps, A Chinatown Death Cloud Peril: A Novel:

The death of H.P. Lovecraft, then a fringe writer, even for the pulps, serves as the hook for the mystery that draws Gibson and Dent into a web of intrigue that stretches from New York’s Upper West Side to the the northern steppes of Manchurian China. As one might expect from a novel that is itself a pulp adventure, facts, though they are laced throughout the work, never get in the way of the story. What we’re treated to as a result is a cornucopia of real-life characters playing against a conspiracy of super-villains. Orson Welles and Mao Tse Tung are among the cameo players here, though their roles are hardly pivotal. Robert Heinlein and Louis L’Amour are integral to the plot, however. The villains, at least the main ones, a Chinese warlord bent on revenge, and an American military man with no motive beyond greed, are drawn in detail convincingly realistic.

[tags]Robert Heinlein,Paul Mamont,pulps[tags]

Yeah, it’s bad. But still more believable than Verhoxen’s movie.

Hey, don’t take my word for it. Read what the New York Times’ William Safire has to say in this column about the language of the Blogopshere:

So that was the coinage, right? Wait — a late entry comes in from Matt Rudary of the Heinlein Society, which has a concordance of the works of the pioneering sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein. In his 1947 short story “Space Jockey,� he named the third stage of a rocket to the moon the Moonbat, and in another story a year later, “The Black Pits of Luna,� one Heinlein character was the scoutmaster of the Moonbat Patrol.

[tags]William Safire,Moonbats,The Black Pits of Luna,Space Jockey,Heinlein[/tags]

I distinctly recall how uncomfortable scenes like this one — which was cut from the movie — made me feel when they came up on the screen when I saw Verhoxen’ film. IOt’s not that I object to sex in movies of nudity. It just seemed exploitative to me. Still does. I think it was simply because these scenes were simply so obviously gratuitous in a movie that I believed should have been treated seriously.

[tags]Denice Richardson,Starship Troopers[/tags]

Jeff Soyer of Alphecca fame has created an online novel called Colony. I’m just now starting to give it a read. It looks to be packed with stuff.

[tags]Alphecca,Colony,Heinlein[/tags]

There’s a Star Trek role-paying group that is based on a “USS Heinlein.” But there’s a real life effort underway to get the U.S. Navy to name a ship after the Master. I found the following on alt.fan.heinlein.

The Navy is looking for a name for it’s new Zumwalt class destroyer. They don’t have RAH’s name listed. Since he graduated from the Naval academy (class of ‘29) and since his 100th birthday is coming up it would be nice for the Navy to honor him.

If you go to this link http://www.usszumwalt.com/mos/ and look at the right hand side of the page you will find a list of names. You can click “none of the above” and then click submit your choice. Write in USS Robert A. Heinlein and click vote. It’s very simple and a wonderful way to honor a very great man.

UPDATE: Here a post from the mastermind behind this plan, as posted an a.f.h.:

I seem to have a bit of time at the moment…but my day may yet blow up.

I’m Tim Kyger, and I work at the Pentagon in Iraq Policy. On my left over my cubical wall are my colleages of the Lebonon desk. A bit beyond them are the folks on the Isreal desk. On my right two cubes down are my colleagues in the Iran shop.

Yes, we’re your one-stop WWIII shop. Indeed.

This is why I’m not very active on the Net or on afh.

But I did restart the USS RAH campaign. Why? RAH’s 100th birthday is coming up, and it would be the perfect time and place for the Navy to announce the naming of a ship for RAH. It’s the best hook we — Heinlein’s Children — have. IMHO anyway; YMMV as always.

There is one person, and only one, by law, who can name a U.S. naval vessel: The Secretary of the Navy. He can name any ship in the Navy anything he wants to. Naturally he is guided by tradition and by an internal Navy process that produces lists of names for him to name ships after. But the fact remains: He is the One Who Can. *If he wants to.*

The SecNav is suscptible to political pressure. That’s what we’re trying to do here.

We send the Secretary of the Navy, Donald C. Winter, letters. We write our Congressmen and Senators, too, asking *them* to write the SecNav. In the meantime, I’m busy trying to get folks on the Hill that I know — various Congresscritters, so forth — to weigh in with naming a ship the U.S.S. RAH. With both lines of political pressure at work, I think we can get a ship named.

Did I also mention that I’m budds with the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy? He’s sick of me already. *grin*

So, why a DDG-1000? Because it’s a hook to hang a reason on. Heinlein was on destroyers; the DDG-100 boats are destroyers; so…we ask for a destroyer. Furthermore, these are the ships that the Navy wants most at this moment. Such attention on our part will get attention if it’s tied to the Zumwalt boats.

And yes, the plan is for the Zumwalt class of DDGs to be named after (a-hem) former Chiefs of Naval Operations. *bor-ing*

We want to help the Navy sell the product. USS RAH is one way for their DDG-1000 boats to look sexy.

And frankly, the Zumwalt’s are a science fictional boat; a truly 21st Century Naval vessel. The plan is to provide them with electric guns to shoot their projectiles! How stfnal is *that*?

But I’m happy if *any* type of U.S. Navy vessel is named after Heinlein. A littoral combat ship? Sure. An auxiliary vessel? No problem.

But we have to start somewhere, and I’ve kicked the ball off and down the field to ask for a DDG-1000. They haven’t named DDG-1001, much less any of the other 30 Zumwalts the Navy wants to build.

So if you agree, the sample letter’s up there, and I’m also available at TimBKy…@aol.com to answer questions.

Let’s spread the word on this. Cross post this information far and wide please!

Thanks in advance to everyone.

The U.S.S. Robert A. Heinlein. It has to happen sometime; why not now; and why not us? Why *not* for his 100th birthday?!

PS: Yeah, I’d rather have an SSTO named for him. That’ll happen in time. But this is how we get the initional name in the quque.

[tags]Navy,Zumwalt,destroyer,Heinlein[/tags]

The Cranky Insomniac says he’s a:

US Army veteran, libertarian hawk, musician, gun rights advocate, PR consultant and NASCAR fan who worked for NBC News in Washington for three years, in Hollywood for ten years and has a BA in political science from Columbia University.

OK …he passes.

But his email to me includes some interesting questions:

PS: I’d be forever grateful if you could explain to me how The Moon is a Harsh Mistress didn’t make that list of 100 SF books you have to read…

PPS: Am I the only hardcore Heinlein fan who thinks Starship Troopers was a really good film, as long as you forget that it’s based on the book?

The first question is easy: You are I are biased. Were we creating this list, we would gleafully and unashamedly fill it with Heinlein works, and fill whatever open spots remain with Heinlein’s Children.

Still, it’s hard to believe that JUST THREE of the Master’s works made the cut.

As to the other question, I agree that the movie Starship Troopers SHOULD have been promoted as an original work and not an adaptation of a novel, since there were so many departures in plot and characters from Heinlein’s classic.

Let’s say, for a moment, the movie had a different title and the characters had different names. It’s entirely possible that this movie would have been able to run WITHOUT traggering a copyright infringement suit from the Heinlein Estate. The departures were that significant. The bugs shooting plasma out of their asses and starships flying around in defiance of the laws of motion were enough, IMHO.

But would it have been a good movie? Granted, I might have cringed a little but less. But the over-the-top acting and the Nazi imagery would still have put me off.

No. It was NOT a good film. Even the shower scene — normally something that perks me right up — left me feeling exploited and sorry for the actresses who had to film it.

[tags]Cranky Insomniac,Starship Troopers[/tags]