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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   2403 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 14, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I recall a commenter on the old SSC site doing reviews of all Heinlein's juveniles. His social perspective shines through, even in children's fiction, though it hadn't developed into the hardline anticommunist stance which would color his legacy. All in all, even if I wouldn't want to read them as an adult, I was reasonably impressed.

I do love reading older fiction. When I got to Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, I was amazed 1) at how much had become cliché by merit of influencing later heroic fantasy, 2) what passed for overwhelming angst. They were good reads, unapologetically schlocky, but vivid and stylized.

As a complete aside, I read Friday a while back, which was more in line with Moon or Starship Troopers. It also featured uncomfortable rape-as-humor. Specifically, the protagonist is an android, highly skilled in combat and infiltration, but able to pass in every way as a human female. Captured by enemy soldiers, she is interrogated and then gang-raped. Fortunately, being an android grants immunity to any potential consequences, including psychological trauma. So she intentionally pretends that she is starting to enjoy it, noting that this is the most reliable way to spoil their fun. Yech.

I reread most of the Heinlein juveniles with one of my kids. They weren't all winners, but I think on average they hold up better than most of his adult novels (Moon being a clear exception, along with Stranger in a Strange Land and Job, as well as the IMHO "in-between" Starship Troopers and Double Star). Citizen of the Galaxy would have been worth re-reading even for an adult. Friday, not so much. She wasn't even a mechanical android, was she? ISTR genetically-engineered.

You’re right. I’d forgotten on account of all the times she hides information in her body.

On a different note,

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

What a mission statement.

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