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FOR US, the living was written by Robert A. Heinlein between 1938 and 1939 and
was never previously published. A friend told me recently that the reason it has finally
been published now is because Ginny is dead. I can well believe it.
This one is strictly for hard-core Heinlein fans! It is written in the style
of the 1930's referred to by many as "Utopian" (more about this later). The
story line is almost non-existent. The characters are barely drawn in at all. The only
thing that ties this to any of Robert's later work is his ability to anticipate future
trends.
The foreword is by Spider Robinson, whose fiction has always been one of my guilty
pleasures. Even this falls somehow short of the mark, for indeed, it seems to me to be
more fiction than introduction. On the basis of this Utopian book, Spider refers to Bob
Heinlein as a Utopian writer. I guess that he and I will just have to dis-agree on that.
After all, Jacqueline Susann wrote one Science Fiction book, but she still remained a
Romance writer.
Heinlein was, above all, a practical man. Nothing in his worlds ever worked any better
than it had to. This applies not only to the gadgets, but to the different societies that
he wrote about as well.
The descendents of the people that overthrew Nehemiah Scudder eventually made The Green
Hills of Earth unlivable. And Mannie could be happy repairing Mike, the computer, even under
one of the Warden's subgation. Because the story was never about the society or about a
particular gadget . . . it was always about people and their choices and their morals.
This is NOT, however, one of those books. Alas, it is still about ideas and not people.
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