Revolution i år 2100

Robert Heinlein is perhaps one of the best known future history authors of the 20th century, having written many different novels all exposing the flaws of society. Revolt in 2100 is composed of three shorter stories, If this Goes On, Coventry, and Misfit, and was originally written for a science

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fiction magazine called Astounding Science Fiction, where it was first published as a novel in 1953, though the earliest of the stories, Misfit, was written in 1939. I found that this knowledge was important, because there is no warning in the book that all three stories have nothing connecting them. Although the relationships of the characters to seem to be children, parents, or other relatives of the characters in the other stories. In the beginning of the novel there is a very helpful chart made by Heinlein of all the books he had written and their chronological fit, including characters, inventions at that time, and social developments. Heinlein’s challenge to his readers is not to worry or ponder the dangers of the future, but to understand why things happen, and what we can do to prevent social order from being stretched and destroyed.
Overall, If this Goes On, was a fantastic novel, but what interested me was that the main character and the hero were not the same thing, even though the main character, named John Lyle, did heroic things, said heroic things, but the real hero was his friend, Zebadiah Jones, who is educated, disagrees with the religious dictatorship, and makes it his mission to educate John as well. Zeb, as he is referred to, at one point speaks freely about his distaste in the government, and he makes a point that I highly agree with. That everyone should have the right to speak their mind however they please, but they also have the right to be silent about it. I took this notion with me as I have been watching what goes on in our world today. In the United States, in the year 2010, we are not as technologically advanced as we thought we might be in 1950, we don’t have personal ram jets, and we don’t have weapons that don’t use particles. We still have bullets, and we still have some of the same social problems Heinlein talks about in the book. There are people who have distaste for people of different race, color, religion or otherwise, for no other reason than just because. These prejudices have been around since humans could tell that one man looked different than his neighbor, and still exist in Heinlein’s history of the future. In early June 2010, Helen Thomas made a comment about Israel that was neither proper nor appropriate. But it shows that people’s prejudices still guide them.
Heinlein uses If this Goes On to show what would happen if the Church, any church took over using religion to unite the people under one dictatorship, the Church that took over the country used propaganda and scapegoats to make the majority of the people follow them, and accept the Church as the governing body. I found it interesting that Heinlein would be so blunt about making the Church the enemy, but it really emphasizes his point that the separation of Church and State is imperative to the survival and freedom of a nation and its citizens.
Revolt in 2100 will make any reader think twice when they see something in a newspaper, on the radio, or on television, when statements are made that are based on prejudice and hatred, Heinlein’s words echo with deeper meaning. The Future that Heinlein wrote about is a possibility, and it is our job as citizens, and individuals, to keep that from happening, whether we are of a majority, or a minority, religiously, socially, ethnically. We are all people and that means me must protect each other. I find the words of Zebadiah Jones inspiring, because they had personal meaning to me as and religious minority, as well as my own knowledge of other people’s differences.

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The first person point of view is interesting and skillfully used in this novella. I like the character of the John Lyle because he is conflicted. Part of him wants to believe in the spiritual teachings of his youth, but another part of him resists them completely. He's also skilled and

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resourceful, as well as reliable. This kind of character is attractive to me, a graduate teaching assistant, who is often frustrated by some of my students who lack motivation.

The technology represented in the novel is somewhat quaint and unbelievable. At one point John Lyle escapes via a personal-sized rocket. Considering it was written in the fifties, though, I excuse Heinlein the awkwardness of his futurology. Particularly hard to buy is Lyle's courier mission. Lyle has to fly across the country to deliver a secret message to contacts in an underground resistance. Nowadays, something as intangible as a message--i.e. any sort of communication--being sent bodily seems so quaint and anachronistic. Considering cell-phones, e-mails, text-messages, satalites, etc., I can pick up my phone and flash an encyclopedia's worth of knowledge from coast to coast in a few seconds. All in all, this was a good introduction to Heinlein.

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It's a good, fast read with a couple of interesting themes in it. First, the U.S. has become a corrupt theocracy, which is a different future than most SF writers have looked at. The second is a unified field theory for science, where they figure out how gravity, electricity & magnetism all work.

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This break through in science is leveraged in the revolt. I found it interesting that time was left out, but the pseudo-science is fun.

It's a very monochrome view of a revolution. The bad guys are really bad, the good guys are heroic, with pure motives. Not nearly as good as "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" but not a bad, quick shot at it.

