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A lengthy discussion of Robert A. Heinlein's attit
This continuation of my haphazard bibliographic commentary is in "bib"
format, that used for bibliographic material by many utilities on Unix
systems. The present selections are mostly related to the novel, "Friday," in
one way or another.
-- Dennis E. Hamilton
November 5, 1988
CompuServe 70100,271
[email protected]
rochester!cci632!sjfc!deh0654
Frederik Pohl
Heechee Rendezvous
Ballantine Books
New York
1984
ISBN 0-345-30055-6 pbk
A Del Rey Book
First Ballantine edition, April 1985
Sixth Printing, May 1988
Cover art by Darrell K. Sweet
Third book in the Heechee Saga
Pohl Heinlein Gella-Klara Moynlin Friday women sex rape
There have been discussions about the Heinlein novel, "Friday" which tend to
blame the author for terrible insensitivity to women and the brutal facts of
rape as it is practiced and experienced in our culture. My initial impression
is that some of the reaction, beside simple Heinlein bashing, involves
difficulty in recognizing fictional situations and postulated realities other
than those of our present (and quite parochial) American situation. (And not
by any means embracing all American experience, for that matter.)
In any event, I was reminded of the "Friday" furor when I encountered the
following passage:
"Wan had no interest in Klara's needs. When he wanted her for something, he
wanted her. When he didn't, he made that very clear. It was not his sexual
demands that troubled Klara. In general they were not much more trouble, or
more personally significant, than the routine of going to the bathroom.
Foreplay for Wan consisted of taking his pants off. The act was over at his
pace, and his pace was rapid. The use of Klara's body disturbed her less than
the rape of her attention [p.226]."
It is perhaps of little importance that, at this point in the tale, both Wan
and Klara are carrying around considerable psychic damage. Also, Klara had
knowingly indentured herself to Wan in exchange for hasty escape from a
painful situation and feared confrontation. And she knew what it was going to
cost her to rely on Wan for her passage.
It seems of some importance, however that (1) Frederik Pohl is a major
science fiction writer; (2) sexuality (as well as a goodly amount of humor) is
not absent from Pohl's recent works; (3) to the best of my knowledge, Pohl has
not been vilified for portraying woman-as-wretch or for suggesting that women
might (understandably) behave this way (and so might men, for that matter);
(4) and, in particular, I have not heard Pohl accused of telling women how
they should regard certain situations and thereby make them tolerable. That
is, it does not seem that the description of Klara's situation with Wan is
mistaken as some kind of statement about the place or role of women or how
they might best deal with mistreatment of one kind or another.
Heinlein does not get off so easily, and yet his depiction of women is
rarely so negative. Nor perhaps so realistic. Consider Wan's previous
condition of cohabitation:
"One small bit of organic matter named Dolly Walthers was busy experiencing
all of those feelings [pain and desolation and terror and joy in all their
various ways] -- or all but joy -- and a great deal of such other feelings as
resentment and boredom. In particular boredom, except at those moments when
the dominant feeling in her sorry small heart was terror. As much as
anything, the inside of Wan's ship was like a chamber in some complicated,
wholly automatic factory in which a small space had been left for human beings
to crawl in to make repairs. Even the flickering golden coil that was part of
the Heechee drive system was only partially visible; Wan had surrounded it
with cupboarding to store food. Dolly's own personal possessions -- they
consisted mostly of her puppets and a six-month supply of tampons -- were
jammed into a cabinet in the tiny toilet. All the other space was Wan's.
There was not much to do, and no room to do it in. Reading was one possible
way to pass the time. The only datafans Wan owned that were readable, really,
were mostly children's stories, recorded for him, he said, when he was tiny.
They were extremely boring to Dolly, though not quite as boring as nothing at
all, but the opportunities were limited. Some cooking smells drove Wan to
take refuge in the lander -- or more often to stamp and rage at here. Laundry
was easy, involving only putting their garments in a sort of pressure cooker
that forced hot steam through them, but then as they dried they raised the
humidity of the air and that, too, was cause for stamping and raging. He
never really hit her -- well, not counting what he probably thought of as
amorous play -- but he scared her a lot[pp.147-148]."
