Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 15:59:27 -0500
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: time travel
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Kit Mason wrote:

> "Strong, Lee" wrote:
> >
> >         Both Heinlein stories have been cited in serious physics books to
> > illustrate the apparent problems with time travel, including a wonderful
> > chart of the protagonist's worldline.
>
> I've read them -- I've read all of Heinlein at one point or another --
> and they're fine but for me they come under the category of 'puzzle
> stories', little intellectual pieces like mystery short-stories, with a
> prize for the winner and not a whole lot of characterization.  I prefer
> stories that have stronger (and better) characters, and ones in which
> the actual effects of the time shift can be shown through characters'
> behavior in more than just a snapshot.  What can I say?  I'd rather read
> about people than dissect the author's head games, and Heinlein's
> 'authorial voice' comes through so strongly in much of his work that
> it's intensely annoying.
>
> Yes, I realize this is heresy to much of SF fandom, but I'm saying this
> having paid the dues of reading all of it first.

If you've really read all of Heinlein, *and* you've read his contemporaries,
you know that *all* SF from the '40s and most of it from the '50s can be
described as "com[ing] under the category of 'puzzle stories', little
intellectual pieces like mystery short-stories, with a prize for the winner and
not a whole lot of characterization."   And that Heinlein offered considerably
more characterization than his peers did.    On the other hand, you don't need
a novel in length to create "characterization."  Outside SF, that's what most
short stories are *about*.    Much can exist through implication, and "All You
Zombies" implies a great deal.  And I might add that Heinlein's use of
first-person narration allows him to do a lot with the tone of voice his
narrator uses.

Your comments about "Heinlein's 'authorial voice'" (that should be "auctorial
voice") suggest to me that you've read less of (or forgotten) his seminal
pre-1960 work than you have his execrable post-1960 work.

--Ted White