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(From the Nicholls section) > Heinlein saw the novel as an opportunity to launch frontal assaults on "the two biggest, fattest sacred cows" of Western society,

(From the Nicholls section) > Heinlein saw the novel as an opportunity to launch frontal assaults on "the two biggest, fattest sacred cows" of Western society, "monotheism and monogamy." I've loved Heinlein's books for decades, and I think his "Crazy Years" prediction is playing right now, not quite as he depicted it, but the gist is there. But on this, I've come to think he was barking up the wrong tree.

Animats 5y ago
I think his "Crazy Years" prediction is playing right now Here's Heinlein's "Future History" timeline.[1] He got the "False Dawn" of space travel half right. He predicted a religious dictatorship in the US in the mid to late 21st century. [1] http://templetongate.net/graphics/literature/fhchartlarge.gif http://templetongate.net/graphics/literature/fhchartlarge.gi...
whatever_dude 5y ago
The polygamy stuff is his books has always been a turn off for me. I don't really have anything against it, but it's that he goes to such lengths to explain and defend it, so many times (and always as some sort of "perfect system"), that it gets tiresome. My theory is that every Sci Fi author has their own sort of pet belief they like to expose on their novels. So I get it, this is his. But every time it came up on his books I couldn't help and roll my eyes at what I knew would be a long, unnecessary, mostly off topic diatribe about the benefits of polygamy.
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eesmith 5y ago
The gist of the Crazy Years has been with us for a long time. Remember, Heinlein grew up when cars, telephony, radio, electrification, and more were transforming culture round him. The phrase itself almost certainly refers to Années folles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%C3%A9es_folles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%C3%A9es_folles . To phrase it a different way, when weren't the Crazy Years? I first heard the comment that we are living in Heinlein's Crazy Years back in the 1990s. Or, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn't_Start_the_Fire#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn't_Start_the_Fire#Histo... : > Joel got the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon who said "It's a terrible time to be 21!" Joel replied to him, "Yeah, I remember when I was 21 – I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y'know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful." The friend replied, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties". Joel retorted, "Wait a minute, didn't you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?"

Animats 5y ago

I think his "Crazy Years" prediction is playing right now Here's Heinlein's "Future History" timeline.[1] He got the "False Dawn" of space travel half right. He predicted a religious dictatorship in the US in the mid to late 21st century. [1] http://templetongate.net/graphics/literature/fhchartlarge.gif http://templetongate.net/graphics/literature/fhchartlarge.gi...

whatever_dude 5y ago

The polygamy stuff is his books has always been a turn off for me. I don't really have anything against it, but it's that he goes to such lengths to explain and defend it, so many times (and always as some sort of "perfect system"), that it gets tiresome. My theory is that every Sci Fi author has their own sort of pet belief they like to expose on their novels. So I get it, this is his. But every time it came up on his books I couldn't help and roll my eyes at what I knew would be a long, unnecessary, mostly off topic diatribe about the benefits of polygamy.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

eesmith 5y ago

The gist of the Crazy Years has been with us for a long time. Remember, Heinlein grew up when cars, telephony, radio, electrification, and more were transforming culture round him. The phrase itself almost certainly refers to Années folles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%C3%A9es_folles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann%C3%A9es_folles . To phrase it a different way, when weren't the Crazy Years? I first heard the comment that we are living in Heinlein's Crazy Years back in the 1990s. Or, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn't_Start_the_Fire#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Didn't_Start_the_Fire#Histo... : > Joel got the idea for the song when he had just turned 40. He was in a recording studio and met a 21-year-old friend of Sean Lennon who said "It's a terrible time to be 21!" Joel replied to him, "Yeah, I remember when I was 21 – I thought it was an awful time and we had Vietnam, and y'know, drug problems, and civil rights problems and everything seemed to be awful." The friend replied, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's different for you. You were a kid in the fifties and everybody knows that nothing happened in the fifties". Joel retorted, "Wait a minute, didn't you hear of the Korean War or the Suez Canal Crisis?"