• DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Starship Troopers is a bit different in that most critics agree it was Heinlein describing his own thoughts on the matter, particularly because he was angry about Eisenhower’s suspension of nuclear testing.

    I agree you should be careful about conflating a depicted society with the author’s personal beliefs though, especially for an author who has such a long career and clearly changed his views during it.

    • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      The ending of The Puppet Masters describes a war against the aliens’ world that seems taken from Starship Troopers. It seems a recurring idea for Heinlein.

    • fubo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Heinlein was horrified by Soviet Communism (and he’d traveled in the Soviet Union). He believed the US nuclear program (and space program) were a necessary protection against people like Stalin and Mao taking over the world.

      There’s a running theme in a number of his works, of people trying to find a society and a place in it where they can live safely, where they won’t be oppressed for disagreeing with that society. It shows up in Stranger in a Strange Land, in “If This Goes On—”, in the Lazarus Long stories, etc.

      I think Heinlein’s militarist liberal Americanism was contextual: he saw America as a place where a weirdo like him had a chance to live in peace, and that made it worth defending.