I read Luther Campbell's As Nasty As they Want To Be, the story of the rise and legal troubles of the 2 Live Crew, just before I left for the Jersey shore earlier this month. Luther had me laughing, and I might want to talk about this book a little later, but I certainly wasn't going to have it around the kids on the beach.

Knowing that a movie based on the book was to be released, I picked up a copy of Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. I'm very glad I did. Science fiction seeks to create an interesting world with different government, customs, and most often, technology. That's why the good stuff is often called speculative fiction rather than the sometimes stigmatized science fiction.

The real good stuff, though, uses this speculative setting as a backdrop for questions and themes relevant to any time. Arthur C. Clarke does it. William Gibson, at least in what I have read, does not. Philip K. Dick does it, but sometimes it seems by accident.

In Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein presents a well crafted government of the future, and tells the story of a young man who volunteers to fight for that government.

Naturally, this presents boundless opportunity for Heinlein to describe how people make war in the future. He does not waste the chance, and the result is thrilling.

Which only makes the questions he addresses even more remarkable. At the heart of this story is the young man's indoctrination into the armed forces and examination of the political structure of this world. Through classes on political theory and military history, Heinlein justifies the ruling body, and in turn, the war making that he details with glee.

Or so it seems. It is not until the end, or close to the end, that it becomes apparent that maybe Heinlein does not approve of this business at all. It calls for review. Has he really been enthusiastic about this system, or is the reader, spurned by adrenaline, inferring that from the text?

Good question. There are others.

So I loved the book, even if the movie misses the boat. Maybe Luther Campbell will make a movie that tells the whole truth.

We can only hope.

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Last Updated: 26 August 1997
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