You know, we have one of those around here...

wow, you're right; i didn't notice the nexuswiki until now. it just needs a little coaxing and love to get going strong. Soon... I might have to wait for patterson's biography to come out; I'm not a RAH expert yet.

I've waved the come-hither flag several times; ya need to start paying attention.

And a wiki is built one... wik at a time. You have NO wiks at all to contribute? Doubt that...

A wik a day, that's all we ask. Wiki while you werk. There is no rest for the wik'ed.

Groan...

I guess being too busy is a pretty wik excuse. I mean, I should have plenty of time-- there's 52 wiks in a year.

Hmm, was Entertainment Week reading our discussion?

http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/08/15/star- ... -theories/

that EW article fails to mention several important contributions to the time travel analects, including Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself and Heinlein's own The Door into Summer, but points ought to be awarded for mentioning Bootstraps and Zombies.

[ SPOILERS FOR T.V. SERIES LOST BELOW ]

Interestingly (or stupidly) Lost jumped the time-travel shark when they introduced FOUR separate methods of time travel in the same show:
1. Desmond has visions of the future, which he can alter, but "fate" course-corrects to a similar outcome.
2. Desmond and others have "flashback" episodes where their present-day minds jump into their own past bodies and can change things with their knowledge of the future.
3. Time on the island works separately from the surrounding plane, so a body shows up on the island a day before the owner of the body is killed on the freighter.
4. People on the island flash forward and backward in time.

I'm willing to put up with a lot of weak science for sake of entertainment, but come on, Lost writers: pick ONE. Makes me long for the days of time travel stories that simply worked. But I digress.

I think that story is a rework of AYZ, just carried rather further. It's good in its own right, but I don't see it contributing anything that hadn't been done by AYZ.

Heinlein biography question

Given the possibility that Heinlein (and some of the characters thought to be at last partly biographical) was not noted for his tolerance of differing viewpoints, I wondered if perhaps the circumstances of his life allowed him to function pretty well with that lack of tolerance.

As far as I know once he left the military he never had to follow an order he did not agree with. He dealt with tragedy with Leslyn, married his herione (who ASFIK promptly dropped her own career and devoted her considerable talents to being what was basically a sidekick to him) and seemed to have never had anyone seriously disagree with him again that he HAD to deal with.

He had no teenagers or 2 year olds, had presumably enough disability pension that he did not have to cater too much to editorials with the exception of Alice Dagliesh, and that was overcome by subterfuge (raising John Thomas's) and eventually getting out of the juvenile ghetto. Is there any indication that he had had ANY serious disagreement with Ginny on anything? From either of them?

It would appear that he did not have to worry about the opinions of anyone else for the majority of his adult life. I wonder if that (supposed) intolerance became elevated to a virtue and redefined as an indication of innate superiority or something. There is Ben in SIASL who leaves the nest for intolerance of the cannibalism (though ironically the intolerance of gays is apparently fine) and he comes back when he decides they are right after all, but is there any instance where a character maintains a close relationship with someone where they CONTINUE to disagree on anything?

Just something I was thinking about today....

t would appear that he did not have to worry about the opinions of anyone else for the majority of his adult life. I wonder if that (supposed) intolerance became elevated to a virtue and redefined as an indication of innate superiority or something. There is Ben in SIASL who leaves the nest for intolerance of the cannibalism (though ironically the intolerance of gays is apparently fine) and he comes back when he decides they are right after all, but is there any instance where a character maintains a close relationship with someone where they CONTINUE to disagree on anything?


Audrey, if I remember correctly, Ben left the nest because he was jealous of Jill and Mike, not because of an intolerance to the cannibalism. Earlier when Mike had just arrived in Jubal's home, Duke has a problem with cannibalism, but later decides that "what Mike eats is his own business." Later when Duke has joined the nest, he and Mike have a running joke where Duke calls Mike "Cannibal" and Mike calls Duke "Monster."

Jubal later convinces Ben that he is feeling jealousy and Ben returns to the nest.

The originally published SIASL does smack of homosexuality in the scene with Ben in the nest. Jill encourages Mike and Ben to "share water, my darlings" as Mike makes his clothes disappear; Ben grabs his clothes and jumps down the bounce tube. I could never figure out how that was jealousy; after I read the unabridged version where Mike and Jill are making love in front of Ben and others, the whole bit--if it had been another woman would you have felt the same way, etc, made so much more sense.

Except where different concepts of government are held, but not adhered to in MIAHM (Stuart being a Royalist, Prof an anarchist), I can't think of any circumstances where people disagree but get along off hand. I started to cite Lazarus and Colin Campbell, but while they worked together, I don't think they can be said to have a close relationship.

The foursome in TNOTB often disagree, sometimes violently, but get along...