SF Bookclub

I saw a notice for a meeting of the F&SF Book Club at a nearby library this afternoon. The assignment is to read your favorite Robert Heinlein book and be prepared to discuss. I'm thinking about going and maybe startling them all with my choice, Starship Troopers.

I stopped being a Heinlein fan about, oh, 25-30 years ago, when I re-read some of his adult books and took note of his misogyny, well-disguised though it may be. His standard premise is that there's a very intelligent woman with a career etc. who falls for the "hero" and begins to pop out babies and say "yes, dear" a lot. There are lots of examples, such as the Empress of the Known Universe in "Glory Road" who recruits a "hero" (ha!) who then gets to order her around and even gets to spank her when she's being "unreasonably hysterically female" (my quotes).

So I no longer read him except for Starship Troopers, which I think has some interesting ideas about citizenry, service, politics, etc. I don't agree with everything he said, and his social customs are charmingly quaint (and misogynistic), but it's the most interesting book he ever wrote, to my mind.

Stranger in a Strange Land, you say? Piffle. It's the beginning of his "dirty old man" slide into nastiness.