[Commentary by Dennis E. Hamilton, August 14, 1988]
Jo Clayton
Quester's Endgame
DAW Books, Inc.
New York
1986
ISBN 0-88677-138-2
A novel of the diadem: The dramatic conclusion of the Diadem Saga
Cover Art by Michael R. Whelan
Heinlein Clayton Friday Aleytys Feminism?
From "Who's Who and What's What[pp. v-xi]:"
"SHAREEM: A Vryhh. Aleytys's mother. Caught in the delirium of a swamp
fever, she crashed on Jaydugar; too sick to defend herself, she was enslaved
and sold to the Azdar, Aleytys's father. She recovered from the fever to find
herself pregnant. As soon as Aleytys was able to manage without her, she left
a letter telling her daughter about her and how to find her, then wangled her
way offworld, back to the life she was leading before the disastrous days on
Jaydugar."
"ALEYTYS: Born in a mountain valley called the vadi Raqsidan on a world
called Jaydugar, raised in an agrarian, preindustrial culture. Psi-empath and
translator, healer, flamethrower and worrier. She's had one child, a son, had
him stolen from her before he was a year old, gave him up again when he was
about four. She acquired the diadem after she ran from a barbecue where she
was going to be the roastee. In her travels from world to world, while she
was searching for her mother, she was (among other things) sold as a slave to
provide meat for a wasp queen's egg, then she rode a smuggler's ship as his
bedmate and translator. ..."
There are nine books in the Diadem Saga, with Aleytys blazing forth from the
very first, "Diadem from the Stars." This young seeker is no wretch, though
often enough finding herself trading sexual liberties in one accomodation or
another. For me, the initial novel was the most captivating and the
development of the Aleytys character more fascinating than in the few later
books I've bothered with. I think that is because the diadem gimmick tends to
overshadow the development of characterization with the colorfulness that
Clayton achieved before that prop entered the picture in any significant way.
It strikes me that there is no shortage of lusty female protagonists in
recent science fiction. I suppose that it says something about
science-fiction fandom, or how far we've come generally, that these novels
don't seem to be received with the same sniggers as Erica Jong's "Fear of
Flying." (At the time of that book's initial fame, I heard too many men
comment on how much they'd like to meet the `nympho broad' who wrote like
that, so they could teach her a thing or two. Or perhaps it was she who would
feel the need to give lessons. I forget.) In any case, if author Jo Clayton
is a woman, as the name suggests, I'd like to think that she can attend
conventions without being perpetually "hit on" (as we say) for providing a
heroine whose hormone system is in full working order.
Meanwhile, what is the connection with Robert Heinlein and "Friday?" Just
that here, as in Pohl's Gateway Saga, women don't always behave the most
sensibly, nor do they treat the abuses -- sexual and otherwise -- to which
they are subjected in the same degree expected of contemporary women in
(mainstream?) American society. But Heinlein is the one who gets mugged for
it, having suggested that, for Friday, being raped is no more remarkable than
any other sort of tortuous physical assault.
What's going on here? I can't tell. Go figure.
[Commentary by Dennis E. Hamilton, August 14, 1988]
Another peculiar connection: Michael R. Whelan, the cover artist, also
produced the well-known cover for the paperback edition of Friday and, as his
1989 calendar also illustrates, prefers a particular figure and features in
his female subjects. Other science-fiction artists also tend to have a
favorite model, whether actual or imagined, but Whelan's Friday image is quite
distinctive and characteristic in his work -- it is the young Aletys for one.
To top it off, the Friday illustration seems to be the most masterfully
executed of those Whelan specimens I've encountered. It would be interesting
to learn how it was chosen. Of course, the other uses of Whelan's art, often
gracing the work of female science-fiction writers, do not seem to be in the
company of words which are challenged for their author's supposed attitude
about women.
[Added comment by Dennis E. Hamilton, October 21, 1988.]
Transitions (Died: Robert A. Heinlein)
Newsweek
111
21
May 23, 1988
64
Newsmakers department
Robert A. Heinlein Hugo "Oscars" Stranger in a Strange Land
Washington DC Astrologers
This brief and misleading squib mentions that Heinlein was awarded four
"Hugo prizes, the `Oscars' of scifi."
