Re: Starship Troopers Government

In message <38D18218.2728F099@cris.com> Los writes:
> It always amuses me how many peg Heinlein as a fascist because he
wrote a
> *science fiction* novel about a hypothetical future government. That's
an absurd
> leap to make.

It's not an absurd leap. Starship Troopers is an extended polemic,
a novel whose events are structured to justify the political
opinions espoused by the characters, which have been reeled off as
lectures, as exposition fed directly to to the reader and
protagonist. The protagonist starts the book as a sceptic, and
comes to believe everything he has been taught without question,
and the reader is meant to identify with him. It is a propaganda
technique. I only read the book recently when I heard that
Verhoeven was filming it, and the book really insulted my
intelligence.

I'm not calling RAH a "fascist", or claiming that he espoused what
ST espouses, just that it is not an absurd leap.

> I suppose we're suppose to make every future background
> disgustingly bland, politically correct, and exactly following a
certain formula
> lest we be branded similarly.  Jeez.	Jon writes a  future where
Humanity is in
> constant war, what the heck does that make him?

A wargamer, and a businessman. Wargamers need wars, as do war
novelists. All narratives demand conflict of some sort.

(I must be in an especially glib mood today!)

I see nothing about the GZG background that is not "Politically
Correct", although I haven't been through it with a fine-toothed
comb or a blue pencil. Does Jon espouse war as "good thing"?

-- 
David Brewer