The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

third read ��� 1 March 2024 – ****. Wow! This novel is now 58 years old, and I first read it about 50 years ago. As a young man in the 1970s, I found two of its topics – computers and sex – to be endlessly fascinating, which accounts for my then enthusiasm for the book.

In the late 21st century, the people living on the Moon have a problem they are barely aware of. They are in economic slavery to produce food in the form of wheat for a burgeoning Earth population. The situation is unsustainable, as the trace amounts of water mined on the moon, go down the gravity well along with the wheat, and don’t come back. It is estimated that the Moon’s scarce supply of water will be exhausted within a few years. A young computer technician, Manuel Garcia O’Kelley-Davis, discovers that the central computer he services has become sentient, and together they form the core of a conspiracy to leverage Lunar resentments into a full-scale revolution against Earth.

The computers Heinlein envisioned in the 1960s bear little relation to the real thing. He posits that one essential difference between a human and a computer is the ability to make decisions with incomplete information. I’m now retired from a 40-year career in software engineering of scientific applications, and I can tell you that computers do that, ALL THE TIME. But we shouldn’t hold too much of that against Heinlein; technology will advance. People will not have to find long extension cords to communicate with the central computer by telephone while on the surface of the Moon!

Heinlein is considered a science fiction pioneer in the liberation of sexuality, and polyamorous, polyandrous, and various forms of group marriage are all common on this Luna, having evolved out of the gender imbalance of the criminals who have been sentenced to the Lunar penal colonies and their descendants. By the time of the novel, the population is moving towards balance, with 1 million women and 2 million men. This is a strange sort of liberation; women are free to have sex whenever and with whatever man they like, and to use their sex appeal as leverage in all things. It is a nearly dictatorial control by women of sexual relationships, while at the same time they are in charge of little else. It is a back-handed liberation.

In 1983, this novel received one of the earliest retrospective Hall Of Fame Prometheus Awards by the Libertarian Futurist Society. Robert Heinlein was a consistent promoter of self-reliance and liberty from government interference. In this novel, the main character argues for the complete absence of government and taxes. Ironically, Manuel eventually finds himself at the center of the fledgling Lunar government that forms in the aftermath of the Lunar revolution. Along the way, the Central Committee of the revolution justifies telling lies to the press. If the public is too dumb to realize they are being lied to, I guess it is on them. Elections are shams to be manipulated by the central computer. This is a disturbingly familiar authoritarian ethic in the modern age of Trump.

In his lecture series How Great Science Fiction Works, SF critic Gary Wolfe calls out this novel as an example that bears similarities to the American Revolutionary War. But revolutionary America is not the pattern for Luna’s anarchistic society that Heinlein describes in utopian terms. Parallels to the events of the American revolution are limited; what takes place is more of a coup than a revolution. While the American revolution is repeatedly explicitly called out, it is as a propaganda tool of the Lunar revolutionaries, trying to develop sympathy among North Americans, and as a propaganda tool of the author, trying to develop sympathy for his anarchism.

This is an important novel in Heinlein’s writing career, and in the history of science fiction, but it has aged in many ways.

second read – 3 September 1990 - ***. The whole idea of a super-computer posing as human had become quaint by 1990.

first read – 1 November 1974 - *****. I read this in college for the first time, catching up on my missed Heinleins. The novel was only 8 years old at the time. TANSTAAFL = "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."

I felt like something science fiction. I always liked the title of this book. I thought I would give it ago.

Despite getting my interest from the get-go with an intelligent computer, the book is slow and wasn't terribly exciting, even in the midst of a riot. But okay, I'm patient. However, the sexism in this book is painful.  It wasn't actually enough to stop me from reading it until about 60 pages in when the only real woman character in the book says that the protagonist insulted her by not raping her--or at the very least, making aggressive sexual advances on her when she had already made clear several times that she did not want to have sex with him. When the guy demurs, Heinlein has her say, "Michelle would understand," referring to the computer with AI. Sooo...

Sigh. : I hopped online to check out other reviews of the book. It has an amazing 4.17 star rating on Goodreads, but many of my friends on the site gave it 2 stars or below. I'm not saying that all books with high ratings on Goodreads are necessarily bad, but I am saying that often I am suspicious of books with ratings over 4--especially if they're 4.1+ and "classics" in any genre--because it seems like people who might have read a book and enjoyed it as a child just think, "oh yeah, warm fuzzies for that one--5 stars."

