All branches of this side road of
the Disinformation Stupor/High Way
are now accessible to traffic.
It continues to be a work in progress, however,
and will be subjected to periodic updating
All branches of this side road of
the Disinformation Stupor/High Way
are now accessible to traffic.
It continues to be a work in progress, however,
and will be subjected to periodic updating
All of my quotations files are now available. I have finally formatted the Heinlein quotations files for HTML and I have reformatted the others as well to make them a tad more managageable. Even at just a few hundred quotes some of those files were way too large, and two of the Heinlein files contain over eight hundred and nine hundred entries respectively. Even at 56 Kilobaud a single document can take far too long to load even outside periods of net congestion. [These files were compiled and this page was written when telephone modems were still in the majority. --MN]
One thing of note: I do not and will not carry The Notebooks Of Lazurus Long. For one thing, copying that in its entirety would be a copyright infringement because there is a hard copy publication of Notebooks.
As of 15 Nov 2000, the Heinlein quotations file contains over 3,200 quotes. All of which were painstakingly culled by hand from every one of his short stories that has been reprinted in an anthology, from his juveniles and works for older audiences, and from his non-fiction writing that has been published. (Actually, I have one more book to go through.)
I have taken every care to ensure that I have maintained the context of all quotations, and in some cases annotated a number of quotes to provide explication. In a few cases, I have inserted editorial comments.
The same holds for quotations taken from other hard copy works and those saved from electronic fora by Cut & Paste.
I offer these quotations files as a writer's resource. If you are a writer, you might find of particular interest the various quotations extracted from public correspondences in the Writing Echo of Fidonet.
The sum total of Heinlein quotations serves another primary purpose, however. When I began studying Heinlein's works in depth, it was in an effort to determine what made his writing so popular. A study of his style and writing technique. As I perused his work, I find myself agreeing with a number of points made by his characters, points which I thought expressed the character of the author. One day, I finally gave into the idea of noting those points and saving them for future reference. Thus began my Heinlein Quotations File.
Shortly after that I came across a phenomenon I had seen mentioned in Requiem: New Collected Works of Robert Anson Heinlein and Tributes to the Grandmaster. It was in the talk given by Spider Robinson, I think. This phenonemon was the idea in the minds of some readers that Heinlein was a pervert. This idea is based on the content of Time Enough For Love. In that work, Lazurus Long goes on at some length about the idea of incest in some passages. In favor of it.
Some people have come to believe that this makes Heinlein a pervert.
They hold this belief due to two reasons, as near as I can tell. The first is a misapprehension of the old saw, you can't separate an author from his work. The second is from an inability to think critically.
So, as I read and extracted quotes, I also looked for material that might support the contention that Heinlein was a pervert.
There is none.
None what-so-ever.
There is not one shred of evidence to be found anywhere, but there is a fair bit of material in Heinlein's personal writings, particularly to his agent Lurton Blassingame, that refutes the idea.
Ergo: the contention is utter bullshit.
I have personally seen the idea expressed twice, once by a psychiatrist and once by a writer. The writer should know better. One of the marks that a work is coming along well is when the characters take control of the story and do whatever they damned well please. Professional writers -- those with an attitude for professionalism, not necessarily those who have been published -- know that characters are not simply words on paper, but are, in their own right, living, breathing people as well. That they have their own prejudices, foibles, and aspirations. If every character were a pale reflection of the author instead of being a discrete person, all of the major characters in a book would be enough alike as to be indistinguishable one from the other.
Then too, there are the antagonists. Frequently given over to foolishness or outright evil. Which ones best represent the author?
Neither. The author is not represented by the words spoken by the characters or by their actions. The soul of the author is found in the theme of the work. One must examine the work as a whole.
The psychiatrist who expressed that odd notion should also have known better than to do so. The next time I run into some shrink who tells me that Heinlein was a pervert I shall ask certain pointed questions: 1) When was Heinlein his/her patient and how many sessions did that person spend analysing him; 2) if Heinlein was your patient why are violating his patient confidentiality; 3) if Heinlein was not your patient then why do think you are in a position to render such a diagnosis; 4) if you have based your diagnosis on having read one book by Heinlein [as was the case], then why should I consider you to be anything other than a quack?
Other questions might arise from such a line of query; such as: when did the Diagnostic Manual include "pervert" as a psychiatric diagnosis?
However, don't take my word for it. As Heinlein said in one of his letters, "Look for yourself. Anything else you hear is guff." I looked for myself -- and my conclusions are firm and will stand the test of any counter-argument -- and now you must do the same.