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Three stories, mildly related. If This Goes On is really two stories - a revolution, and a story about one man's mind, and the way reflexes of thought can be trained in beyond eradication (or almost beyond). John Lyle keeps running nose-first into his own prejudices, recognizing them and deciding

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to eliminate them - which works fine, for that particular habit of thought. And then he runs into the next one... The whole revolution is pretty much backdrop for John Lyle's mental cleanup, with faint foreshadowing of later stories in a couple scenes near the end (Winter's argument, for one). Though I still want to know how he convinced Maggie - 'might as well, I'm not likely to come back', maybe? Though the problem with Zeb would definitely not arise with John. And the scene when his commanding officer was wounded reminded me very strongly of Honor Harrington, though I must have read this one long before Honor was written. Seems slightly out of synch with the rest of the story - maybe it was supposed to show how he can by then circumvent the strict rules, but since the whole thing started with that it doesn't do much. Anyway. Not bad, slightly unsatisfying. The second story, Coventry, I had some difficulty reading - had to push myself to slog through. Dave is so exactly the sort of idiot I hate - utterly oblivious and oblivious to that fact. But he does develop a rudimentary brain by the end, and even the beginning of a spine, so it ended much better than it began. Misfits is the third story - pretty minor. Boys learning to be men by doing a hard task - and one oddity among them, a math genius. The connection to the other stories is slim - one or two references to 'the Covenant' is all. I like Libby, though - he shows up later, in another book.

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Good early Heinlein, which is pretty good. "Revolt" posits a United States which has been taken over by a corrupt theocracy, and traces the fortunes of a group of people who join the underground (literally) plot to overthrow the government. The characters are not exactly fully fleshed, but the

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ideas are interesting, and the detail of the society in question (as so often in Heinlein) one of the book's strong points. Funny, a corrupt theocracy doesn't sound nearly as improbable as it did back in the 1950's, when I first read this.

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Not really science fiction, more of a future fiction book, this is almost Heilein's version of Brave New World. Oddly appropriate for today's election year.

This isn't really a novel, but consists of three loosely connected stories. The three were published as a novel in 1953, though "Misfit" was written as early as 1939. The revolt in the book's title is against a future theocracy that has taken over the United States, and is the subject of the short

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novel, "If This Goes On." "Coventry," a novella of 73 pages, and the short story "Misfit" are quite different, even if part of the same "future history," but dealing with very different characters and situations. I remember "Coventry" pretty well among Heinlein's stories. Heinlein is known for a libertarian tinge to his politics. In this future the penalty for doing damage to another is either to accept psychological treatment or "Coventry"--exile with others who won't conform to the social contract. I liked the way David MacKinnon learns his lessons about the costs of civilization--and a lack of it--and grows up. "Misfit" is about a boy of extraordinary talent.

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An evil dictator rules the USA. He is backed by the military but a soldier dares to stage a revolt.

Includes the stories:
"If This Goes On--"
Coventry
Misfit

Apparently this is the third volume of the "Future History" series. The first book is The Man Who Sold the Moon, followed by The Green Hills of Earth, Revolt in 2100, and Methuselah's Children. All these stories were then collected into a

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single volume entitled The Past through Tomorrow.

I enjoyed reading the three stories. Of course, when I began the book I thought it was a novel divided into three parts. No real indication was given that they were short stories/novellas/or whatever they are. Needless to say, this led to some confusion before I figured out what was going on. But, the stories are all connected to one another. The first story was the most complicated and detailed (and longest, for that matter). The second was shorter but just as intriguing. The third however, to me seemed to be a run of the mill we-need-something-to-fill-the-rest-of-the-book story.

As I said before, I enjoyed reading the book, but it's not one to put on your priority list to read.

Experiments in Reading

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I like most Heinlein that I've read, but I just felt this book dragged, based upon the first section, a novella I attempted to read. I think it would have been better if it had been edited down into a short story.

Since I didn't finish the book I won't rate it, but based upon the first 100 or so

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pages, I'd give it 2 stars.

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Revolt in 2100 is another installment in Heinlein's Future History arc. Several major figures in that arc feature prominently here, and it takes place some time after the rise of the ayatollahs foretold in Stranger in a Strange Land. We get considerably more context for Scudder, and the origins of

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Libby in these three interconnected stories. This is about the height, and fall, of the united states theocracy (that in these times feels increasingly likely).
2100 is a bit of a melange...Heinlein's future history world and timeline building is at the forefront, but we get a taste of the military science fiction that Starship Troopers is known for and the social commentary and social engineering some of his later works like Stranger are known for.
As with some other early works, there is also more contradiction in his themes and social commentary than one might be used to with Heinlein. Its also easy to overlook if one approaches this expecting the typical themes that turn modern readers off Heinlein. Though religious dictators are presented in a (deserving) negative light and religion overall as hypocritical and unnecessary, several religious groups (notably the Mormons) are instrumental in overthrowing them and presented as quite reasonable folk. Similarly, the main organized resistance seems to all be part of an only loosely disguised version of the Freemason's, who are famously religious in origin and practices.
As usual, like Spinrad says, any Heinlein is good scifi and worth a read. However, I think for the modern critical reader there is a special wealth of things to contemplate is we can approach these early works with an open mind.

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