Re: [*FSFFU*] Starship Troopers

From: Neil Rest (NeilRest@TEZCAT.COM)
Date: Mon Nov 10 1997 - 08:30:58 PST


Susan Palwick <palwick@SCS.UNR.EDU> wrote:

>that the problem with the film is that in fact it doesn't have the courage
>of the book's fascist convictions, that the book focussed on the brutality
>of the military training rather than showing it as a co-ed summer camp,
>and that by doing so it made disturbing but undismissable points about the
>efficacy of certain kinds of cruelty. Certainly the book (which I haven't
>read myself, although I intend to) bothered people within the field enough
>to produce several noteworthy responses, including Haldeman's "The Forever
>War" and Card's "Ender's Game." The point of this review, and I'm sorry
>that I've forgotten where it appeared, was that by toning *down* its
>material, the film has obviated the possibility for that kind of
>continuing dialog; it's content to gross people out without making them
>think.

Please -- let's not get into the "Heinlein was a fascist" nonsense.
_Starship Troopers_ is a novel of political philosophy set against the
background of a war. Without assertin geither that it was "right" or that
it was "wrong", I aver that dismissing it thoughtlessly is thoughtless.

And this is the first I'd heard that _The Forever War_ and "Ender's Game"
were responses to _Starship Troopers_. Where did you learn this?

Neil Rest
NeilRest@tezcat.com



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