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From: chapman@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Brent Chapman)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Heinlein's panegyric for the Bomb
Message-ID: <166@zen.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sun, 14-Sep-86 02:52:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: zen.166
Posted: Sun Sep 14 02:52:38 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Sep-86 02:11:48 EDT
References: <1071@hoptoad.uucp> <776@mtung.UUCP> <977@whuts.UUCP>
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Reply-To: chapman@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Brent Chapman)
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In article <977@whuts.UUCP> orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:
	...
>But then another effect should have been well-known to Heinlein which
>he never bothered to deal with in his paean to "survivalism".
>Namely the certainty than any all-out nuclear war would lead to
>massive firestorms, leaving those in shelters like "Farnham's Freehold"
>to be either cooked alive like those in Dresden, or else suffocated by
>the lack of oxygen consumed by such torrential flames.
>It has been a long time since I read "Farnham's Freehold" but I also
>don't recall much discussion of the pernicious effects of radioactivity-
>in the region around Chernobyl, a minscule incident compared to the
>effects of an all-out nuclear war, they have to strip off the top
>inches of thousands of acres of topsoil because it is excessively 
>radioactive.  If you strip off the top inches of fertile topsoil to
>avoid radioactivity, the soil left will be practically useless for
>growing crops.  Nor do I recall Heinlein talking much at all about
>radiation sickness, leukemia, cancer, etc.
	...
>                     tim sevener  whuxn!orb

I believe that Heinlein sidestepped this whole issue in one of the
basic premises of the story.

If I remember correctly, Farnham & Co. survived _because_ they were
basicly at ground zero for a blast, which conveniently knocked them
several hundred (thousand?) years into the future.

Without this convenient little "trick", there would have been no story.


Brent
--

Brent Chapman

chapman@cory.berkeley.edu	or	ucbvax!cory!chapman