Time Enough for Love
My mom gave me Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love for Christmas a year and a half ago. Yeah, it took me a while to work up to this one. See, I'd read Stranger in a Strange Land
at that point, and I really struggled with that book. I'm deeply,
deeply ambivalent about Heinlein, and I was sure this book would be a
similar roller coaster of emotion. It's not something you can just jump
into lightly.
But my stack of books was dwindling, and I couldn't start Treasure Island until June, so I figured it was finally time to give this one a shot.
The book has a good frame, the sort of thing that draws me right in. Laxarus Long is the oldest living person with more than 2000 years under his belt. He's finally ready to die but one of his great^n grandchildren convinces him to live long enough to pass on his wisdom. So Long agrees to tell stories of his life so long as he has a willing audience. This results in a bunch of short stories, strung together by interludes of his audience interacting with him and with each other.
There are some good stories in here, and some interesting insights. Long (like Heinlein) is science-minded and driven by a thirst for knowledge and new experiences. I found myself nodding along enthusiastically to maybe half of what he said. There were things that I agreed with on a very deep level. There were also bits that I was less inclined to agree with, but I could see how someone might believe that.
That's where my problem with Heinlein really lies. He has some good, interesting stuff to say. It's hard to just dismiss him entirely as someone not worth listening to or engaging with. But then he'll come out with something so grossly offensive, so short-sighted and ignorant and hateful that I'll have to put the book down and walk away from it for a bit. Decide whether or not I can continue reading, whether the bits of the story that I like are worth the bits that make my blood boil.
Ultimately, I decided not to finish this book. I get blindsided by sexist statements enough in my daily life. No reason to voluntarily subject myself to more. I feel like I got a sense of Heinlein's points and arguments in the first half of the book. I've seen more than one review that called it repetitive, so I trust that I'm not missing too much in the second half. Life is just too short to waste time on books I don't wholly enjoy. Especially when there's such a wealth of books I genuinely want to read.
But my stack of books was dwindling, and I couldn't start Treasure Island until June, so I figured it was finally time to give this one a shot.
The book has a good frame, the sort of thing that draws me right in. Laxarus Long is the oldest living person with more than 2000 years under his belt. He's finally ready to die but one of his great^n grandchildren convinces him to live long enough to pass on his wisdom. So Long agrees to tell stories of his life so long as he has a willing audience. This results in a bunch of short stories, strung together by interludes of his audience interacting with him and with each other.
There are some good stories in here, and some interesting insights. Long (like Heinlein) is science-minded and driven by a thirst for knowledge and new experiences. I found myself nodding along enthusiastically to maybe half of what he said. There were things that I agreed with on a very deep level. There were also bits that I was less inclined to agree with, but I could see how someone might believe that.
That's where my problem with Heinlein really lies. He has some good, interesting stuff to say. It's hard to just dismiss him entirely as someone not worth listening to or engaging with. But then he'll come out with something so grossly offensive, so short-sighted and ignorant and hateful that I'll have to put the book down and walk away from it for a bit. Decide whether or not I can continue reading, whether the bits of the story that I like are worth the bits that make my blood boil.
Ultimately, I decided not to finish this book. I get blindsided by sexist statements enough in my daily life. No reason to voluntarily subject myself to more. I feel like I got a sense of Heinlein's points and arguments in the first half of the book. I've seen more than one review that called it repetitive, so I trust that I'm not missing too much in the second half. Life is just too short to waste time on books I don't wholly enjoy. Especially when there's such a wealth of books I genuinely want to read.
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