| Heinlein's Women -- "Just
Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad"
Description: An audience participation
discussion of female character types, their purpose and impact in
Heinlein's works.
Day: Thu Time:1700 |
The panel, despite being
scheduled on a Thursday which prevented both
Robert James, our Education committee chair, and Deb Houdek Rule, our new
website committee chair, from participating, since their flights weren't due
in until later that evening, went very well, attendance filled the room, and
the discussion was lively.
Larry Niven and Elizabeth Ann Hull, Fredrick Pohl's English Professor
wife, made up a great attraction as our guests on the panel and together
were probably the reason for the full room attendance we had, despite
several other attractive panels being held in that hour. Fran Van Cleave, a
Society member, several of whose recent stories have appeared in Analog, and
Pat York, a teacher from Buffalo, both did wonderful jobs on the panel,
keeping a good balance in their presentations, filling in for Robert and
Deb. Dr. Hull had a few interesting approaches to the subject; and Larry
gave a great overview of Heinlein's women characters. |
Panelists:
-
David M. Silver
-
Larry Niven
-
Elizabeth Ann Hull
Pat York
|
|
Heinlein's Women panel
Pat York, Fran Van Cleave, David
Silver, Larry Niven, and Elizabeth Hull
|
| Heinlein 101: "All
you ever wanted to know about Heinlein, but were afraid to ask."
Description: An overview of the themes, writing techniques, literary
forms and character types of Heinlein's works, in seminar form. The
who, when, where, what and, most important, why of reading Robert A.
Heinlein. General introduction to Heinlein's writing covering various
zigs in his career and the groups of different works: pre-war,
juveniles, Post stories, Future History, Stranger and the novels of
the 60's, and the final World as Myth books.
Day: Fri Time:1400 |
Robert "Doc" James was all ready to go when
we arrived, passing out the
prepared outlines he had made for the audience which was already filling
up the room. Our panel, very lively and well-presented, was once again given
to a standing room only crowd, just at it had been at ConJosé. Dr. Brad Lyau
and Deb Houdek Rule joined Robert and me for the panel, and everyone did
their usual
splendid job, while I moderated and tried to stay out of trouble. Once it
was finished, some of us left immediately to our hotels to get ready for the
dinner, while Deb. Robert and Kitten Trumpski-Roberts ably filled in on a
"Heinlein and Sex" panel set just one hour before the dinner that some of us
had to miss.
|
Panelists:
-
David M. Silver
Robert James
Bradford Lyau
Deb Houdek Rule
|
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Heinlein 101 audience
Heinlein 101 panel
Deb Houdek Rule, Brad Lyau, David Silver, Robert James |
|
| Sex in Heinlein's Universe
Day: Fri Time: 1600 |
Of course a discussion of sex in
Heinlein's universe will fill a room. Some of the discussion included the
various forms of sex presented in Heinlein's books, and the lack of any
actual descriptive sex scenes in them. |
Panelists:
|
|
Sex in Heinlein's Universe panel
Dave Creek, Robert James, Deb Houdek Rule, Barbara Trumpinski-Roberts
|
| Heinlein, Stranger than
Stranger: "Four Decades After the Hugo"
Description: An audience participation
survey of the Hugo award winning novel Stranger in a Strange Land, its
impact on speculative fiction and literature.
Day: Sat Time:1400 |
At 2 PM we held our "Heinlein:
Stranger than Stranger, Four Decades After the Hugo" panel, once again, to a
packed room. Well over 120 people were present. With Dr. James moderating,
Brad Lyau, Geo Rule, Deb Houdek Rule, Fran Van Cleave, and Joe Major all
presented a variety of views. Several Heinlein Society panelists were
interviewed about it by a television crew following this panel. |
Panelists:
-
Robert James
-
Geo Rule
Deb Houdek Rule
Brad Lyau
Joe Major
Fran Van Cleve
|
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Stranger Than Stranger panel
Brad Lyau, Fran Van Cleve, Joe Major, Robert James, Deb
Houdek Rule, Geo Rule
|
panelist Geo Rule |
panelist Robert James |
panelist Joe Major |
"Stranger" audience
|
| Heinlein: Lost, Strayed,
Misplaced, and Found Again
Description: Major New Publications of Works by Robert A. Heinlein,
including his first, previously never published novel, "For Us, the
Living --" Day: Sat
Time:1600
 For
Us, the Living,
now available from Amazon.com
Get your copy now
Spider Robinson,
writing into to
For Us, the Living
|
see:
For Us, the Living
|
Robert James
scholar who found manuscript of "For
Us, the Living" |
Saturday afternoon in a room four times the
size of the ordinary panel room (between 400 and 500 seats), absolutely
packed, we presented the "Heinlein: Lost, Strayed, Misplaced, and Found
Again" panel, which was, of course, mostly about the discovery and
publication of For Us, The Living. We distributed the flyers Simon
Schuster had provided. It was a wonderful panel, the most successful we've
had.
Participants were:
Spider Robinson,
writing the intro to FUTL
Eleanor Wood, agent for the book
David Silver, Heinlein Society
representative
Art Dula, representative of Heinlein
Trust
Robert James, discoverer of FUTL, and
head of Heinlein Society Education committee |
Panelists:
-
David Silver
Robert James
Spider Robinson Arthur M. Dula
Eleanor Wood
|
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For Us, The Living panel
Spider Robinson, Eleanor Wood, David Silver, Art Dula, Robert
James
|
| Heinlein's Take on the
Law and Lawyers: "The Year We Hanged All the Lawyers"
Description: An audience participation
survey of the themes, roles and character types, their purpose and
impact relating to lawyers and law used in Heinlein's works. Law,
legal beagles, and trials pop up over and over in Heinlein's fiction.
Is he fascinated with the subject because he thinks of lawyers and the
law as guardians of civilization? Not likely -- he created a utopia by
hanging them all. Let's talk about this professional satirist and
subversive's take on law and lawyers. Caution! Count your cards! Hands
on wallets! Some of these panelists are lawyers! You Have Been
Warned!
Day: Sun Time:1700 |
We continued the next two days,
with two more panels: "Heinlein's Take on Law and Lawyers: The Year We
Hanged All the Lawyers," on Sunday and "Heinlein's Juveniles: Just Plain
Kids, Superkids, or Sociopathic Monsters" on Monday, once again to fully
packed rooms.
|
Samuel Kramer
|
David Silver |
| |
|
Art
Dula |
|
Panelists:
-
David Silver
-
Arthur M. Dula, Esq.
-
Samuel M. Kramer, Esq.
|
|
| Heinlein's Juveniles:
"Just Plain Kids, Superkids, or Sociopaths?"
Description: An audience participation
discussion of the themes, writing techniques, literary forms and
character types, their purpose and impact used in the juvenile stories
of Heinlein's works, with discussion of their suitability for K-12
education or their introduction to adolescent readers.
Day: Mon Time:1100 |
We were joined by David-Glenn
Anderson, Fran Van Cleave, and Joe Major for the Juveniles panel.
David-Glenn is the manager of the Reading For the Future list Greg Bear,
Greg Benford and David Brin created a few years back to encourage the use of
SF in teaching, and teaches himself in Utah. All our panelists were a great
help on that panel. |
Panelists:
David Silver
Joseph Major
David Glenn-Anderson
Samuel Kramer
Fran Van Cleve
|
|
Heinlein's Juveniles panel
Sam Kramer, David Silver, Robert James, Joseph Major, and
David-Glenn Anderson
|
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Panels Presented by the Heinlein Society