[EXTERNAL] Re: Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 27 Jan 2020, 22:24 · from 2020-January.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2020 14:24:50 -0800
Subject: (urth) [EXTERNAL] Re: Heinlein's Universe and The Long Sun
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What also needs mentioning is that the "generation starship" was not a new
concept with Heinlein either. What he originated (as far as I know) is the
idea that the people aboard might forget the nature of their habitation.

Leave it to Wolfe to nuance the hell out of that idea.

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

*Maka ki ecela tehani yanke lo!*
*--*T?a???ke Witk?


On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 1:47 PM Stephen Hoy <stephenhoy15 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Appreciating the Heinlein connections noted by Gem and Gerry; a reminder
> that RAH is still relevant in the 21st century, as Christopher Nuttall
> might put it.
>
> The interesting bit about the conveyor belt roads of Heinlein's The Roads
> Must Roll is that it has a precedent, and a much better fit with TLA, in
> H.G.Wells' When the Sleeper Awakens (1899). Wells' title recalls a
> noticeable sentence in TLA Chapter One "Now it seems to me that I must have
> been asleep a long time before I got into bed" followed by several
> "awakenings" throughout TLA.
>
> Note that Wells and Wolfe each relate the struggle of a potential ruler of
> a dystopian society who gets caught up in a struggle between opposing
> factions. I don't think the parallels go much beyond this. It's a lot like
> Wolfe's choice of Baskin-Robbins as an allusion to Andromeda (Messier-31
> Flavors) in An Evil Guest, or the allusion to Boris Badenov in a
> conversation at a cafe in TLA, "I don't trust that conductor. Why is he so
> short?" to draw attention to Papa Zenon's lack of stature.
>
> Aramini's Black-Red-White trichotomy helps us think about a lot of TLA's
> mysteries, although I suspect there is a lot of cloning going on along with
> the imprinting of personalities. Imprinting is found in Home Fires, TLA, A
> Borrowed Man. There's cloning/imprinting of some sort in A Borrowed Man,
> and I think something similar is happening in The Land Across.
>
> - Stephen
>
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2020 at 10:21 AM Norwood, Frederick Hudson <
> NORWOODR at mail.etsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Another Wolfe novel, The Land Across, is, I think strongly influenced by
>> Heinlein, and essentially a satire of Heinlein. This is just my opinion,
>> I?ve never heard anyone else say this. But the Rolling Roads early in the
>> novel, which play no other part in the plot, I take as a hint.
>>
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Rick
>>
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