Heinlein Centennial
Posted on May 8, 2006 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
Some appearance news:
I have been offered and have very happily accepted an invitation to be an honored guest at the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial, which will take place July 6 – 8, 2007 in Kansas City. As the title of the event suggests, it is a celebration of RAH’s 100th birthday (which falls on July 7); Kansas City is where he spent his childhood. To the surprise of none, I’m delighted to be on board for this.
Now, I am supposed to come up with some sort of programming, which I will certainly do. I could do a talk… or I could do one of these:
[poll temporarily removed — it’s causing some problems. You can see it here]
Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll just do a talk instead.
In all seriousness, this looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to see some of you there. I mean, come on. It’s a year out. You’ve got time to prepare.
What’s TANSTAALFL?
(Yeah, I’m clueless…)
Moon is one of my VERY favorites and I nearly voted in that direction. That said, 16 minute Heinlein got my vote out of shear curiosity.
No huhu, AliceB. You have a treat in store for you.
TANSTAAFL = There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
A saying in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” which many RAH fans, including myself, consider his best work. (Be suspect of people who consider Stranger in a Strange Land his best — they’re a little … erm, ‘different’. :)
Mocking the “Starship Troopers” movie would, I think, be fun, but it might be too easy a target.
Oh, and as my humanitarian act for today, I issue this warning: DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, watch Starship Troopers 2! Trust me on this – your life will better for skipping it. I’m certain I heard RAH spinning in his grave…
Too late.
The STARSHIP TROOPERS movie: Yeah, right. Doogie Houser as a fascist colonel.
Didn’t I hear a spinning sound the night it came out?
Hey, Starship Troopers was stupid but the more often I watch it the more convinced I am that the director wanted it every bit as stupid as he could make it. I can appreciate it on that level.
Thank you Timothy. (Adds another book to the every growing “to read” pile.)
Oooh, you’ll only be an eight hour drive away! That’s exciting. I thought I’d never make one of your cons, but hey, never say never. I might just make an effort to get to this one. Congratulations on the honor.
And The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress *is* his best work. I’ve heard a really good audiobooks version of it too — performer did great with the accents.
Boy John, the decision between the “seduce redhead” option and the “16-minute Heinlein” option is one of the toughest things I’ve considered all week…
I was going to vote for the Super Soaker water brother ceremony but instead went for the drunken agrument between Jubal and Lazarus. But heck, you could do that one sober and still get a full house.
Mess with people’s heads: sponsor a free lunch.
You and Spider riffing off each other? Sign me up!
As much as I love hot red head mathematicians, I’d have to go for the musical.
But Bobarinio’s free lunch idea intrigues me. How about you offer a free lunch, but exiting the room requires participating in the musical. It will really drive home the idea of TANSTAALFL.
You could offer a free lunch, but charge people an exit fee.
Am I your only visitor here who doesn’t read any sci-fi, which is what I assume RAH did/does?
Hey John, how about instead of doing a “16-minute Heinlein” routine at the centennial you could do a “96 sentence Heinlein” routine on your blog? Each novel in three sentences or less!
Very difficult to decide between the drunken argument and the 16-minute Heinlein. Could you do both maybe? Perhaps with Spider Robinson, do an in-character drunken version of the 16-minute Heinlein? I’m just saying.
damn…i’m supposed to be working and i just *kittened* soda all over the screen and scared the reference librarian.
i’m working on programming…i hope you don’t mind if i steal (that is, appropriate with the proper permission) some of these ideas.
you disappointed me, though, by not suggesting a tea party.
Kitten Trumpinski-Roberts:
“you disappointed me, though, by not suggesting a tea party.”
I don’t think we’d prepared for the carnage.
Feel free to steal any of these, with my blessing.
Shouldn’t that poll option about Starship Troopers call the mocking a “Mystery Science Theater 3000-style mocking”? Where are Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot when you need ’em, anyhow?
And where’s the “All of the above” poll option? (Though to accomplish all of that in three days, you’d probably need to be a time traveler…)
Oh, and I agree with Timothy; AliceB, you don’t know how lucky you are to have that still in front of you…
I would love to hear TANSTAAFL! With the right performers, “Boot It Up, Mike”, “Line Marriage, Line Marriage” and the showstopping “Skipping Stones (The Moon Is Such A Bitch)” would bring down the house.
Skipping stones, shooting stars, one day soon the Moon is ours. This passion driiiives me like these masses of stone. De la Paz, will they leave us alone?
Of course, my dear Wyoh, we’ll live free or die. Mankind will sigh as they can’t scratch this iiiiitch: they find that the Moon! This wonderful Moon! The Moon is such a bitch!
Hey Scalzi, when I voted in the poll, I couldn’t see all the results. The window only showed the top few responses and there was no way to scroll down.
On 07/07/07……WHOA!
Too bad the Rapture™ is going to happen on 06/06/06!
Sweet. KC is only 2 hrs north of me. (Yes, I’ve been to the RAH birthplace in Butler, and pass the town on every visit to KC!)
This is exciting as hell… I can’t wait! Congrats on the honor.
PS: I agree whole-heartedly — Moon is the best of the best. Somewhere deep down, I will always wonder what happened to Mike.