Heinlein's "I Will Fear No Evil"

[triskellian]

I was talking to a colleague about science-fiction a couple of weeks ago. She claimed Heinlein as one of her favourite authors, and I confessed to having read nothing of his, put off by a possibly-unjustified impression of him being too interested in plot at the expense of character, and having misogynist tendencies. She claimed this wasn't true, and leant me I Will Fear No Evil to prove it. Yesterday, ill in bed*, I read the first two chapters. The characters are little more than props, and the main female character wears sexy clothes to please her elderly boss (and decides to make an effort to be extra-sexy tomorrow to thank him for a hefty bequest), doesn't mind being treated like a silly little girl, and, despite claiming to be happily married, throws herself into the arms of another much-older man at the first sign of danger, saying stuff like "Your arms are so strong. I feel safe when you're holding me", and then offers said older man a nude photo of herself. I gave up in disgust. Has anyone read it? Should I give the rest a try before returning it, or is it all like that?

*Hence no appearance at angry_marmot's party, and being off work today. secretrebel - want to come over and cheer me up?

Comments

[lathany.livejournal.com]

put off by a possibly-unjustified impression of him being too interested in plot at the expense of character

Having read a handful of Heinlein, that's probably completely justified. None of his characters have ever been memorable (IMO) and it is only plot/background that he's worth reading for.

and the main female character

All of his female characters, which I've come across so far, behave like this.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nice, Triskellian, when all your prejudices turn out to be completely justified :)

[triskellian]

It's lovely - especially when they're based on nothing ;-) From now on I shall assume all my unfounded prejudices are true!

[triskellian]

Glad it's not just me.

For the most part, I'd rather read a book with great characters and no plot than the reverse - perhaps I should've made that clearer to the colleague in question. Can't imagine why she thought IWFNE would make me change my mind!

[venta.livejournal.com]

This is something I've noticed people doing in the past; not that I can grumble, because I suspect I do it too:

You tell me you don't like author X because of reason Y.
I like author X, in particular I think book Z is great.
I therefore offer you book Z to "convert" you, regardless of whether Y is true about it or not.

I guess it's some sort of selective "things I like are all great" blindness.

[triskellian]

Yeah, I'm guilty of it too, of course, but she wasn't even saying "author X/book Z is great despite suffering from flaw Y", she was saying "author X doesn't suffer from flaw Y, and here's book Z to prove it".

I guess book Z could possibly be so good as to make me rethink my position on Y being a flaw... if it had bothered to introduce anything other than examples of Y in the two chapters I read ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'll look forward to hearing what she has to say in defence if you present her with your analysis of the first two chapters as it appeared above :)

I guess it's possible in general that book Z's greatness might blind its fans to the existence of flaw Y, but on your assessment Z has a fairly extreme case of Y in this instance.

[triskellian]

I'll look forward to hearing what she has to say in defence if you present her with your analysis of the first two chapters as it appeared above :)
I will, since she's bound to ask what I thought, and I'm dying to find out what was going on in her head ;-) I'll try to remember to post her response.

Podkayne of Mars

[jinty]

is the one notable exception, being one of his shorter books aimed at adolescents and therefore nothing like as creepy about sex. She gets to be active and heroic and stuff. I can't remember the plot off-hand so maybe that's a good sign, me remembering the character more than the plot.

Anyone who tries to sell you Heinlein on the basis of him not being a sexist misogynistic pulp writer is barking very much up the wrong tree. Having said that, I own and have re-read a whole bunch of his books, including IWFNE, as a tacky guilty pleasure. I'm not even quite sure why I read them, except for the fact that I started reading them when I had little critical judgement and was reading Piers Anthony (have since stopped) and Anne McCaffrey (still kept as a guilty pleasure, mostly because I like the dragons).

Re: Podkayne of Mars

[triskellian]

Yeah, stuff you started reading as a kid is often exempt from the standards you apply to other books. I will never read the Dragonlance books, for example, because by the time I discovered them, I was too old to appreciate them. I'm with you on the Anne McMaffrey, though, although I pretty much stopped at about All the Weyrs, and just occasionally re-read the old ones now.

Hooray for Friday-afternoon-LJ-surfing, btw ;-)