In Defense of RAH

I was once at a party where I had a conversation with a woman artist about Robert A. Heinlein. When I told her that he was my favorite writer, she told me I was an idiot and that Heinlein was a fascist woman hater. This is an attitude that I have come across from time to time, especially from women. It could not be further from the truth, and I don’t know how this has happened. I have read everything that Heinlein has written at least four times and one or two of his books as many as 20 times. He is not a woman hater. He is not a fascist. To me his an intelligent and reasonable observer.

At the The Lensman’s Children blog,  Sarah Hoyt has an article defending Robert A. Heinlein. She discusses Heinlein’s problems with women and how they are dead wrong. It does my heart good to read something like this.

Here’s a sample:

But I was raised by Heinlein through his books, and I hope at least the spirit and the intention of the search for truth and individual freedom remains in my work. As well as the certainty that it’s always easier to be a live lion than a live lamb or a dead lion.

2 Comments

  1. Michelle (Mush) wrote:

    Did the artist-woman ever tell you which line in which book offended her? Or, does she hate Robert Heinlein because one of her friends hated his work?

    Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 11:41 pm | Permalink
  2. Keith wrote:

    I don’t know if she had ever read any Heinlein or just heard about him form friends. She was a Left Hand of Darkness fan.

    Here is a link to her husband’s art. http://www.hultberg.com/Welcome.html

    I liked him, but she and I never got along. She was my best friend’s mother-in-law. She did not approve of me, telling me to my face that I had no artistic appreciation.Her own paintings were god aweful (abstracts of huge ovum and vaginas), but I never expressed any opinion of them to her. She just didn’t approve of me.

    Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 9:14 am | Permalink