It goes on to mention that "his 1961 novel, `Stranger in a Strange Land,'
has just been rediscovered by Washington." In order to complete this dig, the
editors have made it out that the principle character of "Stranger" is a chief
of state whose wife is regularly counselled by an astrologer (a theme that I
believe Alan Drury also employed, but that is apparently the wrong coloration
for Newsweek's purposes).
It is a cheap remembrance.
[dh:88-08-28]
Spider Robinson
Stranger Than Fiction
Newsweek
112
4
July 25, 1988
12
Letter
Robert A. Heinlein obituaries journalism
Spider writes from Vancouver, B.C., to complain of the magazine's shabby
treatment of the greatest science-fiction writer of all time. Spider argues
that Heinlein dominated the field from 1939 to the 80's, not just the 50's -
60's as the "Transitions" notice alleged. Spider is also offended that
Newsweek took advantage of the obituary to make a Reagan joke (about
astrologers), thereby sullying our remembrance of a loved one. Amen, bro'.
[dh:88-08-28]
Robert A. Heinlein
Classic Heinlein Set
Laissez Faire Books (catalog)
C59
October, 1988
28
Publications Catalog of the Libertarian Review Foundation
532 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012-3956
Heinlein Moon Stranger Past Tomorrow Time Love
This is a mail order offer for the "Classic Heinlein Set" of "The Moon Is A
Harsh Mistress," "Stranger In A Strange Land," "The Past Through Tomorrow,"
and "Time Enought For Love? offered in paperback from $16.95 (order code
SF4971, tax and shipping and handling extra).
[dh:88-09-11]
Robert A. Heinlein
Adventure Heinlein Set
Laissez Faire Books (catalog)
C59
October, 1988
28
Publications Catalog of the Libertarian Review Foundation
532 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012-3956
Heinlein Between Planets Citizen of Galaxy Spacesuit Travel Red Planet
Tunnel
This is a mail order offer for the "Adventure Heinlein Set" of "Between
Planets," "Citizen of the Galaxy," "Have Spacesuit Will Travel," "Red Planet,"
and "Tunnel In The Sky" offered in paperback from $16.50 (order code SF4972,
tax and shipping and handling extra).
I'm not sure how I manage to get on this variety of mailing lists: Bush,
Dukakis, The Libertarians and the ACLU are all interested in my contributions
to their cause, along with NOW, Amnesty International. the policemen's fund,
and the folks who want to ammend the constitution to protect us from our
various evil ways.
I wouldn't have noticed this ad, in front of one for the collected works of
Ayn Rand, except that Heinlein's most-recent dust-jacket photograph stared out
at me. It seems appropriate enough, but I wonder what the basis for selection
might be (apart from "Tanstaafl").
[dh:88-09-11]
Jerry Pournelle
The Right Equipment Can Make Working on the Road a Lot More Feasible
InfoWorld
10
38
September 19, 1988
53
"A User's View": column
Heinlein NASA Sheffield Pournelle Kondo Clancy
"On the evening of Thursday, October 6, 1988, at the National Air and Space
Museum in Washington, NASA will hold a public ceremony to award its highest
honor to Robert A. Heinlein. Mrs. Virginia Heinlein will accept.
Participants will include Dr. Charles Sheffield, Dr. Jerry Pournelle, Dr.
Yoji Kondo, and author Tom Clancy."
[dh:88-09-24]
Isaac Asimov
Surprise
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
12
9
#134 September, 1988
4-8
Editorial
Robert Heinlein techno-sociologic surprise Moskowitz Expressway Rolling
Roads
This editorial, apparently written as much as one year earlier than the
cover date, is about the "techno-sociologic surprise" and how it is introduced
best in science fiction: "... In science fiction, we present the reader with
unexpected aspects of a society different from ours, aspects it may take him a
moment to grasp and that will leave him with a feeling of delight at having
encountered something totally unexpected.
"To do it correctly involves clever technique. ... Ideally, you simply
refer to something casually in such a way that the readers grasp in a moment a
point about a society that is different.
