I grew up with Heinlein. My first experience was with Waldo and Magic, Inc., when I was far too young to understand what was going on. After recovering from that experience, (I'm sorry, but 2nd grade was far too early for that book.) I moved on to some of Heinlein's earlier works like Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, Starship Troopers and The Number of the Beast, fantastic books for a young developing mind.
By the time I read any of his dirty old man books, I was in the throes of a very confused adolescence, probably explaining why I did not mind the prejudices at the time. Recently, I have re-read some of these and I found that they were no longer as satisfying as they were in days of yore. I often found his sexism to be offensive. It seems interesting to note that his masterpiece of the open mind, Stranger in a Strange Land, seems to mark the beginning of the closing of his mind towards women.
Heinlein's career and books seem to reflect the most common path of intellectual growth in our society. In youth, we are playful, open, and curious. As young adults, we are idealistic and interested in righting all the wrongs of history. Towards middle age, we begin to consider experience increasingly important. We start to discount the experience of others in favor of our own. Finally, our minds, rendered inelastic by age and disuse, become closed to new thoughts and begin repeating old arguments incessantly. I am sad to note that in what should be our golden years we are often instead angry, tired, and bitter.
Please make sure you have read a full spectrum of Heinlein's work before you make judgments on his career. Too often, our attention span is short and we only consider the most recent. Please, do not let this happen to you.
The reason that Heinlein's heroes are all supermen is because of the writer that most influenced his work. That seems obvious in retrospect, but few people seem willing to give credit to E.E. "Doc" Smith. His Lensman books were quite possibly the genesis for the golden age of science fiction. His Gray Lensman was the basis for practically all of Heinlein's male heroes. The guy was super smart, super strong, and super super. He was the perfect pulp hero. So were most of Heinlein's heroes, with the exception of the dirty old man parts.
The Lensmen were such a part of science fiction that they made a guest appearance in Number Of The Beast with no explanation or back-story, the reader was expected to be familiar with the characters. Heinlein tended to get a little philosophical about societal roles and their function in a culture. That is of course his privilege, he's the author after all and can put anything he wants in his books.
The way I figure it, if anything he claimed in his books was too radical they wouldn't have been so popular or won so many awards. Sure he could have coasted along on the success of his early career, but that wouldn't have worked for very long. The differences that most people seem to recognize between his old work and his new work is the difference between juvenile books and adult books.
A lot of his early work was done for pulp magazines and juvenile novels. The publishers wouldn't accept the racier stuff, but when he published adult novels the material was allowed. So his material didn't really change as he got older, the public just got more accepting. Even if was a dirty old man, big deal, at least it makes for good reading.
As for there being more dirty old men later in his career - well, one can only write about what one knows. And when you're a dirty (at least by society's narrow standards) old man, you'd do better not to try and animate a horde of virile young warriors. It makes for silly heroes.
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