Luckily there are some great reviews of this book out there. I'll leave you with my two favorites, after the reading of which I was assured that the book would not get any better, would in fact get worse, and decided to DNF it:

t "Joint Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein" at The Book Smugglers
t "The Moon Is a Harsh Mansplainer (1966) by Robert A. Heinlein" at From Couch to Moon

Imagine a prison colony on the Moon
Now add a new and updated twist on the American war of independence
A self aware computer that actually runs the colony
A non-political computer engineer
A beautiful freedom fighter
A politically cynical professor
The birth of a (new) nation
And you have one of the best hard science fiction tales ever !

image:

Prison History
My Grandfather Stone claimed that Luna was only open prison in history. No bars, no guards, no rules—and no need for them. Back in early days, he said, before was clear that transportation was a life sentence, some lags tried to escape. By ship, of course—and, since a ship is mass-rated almost to a gram, that meant a ship’s officer had to be bribed.

Some were bribed, they say. But were no escapes; man who takes bribe doesn’t necessarily stay bribed. I recall seeing a man just after eliminated through East Lock; don’t suppose a corpse eliminated in orbit looks prettier.

Slaves of the system
That we were slaves I had known all my life—and nothing could be done about it. True, we weren’t bought and sold—but as long as Authority held monopoly over what we had to have and what we could sell to buy it, we were slaves.

But what could we do? Warden wasn’t our owner. Had he been, some way could be found to eliminate him. But Lunar Authority was not in Luna, it was on Terra—and we had not one ship, not even small hydrogen bomb. There weren’t even hand guns in Luna, though what we would do with guns I did not know. Shoot each other, maybe.

Three million, unarmed and helpless—and eleven billion of them. . . with ships and bombs and weapons. We could be a nuisance—but how long will papa take it before baby gets spanked?

A computer with a sense of humor
“Mike, her name is Wyoming Knott.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mike. You can call me ‘Wye.’”

“Why not?” Mike answered.

I cut in again. “Mike, was that a joke?”

“Yes, Man. I noted that her first name as shortened differs from the English causation-inquiry word by only an aspiration and that her last name has the same sound as the general negator. A pun. Not funny?”

Wyoh said, “Quite funny, Mike. I—”

I waved to her to shut up. “A good pun, Mike. Example of ‘funny-only-once’ class of joke. Funny through element of surprise. Second time, no surprise; therefore not funny. Check?”

“I had tentatively reached that conclusion about puns in thinking over your remarks two conversations back. I am pleased to find my reasoning confirmed.”

How to deal with a spy
The thing to do with a spy is to let him breathe, encyst him with loyal comrades, and feed him harmless information to please his employers. These creatures will be taken into our organization. Don’t be shocked; they will be in very special cells. ‘Cages’ is a better word. But it would be the greatest waste to eliminate them—not only would each spy be replaced with someone new but also killing these traitors would tell the Warden that we have penetrated his secrets.

How to fight back
Let’s get back to the basic problem: how we are to cope when we find ourselves facing Terra, David facing Goliath.”

“Oh. Been hoping that would go away. Mike? You really have ideas?”

“I said I did, Man,” he answered plaintively. “We can throw rocks.”

“Bog’s sake! No time for jokes.”

“But, Man,” he protested, “we can throw rocks at Terra. We will.”

And throw rocks is what they do.
A space war - with rocks!

  

Enjoy!

"They kept hooking hardware into him - decision-action boxes to let him boss other computers...Human brain has around ten-to-the-tenth neurons. By third year Mike had better than one and a half times that many neurons."



One of the presents for my mother several Christmases ago was an Amazon Echo (Alexa). Having recently reread Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I couldn't stop thinking about the parallels between the awakened computer, Mycroft (Mike) in Heinlein's novel and Alexa. This connection was reinforced when people ask Alexa to tell a joke. While he helps the former convict Lunar settlers in a rebellion against Earth, MIke's obsession remains fixated on jokes (and whether they are funny only once, in a given situation or always funny). Maybe Alexa is not on the verge of becoming self-aware; however, the idea that artificial intelligence could awaken is explored in an interesting way by Heinlein (in the mid-1960s) without the knowledge of what AI looks like now.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress feels a little clunky in my reread, but this side plot (Mike awakening) works well with the main plot (overthrowing Earth's control of the Moon). I would have liked more on the implications of Mike's awakening, but overall Heinlein tells an interesting and enjoyable story about the not so distant future.

The inhabitants of Luna, the penal colony of earth on the moon, are tired of the oppressive regime and decide to rebel. They feel that they are mainly paying taxes and do not get much in return.

Inspired by the American Revolution, they plan the revolution, taking advantage of the political situation on earth and their various relative advantages.

The revolution is led by a group of people of various background and they are aided by a bored computer who helps with the planning and implementation of the revolt. The book emphasizes the difference in culture between the people of Luna and the people of earth, differences that are strange to humans but are natural to the people of Luna.

