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From: radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Heinlein's panegyric for the Bomb
Message-ID: <373@vaxb.calgary.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Sep-86 17:22:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: vaxb.373
Posted: Sun Sep 14 17:22:25 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Sep-86 08:21:23 EDT
References: <1071@hoptoad.uucp> <776@mtung.UUCP> <977@whuts.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Calgary, Calgary, Ab.
Lines: 38
Summary: Heinlein doesn't even talk abut the bomb.
Xref: mnetor net.sf-lovers:8511 talk.politics.misc:146

In article <977@whuts.UUCP>, orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:

> > > Next, a typically didactic Heinlein monologue from "Farnham's Freehold",
> > > a post-holocaust novel of which Michael Moorcock wrote in the
> > > critical/political essay "Starship Stormtroopers", "It's not such a big
> > > step ... from *Farnham's Freehold* to Hitler's *Lebensraum*."

> > I can't believe this!  The entire book catalogs, in detail, exactly what
> > the horrors associated with a nuclear war would be...

> I read Farnham's Freehold and it certainly seemed to me to be more of
> a paean to "survivalism" than to actions to stop a nuclear war in
> the first place.  The protoganist is praiseworthy for stocking up
> with everything from food to encyclopedias to prepare for the aftermath
> of World War Last.   His major concern is protecting his survivalist
> fiefdom from looting by others who are starving and so forth...

>                      tim sevener  whuxn!orb

This is getting more and more ridiculous. I haven't read Farnham's Freehold
in years either, but unless my memory is much worse than I think, the 
book doesn't concern the direct effects of nuclear war AT ALL.

You see, once the bomb hits, the protagonists are transported through time
to a period hundreds of years after the war ends. Far from his major
concern being "protecting his fiefdom from looting", the hero believes for
many months that they are the sole survivors. About half the book concerns
the events after they are discovered by the post-holocoust society, and
is mainly about racial discrimination, not nuclear war.

There's about five pages at the end that's slightly more relevant to 
the direct effects of the war, after the hero and heroine manage to
travel back in time to just after the war.

All sides in this discussion would do well to actually read the books they
talk about, recently enough to remember them.

    Radford Neal