Friday's Child is Loving and Giving

Just a few days ago, I finished re-reading a favorite story, Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel, Friday. Although it was one of the first books by the grand master that I read, it was actually written quite late in his career. My sister read a paperback copy, while holding down a chair in a hospital waiting room, and passed it along to me.  It earned a spot on my keeper shelf. For a while I had an "annual read" list, and Friday was on it. Many years and many books ago, I abandoned my once-a-year reading list, but a while back, I found a rare hard cover copy at a used bookstore, and that is the one I carried around with me for a couple of weeks, relishing the story one more time.

Friday grabs the reader's attention in a way that was unusual in fiction then, although having a "hook" for the reader is almost mandatory for today's readers. The opening chapter is one of the most controversial in all of Heinlein's work, because Friday is captured by enemies of her boss and tortured, including rape. While that nasty crime occurs every day, many readers refuse to read any further. Too bad, because Friday is a darned good book. Fans of Heinlein tend to discuss his more famous works such as Stranger in a Strange Land or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and I really liked those books, but this story is unusual, even for Heinlein. The questions begin with the title. Why did he call his main character Friday? Was he alluding to Robinson Crusoe's friend, or was there some other reason?

The plot meanders like Voltaire's Candide, which was apparently one of Heinlein's inspirations for this work, and the ending is almost not an ending. Still, the characters are engaging, and the main character and narrator, Friday Jones a/k/a Marjorie Baldwin, is perhaps the most memorable Heinlein creation of all, because she is not "human" as defined by the laws and social customs of her time. Instead, she is a genetic creation, an "artificial person" and is therefore subject to both external prejudice and internal doubt. Yet, because she is a creation and not an accident of nature, as are real people, she is super smart and super human. Her many talents help her survive and even thrive on a future earth which has deteriorated so far that the only hope for humanity is migration off-planet.

Readers of vintage science fiction almost expect some sort of prescient predictions of the future, and Heinlein was at his best when he created Friday's world. Published in 1982, this novel includes some concepts which were novel then, but are now common place. Some of them include intricate camera based security measures, genetically engineered embryos, a computer network which seems quite a lot like our internet, computerized billing, use of credit cards for almost all business transactions, and instant visual communication, much like our web cams. Other interesting aspects which have not (yet) come to fruition are the Balkanization of the American continent, and domination of government by multinational corporations. At one point Friday travels to the California Confederacy, where citizens decided that having an advanced education was unfair to citizens who did not have one, so the citizenry voted for everyone to be awarded a diploma, at birth. While I do not want my political views to alienate readers of Pam's Pages, let me just say that I find it interesting that Heinlein's future citizens were apt to vote in anything to make things "fair" and leave it at that.

Politics are certainly a part of many Heinlein books, but Friday's themes are much more sophisticated and universal than mere politics. More than anything else, Friday is motivated to belong to a family. She takes all manner of risks and sometimes does enormously stupid things, for a super-genius, just because she has low self-esteem and needs a family to love her. After her divorce, Friday's employer (who is known as Boss, since this is a first person narrative) tells her to look up Franklin's parable of the whistle. Boss knows her, including her weaknesses, but instead of fruitlessly trying to "give" her self-esteem, which really can't be given, he prompts her to learn it for herself, which is the greatest gift of all.

Heinlein tired of writing coming of age yarns for youths, deliberately remaking his writing career halfway through, and although this novel clearly belongs in the "serious science fiction" latter half of his career, he did return to the core story line of growing up for Friday. As the story moves around the planet at a breakneck pace and into space at light speed, Friday tiptoes toward maturity and acceptance of who she really is.

Although Friday herself is far from perfect, she is so earnest and amusing that the reader goes along for the ride. Heinlein's plot may be nebulous, but his vision of the future and humanity is crystal clear.

Gosh, I love this book!

Humanity must colonize to survive

Recently, cosmologist Stephen Hawking won The Copley medal, which was previously awarded to such accomplished folks as Darwin and Einstein. In his remarks Hawking stated that as long as it inhabits a single planet, humanity is at great risk for annihilation. An asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe out the entire population.

Hawking further stated that chemical rockets are too slow for colonization ventures. Inter stellar travel to a suitable solar system could take 50,000 years with current technology, but matter/antimatter reactions might be harnessed to move spacecraft at speeds close to that of light. Star Trek might be poor sci fi in some respects, but the energy source used by the Enterprise is inline with the physicist’s analysis of the problem.

Although Hawking’s remarks were made last week, they remind me of a similar statement made quite a few years ago by author Robert A. Heinlein, who also believed that humanity would have to leave this planet and colonize to preserve itself. Indeed, regarding the landing of astronauts on our moon, he stated, “The door they opened leads to the hope that h. sapiens will survive indefinitely long, even longer than this solid planet on which we stand tonight.” This sci fi grand master believed in mankind and longed for a secure future for all of us.

I’ve heard all of the arguments in favor of abandoning our space program, and while some of them are valid, I believe, as Hawking does, as Heinlein did, that humanity must reach out and explore space. I doubt that I’ll live to see science solve this issue, but I do think that when great minds choose to work on it, that there will be a solution to the propulsion problem.

In past centuries, some thought mankind would run into trouble because there wouldn’t be enough wood. However, most of the human population made the transition to fossil fuel, with trees to spare. Nowadays, people worry that we’ll run out of dead dinosaurs, but there will some new technology to take the place of oil. I’m betting on hydrogen, not because it is the best, but because nuclear power has too much political baggage at the present time. More folks remember Chernobyl than the Hindenburg.

Further along in the human time line, mankind will see technologies with the power to propel spaceships beyond this solar system. I won’t see it, but I certainly believe that it will happen. Science fiction today often predicts tomorrow’s science facts. The details may differ, but the gist of that story is being written today, and I’m glad to made a small contribution to forward thinking literature.