I found the book interesting, funny and thoughtful.
While the plot is a bit strange, I treated it more of a platform to express the ideas of freedom and liberation. The characters (including the computer) are deep and well presented. They are not perfect, but they live to their set of morals and they do what is needed to start and maintain the revolution.

I found this a real slog, for some reason. Perhaps it was the expository style, where we're simply being told what happened some time ago, by a narrator who is keen not to over-dramatise. Maybe it's the high-school-level, endless boring, outdated arguments about social and gender politics. Maybe it's that in any conflict, the good guys *always* win, so there is absolutely no tension. Or perhaps that anyone who dares to stand up to the good guys, and present an alternative viewpoint, is an icky wormy caricature who is usually summarily executed or disappeared a page later -- and we're supposed to cheer?

Unsurprisingly, everything to do with computers and women has aged horribly. The line marriages were an interesting idea but every female character made me cringe. The women in this story exist to be in danger, be exposited to, be wrong and then be corrected (by a man or a computer), be sexy and whistled at, or do cooking and housework.

The politics... oh, dear, the politics. As usual an older white male with libertarian ideals is proved correct in every way. I can accept the magic-wands of massive ice deposits and fusion reactors as a way to justify the ridiculous idea of shipping grain from the Moon to Earth so we even have a story to begin with. But suddenly a population of millions of humans living in a perfect rational anarchy with any crime punished summarily with perfect vigilante justice... and the whole thing not descending into feudal warlording with women as chattels...? There's no magic wand for that.

do you play games where you know the outcome of the game itself is without question... where any fun to be had is not so much in the winning - that's predetermined - but in figuring out how exactly you will win, what moves you will make, how you will overcome all those minor hurdles along the way? that's sometimes how i feel when playing chess with some folks. for me, it's not the most exciting thing in the world; it's a little eye-rolling. i think others may have more excitement when playing a game they know they'll win. my little nephews seem to have a really enjoyable time kicking my ass at their various new-fangled video games. personally i don't get it, but they seem to love illustrating how easy and exciting it is, the thrill of watching all their strategies and skills coming to predictable fruition. even when there is no real competition. their eventual win is obvious. and that's the impression that i'm left with after reading the enjoyable Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

the novel is about a revolution on Luna by its oppressed permanent labor force. far in the future, the moon is the newest Prison Island... once you are transported there, you can't come back. and there you work, mainly to export grain, and live a life of economic exploitation by The Lunar Authority. you will alway live in this proletariat society. overall, it is actually not a horrible existence. the "Loonies" are an enjoyable lot, unpretentious and down to earth, concerned mainly with beer, gambling, and the ladies. Heinlein creates an odd and i suppose semi-utopic world, with a pleasing lack of laws (a kind of libertarian anarchy of sorts) and a surprisingly liberated view on women. basically, women are the social/family/romantic Boss of It All... not truly a matriarchal society per se, but rather one built around the need to make sure women are completely empowered. apparently due to the 2-to-1 status of men to women on the moon, and the need for women to be 'available' to much more than monogamy, if they so chose.

still, despite the basic lack of horror in this odd world... it's no fun to be exploited by bureaucratic overseers. and so must come REVOLUTION! we have our friendly & no-nonsense Everyman, we have our bewitching & passionate Lady in Hiding, we have our amusing & highly intellectual Idealistic Professor. and of course we have our sentient computer Mike, who likes to play games. and revolution is just another kind of game, right?

the writing is breezy, casual, and in a sort of pidgen english - a kind of cross between baby talk and our very own text messaging style. that style should be annoying but actually isn't. much like with HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, we have a fascinating computer who provides all of the genuinely emotional and resonant moments in the narrative. and - perhaps because of the time period in which the novel was written, but certainly topical today - we have a step-by-step account of How To Make A Revolution Work. Heinlein's passions come across mainly in the world-building of this almost-utopia and in the very detailed expression of how exactly to overthrow the chains of oppression through revolution (and i suppose a bit of terrorism, at times).

so back to my original point. i liked this novel, but i would never consider reading it a second time. it was fun. but the outcome was never in question. Heinlein loads the dice by making sure that everything happens as projected, each step of the way. no tension... and a tension-free revolution is a curiously child-like enterprise. child-like but not childish. there is a sweet naïveté to it all. Heinlein jerry-built this revolution to be won and so i never felt any kind of nervousness, i never worried. the only stakes that were meaningful to me were the (rather slight) emotional stakes around Mike the computer: his past loneliness, his concern about whether he is actually sentient, and his need to have friends, to talk to people who are 'not-stupid'. aww... that's adorable! Mike, i'm not super-smart or anything, but i'll be your friend! cute little revolutionary computer minds are very appealing to me.

Велика и абсолютно любима, многократно препрочитана!!!