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From: SSteinberg.SoftArts%MIT-MULTICS@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Heinlein & GOR
Message-ID: <2324@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 19-Jun-83 04:03:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.2324
Posted: Sun Jun 19 04:03:00 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Jun-83 01:21:57 EDT
Lines: 59

Was "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" really libertarian fiction
just because a bunch of characters spouted the libertarian
party line?  I don't consider "Little Drummer Girl" liberation
fiction or "Moll Flanders" feminist fiction.  Remember, they
were all living in communes on the moon.  Loners (male or
female) didn't do too well until they learned how to accomodate
to the society.

It has been seven or eight years since I read the book but if I
remember correctly the plot revolved around a colonial
rebellion in which the moon colony was being economically
exploited by an out of touch Earth government.  The whole book
is actually rather Marxist in tone.  After all, the bad guys
put up the money to develop a moon colony, and arranged to
populate the area.  The Marxists usually point out that the
colonialists exploit the native population which has an
intrinsic ownership of land and their own ouput.  In this case
there was no native population, but the moral imperative was
still on the side of the moon dwellers since the moon was now
THEIR WORLD (hence the title).

As a capitalist I could appreciate the plight of the millions
who had invested in developing a lunar colony.  There is both
money and pride involved here since I know a lot of people who
feel that stellar colonization is a human imperative and that a
moon base would be a good first step.  Finding out that Mars
base is less interested in the destiny of mankind and more
interested in a better algae farming subsidy would come as a
bit of a blow.

As a humanist I realized that the people on the colony ARE the
lunar natives.  Bradbury did this well in his Martian
Chronicles when the family finally gets to see the Martians,
their own reflections staring up at them from the water in a
canal.  I approve of "sweat equity" and have seen enough
history to know how easily the working man can be exploited.
We take a lot of stuff for granted.  Look at the Chartists in
England, the labor movement here before the NLRB, Japan in the
50's, Poland today, or the moon in Heinlein's book.

I still think The Moon ... is one of his best and that a lot of
his later stuff was unreadable, which brings me to the GOR
books.  The GOR books seem to be in an old tradition started by
the Marquis deSade who was also an ethical naturalist though
the term was still new back then.  Their books are largely sex
and violence all too liberally larded with philosophical tract.
Anyone who can stay sexually aroused for an hour while reading
out loud from Free to Choose (or Das Kapital for that matter)
has other problems.  deSade was imprisoned for excessive
leniency during his tenure as a judge.  He also had a sense of
humor (read Justine through to the end if you can).  His heir
took a demotion to comte (count) and the current Comte deSade
is trying to clear his ancestor's good name.  From what I
gather the GOR books are a lot more readible than most
pornography which isn't saying much.

P.S. I know TANSTAAFL comes from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
but if the New York Times is right Yuri Andropov is claiming
the same thing.