Month: March 2025

Cleaning Out the Augean Stables

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When John Kennedy was assassinated in November, 1963, I was six years old.  I think I was in kindergarten at the time.  I remember the day because the nuns were all crying.  So, there hasn’t been a day in my life that I can remember that I wasn’t aware of Kennedy’s assassination.  And after the initial shock wore off my family members, it receded into my mind until his brother was assassinated a few years later.  At that point, talk about conspiracies finally became loud enough and I was old enough to have it impinge on my thoughts.

But I wasn’t receptive to these ideas.  I just believed what the official version stated.  Lone gunmen were responsible and that was all there was to it.

I was watching a podcast that had a JFK conspiracy advocate on.  After the initial obvious question (“Is there a smoking gun in the new document dump?”) was answered with a, “Whoa, whoa!  I’m on page 3 of 60,000,” the expert explained that what he’s looking for isn’t a smoking gun but rather a pattern of facts that steers the explanation toward one of the likelier causes.

And here, there is a lot of information that tells us more about what was going on between JFK and his intelligence agencies.  And none of it makes the CIA look less guilty.  The CIA had been following Oswald around for the four years before the assassination and they knew exactly where he lived and worked and how close he would be to Kennedy that day.  And there has never been a doubt that Jack Ruby was a mob-controlled stooge who did what he was told.  And there is no doubt that the CIA had connections to the mob and that the mob hated the Kennedys.  And JFK had been talking to some of the top staff in his administration about busting up the CIA for what happened in Cuba.  This “conspiracy theorist” doesn’t come right out and say that the CIA had Kennedy killed.  But that’s what he’s pointing to.

Somehow that still shocks me.  Now, looking at what happened to Trump last year in Pennsylvania should make it seem obvious that the Deep State is completely ruthless and unconcerned with consequences.  But as intellectually simple as that situation is to see, it’s still horrifying to me.  Sure, I’ve known for decades now that our government isn’t the white hat good guys that I thought they were when I was younger.  Iraq taught me that politicians of both parties use Americans as pawns whenever it’s convenient.  We have psychopaths running many of our agencies.  Just look at the FBI and the Justice Department.  Guilt and innocence are the least important aspects of people they target for “justice.”

But the shock tells me that probably the most important work Donald Trump can do before he retires to Mar a Lago in three and half years is to empty out the CIA and the FBI.  I think of these two agencies as threats a hundred times more dangerous to this country than China and Russia combined.  We have a very expensive and on balance, formidable military machine.  Even after eighty years, the nuclear deterrence of our arsenal is still potent.  I don’t think the benefits we gain from the intelligence and judgement of these intelligence agencies compensate us for the malice and deception that they seem to display as their defining characteristics.  They are a threat to the elected leaders of this country and they represent a potent force preventing the very information which our leaders need from reaching them.  Instead of facts they provide a narrative that is convenient for their interests but often is confusing and destructive.  I wish Donald Trump all the best luck in tackling these rogue agencies.  And I hope he breaks them permanently.

Well, that’s what I thought about today.

To Serve Man.  We Need a New Cookbook

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All this Heinlein stuff has me thinking about science fiction.  And that’s fine by me.  The current political theater between the Trump administration and the various judges trying to block his orders isn’t something I want to provide a blow-by-blow description of.  Either Trump figures out a way around these obstacles or he fails.  Either way I’ll wait till I can see the outcome.

But science fiction is interesting to me.  From my way of looking at it, science fiction is the dominant form of storytelling in American society and has been for well over a century.  Now this isn’t what literary types believe.  But genre fiction is the dominant form of fiction in this country and science fiction is what fueled the imaginations of young people for most of the twentieth century and still does even in these times of moral rot in the arts.

So, this gives me a chance to talk about my ideas about where science fiction should and will go.  And I think the current direction of technological progress will provide the impetus for where the stories will go.  Currently I don’t think space travel and advances in biology are the topics that garner our attention.  Not to say those things won’t continue to interest people.  But currently the real impact of technology on our lives is artificial intelligence.  But more than just how far AI will go in replacing humans in various aspects of commerce is what this will do to our society.  And more specifically how will humans push back on the people running industry who don’t see this as a problem or at least don’t see it as a problem for them.

Because let’s be clear.  Automation of all kinds has been changing our world for hundreds of years.  An iron foundry displaces ten thousand village blacksmiths.  An automobile factory and a gas station in every village eliminates the need for train stations across the country and all the people who worked on them.  Every innovation in technology displaces the human beings who supported the previous version of “how things are done.”  But this latest innovation wants to replace the most important attribute of a human being; his ability to think.  His ability to create intellectual property.

And that’s a revolution.  And I think, that’s what science fiction will want to talk about.  Of course it’s been talking about that for decades.  On the hackiest level, that’s what the Terminator movies are all about.  The machines are going to get rid of us.  So are the Matrix movies.

But I think more nuanced portrayals of how AI will affect humanity and how humanity can affect the roll out of AI are what is needed and what will be interesting to people.  Now far be it from me to denigrate the fine work that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves have done to enlighten the human population to their imminent danger at the hands of sentient machines.  I know that I’m always on the lookout for Austrian bodybuilders sporting gatling guns or déjà vu black cats crossing my path.

