14th
The last few days I’ve been revisiting my past; and finding it less than what I thought it was. A friend of Drew’s posted a link with predictions Robert Heinlein had made in 1952 for the year 2000 a few weeks ago. So when I was browsing in the library’s science fiction section early this week, a book of his caught my eye: Farnham’s Freehold. I remembered Heinlein being one of my favorite authors in my early teens and this being one of my favorite books of his. I checked it out.
The book was published in 1964 and the dialogue definitely shows signs of the times. Although, I’ve got to say dialogue is not Heinlein’s strong point. The book is extremely racist, sexist, and reflects the fears of the Communists (the whole plot centers around the “Russki’s” dropping a bomb on the household.) Another central point to the story is how the 50-ish father and college friend of the daughter fall madly in love…in a matter of a few hours. Granted, the bombs were falling, they all thought they were going to die, but still, I would hope that any man my age would show a little more respect for a young woman half his age (at least if he’s the protagonist!) The romantic 14 year old me probably didn’t catch the sexual references (not something so boldly written back then) and still believed in love at first sight and against all odds. Ah, innocence.
I should have known I’d’ve been better off with my memories when I saw a prominent recommendation on the cover from Stephen King: “…the greatest writer of such fiction in the world.” (Heinlein, not King.) (As a side note, why do so many sci-fi books have recommendations from King on them? He didn’t write sci-fi!) Also, under the title: “Science fiction’s most controversial novel”. I really doubt that. Actually, pretty heavy handed and predictable. -sigh- I think it will be awhile before I test out my memory on any other favorite books…from any era.
