Subject: (urth) Heinlein in FLF

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Dec 2002 22:28:33 +0000

Rostrum wrote:
> Yeah, but you don't really want me to start comparing Free
> Live Free with Heinlein's _Number of the Beast_, do you?

Which is funny, because I did detect odd flashes of Heinlein in FLF, mainly
in the kitchen's "door into summer" image, but also the sort of Libertarian
reading that Adam Stephanides was talking about (a reading that if not
undermined by the text itself would produce a very Heinlein feel -- since I
think it is undermined, I wonder if it is a conscious critique of Heinlein
or not).  As well as the whole "--By His Bootstraps" time-travel loop, of
course!

If the four do end up in a "simpler past," where they enjoy the benefits of
frontier liberty, then that would also be, imho, a thing to remind me of
Heinlein.  The frontier spirit of THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and the
frontiers of FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD.

OTOH, Dave Langford's review of FLF mentions Chesterton's THE MAN WHO WAS
THURSDAY, and this seems very appropriate.

=mantis=

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