Methuselah’s Children
August 22nd, 2002 | by Brian |Last night I finished a Robert A. Heinlein novel, Methuselah’s Children, and took some notes on it:
Methuselah’s Children, by Robert A. HeinleinI’m not a big science fiction fan. In middle school I read Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love, the supposed Heinlein classics. I think I was too young to appreciate them, but since then I’ve read many quotes by Heinlein’s character Lazurus Long, and they were darn(ed?) good. So a few years ago I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and did not like it at all. The characters were quote one-dimensional.
This is what I thought of Methuselah’s Children, which preceeds Time Enough for Love, until about half-way through the book. OK, the characters did not change much, but they did show emotion. Also, the plot changed to deal with “the human condition” (THC) which I enjoyed. Science fiction at its best can address THC in ways no other genre can. In it, you can change any variable you want about where the people are, or about what beings they encounter, and see how people might deal with it, or apply everyday principles such as free-will, individuality, life time goals, etc. It’s like a thought experiment. So I’m exciting to read Time Enough for Love.
Some quotes from the book:
Part II, Chapter 1: Mary Sperling is working on a piece of tissue that’s been alive for a long time, and Lazurus asks: “Mary, what keeps that silly thing alive?” “You’ve got the question inverted,” she answered, not looking up; “the proper form is: why should it die? Why shoudn’t it go on forever?”
Part II, Chapter 3: “It’s not a man’s place to be property. It’s a man’s business to be what he is…and to be it in style!” — Lazarus Long
Part II, Chapter 4: OK, I can’t find a good quote here. Lazarus Long is on a planet where everything is provided, and no one has to work. And it’s driving him crazy.
Last paragraph of the book (no spoilers), Lazarus Long is speaking:
“There ought not to be anything in the whole universe that man can’t poke his nose into — that’s the way we’re built and I assume that there’s some reason for it.” “Maybe there aren’t any reasons.” “Yes, maybe it’s just one colossal joke, with no point ot it.” Lazarus stood up and stretched and scratched his ribs. “But I can tell you this, Andy, whatever the answers are, here’s one monkey that’s going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out.”
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