Re: Kathryn's comments

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Mon, 13 Sep 1999 13:23:29 -0700 (PDT)

> "Starship Troopers" was the book that convinced me to enlist
> (U.S.M.C.) back in '74.

For those on the list not already familiar with it, I also heartily recommend Heinlein's /Starship Troopers/ as a classic of both SF in general and Heinlein political-commentary SF in particular. I strongly recommend /against/ seeing the excrable recent movie which bears no resemblance at all to the book other than title and a few characters.

I was a Lefebvrian pacifist for much of my life, and never had any interest at all in miltary service, but this book made me regret that I never enlisted. That's just a warning to any of you of prime military age--if you are at all impressionable, you'll find yourself at the recruitment center before the last chapter. The movie, on the other hand, will have you thinking of all military as evil Nazis, which I believe was the director's intent. Maybe he did it on a dare or something, just to see if he could make a movie with a completely opposite point of view to the original story (I'm amazed anyone in Hollywood still deals with scum like Paul Verhoeven, whose history of broken pomises and sleazy deals would make a movie itself).

Let's just hope nobody screws up /The Moon is a Harsh Mistress/.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC