• eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    Heinlein was a Cold Warrior who hated commies. I think that is the most important lens you need to see his work through.

    He got injured before he saw combat and had a Long convalescent period, so there definitely is a bit of a chip on his shoulder with respect to honor cultures and willingness to fight.

    I think he was also gender queer in some deep way. You don’t accidentally write a novel about an older writer who, through an absurd sequence of events, gets his brain transplanted into the body of an extremely attractive younger woman. There is a lot of criticism about his recurrent “Heinlein heroine”, and I think she might actually be a self insert.

    • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      He got injured before he saw combat and had a Long convalescent period, so there definitely is a bit of a chip on his shoulder with respect to honor cultures and willingness to fight.

      my step grandfather was stationed in military intelligence rather than fighting on the front lines in the war. he felt like it separated him from the folk at the vfw and that self-imposed separation was the root of his ptsd. mom and dad had us read heinlein, i realized a lot later as a way to try to understand him and his brokenness.