----- Original Message ----- From: "Reggie Bautista" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 9:26 AM Subject: Re: Starship Trooper
> >David Hobby wrote: > Dan wrote: > > > > Personally, I think the movie is superior to the book. The book > >takes > > > > itself seriously. > David H. replied: > > > I agree. The movie is actually pretty good, you just have > > > to watch it the right way. View it as a propaganda film produced > > > by a state so warlike that only soldiers can vote... > > Adam responded: > >I view it as a P.O.S. that you couldn't pay me to see again. > > > >Paul Verhoeven (sp?) is the Lizzie Borden of satire. I've seen > >7th-grade film projects that were better, and that's if I count the > >shower scene with Denise Richards' boobies. > > > >The book, though - it's an interesting thought-experiment. Did > >Heinlein actually believe in the philosophies espoused by Johnny Rico? > >Maybe, some of them, but I'm almost always willing to separate the > >author from the book. I enjoyed it the day in 5th grade I pulled it > >off the shelf, and I've enjoyed it ever since. First piece of SF I > >ever read, so I've got a sentimental attachment. > > The book is a really fascinating thought-experiment. Heinlein's "big 3" > books each look at different political systems: Stranger in a Strange Land > can be viewed as an exploration (and possibly satire) of communism and/or > socialism (along with a dollop of libertarian personal mores), The Moon is a > Harsh Mistress is Heinlein's Libertarian Manifesto, and Starship Troopers > looks at the idea of a democracy where the only people that can vote are > those that shown that their country means enough to them to give a few years > of their lives to it. I'm not sure I would like to live in a Veterans > Democracy, but then again, could it be any worse than what we have now? He teaches that only one understanding of personal responsibility exists. That taking care of your own and taking orders is the definition of responsibility. Look at the class the lead character was in at the beginning, where there are scientific proofs that force as the first and virtually only moral option. I cannot imagine the Veteran's Democracy he evisions not falling into a neo-Facism because it is a world where questioning orders is treasonous. If you look through the wealth of his books, he tends to has a fair amount of shoot first and ask questions later morality, and not much of a believer in the nicities of civilization. > Starship Troopers is really a book about taking responsibility for your > actions, both individually and corporately. That's the core of the Veterans > Democracy idea. That's the reason the book takes a detour into the story of > the soldier that eventually "danced Danny Deevers;" the military was taking > responsibility for "one of it's own," as the book puts it. And Rico's > story is one of starting with no concept of responsibility, and then > learning all about it and eventually becoming a very responsible person. > That's why the ending of the book is ultimately satisfying. IMHO, it presents a cartoon version of a moral dillema. I would argue that the Ender series has a much better handle on the question. Yes, the fact that his bugs didn't know that the Earth was sentinent was sorta an easy out, but he still covered the moral difficulty a lot better than Heinlein. To put it sucinctly: Heinlein assumed it was an easy question OSC didn't. > The movie had nothing whatsoever to do with responsibility. The movie was > about a guy who started with no personal responsibility and ended with none. Well, he seemed to accept the idea of taking orders and taking care of one's own at the end of the movie. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
