Re-reads: Citizen of the Galaxy (spoilers)

[jeriendhal]

I'm about halfway through RAH's Citizen of the Galaxy, and for something that was written in the 50's, it holds up rather well.



More to the point, it's Heinlein at the peak of his work, playing to his own strengths, and not letting his weaknesses and obsessions overcome the story. Balsam the Beggar is the archetypical (though not stereotypical) Heinlein Competent Man, able to spend years as a spy working the streets of the corrupt Empire of Nine Worlds, while raising his adopted slave/son Thorby and instilling in him everything he needs to know to survive on the streets, not mention everything else his young brain can handle. When events switch to Thorby's POV just prior to Balsam's death, the Empire as it's seen manages to not be a typical SF Evol Empire. The local enforcers are to be feared, to be sure, but they aren't faceless stormtroopers, they Just Guys doing their job (like most true evil in the world, really). It's a subtle bit of characterization, but one you don't much these days, and was even rarer back when the book was written.

It's certainly better than anything RAH managed in the 70's. There's a subtle bit in the beginning after Balsam purchases Thorby, which acknowledges that Thorby was abused horribly, and that Balsam is no mere beggar, as he determines what he must do to help the boy overcome his nightmares and begin to teach what he needs to know to survive. There's nothing explicit about it, except a brief mention of Thorby's physical scars, but it's there, and it shows that Balsam is a man deep compassion and convictions.

From there Thorby escapes to a Spacer clan ship, and is adopted by it's captain in order to fit in, throwing him into a world he's not really prepared for. I'd remembered this part of the book but had forgotten most of the details, like the female anthropologist onboard who helps Thorby fit in, and who's obviously modeled heavily on Margarete Mead. Again, by 50's sci-fi standards she's pretty remarkable, a single woman travelling on her own onboard a ship that is completely alien culture, even though the people on board are humans. Like any RAH female she's smart (the casual dissection she does of the Sisu's culture and mores is worthy of Cordelia Vorkosigan). More to the point, unlike later (and lesser) Heinlein heroines, she's neither utterly gorgeous, a redhead, or ready to fall into the arms of whatever genetically and mentally compatible male that comes along.

All in all, RAH shows why he earned the first Grand Master award ever given. When he was at the top of his form, there was no one better for telling a smart, engaging yarn.

Comments

educational techniques

[p-o-u-n-c-e-r.livejournal.com]

Do I recall correctly that this is one of the RAH young adult novels that suggests that there are better ways to do "school" than sit bunches of kids in rows in front of a teacher's desk reciting rote data?

In various places RAH, incidentally, suggests that photo-graphic memory is a skill that could be taught, speed reading follows from that, and that behavioral pyschology will lead to some sorts of massively-parallel thinking and analysis skills ...

Re: educational techniques

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Yep. Let me see if I can find the relavant passages...

Thorby was more use to [Balsam] after his education had progressed. The old man seemed to think that everyone had a perfect memory and he was stubborn enough to impress his belief despite the boy's grumbles.

"Aw, Pop, how do you expect me to remember. You didn't give me a chance to look at it!"

"I projected that page at least three seconds. Why didn't you read it?"

"Huh? There wasn't time."

"I read it. You can, too. Thorby, you've seen jugglers in the Plaza. You've seen old Mikki stand on his head and keep nine daggers in the air while spins four hoops with his feet."

"Uh, sure."

"Could you do that?"

"No."

"Could you learn to?"

"Uh...I don't know."

"Anyone can learn to juggle... with enough practice and enough beatings." The old man picked up a spoon, a stylus, and a knife and kept them in the air in a simple fountain. Presently he missed and stopped. "I used to do a little, just for fun. This is juggling with the mind... and anyone can learn it too."

.
.
.

[skip stories and legends about Old Earth.]

"Samuel Renshaw was one such wise man. He proved that most people go all their lives only half awake; more than that, he showed how a man could wake up and live-see with his eyes, hear with his ears, taste with his tongue, think with his mind, and remember perfectly what he saw, heard, tasted, though." The old man shoved his stump out. "This doesn't make me a cripple. I see more with my one eye than you do with two. I am growing deaf...but not as deaf as you are, because what I hear, I remember. Which one of us is the cripple? But, son, you aren't going to stay crippled, for I am going to renshaw you if I have t obeat your silly head in!"
-Citizen of the Galaxy, pp 28-30 (Del Rey paperback edition)

There's also some stuff about hypnotic retrieval and implantation of memories, but that has less to do with Thorby's education than exposition of his background and a little plot greasing.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Yep, CotG is one of the best. And I don't have to tack "of the juveniles" onto that,

Re: educational techniques

[cleverthylacine]

If you're interested in this sort of thing John Barnes' work has a lot of it. The idea is that if you teach children HOW to think and HOW to learn they can learn whatever they find they need to know in a changing world.

Re: educational techniques

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The key bits in that were actually lifted whole out of Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. I don't believe they were independently invented; Heinlein was a huge and openly acknowledged Kipling fan.

Re: educational techniques

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of the connection. But then I haven't read much Kipling (yep, I'm a heathen)

Re: educational techniques

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Kim is about a boy growing up on the streets of India, son of a native woman and a British soldier. Eventually he gets recruited by the British intelligence service and trained in useful skills, including instant memorization.

Kipling also wrote two out and out science fiction stories, "With the Night Mail" and "As Easy as A.B.C." They share the same future setting, which is revealed indirectly in exactly the fashion that John W. Campbell made standard during his editorship of Astounding Science Fiction in the 1940s. I think they can be found still through Marcus Rowland's Forgotten Futures Web site; his first campaign package for that is in the A.B.C. "airship utopia" world. "As Easy as A.B.C." is one of my favorite sf short stories ever.

Re: educational techniques

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look those up. I was more familiar with Kipling through his poetry (via Leslie Fish). I hadn't realized he'd dabbled in science fiction as well!