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Weblog Memory · Feb 26, 10:37 PM

Checking my logs, I see that I have been getting a number of queries on pages having to do with my contretemps with the science fiction writer John Scalzi fom last year1. The internet is a vast collective memory in which anyone can trigger a memory, even one you’d rather forget. For both Scalzi’s sake & my own, I hope someone is preparing a dissertation, or at least a master’s thesis.

Coincidentally, though, I am just getting ready to teach Scalzi’s novel Old Man’s War my freshman seminar at Clarkson. The course has focused on colonialism & more broadly on how we encounter people different from ourselves. Scalzi’s prose doesn’t look so good when compared to Camus & Conrad, whom we’ve been reading, but his dramatization of the Colonial Defense Forces—armed to the teeth against all that is not human—will be a useful point of reference in thinking about Conrad’s Marlow going up that alien river in Africa & encountering all those inhuman beings. Basically, Old Man’s War is a kinder, gentler Starship Troopers, but not that much kinder & not that much gentler. It reproduces Heinlein’s prurient, if jocular, attitude toward both sex & violence; & though it lacks Heinlein’s fully-developed militarism & fascism, it manages a kind of Bowdlerized celebration of military power that in the end is probably more dangerous because it is less easily caricatured. In Heinlein’s novel, only the military gets to vote; in Scalzi’s story, nobody cares about the vote, but only the military has bodies capable of X-Games sex & X-Games violence.

Correction: It has been a long time since I read the Heinlein novel, which I am not teaching, & over at John Scalzi’s weblog Mark Ensley takes me to task & offers the following: “The military specifically does not get to vote in Starship Troopers. A person who has served in the military, and then gets an honorable discharge, gets to vote. Likewise, any person who has completed a term of public service, of which military service is just one among many options, gets to vote. Any person cannnot vote while serving in the public service, military included.” My larger point, regarding Heinlein’s glorification of the military, stands.

=======

1 The arguments were spread across at least three weblogs & I’m not going to root around & link back to them. Search on Scalzi, Duemer, & Patrick Nielsen Hayden on this site & in Google if you really want to go into the muck.

* * *

  1. “For both Scalzi’s sake & my own, I hope someone is preparing a dissertation, or at least a master’s thesis.”

    It’s either that or someone just likes to revisit old car accidents, if you know what I mean. Best not to think on it anymore.

    I love this comment, incidentally: “Scalzi’s prose doesn’t look so good when compared to Camus & Conrad.” What’s particularly galling about Conrad, of course, was that he was writing in his third language.

    I am delighted you’re using OMW in a class and I’d be fascinated to know how it comes across to them, both in as a text itself and also via your interpretation of it, which from what you note above appears critical in interesting ways. Do let your students know that if they have any textual questions, unlike Conrad and Camus I am still alive and would be happy to answer them.

    Also as an fyi, the sequel to OMW just came out; while I’m sure you will find it no less a Bowdlerized celebration of military power, I think it adds some new perspectives into that particular universe you may find interesting. If you’d like to see it e-mail an address and I’ll send you an ARC.
    — John Scalzi    02/27/2006 01:29 AM    #
  2. Jesus, Scalzi, do you have a script running that constantly searches the internet for your name? Anyway, thanks for the quick reply.

    To be fair, I should have added that, Scalzi’s prose, on the other hand, looks very good indeed when compared to the vast run of contemporary science fiction short of William Gibson.

    And I’ll be sure to post a link to your website & encourage my students to ask you question about the book.
    — jd    02/27/2006 08:10 AM    #
  3. You write: “Heinlein’s fully-developed militarism & fascism”, which is so deeply ignorant on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to begin. Fortunately, correcting your ignorance isn’t my job, so I dodge that particular bullet. What I’m curious about is why anyone would let such an intellectual lightweight as you appear to be teach at all? Homeschooling is looking better and better with every passing day.
    — Dr Tiomoid M of Angle    03/11/2006 01:31 PM    #
  4. Let me guess, Doctor. You’re an unrecognized genius, an audacious autodidact with a plan to save the world & your homeschool PhD naturally qualifies you to comment on my academic credentials. You have had you say & I’m leaving your little excrescence here as a reminder to my readers of the creeping anti-intellectual cretinism now infecting American society. Or are you just a Heinlein fanboy? When you have the stones to post here under your own name you will be welcome; until then, not.

    Later: I was so wrong. Tiomoid of Angle is a real guy, Yale 78 no less. So, obviously, I stand abashed before his greatness. He is also the author of this little ditty. But a bit of research reveals the sort of man he is: near as I can tell, he searches the internet for mentions of fascism, then attacks those who are opposed to that political system. In any case, I retract my earlier invitation for him to post here under his own name. Fascists can buy their own bandwidth—I’m not going to let them piggyback on mine. All further comments from Dr. What’s His Name will be deleted, though I reserve the right to copy them into the weblog for mockery. Same goes for emails. More here.
    — jd    03/11/2006 10:31 PM    #
  5. Not only ignorant but a coward as well. How typical. One of the most tediously pathetic characteristics of the modern “progressive” is his constant whining about the supposed “fascism” of others while taking instant advantage of any opportunity to indulge in censorship and repression of ideas he disagrees with. Hitler would be proud of you.
    — Dr Tiomoid M of Angle    03/15/2006 07:32 AM    #
  6. Who is censoring you, you pathetic little weasel? You have the whole fucking internet on which to spray your liquid shit. What I don’t understand is why you aren’t leading a panzer charge somewhere. And you have the nerve to call me a coward. And you have not advanced anything like an "idea" here, so I have no "idea" with which to disagree. Your original "idea" was that I am not qualified for my profession because you disagree with my reading of a particular text. But you advanced no alternative reading, so there was nothing to talk about. Your shit-stain will remain here for posterity. Now, since we have insulted each other, please go away.
    — jd    03/15/2006 09:30 PM    #
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