Very few authors have been called proponents of fascism, advocates for free love,
and mainstays of the libertarian movement all at the same time
But most authors aren't Robert Heinlein
Robert Heinlein is one of the most controversial authors in the history of science fiction
He's a complicated man with complicated ideas that we're going to delve into here
But like Heinlein's own exploration of the philosophies he espoused,
no one look into his life can totally do it justice because Heinlein's own ideas were in flux
They changed over his lifetime giving no constant picture
No, absolute Heinleinian ideology we can point to
He was a libertarian. That much is safe to say
But what that exactly means in his context is something still hotly debated today
Heinlein's career can be broken down into roughly three parts:
his early career where he was establishing himself through writing for the pulps,
breaking into the mainstream, and developing most of his young adult fiction;
the middle of his career where he really started writing novels for adults
and where many of his ideas he's known for come from;
and his late career, after his health issues, where he starts to write extensively about more questionable topics like incest and the sexuality of children
Heinlein's writing career began when he saw an ad in one of Hugo Gernsback's magazines
They were having a contest for amateur writers. Anyone could submit a story and get paid
So Heinlein wrote a story to submit to the competition about a machine that could tell you exactly when you die
and then saw that Campbell's astounding stories was paying a higher rate
so promptly sold it to him instead
This kicked off his foray into science fiction
He had a vision. He was going to write a true future history
It would start in the mid 20th century and extend out a few hundred years with stories filling in all the gaps in between
He was going to have a true timeline of the future with all the events in it built out
It was world-building on a colossal scale
This method of creating a future that felt real
would ultimately be superseded by Asimov's Foundation style future
where the history behind it was implied, rather than spelled out
But simply having a methodology for world-building
rapidly catapulted Heinlein to being one of the most recognizable names in science fiction
Soon, he was the first of the modern sci-fi writers to escape science fiction magazines and be published in the mainstream press
When his Green Hills of Earth showed up in The Saturday Evening Post,
it shocked the entire science fiction world
It was a sea change, a shift in who science fiction might be for
This was a turning point for Heinlein as well
Up through this stage of Heinlein's writing, we can still see the influence of his early love of Upton Sinclair and ideas like social credit on his work
But we can also see the growing impact of his service in the navy
and the domineering presence of World War II take the foreground
These forces really start to present themselves in the next evolution of his writings: his juvenile fiction
Heinlein managed to secure himself a lucrative contract writing young adult novels for a mainstream publisher
Every year for 10 years, just in time for Christmas, he'd release a new book aimed at teenage boys
It was here that he'd really developed the character archetype we'll see throughout his work and that will play such a huge part in science fiction
The archetype of The Competent Man
And it's in this archetype that we see his libertarian philosophy start to come through
The competent man was the man who knew enough of everything to be totally self-reliant
He was independent, would buck authority, and dismiss academics for the practical knowledge of the world
The competent man can do anything, and well
They can plan a war, sow a field, repair a spaceship, explain astrophysics, perform feats of engineering...
...hunt, fish, survive on the land, speak eloquently, and still cut a rug at a naval gala
This type of supreme confidence, while utterly unrealistic, created engaging stories for young men
It made a great deal of sense for the audience he was targeting...
...as many of his stories were aimed at boy scouts and even published in Boy Scouts Magazine
In fact, he even created a fictional branch of The Space Boy Scouts for his stories...
...and filled those stories with young men rewarded for the type of generalized competence that the Boy Scouts encourage
But this idea of the competent man is dangerous when it's not seen as an ideal to strive for, but rather as a reality
The heroes that Heinlein created reinforced a self-image that much of his audience may have had
This idea that they were competent, smart, and in many ways better than the people who didn't listen to them
That they were not respected enough by society in the way that they should be
Not realizing from their comfortable homes in suburban America
That they might not be as prepared as they thought for the hardships of the world
And this idea took root
Not only in geek culture, but to some degree in Heinlein himself
Almost all of his books would feature such a protagonist,
and a number of the big ideas we're going to see him explore in the second phase of his writing career
are about liberating the competent man, freeing him from the shackles of society, either its mores or its loss
So join us next time as we go over the true heyday of Heinlein and discuss...
...Starship Troopers, Stranger In a Strange Land, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress ...
...as well as talk about some of his more controversial work such as Sixth Column, Farnham's Freehold...
...and, well, most everything else he wrote later in his life
We'll see you then