Death of the Heart

Death of the Heart feels like a Jane Austen novel set in the pre-World War II time period. A lot of time is spent worrying about the details of what other people think. What does this person think of me? How could they read my journal? It goes back to an earlier era where people would actually write. Their journals had private matters that were expected to be read by them alone, not shared on social media. Now do people even know what they think? Or do they spend too much time crafting the appropriate social media profile?

The book deals with people (primarily youth) of various backgrounds. They are enjoying time together and trying to figure out how to get along socially. It ends with a girl finally trying to escape from her condition (with a very bizarre marriage proposal.) The way people react is borderline comedic. Something very serious is happening, yet they are concerned as much with the minor details.

Anthem

Anthem is a lot like Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, only much shorter and more extreme. (It even has soliloquy advocating Rand's philosophy, but keeps it short.) The story is set in a communist dystopia. There is now "I". Everything is done for the collective good. People with above average intelligence are brought down. Mating is an organized process done through the eugenics board. Careers are picked by the organization. There is little freedom.

The protagonist discovers some relics from the past. He eventually discovers electric light. He believes all scholars will be grateful when he presents it. Instead, they are frightened and seek to punish him. How dare he step out of line. He eventually hooks up with a woman that he noticed and they decide that they will not let the world take their minds.

The story is reminiscent of Brave New World.  It presents the exaggerated view of what a collectivist society could be like. Equality created by bringing down all the high achievers leads to mediocrity.

For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs

This was Heinlein's first book, yet it was not published until after his death. It is nominally a science fiction book. However, in reality it is a platform for the Heinlein's political beliefs. It starts with a guy driving in the summer of 1938. He gets in a crash and suddenly finds himself rescued in the winter of 2068. The protagonist gets to know his rescuer and his new world. That's about it for the plot.

The new world is a Heinlein libertarian utopia. Europe has been pretty much destroyed by wars and their aftermath. The US has an isolationist policy with a new "economy". (Bankers are evil.) There was a war against south america that killed off most bankers and led to the better government. People can do what they want. The government prints money. People get a regular subsidy and can work whenever they want to. (and not work when they don't want to.) Family relationships and clothing are optional. Public and private life are separated.

The book contains long treatises on the economics and other points of view. This seems like an academic paper that was then transformed into a novel. Alas, there are huge flaws in the "world" he envisions, but it is always nice to dream. Exploring the world in a novel is much more interesting than writing a dry economic paper. Perhaps the best way to criticize it would be to write a novel where a society attempted to implement the Heinlein utopia with disastrous results.

Out of the Silent Planet

Before listening to lectures on C.S. Lewis, I didn't realize that Lewis had ventured in to the science fiction genre. I had to try it out. It was not bad, but doesn't fit in to the typical science fiction world, either.

In the book, a professor stumbles across some other professors that have a backyard rocket. They kidnap him to take him to Mars where they think the martians will make him a sacrificial victim. However, once they get there, it turns out they are peaceful. Martians live in a world where different beings communicate together, and all interact with angel-like beings that live outside of time and space. They have little concept of the conflicts that we have on earth. The narrator gets to know them and become friends. The others, however, treat them as brutal natives. Eventually the earthlings are sent off the planet, and manage to make it back to the earth after a close call with the moon.