“Citizen of the Galaxy” has always been one of my favorite Heinlein novels, and I’ve always wondered as to the origin of the name of the starship who’s occupants adopted Thorby. I came across this nice article that discusses that very subject:
However, sisu is not bravery, nor strength. It is distinguished from courage, especially when talking about the military. Sisu is an ability to finish the task and get things done, as defined by Roman Schatz in his book From Finland with Love (2005), and decisiveness. Usually sisu means the will and decisiveness to get things done against impossible odds, or to succeed when given the Chinaman’s chance.
In Robert Heinlein’s “juvenile” novel, “Citizen of the Galaxy”, the protagonist was adopted by the captain of an interstellar trading ship which was named, “Sisu”. This reflected Heinlein’s admiration of the Finnish stand against the Soviets, Heinlein himself being ardently anti-communist. The interstellar trading “family” of which this ship was but a part, is described as being fiercely proud and independent, preferring battle and death to being taken prisoner by raiding pirates.
I think Citizen is my favorite of the young adult novels, and like you I wondered about Sisu. I found it to be described as doing the right thing. It ties into Heinlein’s stressing the obligation that needed to be fulfilled.
The society of the traders and their rendezvous was so compelling that I ended up reading the book again and again. Probably my favorite juvenile with Red Planet second.
There are many themes in Citizen that are expanded upon in Starship Troopers. And Baslim the Blind Cripple is as honorable and perfect an example of Sisu as one could find. Not to mention the obligatory Heinlein character that is in almost each of his books.
Off topic: I have not read the Spider Robinson book. Should I?
If you are a fan of Spider, yes, read it. It’s not a Heinlein book. It’s like Heinlein had an idea for a story and decided to not pursue it and passed it off to a friend.
I had several problems with the book, but I’m not going to mention them because to do so would spoil the ending.
Red Planet? Good story. Citizen is better, though.
Citizen is one of the best of the Heinlein juveniles (The under-rated Time for the Stars still being my favorite). Thanks for taking the time to give that explanation of the name Sisu. It really does add to the story (if only I had had the internet when I was first reading these books!)
As for the Robinson book, the less said the better. I think the best approach is if a person is interested check out the reviews on Amazon first. Personally, I hated the thing (my review makes that point strongly.) The notes that were the basis for Robinson’s book appeared to have been a warm up exercise of TFTS so if you like the latter, the novel will likely be a dreadful reading experience. Best let sleeping notes lie or something like that. Recall that Heinlein could pound out his juveniles in a few weeks — Robinson labored two years and got nowhere.
You are now on your own.