Thursday, September 4, 2008

I Love Me Some Heinlein

Well, I am currently in Chapter 7, although I have read this before so I do know what's coming. Where is everyone else? I want to know what I can and can't write about! For now, I will settle for listing some choice and beloved quotes. I have a hardcover library version at the moment, so I will have to reference chapters and not pages - I'll be picking up a new paperback copy soon. Did you both get the tradepaper edition pictured on the blog?

And now:

From Chapter 2, "[Mr. Charton] said quietly, 'Kip, a reverence for life does not require a man to respect Nature's obvious mistakes.' " Assignment: make your top ten list of people who qualify as "Nature's obvious mistakes." Do it. It's cathartic. I am starting to formulate mine in my head now . . .

Second line, Chapter 4, "It made no noise but a whoosh and there weren't any flaming jets-it seemed to move by clean living and righteous thoughts." I think Peter and I may not be able to fully respond to this question, as I know that I occasionally purposefully revel in unclean living and decidedly not righteous thinking. Jennie, report back on abilities to fly. Check in with Paul too. ;-)

Later in Chapter 4, "Elephants aren't human but they are very nice people." Isn't this a paraphrase of a famous quote? Or did Heinlein coin it?

End of Chapter 4, "He's the synthesist. Everybody else specializes. Daddy knows everything and puts the pieces together." Hey! This is the exact description of what I'd like to be! Cool!

Toward the front of Chapter 5, "Sleep. 'Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care.' " I'm pretty sure this exact quote shows up in TSNOTD. Terence, maybe? We shall see. It's originally from Macbeth, which they quote later too.

In the beginning of Chapter 6, Heinlein refers to Eliza crossing the ice. This is the same poor Eliza from the play in the King and I! Yay literacy!

Fun fun fun! I do love Heinlein.

4 comments:

Jennie said...

I'm really loving it, too. :) I haven't read Heinlein since middle school, so this is great.

I'm just about finished (James woke up and demanded my attention, or I would already be done...silly baby! ;) ). My copy isn't exactly like the one pictured. Similar color scheme, but you can't see a face in the spacesuit, and it's vertical instead of horizontal. I'll try to find a picture of mine and change it.

I love Heinlein's little quips. His humor is very similar to Connie Willis'--you'll see, Peter. I think you'll love TSNOTD. Less science, more funny. :)

Here are a couple favorite bits of mine:

"I decided solemnly that we must be halfway and tried to figure out how long two times eternity was. It kept coming out eighty-five cents plus sales tax; the cash register rang NO SALE and I would start over" (beginning of chapter seven, pg. 106 in my copy).

"A thousand million billion miles.
I refuse to have anything to do with such a preposterous figure" (beginning of chapter ten, pg. 199 in mine).

Fun stuff!

Jennie said...

I changed the cover picture to the one I have. Is that the one you have, Peter?

Amanda said...

This definitely is a fun read. Having previously read Three Men in a Boat, I had to giggle about the tin of pineapple and Kip's dad having read the excerpt to him "five hundred times. Well, three hundred."

Another favorite of mine was already mentioned: "...it seemed to move by clean living and righteous thoughts."

And a final favorite (I've only read through chapter 5) "The floor tilted, swerved, and swooped like a roller coaster, and my semicircular canals did a samba."

Amanda said...

I just had to add one more favorite quote:

"My watch was on my wrist but not running and I couldn't start it. Maybe eight gees was too much for it, even though it was supposed to be shockproof, waterproof, magnetism-proof, and immune to un-American influences" (Chapter 7, pg 117).

You gotta love the Cold War and McCarthyism.