But what seems to me to be needed is a way to make AI healthy.  Currently, everything about our on-line existence is harmful to us.  It’s some combination of anti-social, irritating and stultifying.  It’s making our lives worse.  And that doesn’t seem to be accidental.  It seems to be a feature of the algorithm.  It almost seems like an anesthetic meant to keep us groggy and confused.

I think science fiction should be focused on rethinking how this ultimate technology has to be forced to work for the benefit of humans instead of as a rat poison to finish us off.  So that’s what I think.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 24MAR2025 – Heinlein Juveniles

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Hmm reording in my preference

Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)
Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)
Starman Jones (1953)
Time for the Stars (1956)
Farmer in the Sky (1950)
Tunnel in the Sky (1955)
The Rolling Stones (1952)
The Star Beast (1954)
Space Cadet (1948)
Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)
Between Planets (1951)
Red Planet (1949)

And yes Space Nazis is silly NOW but it was written in 1947 and so is a reasonable period thing. That said it still is a bit of a loser as a story:-) . Have Space Suit is clearly the best of the best. I read both Between Planets and Red Planet, but other than the Venusian Isaac Newton I remember little. For a Heinlein piece of writing that tells me it was unremarkable (although likely superior to many “Hugo” award winners since the early 2000’s)

As to Starship Troopers that is a special case and I need to recuse myself from that judgement. You see it was the first Heinlein I read when I purchased it for 75 cents at a book fair in 6th grade. So I did read it in the time period for a Juvenile. It certainly has many of the Heinlein juvenile tropes with a just out of teenage protagonist (The literary types if they deigned to read Heinlien might call it a Bildungsroman). There is NO sex and perhaps a little romantic/sexual tension.

One might argue that Starship Troopers being an intentional polemic to duty is of a larger import than the Juveniles, and yet Have Space Suit deals with the complexities of who rules and how they rule with Three Galaxies, Citizen of the Galaxy takes on slavery and the fact of people ignoring it for their own profit, Starman Jones deals with the issues of having cheated to break out of an unfair system and the consequences (admittedlythey DO get Deus ex Machinaed out of the way), I can’t say I wouldn’t give Starship Troopers to a young person (Having myself benifitted from it although the powered armor was more of interest than the politics to a 6th grader). And it sits closer to the Juveniles in style and feel than either Stranger in a Strange land or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If I must put it in the Juveniles it goes before Have Space Suit. But as I noted I am biased and one never forgets their first love.

As a separate issue should Podkayne of Mars be in this list. It is an oddball (and not published for the same publisher) but yet other than a female protagonist it certainly fits the mold as well as Starship Troopers.

The Juvenile Novels of Robert A Heinlein – A Short Discussion

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I had so much fun with the Heinlein short stories that I’m rolling into the Heinlein juveniles.  I think many people understandably feel that the juvenile novels may be Heinlein’s best work.  I confess I’m of two minds about that.  They have different properties and leave room for adult novels to show their quality in a different way.

But let’s see where we can go with these stories.  I think I’ll rank them best to worst according to my incredibly sensitive literary faculty.

 

Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958)

The Rolling Stones (1952)

Farmer in the Sky (1950)

Starman Jones (1953)

Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)

Tunnel in the Sky (1955)

Red Planet (1949)

The Star Beast (1954)

Space Cadet (1948)

Time for the Stars (1956)

Between Planets (1951)

Rocket Ship Galileo (1947)

 

I’ve left out Starship Troopers (1959) because although Heinlein included it in his juvenile series.  I think it’s actually one of his adult stories.

Now my order is obviously idiosyncratic and to be perfectly honest most of the stories are fairly equally good so it’s a very rough sorting.  I did put Rocket Ship Galileo last because now, space nazis do seem a bit silly to me.  But at the time the story seemed just fine to adolescent me.  Maybe depending on the day “Tunnel in the Sky” and “Citizen of the Galaxy” could switch places on the list.  And maybe a few other ones too.  But let’s go with this.

The only story that I think I can objectively hold up as accurately ranked is my first choice, “Have Space Suit—Will Travel.”  I think Heinlein did excel his usual juvenile story here.  The protagonist, characters and plot devices are especially enjoyable and I can say even now, a sequel or two in this universe might be a fun read.  Who knows, maybe one day I’ll contact the Heinlein estate to find out if they have any provisions for making that part of his intellectual property available to “respectful” collaborators.

I gave copies of all these books to my grandsons as soon as they were old enough to read.  I consider them excellent company for growing boys.  Just looking at that list of names makes me think of picking up “Starman Jones” or “The Rolling Stones” just to relive the feeling of reading them for the first time.  They are each a touchstone to a very happy time in my life when the local library had a whole shelf of these Heinlein stories just waiting for me to read them and move onto the next one.

One other word on these books.  Of all the books, I think “Between Planets” was the only one I never reread.  I remember it took place on a Venus that was tropical in climate.  There was a Venusian named Sir Isaac Newton, I believe, but I don’t remember very much else about the plot other than some kind of interplanetary political intrigue.

So, what is your order of excellence?  And what is your rationale?  And where exactly do you stand on the “Starship Troopers” question?  And what is your opinion on space nazis.  Leave your comments in the comments section below.