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

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Has anyone read it? Should I give the rest a try before returning it, or is it all like that?

Um. When I was 13 or 14, I read and re-read IWFNE. I loved it. I really, really did.

I am now not at all sure why I did. (I was a baby feminist even then - worked it out from first principles a year or two earlier, and then discovered my mum's feminist books and was working my way through them.)

But yes, pretty much all the rest of the book is like that, or it's worse. The book is notable for an interminable series of conversations inside the old man's brain with himself and the ghost of his secretary, and for more sex-scenes than in any other Heinlein novel, all done in "telephone" format. I've never read so much sex with so little actual detail.

Novels by Heinlein that I still enjoy, despite serious reservations about his politics: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (in part because I really like the computer, "Mike"), Citizen of the Galaxy (though it's fractured like a KitKat, the pieces are all good), and five of the juveniles: Red Planet, Farmer in the Sky, Between Planets, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, and Time for the Stars. Space Cadet, The Star Beast, and Tunnel in the Sky I like with reservations, mostly political (TSB is Heinlein trying to be funny, which frankly he's not good at).

But I'm very much a fan of hard sf, and that mindset is how I enjoy a Heinlein novel: not the characters so much as the landscapes, so to speak. (For example, in HSWT, the description of how a small town boy fixes up a second-hand spacesuit so that it actually works.)

All the juveniles have the advantage and the disadvantage that Heinlein was required to pretend that adolescent boys have no sex life whatsoever. Personally, given the way Heinlein writes about sex, I prefer this - but it does lead to some ludicrous situations.

Then again, though it may lead you to dismiss me entirely, for the same reason I managed to enjoy Friday (which had the basic advantage, till at least halfway through, that the heroine was uniquely uninterested in getting pregnant) and Number of the Beast (I liked the idea of a vehicle that would take me from novel to novel...)

[triskellian]

Thanks!

I'm not big on hard-SF, unless it has other (redeeming in my eyes) characteristics, so, along with everyone else's comments, you've convinced me that I should never waste another second of precious reading time on Heinlein...

... Except that I'm now intrigued by the idea of "a vehicle that would take me from novel to novel", so I might have to go and read NOTB just to find out about that ;-)

"a vehicle that will take you from novel to novel"

[jinty]

...with particular emphasis on the Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll. And Heinlein's own books, which is less of a bonus. The Number of the Beast ends up as a big mess, with an over-cutsey anthropomorphised spaceship. Read it once for the experience and then never again, I suggest.

(surfed over here from Neal's journal; hi.)

Re: "a vehicle that will take you from novel to novel"

[triskellian]

Hi

...And I think you've just convinced me not to read it ;-) Sounds like the idea of a vehicle that travels between novels will be better left in my head than in a Heinlein book.