"The example usually given, in which this is done in exactly three words
without explanation or ornament, is Robert Heinlein's sentence in one of his
stories, `The door dilated.'"
Asimov also uses the example of rolling roads -- express strips and all --
and how they can be used in an off-hand way. He credits his use of
"Expressways" in the robot novels to Heinlein's "The Roads Must Roll," too.
One interesting element discussed further in the editorial has to do with
the way that these little surprises smack of verity, at least when the
writer's homework is carefully done. The counterexample given by Asimov is
what happens if we were to revert to horse-drawn transportation -- urban air
quality would not be found to be so pleasant, nor would congestion decrease.
So a writer who carelessly describes such a situation, forced by lack of
fossil fuels, as idyllic, will fail in the eyes of those who are aware of the
quality of urban life before the automobile.
[dh:88-10-03]
[For an example of near-overwhelming craft in this regard, consider the few
extracts from Pohl's "Heechee Rendezvous" in my August 14, 1988, commentary
related to the disregard for Heinlein's regard of women, as read into
"Friday." The tripartite Heechee Saga has been written over a span of years
in which this development's nurture and enrichment can be seen. The mixture
of commonplace and inexplicable objects in Pohl's descriptions, and the
matter-of-fact regard that the protagonists exhibit for each, seems a
magnificent illustration of Asimov's comment, and testament of Heinleinesque
and Campbellian legacies to the genre.
-- dh:88-10-16]
Mark Cunningham
Robert Heinlein, RIP
National Review
40
11
June 10, 1988
21
Right Data section
Heinlein High Frontier tuberculosis Navy waterbed free-fall astrogation
waldo grok Brittannica Graham elitism
This obituary from a fan presents the following information:
Heinlein was twentieth in the Naval Academy class of 1929.
The bout with tuberculosis was in 1934.
Writing was taken up in 1939 to pay off a mortgage (as we knew).
Six Heinlein novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Sixty titles remain in print, in a dozen languages, with a total of forty-
million copies printed.
Heinlein is credited with inventing the waterbed.
Words Heinlein coined include free-fall, astrogation, waldo [for robot-arm
manipulators synchronized to manual motions, also as in power armor], and
grok.
Heinlein contributed to the Encyclopedia Brittannica [but he has no
contribution in the 15th edition (1980) now commonly found on library
shelves].
He was a major consultant on "High Frontier" by General Daniel Graham.
(Cunningham reads "High Frontier" as justification for the Strategic Defense
Initiative.)
Cunningham remarks on Heinlein's dislikes, including television (almost as
damaging as drugs), the education system (which has entered the second
generation of illiteracy, today's teachers being products of the first), the
handling of the Vietnam War (a scandalous disaster), and the diminishing of
elite morale (having to apologize for the privilege of rewarding the common
man).
Although Cunningham finds being raised in Massachusetts an intellectual
liability, he honors Heinlein for, above all, challenging people to think.
I found this obituary because the local public library has added a computer
with a CD-ROM service for accessing bibliographic information. This was the
only citation the then-current Cumulative Index gave back for my "Heinlein"
query.
[dh:88-10-15]
Michael Whelan
Michael Whelan's Year of Wonder: 1989 Calendar
Ballentine Books division of Random House
New York
August 1988
1st
ISBN 0-345-35708-6
A Del Rey Book
Friday Heinlein Art
"Celebrate 1989 with the incomparable paintings of Huga Award-winning
fantasy artist Michael Whelan. These twelve spectacular works of art bring to
life Whelan's world of wonder in a full-color wall calendar you'll treasure
all year long."
-- back cover
There is another attraction to this calendar now on sale at most mall
bookstores: the cover is a larger version of Whelan's 1982 illustration
adopted for the paperback edition of _Friday. The calendar art is enough
larger and well-printed to give much greater texture than the book-sized
version.
