Heinlein again

The longer version of Brian Doherty's retrospective on the life and work of Robert Heinlein from the August/September issue of Reason is now online:

His influence on science fiction almost goes without saying; when the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America chose their field's first Grand Master, Heinlein was the easy choice. But Heinlein was bigger than his literary genre. Following him could lead you to seemingly contradictory places, from the military to a free-love commune.

Heinlein venerated the armed forces, most notoriously in his 1959 novel Starship Troopers, which celebrated an elite military order. Just two years later, he was publishing the counterculture classic Stranger in a Strange Land, with its simultaneously beatific, sexy, and heroic vision of Martian-inspired communal living. A rich mix of bohemian and straight-arrow values, Heinlein's unique take on American individualism made him the bridge between such disparate '60s icons as Barry Goldwater and Charles Manson.

Heinlein's novels and short stories reflected the rough-hewn anti-government but pro-defense message associated with Goldwater and the conservative movement he sparked. At the same time, his writings exuded the communal desire to live in blissful togetherness, ignoring the repressive sexual and religious mores of bourgeois America. With a libertarian vision that appealed to individualists of both the left and the right, Heinlein not only set the template for the American 1960s but helped create the looser, hipper, more pluralist world of the decades since.

Update: There's a post at Chapomatic about the recent Heinlein Centennial event, should you be interested. Sounds like a great time was had by most.

Update the second: This is from an old post by John Scalzi, which I just had to pass along:

Which of course caused me to contemplate: Given the choice between Heinlein and Rand, which would I want as a parent? Let's posit that one couldn't have both — beyond such a union causing the cracking of at least four of the seven seals, there's a pretty good chance that after about 15 minutes in each other's presence, either or both of them would have been thumbing their holsters. There can only be one Alpha Male in the room. In a shootout, incidentally, it'd be even money: Heinlein would probably be faster off the draw, but Rand would probably need a stake through the heart to go down. (Before you start: I know about Rand and her thoughts on force. But let's just see her try to reason with Angry Bob.)