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OP here - I think disliking Heinlein is probably the norm among SF fans these days. A lot of his stuff hasn't aged well. That said, I am kind of fascinated by

OP here - I think disliking Heinlein is probably the norm among SF fans these days. A lot of his stuff hasn't aged well. That said, I am kind of fascinated by his life. I dug up these pictures of his Colorado house because I often drive past his follow-up to it, another space age house in Bonny Doon, in the Santa Cruz mountains. It's in a very rural area, and although you can't see it from the road, whenever I'm driving past I have reveries about the era of mid-60s utopian American engineering it came out of. There's something melancholic about it. I also find the story about him indirectly inspiring L. Ron Hubbard to create Dianetics to be totally fascinating - the claim that it was due to a bet about creating a religion seems apocryphal, but based on the sleuthing here [1] it seems like there is some truth to the general outline. I'm actually planning on looking into his correspondence with Hubbard in the next few month (which is held by UCSC's special collection library). Will write something up about it if I find anything new. [1] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2671/is-there-any-evidence-for-the-bet-between-robert-a-heinlein-and-l-ron-hubbard https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2671/is-there-any-...

sudofail 8y ago
It's definitely an apocryphal anecdote, but I'd believe it. I was a Scientologist for many years, and the number of similarities between a Dianetic Clear Valentine Michael Smith from A Stranger in a Strange Land is quite uncanny. No doubt Heinlein was very familiar with Hubbard's religious ideas. There are numerous lectures and books where Hubbard talks about his close friendship with Heinlein. But it's hard to tell if he's just name-dropping, or if they were indeed close friends. The legendary John W. Campbell, who both Hubbard and Heinlein wrote for, was very active with Dianetics early on as well.

sudofail 8y ago

It's definitely an apocryphal anecdote, but I'd believe it. I was a Scientologist for many years, and the number of similarities between a Dianetic Clear Valentine Michael Smith from A Stranger in a Strange Land is quite uncanny. No doubt Heinlein was very familiar with Hubbard's religious ideas. There are numerous lectures and books where Hubbard talks about his close friendship with Heinlein. But it's hard to tell if he's just name-dropping, or if they were indeed close friends. The legendary John W. Campbell, who both Hubbard and Heinlein wrote for, was very active with Dianetics early on as well.