\
Every Sabbath I want to honor a person or a book or any bit of art or scholarship or media that comes from the heart.
This one I love.
Those of you who are friends, your suggestions are welcome.
The Day of the Dhimmi is Done - Michael Lumish, PhD, proprietor. (mike.lumish@gmail.com)
Finally, you've managed to feature somebody I never would have recognized! ;)
ReplyDeleteScience fiction is the one genre I know nothing about. If I were to honor an author on this day, I'd choose paragon of urbanism Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, who passed away at 89, nine years ago on this day.
William H. Whyte (The Organization Man) and David Riesman (The Lonely Crowd) are your jumping off points.
DeleteIt goes to post-WWII criticisms of the white, conformist, American middle-class male.
OMG, it is actually raining!
DeleteThank G-d
A very very strange book.
ReplyDeleteHeinlein was brilliant, very prolific, and highly diverse.
DeleteStranger in a Strange Land was a favorite among counterculturalists in the 60s and 70s, but its hard to imagine that it was written by the same guy who wrote Starship Troopers, which is practically an ode to fascism.
Never read him, couldn't get past his politics. Or Bradbury for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is probably fair to say that Heinlein was a libertarian.
DeleteHe was an anti- totalitarian.
DeleteMany of the counter- culturists were not.
RAH is my favorite author of all time!
ReplyDeleteWhile many will not like this, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is by FAR his BEST work! (The Main character was awesome)
What many people will overlook is that while written in the 60's, there is a HUGE message about racial equality in it. Yes it has a very libertarian system, but it works. Why? Because the moon and the loonies were a small isolated area. Any system can be corrupted if it gets big enough (as evidenced by his later work.. The Cat Who Walks Through Walls shows the Loonie system corrupted)
Also, Starship Troopers gets totally trashed by the movie (and the director admitted to doing it as he didn't like Heinlein's message. As supporters of Israel, I think we can all get behind the whole service to earn your franchise argument)
You're a Heinlein fan, eh?
DeleteWell, that's encouraging.
I have not read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, so I will have to see about tossing it on the pile.
Your emphasis on the size of the social organization is something that I remember from his stuff. In one of his books - I suspect, Time Enough for Love - the main character makes a claim that once a community becomes large enough to require personal identification cards, it is time to move on.