It really wasn’t. Heinlein did not write Starship Troopers as an aspirational piece of milscifi and, while he definitely had some questionable politics, my understanding is that he was effectively thinking aloud as he wrote the book.
It’s hard to tell where his beliefs end and pondering began honestly. I’ve read a few of his works and it is strongly bent toward the every man trope if I remember right. Of how an individual needs to be skilled in most areas, self actualizing, independent. Reads like a conservative libertarian view to me honestly. Add in Starship Troopers itself really plays that strong and talks about military might makes right, it’s hard not to see it as positive toward warfare.
i mean when you read that heinlein time travel book where every character is the same person just at a different point in their personal timeline including the mother, the father, the son, the army dude… heinlein self sufficiency gets wweird
It really wasn’t. Heinlein did not write Starship Troopers as an aspirational piece of milscifi and, while he definitely had some questionable politics, my understanding is that he was effectively thinking aloud as he wrote the book.
It’s hard to tell where his beliefs end and pondering began honestly. I’ve read a few of his works and it is strongly bent toward the every man trope if I remember right. Of how an individual needs to be skilled in most areas, self actualizing, independent. Reads like a conservative libertarian view to me honestly. Add in Starship Troopers itself really plays that strong and talks about military might makes right, it’s hard not to see it as positive toward warfare.
i mean when you read that heinlein time travel book where every character is the same person just at a different point in their personal timeline including the mother, the father, the son, the army dude… heinlein self sufficiency gets wweird
I recently binged a lot of Heinlein, and it turned me off him a bit. The novel Friday seemed to be the tipping point.
Very aggressive, self-assured attitude shone through.
I also binged a shotlosd of PK Dick fiction, and mostly just got super sad again.