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From: ndd@duke.UUCP (Ned Danieley)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Heinlein's panegyric for the Bomb
Message-ID: <8543@duke.duke.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Sep-86 08:47:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.8543
Posted: Wed Sep 10 08:47:19 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Sep-86 04:41:43 EDT
References: <1071@hoptoad.uucp> <20812@styx.UUCP> <1076@hoptoad.uucp>
Reply-To: ndd@duke.UUCP (Ned D. Danieley)
Distribution: net
Organization: Duke University, Durham NC
Lines: 33
Xref: mnetor net.sf-lovers:8337 talk.politics.misc:19

In article <1076@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>In article <20812@styx.UUCP> mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch) writes:
>>> [quotation from FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD in which the protagonist states,
>>>  inter alia, that the just-occured nuclear war had a few positive
>>>  effects, in that it killed off the fat, useless stay-at-homes rather
>>>  than the best & brightest young men; that it killed off the "stupid"
>>>  who did not plan for war, rather than the cream of the crop...]
>>
>>  The fact that Heinlein's character (and I will allow that he speaks with
>>the authorial voice, as many of RAH's heroes do) dryly notes some of the 
>>beneficial effects the war had compared with previous wars hardly marks hims
>>as being in FAVOR of a nuclear war. I fear this passage, and the other one
>>quoted, were a little too subtle for Mr. Maroney.
>
...
>inventing excuses for the slaughter of the Midianites.  Heinlein was clear;
>he did not dryly note a few positive effects; he stated outright that the
>nuclear war was "good for the country".  Go back and check the quote if you
>don't believe me (and I'll grant you, it's hard to believe).  He then went
>on to say that it had "turned the tide" toward the triumph of freedom, and
>that the net effect would be to "improve the breed".  Not hesitantly, not
>dryly, not in passing - Heinlein states outright and enthusiastically that
>nuclear war would be a wonderful thing!

I thought that Mr. Berch's point was that we don't know that
Heinlein believes this. Nothing that Mr. Maroney has said
really speaks to that question. Instead of sniping at each other,
perhaps we could find a way to prove one of these positions,
or admit that a writer's actual beliefs are not always obvious
from his writing.

Ned Danieley
duke!ndd