For those who also like calendars, the months are called out with an
intersting set of illustrations. Unfortunately, there is no identification of
where the art originally appeared, although some is self-evident:
JANUARY -- 2010: Odyssey Two (unintelligible artist's mark, perhaps '85)
FEBRUARY -- Dragonsdawn (1987), similar to the Friday model [and a cover
for Anne McCaffrey's latest Dragonrider novel]
MARCH -- Sands of Time (1984)
APRIL -- Santiago (1985)
MAY -- Being a Green Mother (1987), different model
JUNE -- Delirium's Mistress (1985), similar model
JULY -- Peekaboo Fuzzies (1983), keeping the Ewok inspiration alive, it is
not clear which of the Fuzzy Sapiens stories this might picture
AUGUST -- Niobe (1985), very much on the same model as Friday, but for the
eyes
SEPTEMBER -- Chanur's Homecoming (apparently 1986)
OCTOBER -- The Boogeyman (1986)
NOVEMBER -- Night's Daughter (1986), different model
DECEMBER -- Foundation's Edge (apparently 1985)
I have come to be fascinated by Whelan's affinity to the same resemblance
for Friday and for a number of other female characters. The Friday
countenance seems to be the best of these, so far.
[dh:88-10-21]
Robert A. Heinlein
Audrey Daly
Samantha Eggar Reads "Friday"
Listen For Pleasure Inc.
Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 1S4
1982, 1987
ISBN 0-88646-186-3
Books on Cassette
Abridged for recording by Audrey Daly
Produced by G. Goodwin and J. Dunn
Approximate playing time, 3 hours
"Friday is a secret courier on an Earth of the future, where chaos and
intrigue are the norms. Employed by the fatherly `Boss,' she travels from New
Zealand to Kenya to Canada on dangerous assignments concealing messages inside
and outside her body. But Friday is a superbeing whose `mother was a test
tube and father was a knife.'
"Engineered from the finest genes, she can think better and fight better
than the ordinary people around her, yet she is loving, tender, and very, very
female. Samantha Eggar tells the story of one of Heinlein's most charming
heroines: FRIDAY."
[dh:88-10-21]
Robert A. Heinlein
Friday
Ballentine Books paperback
Ballantine Books
New York
1982
ISBN 0-345-30988-X
First Ballantine Books edition: August 1983
Ninth Printing: June 1987
A Del Rey Book
Cover art by Michael Whelan
This book is for Ann, Anne Barbie, Betsy, Carolyn, Catherine, Dian, Diane,
Eleanor, Elinor, Gay, Jeanne, Joan, Judy-Lynn, Karen, Kathleen, Marilyn,
Nichelle, Patricia, Pepper, Polly, Roberta, Tamea, Rebel, Ursula, Verna,
Vivian, Vonda, Yumiko and always -- semper toujours -- for Ginny.
"Friday ... is a secret courier. She is employed by a man known to her only
as `Boss.' Operating from and over a near-future Earth, in which North
America has become Balkanized into dozens of independent states, where culture
has become bizarrely vulgarized and chaos is the happy norm, she finds herself
on shuttlecock assignmetn at Boss' seemingly whimsical behest. From New
Zealand to Canada, from one to another of the new states of America's
disunion, she keeps her balance nimbly with quick, expeditious solutions to
one calamity and scrape after another."
-- publisher's blurb
"As I left Kenya Beanstalk capsule he was right on my heels. He followed me
through the door leading to Customs, Health, and Immigration. As the door
contracted behind him I killed him."
-- first paragraph [p.1]
"I recall killing only one of them.
"Possibly two. But why did they insist on doing it the hard way? They
could have waited until I was inside and gassed me, or used a sleepy dart, or
even a sticky rope. They had to take me alive, that was clear. Didn't they
know that a field agent with my training when attacked goes automatically into
overdrive? Maybe I'm not the only stupid.
"But why waste time by raping me? This whole operation had amateurish
touches. No professional group used either beating or rape before interroga-
tion today; there is no profit in it; any professional is trained to cope with
either or both. For rape she (or he -- I hear it's worse for males) can
either detach the mind and wait for it to be over, or (advanced training)
emulate the ancient Chinese adage.
"Or in place of method A or B, or combined with B if the agent's histrionic
ability is up to it, the victim can treat rape as an opportunity to gain an
edge over her captors. I'm no great shakes as an actress but I try and, while
it has never enabled me to turn the tables on unfriendlies, at least once it
kept me alive."
