Time Enough for Love
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Time Enough For Love (first edition cover - 1973) |
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| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
| Released | June 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 605 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-399-11151-4 |
| Preceded by | I Will Fear No Evil |
| Followed by | The Number of the Beast |
Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The book focuses on the adventures and musings of Lazarus Long, the oldest living human, who has grown weary and has decided that life is no longer worth living. It takes the form of several novellas tied together in the form of Lazarus's retrospective narrative.
The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail concerns a 20th-century U.S. Navy cadet who manages to move up the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself wholeheartedly to the principle of "constructive laziness".
The Tale of the Adopted Daughter is a lengthy, western-style story about his days as a pioneer, which is rather un-SF fare for a book marketed as science fiction. On the other hand, the pioneering does take place on another planet, and several genetically engineered animals — notably some talking, fertile mules — accompany Lazarus on his venture. The segment begins with a short scene-setter written after the style of "The Song of Hiawatha".
The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't is a story about a pair of slaves, brother and sister, whom Lazarus buys from a slave dealer on planet with a culture like that of the medieval Middle East (cf. Citizen of the Galaxy). He immediately manumits them. Because they have no experience in living as independent human beings, and no education to speak of, Lazarus finds himself cast in the role of the "parent," and proceeds to teach them "how to be human."
There are two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and aphorisms. Some of these have become quite popular and can be found (amongst other places) in internet signature blocks to this day. (They were also published independently as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.)
Another piece of bridging material involves the high-tech colonization of a planet in the "modern" way. In this section, we learn that Lazarus has regained his zest for life. It is followed by an excursion back in time to 1916, where Lazarus meets and falls in love with his own mother, whereupon the two of them seduce one another. Later, in order to keep her esteem and that of his grandfather (a very dominant figure, reminiscent of "The Old Man" in The Puppet Masters), he gets himself involved as a combat soldier in the First World War—in complete contradiction to his firm intention when he traveled in time to that period—and very narrowly avoids having his very long life terminate at an anonymous grave in the trenches of the Western Front.
[edit] Major themes
Time Enough for Love explores a number of themes, each of which appear to have been important to Heinlein, as each of them is featured in many of his other novels and short stories.
[edit] Love
One of the central themes of the book is the importance of love in human life. In discussing love, Lazarus and the other characters develop the distinction between Agape (spiritual love) and eros (sexual love). Later in the novel, Lazarus credits his friends and family with reminding him of the importance of love, thereby restoring his will to live.
[edit] Incest
Incest and discussion of incest recurs throughout the novel, especially in The Tale of the Adopted Daughter, The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't and the bridging material that ties the various tales together. As noted earlier, while travelling back to 1916 Lazarus meets and falls in love with his own mother, and feels singularly free of any guilt at having sex with her. The philosophical question raised is whether the near-immortal who already spent thousands of years of adult life is truly the same person as the small child, the young Lazarus who the older Lazarus also meets. Significantly, since starting to think of her and behave to her in this way, Long refers to his mother as "Maureen" rather than "my mother". In this book she never finds out who he really was; in a later book she appears again briefly, knowing the truth and more amused than angry about it.
Each of the 'incestuous' relationships described is in some way different from traditional incest and explores a different philosophical point of view. The "twins who weren't", for example, share no common genetic material, and their offspring have no greater chance of genetic defects than the offspring of two strangers. The pair are siblings, but had been told by authorities that they were to be a breeding pair. In their minds, there is no sin. Lararus Long wrestles with the implications, and eventually decides the two should remain together.
[edit] Pioneer life
Pioneer life is heavily represented throughout the novel, as noted in the plot summary, above.
[edit] Outer worlds vs. Earth
From several references in the book, it is clear that the Earth has deteriorated to an impoverished, diseased, overcrowded place which people in the outer worlds have no wish to even visit, and are grateful that their ancestors got away from there in time. Interestingly, this is very similar to the situation in the Robot Series and several other books of Isaac Asimov. However, in Asimov's books the situation is always viewed from the point of view of the Earth people, asserting themselves against the arrogance of the Outer Worlds, while Heinlein writes from the Outer Worlders' point of view. The difference might be attributed, at least in part, to Heinlein's being born to a family long established in the New World while Asimov was a member of an immigrant family to whom a miserable Eastern European society was still a fresh memory.
[edit] Failure of democracy
In the universe of this book, democracy and representative government are considered to be an experiment which was tried for a brief period in the distant past and proved to be unworkable, mainly due to the voting public's stupidity and short-sightedness. While a group called "Democrats" still exists in this universe, they are just members of a religious sect called "The Church of the Holy Democrat". It has been long and inconclusively debated whether this reflected Heinlein's own considered opinion on the future of democracy, or was just an attempt to startle his readers with a provocative idea.
[edit] Connections to Heinlein's other work
This book is an outgrowth of the earlier Methuselah's Children and is connected to The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and several other Heinlein novels.
The book also marks the conclusion to the evolution of Heinlein's view of homosexuality. In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (published only seven years before), homosexuals were seen as defectives, and homosexual sex a poor substitute. A more accepting view was put forth in I Will Fear No Evil, and in this book, it is seen as fully acceptable and almost indistinguishable from the heterosexual variety.
Finally, most of the events are told in first person from the point of view of the protagonist, Lazarus Long. Many are retold, also first person, from the point of view of his mother, Maureen Johnson Long, in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the last novel Heinlein wrote and published before he died in 1988. (According to Maureen in that book, Lazarus' account in Time Enough For Love of their 1916-7 meeting is incomplete and inaccurate in many respects.) This approach to storytelling can also be seen in the first two books of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series.
[edit] Editions
- 1973, Ace, hardcover, ISBN 0-7394-1944-7
- June 1, 1973, Putnam Pub Group, hardcover, 605 pages, ISBN 0-399-11151-4
- 1974, Berkley Medallion Books, paperback, ISBN 0-425-02493-8
- December 1976, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-03471-2
- October 1978, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04373-8
- March 1980, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-04684-2
- December 15, 1981, Berkley, paperback, ISBN 0-425-05490-X
- December 1982, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-06126-4
- November 1983, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07050-6
- September 1984, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-07990-2
- November 1986, Berkley Publishing Group, paperback, ISBN 0-425-10224-6
- November 1994, Ace Books, ISBN 99948-63-95-9
- November 1, 1994, Ace Books, paperback reissue edition, xvii+589 pages, ISBN 0-441-81076-4
- January 1, 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-1876-8
- 1 January 2000, Blackstone Audiobooks, cassette audiobook, ISBN 0-7861-1894-6
- December 1, 2004, Blackstone Audiobooks, ISBN 0-7861-8961-4
