It's Heinlein's Birthday

[dianeduane]

There it is, the oldest and most beat-up copy I own of the book that got me spanked when I was eight.

Having until then been gorging on a SF/fantasy diet mostly split among Andre Norton, Alan Nourse,  E. Nesbit and the Mushroom Planet books, suddenly I stumbled across this Heinlein person in the local library. And not through the juveniles, either: they came later. (And for me the dream screenwriting job would be adapting Have Spacesuit, Will Travel... especially now that George Lucas has kindly done all the heavy lifting as regards getting audiences used to star-spanning Empires.)

I read Starship Troopers in one crazed Saturday afternoon and came home with my head spinning from deep immersion in futuristic militaria: then unwisely started babbling to my father (whose birthday, interestingly, also was July 7th) that "all wars were caused by population pressure." Heaven only knows what he made of such a sentiment coming out of my mouth at that point. What probably concerned him more, though, was that when he said "No they aren't", I said, "Yes they are, " several times -- because there was something about Heinlein's discussion of the topic that seemed right to me at the time: right enough to risk contradicting my father.

It was the first argument about anything that I recall ever having had with anyone. Well, I guess the result was predictable: I got spanked for being disrespectful. The joke -- or at least the first irony associated with this incident -- is that my Dad went to his grave thinking he'd won that argument simply because I thereafter stopped discussing such things with him.  But the circle closed when beyond all possible / reasonable expectation I met Heinlein himself, many years later, and over the course of the numerous conversations that followed I remembered the incident and told him about it. He snorted (don't know how otherwise to describe the sound. He also did the best imitation of Bill the Cat having a hairball that anyone could imagine), and then burst out laughing. "Kind of a robust critique," he said.

Dry understatement and humor, coupled with a fondness for amiable teasing and great courtesy of a slightly old-fashioned kind (he was the only human being ever to call me, repeatedly, "honey chile" and get away with it): that was what his conversational style was like whenever we spoke. Some time after The Door into Fire came out and he read it, he wrote me a fan letter (which I take out and look at occasionally when feeling down); and once we'd physically met -- courtesy of a truly low-down and evil practical joke on the part of David Gerrold (which I'd frankly brought on myself by a joke I played on him) -- Heinlein kindly gave me his home phone number and said to call when I needed writing advice.

This wasn't a privilege I abused, and usually we wound up talking about anything but writing. This was when the Bill the Cat imitations were likely to occur. Or sometimes advice was needed: I consulted with him, for example, on the exact circumstances in which an officer outside the normal chain of command might be left in command of a Naval vessel, and the results of that discussion were used to stick poor Dr. McCoy into the Enterprise bridge's center seat in Doctor's Orders. ("You've built this whole damn book around that joke, haven't you?" he said.  Realizing I had no chance whatever of blathering this man into believing some other force than a play on words had been at work, I admitted that this was true.  Another snort, more laughter. Heinlein respected Star Trek, and when we were discussing what I was working on, I got the sense that to him what we would now describe as a "tie-in" or licensed work was no less worthy than an original, as long as you did the work as well and honestly as you could. More than once over a number of phone calls he came back to that theme, so that it became a kind of mantra: "Joe's beer money," your readers' disposable income that they hand over to you in exchange for entertainment, is sacred: to provide honest entertainment is no cause for shame -- let the lit'rature fall where it may. )

I don't know if anyone else around the Web does anything in particular about Heinlein's birthday. God knows there are enough people to discuss his fiction, pro and con, sometimes (on either side) violently so. I'm not going anywhere in that direction except to say that all Heinlein's work, the juvenile SF and adult SF alike, has been and continues to be a profound influence on me: and it was a pleasure to be able to tell him so. Dairine in the Young Wizards books, in particular, owes a lot to Poddy's bratty little brother Clark in Podkayne of Mars (and Robert knew it, and was pleased: he liked Dairine.  And Ed. "We Navy men don't like sharks," he said. "You made me like that shark. That was a dirty trick." He said it with considerable relish, as if admiring the sleight-of-word that had sneakily corrupted his allegiances. Praise of that kind, from the acknowledged master to the journeyman, is the kind of thing you treasure.)

All a long time ago now, of course. I really miss not being able to call him any more. ...But tonight at the local I'll be raising a glass in his memory. And my Dad's, of course.  It's kind of a pity they never met. They would have been very polite to each other... but the fireworks would have been fun to watch.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That's a lovely set of stories about someone that I've admired as an author for a very long time, but knew very little of outside his writing career.

Though for a very long time I had his form letter response to fan mail printed out and on the wall of my office because it seemed to sum up so much of his dry humour.

How ironic....

[mhael.livejournal.com]

Not 30 minutes ago I pulled out my copy of Starship Troopers to read through, not even realizing it was his birthday today. The copy itself is my third copy, because I never let a person borrow my copy; I just give it to them and tell them to pass it on one day if they wish.

Such a great novel, and it's helped me out immensely when writing about the military and the general idea of soldiery. I think Heinlein would be most pleased with how many soldiers I know and have known who truly love and appreciate that book.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

That's the same edition as my oldest one.