[Chapter 2, p.9]
"... Go on, please."
"That about wraps it up, Boss. A gang rape next, followed by interrogation,
direct, then under drugs, then under pain."
"I'm sorry about the rape, Friday. The usual bonuses. You will find them
enhanced as I judge the circumstances to have been unusually offensive."
"Oh, not that bad. I'm hardly a twittering virgin. I can recall social
occasions that were almost as unpleasant. Except one man. ..."
[Chapter 3, pp.22-23]
"... All my hurts were repairing.
"They hadn't been all that much: lots of burns, four broken ribs, simple
fractures left tibia and fibula, multiple compound fractures of the bones of
my right foot and three toes of my left, a hairline skull fracture without
complications, and (messy but least disabling) somebody had sawed off my right
nipple."
"The last item and the burns and the broken toes were all that I recalled;
the others must have happened whle I was distracted by other matters."
[Chapter 4, p.26]
"So I got my tit back as good as ever or maybe better. The next argument
was over the retraining I felt I needed to correct my hair-trigger kill
reflex. When I brought up the matter again, Boss looked as if he had just
bitten into something nasty. `Friday, I do not recall that you have ever made
a kill that turned out to be a mistake. ....'"
[Chapter 4, p.27]
"Of course, as anyone could guess from this account, I had passed years
earlier. I no longer carried and ID with a big `LA' [Living Artifact] (or
even "AP" [Artificial Person]) printed across it. I could walk into a
washroom and not be told to use the end stall. But a phony ID and a fake
family tree do not keep you warm; they just keep you from being hassled and
discriminated against. You are still aware that there isn't any nation
anywhere that considers your sort fit for citizenship and there are lots of
places that would deport you or even kill you -- or sell you -- if your
cover-up ever slipped.
"An artificial person misses not having a family tree much more than you
might think. ..."
[Chapter 4, p.32]
There is a great deal more to Friday's story, as well as an ending that some
find objectionable. I have singled out the above material to indicate the
viewpoint established for Friday by the author, and to give context to what is
objected to as a trivialization of the experience of rape.
[dh:88-10-23]
Doug Merritt
Carrie
Richard Harter
Roger Warren Tang
et. al.
Discussion of Heinlein's sexist position on rape
Network: Usenet
News-Group: rec.arts.sf-lovers
News-Group: soc.women
rape Heinlein Friday
Roger Warren Tang started a discussion on Heinlein and sexism with the
following query:
"Uhmmm, I'm not adding anything to this discussion because I'm shocked and
stunned. Apparently, most of the readers (who seem to be male) of sf here
seems to accept the statement,
`Anyone with a healthy emotional makeup will find rape no harder to take
than any other kind of assault.'
The discussion that follows led me to notice three things:
1. First, I can't find that precise statement anywhere in Heinlein's
writing, and the scenes quoted from Friday, above, certainly don't suggest
that position. Is this an out-of-context straw man?
2. Those who argue, quite rightly, that rape is a brutalizing and serious
assault on personal sanctity tend to diminish the contrast with physical
assault, thinking in terms of an "unwanted wallet theft or unwanted slap in
the face." Carrie knows that assault is more serious than that, having
experienced it, but is advancing the argument that rape is qualitatively
different than assault, even appealing to the existence of different laws
covering crimes involving sexual assault and abuse. It strikes me that the
legal difference in our society may be more related to the nature of proof and
the role of the victim, not the facts of the experience.
3. There is a great deal of difficulty, and controversy, over Heinlein's use
of viewpoint characters and the personal philosophy he may be urging. I think
the use of speculative fiction, whether by Swift, Voltaire, or Twain,
aggrevates this problem. The readers of Heinlein's work seem to find him
talking about their own world and presume that the changes and attitudes
imposed on that world are being urged by the author. Maybe so. But it is not
so clear to me that the positions Heinlein takes are those being read into his
work. In any case, the objections taken to Heinlein's supposed philosophising
about rape, via Friday, seem remarkably time-locked and ethnocentric. I can't
argue that Heinlein has no axe to grind, just that we may be mistaken in
deciding what it is.
[dh:88-10-24]
** end of RAH8809A.BIB **
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