A comment I read earlier on DKos got me thinking about a quote from Heinlein and I wound up re-reading "The Notebooks of Lazarus Long." Now, I'm interested in sharing the whole Notebooks with all of you. This is a short intermission section in the middle of Heinlein's longest book, Time Enough for Love. I think Heinlein's greatest strength as a writer of Hard Science Fiction (Hard sci-fi has actual science and math worked into the story to varying degrees.) was his characters. This is not the hallmark of most hard sci-fi writers. Asimov is fascinating technically, but downright dull in character writing. Heinlein wrote great stories first, and seeded them with common sense, which to him meant basic calculus and engineering principles.
The Notebooks of Lazarous Long
Heinlein's main characters (both male and female) usually adhered to the "Heinlein archetype" which is very similar to the "Hemingway archetype" only less cruel and with knowledge of calculus.
The 2000 year old man, Lazarus Long is perhaps the epitome of the "Henlein archetype." I wonder if it's how he would like to see himself. Anyway, the "Notebooks of Lazarus Long" are a most excellent collection of the wit and wisdom of Heinlein's Long. These several pages used to be hosted at many sites, but now I can find only one with them in their entirety. The site has a Fair Use policy claiming that they represent a tiny fraction of the 1200 page work they were taken from and offering to take them down if the copyright holder asks. (I guess that would be Virginia Heinlein.)
I hope she lets them stay. Read them while you can. I personally agree with and even find inspiring about 90% of these items. A few others are distasteful, a few more are borderline. You'll recognize them.
I read of a lecture Heinlein gave where he was asked about a particular short story. I can't recall the name of the story, but a passenger rocket to Mars has a VIP who wants his young daughter to see the cockpit. Because he's important this is allowed over protest. The little girl hits a button and fires the engines for a few seconds before she and the ship are brought back under control. Problem is, they are now off course and the big computers that plot the courses are back on earth and take time. The ship now masses less, has less fuel, and has had a vector thrust applied to it's original course. Need a new course equation, stat!
Anyway, the question was something about that story and in his response, Heinlein mentioned that the hardest part of the story was the ballistic calculus equations for various paths to Mars-orbit. The student said something about couldn't you just punch that into a calculator? Heinlein said this was the 1950's. My wife and I worked them out on long sheets of butcher paper.
Ya gotta respect that.
Oh, the quote I was originally looking for was, "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 in Time Enough for Love by R.A. Heinlein
You might find some of them entertaining. You might even find some of them inspiring. Again, it's at http://www.angelfire.com/...
I know some of you have opinions on Heinlein. He had some bizarre things in his writing. Wanna discuss 'em?