Rereading Heinlein

A couple of interesting posts regarding my favorite author, Robert Heinlein. The first one has to do with rereading 'Citizen of the Galaxy' as an adult.

Others have mentioned how seamless Heinlein's worlds are but I'm always gobsmacked by them, even now. You know that the writer was only showing the iceberg's tip of what he knew about any of his imagined outposts -- like Jubbulpore or the Free Traders' Sisu -- but what he chose to show was exactly what you needed to know. All of the needful stuff is condensed into the man's clear prose, which is never enamored with its own cleverness. In other hands, such concision could be a dull read but this reportorial approach works in Heinlein's hands.

The Hugo project has led me to read lots of books and authors that are new to me. I haven't found any authors who quite hit the same balance that Heinlein consistently does with the narrative. Add in the enjoyable conversation and consistently interesting moral observations and that explains much of my love for the man.
The second post deals with a different juvenile that I also still enjoy, 'The Star Beast'.

While The Star Beast is ostensibly a coming of age story, it is more about the use of diplomacy. Mr Kiku* and his cohort Sergei Greenberg spend most of the book negotiating with the rest of Lummox's race in order to keep the Earth from being blown up by them. The passages about the Beast and John Thomas are interesting -- but it feels like Heinlein really goes off on one of his giddy didactic tears when he gets into the gritty details of status, power and gesture.

My opinion differs. I've read it probably eight or ten times and never was bothered by the 'gritty details' and whatnot. To each their own, I guess. The author here is also bothered that 'Star Beast' focuses on boys relationships but I think that simply fails to account for the conditions under which it was written. Heinlein wrote his juveniles specifically for young boys. It's not fair to take him to task here, especially since one of the strongest characters in the book is his girlfriend Betty.
I've read plenty of adults take Heinlein to task for his female characters. Interestingly, many of these critics enjoyed him as young girls, grew up as fully empowered women and only now find these faults. I think that his lessons of self reliance are easily and transparently applicable to both boys and girls. Any youngling can read his books and learn how to be a better person.