Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

 (Book Review)
So I was talking to the Bear, and I said, “Bear, remember that book you recommended to me 6 years ago? I finally got around to reading it.”

And the Bear said, “Well if you liked that book, then this one is even better.” And before I knew it, I left the Bear’s house with another reading assignment. (You’ve got to watch that Bear. He’ll try and take over your whole reading list if you let him.)

So, because of the Bear, I returned to the world of Robert Heinlein. As I mentioned in my previous review, Heinlein had some interesting and contradictory politics. “Stranger in a Strange Land” is a book that advocated free love and communal living. “Starship Troopers” is often accused of militarism and fascism. There are some tortured attempts on the internet to find a thread of consistency through his writings, or explain a political progression, but I find it easier just to take each book as its own.

Film critic Roger Ebert says when he was in grade school he read this book to the point of memorization. On the other hand Paul Verhoeven, who directed the movie version of “Starship Troopers” found the book so depressing he claims he never even finished it (which is why the film version of “Starship Troopers” was done as a satire on Heinlein’s views).

After reading the book, I find myself more on the side of Verhoeven. No doubt there are many elements of this book which would be extremely cool to an 11 year old boy, such as space commanders fighting giant spiders and what not. But like any Heinlein book, this one is really heavy on the preaching.

The book opens with a really great action sequence, but then flashes back to the decision to enlist and the first days of military training. There follows a lot of talk about the poverty of Marxist economics, the necessity of capital punishment, the importance of publicly flogging juveniles, and how social workers are destroying society.

Then graduation happens, the characters go off to fight for a brief interlude, and then go back to training to become officers. Which follows even more preaching on topics like why only veterans should be able to be citizens.

As Roger Ebert says, “Heinlein was of course a right-wing saber-rattler, but a charming and intelligent one who wrote some of the best science fiction ever.” Heinlein is a talented writer, and his action scenes can be really good when he finally gets around to them. I could have forgiven the right wing politics if they would have been a little bit more subtle or a bit more in the back ground. But aside from being book-ended by a couple action scenes this book is just talk, talk talk. And I didn’t particularly care for what it was saying.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
Part of the criticism the Chronicles of Narnia series have received over the years center on the description of Susan Pevensie in The Last Battle. In the novel, the last of the series, Susan does not go to Narnia; other characters describe Susan as being "no longer a friend of Narnia" and as being interested "in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations". J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, while commenting Lewis' sentimentality about children, has said:
"There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex, I have a big problem with that."
Others read the passage more critically, including allegations of sexism. Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, who has been quoted as saying "I hate the Narnia books...with a passion...", interprets it this way:
"Susan, like Cinderella, is undergoing a transition from one phase of her life to another. Lewis didn't approve of that. He didn't like women in general, or sexuality at all, at least at the stage in his life when he wrote the Narnia books. He was frightened and appalled at the notion of wanting to grow up."

Link of the Day
Another one for the history buffs: this is a clip from a new Japanese documentary about the Far East Military Tribunals. I watched this documentary with Shoko while in Japan, and it was fascinating from a number of perspectives. It was amazing how much Tojo and company resembled George Bush and his crew. They kept talking about how they were going into China in order to liberate it, and everything they had done was for the good of the Chinese people. And they defended Pearl Harbor as a pre-emptive strike.

But more relevant to this particular clip, another interesting thing was the Japanese were unfamiliar with the Anglo-American justice system, and didn't think the Americans appointed to defend them would give them an adequate defense. They were very much surprised when their American defenders actually gave them a good defense. They still lost of course, but it was a good argument. Watch the clip and see for yourselves.

Also this trailer for a Chinese movie based on the same events looks interesting. I wonder when it will be available in the U.S.

Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein: Book Review (Scripted)