A variation on James Nicoll.

[theweaselking]

"Suppose that you know a couple and that their marriage is as doomed as the Titanic running full tilt into the Hindenburg on top of Krakatoa. Both members of the couple have been discussing their troubled relationship with you, leaving you in possession of a thick stack of letters."

Now, suppose that you "deal with" the situation by mailing copies of all of the letters to the husband, alone, on the theory that women aren't really people ANYWAY.

Who would you be?

[Poll #1565720]

Comments

[jasmine-koran.livejournal.com]

No, no, no. Robert Heinlein would read all the letters avidly and lie through his teeth to both of them. Because deception is what gives a relationship colour, dontcha know.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I think you've missed the point that Heinlein *did* deal with the situation by mailing all the letters to the husband.

[jasmine-koran.livejournal.com]

...ah. I thought this was a hypothetical. Christ, I knew he was a prick, but...

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Some of his shorts are good, mostly because the length constraints meant he couldn't cram much of his shitty worldview in.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

I do like the children's novels - Time for the Stars, Farmer in the Sky, etc. I stumbled across "Starman Jones" at age 12 in the school library, then spent a year trying to find it again. I think he got those just about right, but completely screwed up the long adult ones.

[kadath.livejournal.com]

I recall Starman Jones as being wretched, to be honest. Not as unreadable as Podkayne, but little is. The juveniles are as steeped in his abysmal gender politics as his adult works without even the tangential benefit of exploring transgressive ideas.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I am feeling steered by this poll!

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

CowboyNeal!

[endotoxin.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of a lot of Robert Heinlein's work. But, I don't think I'd ever have a drink with the man.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

Well, he's been dead since '88. Kind of pointless to have a drink with him.

[demiurgent.livejournal.com]

To be fair, we don't know A) anything about those letters, B) anything about the situation, C) anything about Heinlein's relationship with John or Dona Campbell, D) anything about anything except a very brief note from Pohl about a situation he wasn't exactly involved in. If he got this story from either Campbell, it's entirely possible he didn't get the accurate story. If he got it from a friend of a friend, he may have an even more corrupt version.

Was Heinlein a dick? Frequently. But we don't know enough to begin to pass judgment on this case.

Or isn't that as much fun?

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine sat next to him at a banquet (before he was dead, but not a whole lot) and she said he spent a lot of time trying to look down her shirt.

But I don't know anything about this particular situation.

[kjn]

RAH! RAH! RAH!

[loopback.livejournal.com]

You're right, there's no way to pass judgment on someone sending private correspondence on to the spouse of the writer, when the topic was their declining marriage.

There's being rational and reasonable, and then there's just being needlessly pedantic. I think you stepped over the line. Come on back over here, we have martinis.

[gygaxis.livejournal.com]

Are ANY scifi writer's NOT giant shitheads?

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Well, Scalzi and Ellis are at least highly entertaining bastards.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Asimov was a sort of genial goofball.

[winterlime.livejournal.com]

I've never heard anything against Bujold, and her books are works of wonder.

Complaints department

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Damnit - I want checky tick boxen. Even if they are redundant. Actually, especially if they are utterly redundant.

[rdmasters.livejournal.com]

Does de Lint count as Scifi? He's decent enough. Connie Willis was nice when I met her, and I've never heard anything to suggest otherwise. Elizabeth Moon was polite and good-natured.

So there are a few, I guess... but certainly it seems more the exception than the rule.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

BRING ME HIS SKULL!

[jasmine-koran.livejournal.com]

My aunt's boyfriend was Andre Norton's gardener, and he said she was a real sweetheart. I've also heard that Ursula le Guin is a lovely person.

[hollowpoint.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The question isn't whether sending all the letters to the husband was bad, it's whether we're adequately sure that it happened at all.

[endotoxin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think we knew that. Thanks.