Heinlein (dun dun DUNNN)

I want Beyond this horzion into a movie

I think hollywood was going to

Stranger in a Strange Land doesn’t get enough love IMO. Heinlein was a good writer.

My dad’s favorite writer, easily. I am not much of a fan. I try and try and try, but cannot get into him and have at least a dozen of his books on my shelves.

My favorite one is Double Star. It’s a great book on acting where an actor becomes the role by emulating hand-writing, voice, mannerisms, etc. Despite that I do not like Heinlein much, this book gets better with each read. To me, that is the mark of a true classic.

The movie DAVE is based on this book.

One minute, down and out actor Lorenzo Smythe was — as usual — in a bar, drinking away his troubles as he watched his career go down the tubes. Then a space pilot bought him a drink, and the next thing Smythe knew, he was shanghaied to Mars.

Suddenly he found himself agreeing to the most difficult role of his career: impersonating an important politician who had been kidnapped. Peace with the Martians was at stake — failure to pull off the act could result in interplanetary war. And Smythe’s own life was on the line — for if he wasn’t assassinated, there was always the possibility that he might be trapped in his new role forever!

The novel is set in the future, when the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter’s satellites have been colonized and the Solar System is governed by a parliamentary democracy from a capital city on the Moon. The indigenous alien race inhabiting Mars has recently been admitted to citizenship in the human-dominated solar system government.

The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, also known as “The Great Lorenzo”). A brilliant actor and mimic, he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for an unspecified public figure. It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the Solar System (and one with whose views Smith deeply disagrees): John Joseph Bonforte. Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election. Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him.

Bonforte is rescued, but he is in poor health due to the treatment inflicted on him during his imprisonment. This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Prime Minister and running in an election. (This is made plausible through Bonforte’s extensive Farley files.) The central political issue in the election is the granting of the vote to Martians in the human-dominated Solar System. Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth’s population, but he is called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate for Martian enfranchisement. Smith takes on not only Bonforte’s appearance, but some aspects of his personality.

At the moment of electoral victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of his kidnapping, and Smith has to assume the role for life. In a retrospective conclusion set twenty-five years later, Smith reveals that he wrote the first-person narrative as therapy. By this point, he views his early life and ambitions as almost those of someone else. He has applied Bonforte’s ideals in his political career to the best of his ability. Penny (Bonforte’s adoring secretary and now Smith’s wife) says, “she never loved anyone else.”

The novel “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is currently at some point in production as far as Hollywood is concerned… That being said, I can see no way they will do the book justice nor will they want to as it is so filled with “libertarian” and “minarchist” ideals that most of Hollywood’s heads would explode dealing with the concepts.  It very clearly shows some things that will make some familiar with today’s politics and technology very “nervous” and would probably cause a massive space race with China if anyone stopped to think for a second.  It is the story of how the moon was once used as a penal colony and the residents decide to emancipate themselves from Earth to become their own country/land.  They use the age old custom of “throwing rocks” to fight off the oppressive government(s) down below and use whatever they can to fight off the “space marines” who come to get the lunar population back under control.  Then there is the “friendly A.I.” who helps those on the moon earn their independence…

Warning:  Heinlein knew that languages changed over time (it was one of his criticisms of many in society) so expect a very “odd” dialect used by lunar colony characters that can be tough to read but it is definitely worth your time and consideration.

Thanks for that. Never could get into Heinlein and yet, still I try. Thanks to your post, I looked it up and found out the Japanese made a movie of that book just last year.

The Door into Summer (2021) Japanese Movie Trailer English Subtitles (夏への扉－キミのいる未来へ－　特報映像　英語字幕)

Soichiro Takakura is a scientist working on a robot in 1995. As a part of this is his development of a plasma storage battery that is nearing completion. After getting betrayed by his business partner and also by his fiancée Riko Soichiro loses control of his company and the work he has done on the robot and plasma storage battery. As a result Soichiro places himself into cryostasis, hoping to find a better future. When he wakes up, he discovers that he woke up in 2025.

The song is about longing and regret for a life based primarily on the accumulation of material things. Other than the title, the song has little to do with the story told in the novel.