I've got his birthday in my calendar to remind me, and in fact you kicked me up to doing a blog post (http://dd-b.net/ddbcms/2011/07/happy-birthday-robert-a-heinlein/) on it. I don't have great stories like yours to share, but I have a photo from Midamericon (and more in the gallery that links to).

[graveyardgreg.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the heads up on Mister Heinlein's birthday!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I am so envious. I never had the chance to hear Heinlein speak, let alone meet him. He remains one of my favourite writers to this day (Starman Jones was the first sf novel I ever read and I still love it).

[dduane.livejournal.com]

He was a trip, in every possible way. Smart, funny, and very very kind. Aaargh... so missed.

[pameladean]

Oh, these are wonderful anecdotes and I had never heard them. Thank you, and happy Robert A. Heinlein's birthday.

P.

Thanks for reminding me. :)

[germankitty]

God, it's been ages since I last picked up a Heinlein book -- and yes, I own 'em all, since it was he who truly ignited my long-standing love affair with science fiction. My introduction happened with Methuselah's Children; I must admit that Starship Troopers is pretty much my least-favorite Heinlein book, sorry. :) (Probably largely because politically I'm MUCH closer to Isaac Asimov than Robert Heinlein ... can't help but grumble'n'fume silently sometimes, much as I like RAH's imagination and writing style!)

Anyway, may I join you in a toast to one of the true greats who's given me (and millions of others, I'm sure) countless hours of reading pleasure, differing politics notwithstanding? Cheers!

[trialia]

One of the biggest teddy-bears in my collection is actually called Heinlein. :) My sister bought him for me, the weekend I was stuck in bed in Somerset with the flu, reading Stranger in a Strange Land for the first time. He's golden with a tartan ribbon around his neck, and eminently huggable.

(And funnily enough, his size-mate, who's polar-bear white and otherwise almost identical, is named after you.)

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I think about Heinlein when 7 July rolls around* mostly because I attended the Centennial conference in 2007 and gave a couple of talks. I also met people and learned things that led me to do more research in Heinlein's archives. As a consequence, I've contributed chapters to two books and published a magazine article. And there is more I want to write about.

So 7 July 1907 is hard to forget.

Furthermore, Heinlein became close friends with Robert A. Cornog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cornog), a beam jockey of the cyclotron era. They learned that they shared the same birthday, though Cornog was five years younger. So raise a glass of liquid tritium to Bob Cornog as well. He would have been 99 today.






* and Asimov when 2 January rolls around, and Clarke when 16 December rolls around; I don't offhand know the date of your birthday, though.

[e-booklover.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful tribute :). I re-read Starship Troopers at least once a year and have gone thru several copies since I first found it.

[thenetwork.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this post. I got punished for reading Red Planet when I was six. It was so worth it.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Not for the first time, I envy you, for this connection. I've always loved his writing, both novels and shorts, though he and I had very different backgrounds and attitudes and assumptions about many things.

I've often said that I'd give up a limb to write something as good as his woefully-misnamed* "juveniles".

* a category as ill-fitting for your own works, IMO.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Producing an adaptation of a classic Heinlein juvenile has been on my list of "Once I Become Magically Super Wealthy" movie projects for a long time. (Along with a big budget biopic of Nelson, and a Technicolor-epic-style adaptation of Towing Jehovah.) Have Spacesuit certainly holds a special place for me, since it was the first of his I ever read, after my dad used to summarize the story to my brother and me on car trips. Should I ever get that windfall, we'll have to talk. :)

[batyatoon]

This was so lovely to read. Thank you.

It is a source of some regret in my life that I did not become familiar with Heinlein's work until years after his death. Starship Troopers is actually one of his books that I still haven't read -- I really should try and find a copy.

[kcscribbler]

I will love him by extension, then, because Doctor's Orders is my favorite Star Trek novel in existence. Thank you for the rec and memory!

[scarfman]

May 18.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Today, his writings are so often seen as contrary to all current social justice ideas. AND YET. Reading his books gave me some of my first heroines. No, I don't agree with all the political philosophy he had, but Grand Old Master, indeed.

How lucky you are to have had the opportunity to meet and no him!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

AND YET. Reading his books gave me some of my first heroines.

Ditto! I read a lot of Heinlein as a teen and while I was agog at some of the sexism when I went back and re-read later, at the time my take-away from his books was largely "Women: smart, sexy, and clever enough to get the men to do their heavy lifting."

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

Spot on! I first read his books in the late 70s and early 80s, so they didn't seem that sexist at the time. I had the same retrospective experience as an older adult. But, heck, I grew up with Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman being a heroine. (I so wanted my own pair of golden wristbands).

They had sex! And weren't ashamed of having sex! *gasp* I'd only read about women having sex in bodice rippers and Sidney Sheldon's books.

(btw? Love your books, especially the Walker Papers!)

edited to fix book series title.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I knew which series you meant. :) And <3! thank you! glad you like them! *beams*

[qualistarian.livejournal.com]

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of writers whom I can say significantly shaped my life. It's really refreshing to know that 2 of them (Spider Robinson is the other) were friends with a third.