Yesterday I finished my first book of the year, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Other than a few familiar elements, it bears almost no resemblance to the movie. Since Heinlein was moving out of his juveniles period, I didn't expect the writing to be very flowery and it isn't. While the movie really played up the satirical elements, I couldn't find anything in the book to support any claims of satire. In some ways I would have almost preferred satire to the glorification of militarization so evident in these pages. In was clear in a few places, notably in his teacher Mr. Dubois's lectures and well as protagonist Johnny Rico's own monologue, that Heinlein was using the science fiction story as a construct for expounding his own libertarian platform. But was it really libertarian? He describes a future where modern society (for Heinlein, the Cold War era 1950's) is brought down by brats who were never brought to heel because corporal punishment was outlawed by pesky "social workers". That sounds libertarian. However, the resulting society, where enlistment in the Federal Service is made mandatory in order to be able to be a voting citizen, definitely smacks of socialist thinking and militarism. In the end I'm not really sure what Heinlein was getting at and the story was fairly routine science fiction. I'm glad I read the book, but it was nothing special.1 down, 51 to go.
Next up...Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. No joke!
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