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Reviewed
by Alan D. Abbey
It
was with trepidation that I sat down to reread Robert Heinlein's short
story collection, The
Past Through Tomorrow. I worried that the stories would
not be as enjoyable as they were the first half-dozen times through,
that Heinlein's reactionary politics would get in the way of my
enjoyment, and that the stories which incorrectly predicted what was
his future and is now our past would seem dated, or at least
trite.
But
none of that came true. The strong stories transported me; the weaker
ones brought smiles and nods, and the two longer items, the novellas, If This Goes On,
and Methuselah's
Children, provided more than enough food for thought to
nourish.
Heinlein's
collection begins with his first published story, Life Line, which
dates back to 1939. As the myth goes, Heinlein wrote it after being
forced into retirement from the U.S. Navy from illness, and, after
receiving $50 for it, never really looked back from a writing career.
This kind of commercial beginning - writing for money rather than a
burning desire to express himself - provided an easy way out for
Heinlein: as a self-proclaimed commercial hack, he was able to avoid
the encrustation of critical analysis during his lifetime. For years,
decades really, he was subjected to little more than the dictates of
crusty magazine editors, cutthroat publishers and adoring fans,
primarily teenaged boys and young men who gorged on the pulp magazines
in which Heinlein published most of his early work.
But
that myth is too convenient. Heinlein had something to say from the
beginning of his career about individual responsibility, commercialism,
and free markets. His early work contains more introspection and
insight into human behavior than generally believed, and his
characters, far from being stereotypical cardboard cutouts ("heroic
space jockey pilot," "pixie-cute girl," "troublemaking teen"), spend
time not just thinking about themselves but about the world in which
they live.
Heinlein's
world is not exactly like ours. In the stories of The Past Through Tomorrow,
personal helicopters scoot across town, smart roads control ground
traffic, rocket ships are flung into space from a giant catapult built
into the side of Colorado's Pikes Peak by a private corporation, and
mammoth, high-speed conveyor belts have replaced the suburbs, exurbs
and gated communities of our world.
Yet
he was right far more than he was wrong. Even when he didn't guess
correctly about the details of nuclear power in the stories Blowups Happen and The Long Watch, he
got the essence right. In Blowups,
the workers at a nuclear plant must be watched continually by a
psychologist for fear the pressure of working at such a dangerous
locale could lead to sabotage. But he caught the anxiety we have about
nuclear power, whether it is the safety considerations in the wake of
Chernobyl and Detroit in 1966, the unresolved questions of what to do
with nuclear power plant waste, or the newer concerns about nuclear
terror, either by plant sabotage or the use by terrorists of
nuclear-armed "dirty bombs."
For
me, perhaps, his most terrifying prediction was that an
evangelical-style Christian dictator would take over the United States
and turn it into an anti-technology theocracy that would crush all
dissent and other religions. Nowadays, that threat seems to have
receded, but it was on the rise through the 1970s and 1980s when these
stories gained popularity.
We
can continue to explore the accurate and not-so-accurate predictions he
made, and we can demean his workmanlike - at best - prose. But we
should not ignore Heinlein's ability to draw fully realized characters
within the boundaries of a traditional, pulp-magazine short story. In Space Jockey,
Heinlein takes us deep into the mind and world of a rocket ship pilot
(who leaves his wife and her theater tickets to make the Earth to Moon
run and then must face a fuel crisis in space that threatens the lives
of hundreds of the rocket ship's passengers). He details the man's
fears, anxieties, passions, and, quickly enough, his successes, in a
way that makes the sci-fi jargon of ballistic computers, ship
trajectories and retro rockets recede. The man shines through.
Similarly,
in Requiem,
possibly the collection's best, Heinlein makes us feel the passion for
space of a global entrepreneur (who may be the man Richard Branson
aspires to be) and his apparently hopeless dream of actually traveling
into space.
For
a simply thrilling adventure story, albeit one predicated on the
troubling undertone of religious fundamentalism, If This Goes On
pulls the reader through. Heinlein's descriptions of the nuts and bolts
of underground organizations and revolution in a technological society
ring true in this day and age of the Internet, cyber terrorism and spy
satellites.
Just
as it is difficult to read these stories without getting bogged down in
the fact that they are tales of a future that is now already behind us
(The stories were written in the 1940s and 1950s, and, with few
exceptions, take place before the turn of the 21st century), it is
difficult to read them as a science fiction fan and Heinlein aficionado
without the encrustation of future Heinlein stories and ideas
surrounding them. One who cares about Heinlein and is familiar with his
personal story will see hints of the writer's personality and his later
concerns in these early stories.
Yet
it would be unfair, let alone plain inaccurate, to read these stories
only for what they presage about his later, more "mature" novels,
including, Stranger
In a Strange Land, Starship Troopers,
and The Moon Is
a Harsh Mistress. The stories of The Past Through Tomorrow
stand on their own, with or without their "future history" framework,
and will provide an open-minded reader with everything from a few hours
of diversion to days of thought after digging into the ideas Heinlein
often casually tosses out. The best of these tales linger long after
the last rockets have fired, and the last personal helicopters have
landed.
Alan
D. Abbey
is a journalist, writer, editor, blogger, and website manager. He has
worked for news organizations in the U.S. and in Israel. He is the
author of a biography of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and has published
book and movie reviews, and columns of political and social commentary.
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Publisher: Ace
Publication
Date:
Published in several editions, the latest in 1987
Paperback/Hardback?
Paperback
First
collection?: No
Author
bio: Robert
A.
Heinlein, who died at age 80 in 1988, was a 20th century American science
fiction author. He received Hugo Awards for four novels, including the
one considered his greatest, Stranger
in a Strange Land. He also was awarded the first Grand
Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America.
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