Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun

Eric Bourland · 27 Jan 2020, 17:33 · from 2020-January.txt.gz

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From: eb at hwaet.com (Eric Bourland)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2020 12:33:56 -0500
Subject: (urth) Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun
In-Reply-To: <75af8f6d-0c46-9da6-10e1-daf8dd2ebcdc at bindweed.com>
References: <159454775.1023236.1580140328725.ref at mail.yahoo.com>
 <159454775.1023236.1580140328725 at mail.yahoo.com>
 <75af8f6d-0c46-9da6-10e1-daf8dd2ebcdc at bindweed.com>
Message-ID: <002b01d5d537$f4762a40$dd627ec0$@hwaet.com>

Really interesting allusion / homage. I do not have the Bova books in my library . . . maybe I will look for them. Eric

*******

Eric Bourland

https://www.hwaet.com/

From: Urth <urth-bounces at lists.urth.net> On Behalf Of Gerry Quinn
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2020 11:46 AM
To: urth at lists.urth.net
Subject: Re: (urth) Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun

On 27/01/2020 15:52, Gem Caccetta wrote:

Hi Gerry--I certainly would expect Wolfe to expand on (and make more interesting!) the generation ship saga. I was seeing the similarities as more of a possible homage to Heinlein. 

Oh, and another similarity I forgot to mention: in Heinlein's story the descendants are called "Freight".

-Gem

Indeed, that's a telling similarity.  It seems very much like the Heinlein was on his mind!

- Gerry Quinn

On January 27,2020 Gerry Quinn wrote:

Certainly a few commonalities there - two headed mutants aren't exactly a dime a dozen!  But that said, there are a lot of generation ship sagas with some similar features.  Wolfe's Long Sun is unusual for avoiding the trope of complete forgetfulness. The Crew (and the Gods/Mainframe) know what the deal is, though it looks like they are paralysed without orders from Pas, or they don't know how to persuade the Cargo.  And the Cargo - or the educated ones - actually know they are on a generation ship too, though they have put it to the back of their minds in favour of matters related to day to day life (I think Wolfe suggested BotNS itself has a similar theme).  Kind of like how everyone on this whorl ignores global warming insofar as it means any change in lifestyle!

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