The Things I Learned

From a single John C. Wright* blog post:

I realized that Robert A. Heinlein could not write romances if his life depended on it. Of the Heinlein novels I've read, he tends to go one of two ways when it comes to romantic relationships. He either goes all bland, wooden and generic (Starship Troopers), or he goes batshit preachy for free love (Stranger in a Strange Land).

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I also agree that the relationship RAH can write best is that between father and son. The two Heinlein novels I love most (Starship Troopers and Citizen of the Galaxy) feature very warm and believable father-son relationships (Johnny Rico and his dad, Thorby and Baslim).

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It was brought up in the thread that the reason old-guard hard sci fi tended to be excluded from literary canons is that these sci fi writers were more interested in ideas than in people. I suspect that this is true, or at least a key pillar of truth among others. I don't know if this says more about sci fi or about literary canons in general. Asimov, for example, did write more human robots than he did humans.

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I also learned that the sparkly vampire genre is called "paranormal romance", or "para-rom" for short. Finally, a term upon which to vent my utter disgust.

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Yes, I too prefer the Professor van Helsing school of dealing with monsters like vampires, werewolves and the like. Kill them all, let Satan sort them out.

A vampire is target practice, not my future son-in-law. I'll shoot his glittery ass. With silver, garlic-coated, dipped-in-holy-water bullets if I have to.

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* John C. Wright is a science fiction author. I find it really enjoyable reading a writer blogging about the craft. it also helps that I am agreeable to his other ideas too.