Time Enough for Love

I reread Heinlein’s work every few years if only because I love his writing and story telling style so much. This is maybe my third or fourth reread of the Lazarus Long novels, which include the “The Past Through Tomorrow” collection of shorter works “Future History” stories, published or written between the late 30’s and the late fifties. “Time Enough for Love” 1973 was a new phase in Heinlein’s career, which was also a return to his roots. It is a sort of sequel to his 1940 story, “Methuselah’s Children”. Here Heinlein plants the seeds for his World of Myth novels. By this time, Heinlein has been completely free to write and publish whatever he wanted and however he wanted to present it. He has odd non-conventional ideas on custom, norms, taboo and such which he has dedicated much of his writing to for most of the second half of his writing career. Much of this I can not subscribe to or find distasteful yet I do understand completely that in future times, ideas on custom, norms, taboo and such that are not conventional presently may be of no concern or even the norm in later times. Look backwards a hundred years or a thousand and you will certainly agree.

This is broken down in linked shorter stories as being a memoir in a sense told by 2000 plus year old Lazarus Long. These tails/ yarns are told in a foggy fashion - mixed truth and fabrication, which is how such tails are usually recalled by our elders.

Though disturbing at times, if one can get over or reluctantly accept some of the few (often regretful) cringeworthy elements of this individual’s personal ideas, this novel is classic sci-fi of its time.

I have read and re-read Heinlein’s work with pleasure and was looking forward to more of the same. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.
Time Enough for Love is a collection of short pieces cobbled together in a single volume, framed as an attempt on the part of the main character to describe to a computer the difference between agape and eros.
Instead of the great and tragic love story of a man trapped by his inheritance in a world where love loses all meaning, the volume descends from merely boring to downright offensive. Dirty old man might have covered it, but there is an element of sadism that is disturbing.
I think I was hoping for an intelligent exploration of one of humanity’s greatest mysteries from someone whose writing is, and intellect should have been, up to the challenge. But, after Chapter XII, there is nothing worth reading, just an unending repetition of immoral, testosterone-driven, adolescent fantasy. As I said, a disappointment.

At times it reminded me my recent read of "The end of eternity", though here the protagonist did not need much of tinkering to the time stream as is the old saying of staying by the river and watching the world pass by. This book is a collection of stories, some referencing to other books of the author. Each story deals with a different familial structure of personal relationship to examine. personally for me some of the tales seemed a bit overly prolonged for my liking and some outdated notions that detracted from my experience, though it did have some amusing and insightful pearls along the way.

This was the only Heinlein book we were banned from reading when we were kids because it made such a convincing argument for sex outside of marriage or any other social construct.

This is also one of the best love stories of all time. Go Dora!

Time Enough for Incest

How many incestuous impregnation fantasies can you fit into one book?
You could be a clone with genetic material combined from 23 humans, and coyly tell one of them he's your 'father' while propositioning him.
You could genetically manipulate two full siblings so that they don't have overlapping genetic material and raise them as a 'breeding pair'.
You could adopt a child, raise her, and then she demands that you 'give her a baby' before you leave town, so instead you marry and impregnate her on the spot.
Crowning achievement: impregnating twin redheads who are simultaneously his sisters and his daughters.
And then right at the end they invent time travel so his mother can enthusiastically seduce him (it's okay though, because she was already pregnant).

I feel like I've been given a very public tour through Heinlein's masturbatory fantasies.

I've read this before, so neither the incest nor the patronizing misogyny surprised me, but I think it gets more egregious every time. Yes, Heinlein is poking holes in the morals of his time, but I can think of some reasons besides genetics why sleeping with children you've raised is unethical. This time I think it was him advocating for summarily murdering 'defective' infants the moment they're born that I found most disturbing.

Interesting ideas, but it's a little to arrogantly preachy even for Heinlein. Interesting concepts, but he's so wrong on some things that it doesn't help his well-made points. Honestly, I gave up on it before he does the time travel thing where (I read on wikipedia) he has an affair with his mom. I don't care if you're 3 millenia old, Oedipus, that's weird.

This is one of those books I re-read every so often because I have such fond memories of it. Its the story of a man who has lived since the the middle of the 20th century into the far future and is a chronicle of his life in short story form. Each story is a parable about life and how to be a survivor and enjoy yourself along the way. This book has been the source of many quotes but this one sums it up for me.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. "
-LAZARUS LONG

This is one of his pivotal books. Until the 60s, he was quite constrained by what he could write by contracts (e.g., Scribner Juveniles) & editors. After his big hit with Stranger in a Strange Land & several others, his popularity grew & the reins slipped off. In 1970, he had a close brush with death, was desperate to publish what he wanted without restraint, & did so. The result was I Will Fear No Evil, his descent into wordiness & weird sex. This book followed a few years later. The Number of the Beast used this one to take the idea of multiple universes further which then allowed him to tie all his characters & stories together. Yuck.

Lazarus Long, the main character of this book, is a great character in a lot of ways. I first recall reading about him in Methuselah's Children. He's one of the early Howard family members & a sport who manages to survive long enough to become pretty much immortal. Now he's 3000 years old & tired of life, but the families don't want to let him go due to his wealth of knowledge & experience. Interesting & horrifying on different levels which Heinlein uses as the vehicle to explore a lot of subjects in this brick of a book.

Lazarus frequently lapses into recollections that are novellas. Interludes explore a variety of other subjects such as what love is, how people & attitudes have changed, & sometimes just a few pages of saucy sayings. (I think the sayings are also published as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, same things, just a way to grab more money.) A lot of it is interesting, but be prepared to skim other parts. He gets very wordy as Lazarus (Heinlein) expounds on certain ideas.

Unfortunately, he descends into exploring sex, not a topic that he handles well. The free love isn't bad, but he did it better & more thoroughly in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Transgender & homosexuality issues were OK in their time, but now they're common place & his handling was rather clumsy. The worst was the age of consent & promotion of incest. These are social attitudes that are certainly valid to explore, but he manages to turn me off completely. Heinlein doesn't seem to understand kids at all. Unsurprising since he never had any. There's a huge disconnect between their intelligence & emotional maturity which he completely ignores. Age of consent varies a lot depending on the culture, in part because of how the society educates & shapes expectations.

I wonder if he didn't harbor a streak of pedophilia. I read The Door Into Summer not long ago & the romance creeped me out even though Dan at least waited until Ricki grew up. Still, there are a lot of older men bopping young girls in his books. In Farnham's Freehold, Hugh is bopping his daughter's friend Barbara. After 1970, practically every book is full of it. Younger men (men, not boys) having sex with older women isn't uncommon in his books, but that's consenting adults, IMO. The girls are often barely at or below what I'd consider mature enough levels.

As for incest, he's just weird. I don't understand his fascination at all. As a mental exercise & exploring such a forbidden topic, his friend Theodore Sturgeon (who belonged to the same nudist colony) did a much better job in the short story "If All Men Were Brothers Would You Let Your Sister Marry One?" Heinlein is just crass about it, but then what passed for his sex scenes were always awful.

Maybe I'm just being provincial, but I can't think of anything that turns me on less than the thought of having sex with my daughter or mother. There's some scientific thought that this is actually hardwired into us.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/art...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incest_...

Anyway, if you're a fan of Heinlein, read this book, but do it as text so you can skim at times. It has a lot of great stuff, but a lot of dreck, too.