Talk:Farnham's Freehold
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Assessment comments
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"...uneducated, often castrated whites..." As I read it, the more educated ones were more likely to be gelded, and vice versa. PML.
Good point.
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I don't have the book with me, but I remember the ruling caste not being African, but being mostly Indian (and possibley asian) decent. I remember the rulers being described as having dark skin but having straight wavy hair, not the thick black curls Africans have. I'll have access to the book in a month. In the mean time, anyone with a copy can check it. -Peter C. @ 2/2/2007
The ruling class isn't any one particular dark skin race. The book makes the point that they are mixes of Indian, Arabian and African. The servant race is a mix of European and Far east cultures. At least that is the division between "blacks" and "whites" given. Wyrmis 19:07, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
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I know of an off-site review of this page at http://srehn.com/books/rh_farnhamsfreehold.html but I feel it would be dishonest for me to link to it because it's on my site.
If anybody else feels it's appropriate to put that link there, do so, but I won't.
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I've read your review. With all due respect, it is not a review. It is just a brief retelling of the plot. The novel is one of the best of its kind and deserves a way better analyses.
--- I felt like I needed a long shower after reading this book. If I hadn't read and liked other books of his before reading Farnham's Freehold, I doubt I would ever have read another. After finishing it, I threw it in the trash rather than giving it away to someone else. The book would have been OK if it were not for the cannibalism - it turns it into a cautionary tale rather than a book which makes you look at a situation from a different perspective.--RLent 20:33, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
None of it really makes any sense. No technologically advanced society practices cannabalism or keeps slaves (it isn't economical). It just makes Heinlein look like a candidate for Grand Dragon of the KKK. Clarityfiend 02:05, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps you should build a time machine and go visit the United States of 1860. No cannibalism, but it was a technologically advanced society, and did indeed keep slaves. BarrettBrown
- The mostly agrarian South was hardly advanced. The rapidly industrializing North had little use for slaves. Clarityfiend 03:41, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
You are so right Clarityfiend. The North used abusive child worker practices instead.166.82.201.8 17:25, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
From the first settlements of the New World until the Civil War, there were many forms of slavery practiced in both the North and the South.
- [1] How many times were Native Americans cheated of their lands and the things they valued because they were thought of as sub-human savages by the newcomers?
- [2] Many poorer peoples sold themselves and their families into servitude for a significant portion of their lives in exchange for passage to the new world. Granted they (lackeys and indentured servants) did have the hope of freedom some day, but it was still a form of slavery.
- [3] Primarily in the more industrialized areas and mining areas, workers had little choice but to accept substandard wages and working conditions which were designed by the wealthy owners to make the rich richer and keep the workers poor and desperate enough that they HAD to keep working to live. "I sold my soul to the company store". This abuse eventually resulted in worker revolt and the rise of the unions.
- [4] Children and women were forced to work in abusive, sub-standard, dangerous conditions for little pay in the "technologically advanced society" of the industrialzed North.
- [5] Owned (bought and sold like cattle) House Slaves were common amoungst the wealthy in many Northern homes.
The more industrialized North could afford to free their "owned" slaves because they still retained immense master/slave like powers over their main workforce. The agrarian South was Socially Advanced in many ways, however their economy depended on a large, cheap labor force which was largely the oppressed "owned" slaves. Loss of those workers was devastating to the Southern economy. Following the "freedoms" gained by the outcome of the war, the wealthy Northerners plundered the very best of the South. Post-war "freed" slaves were hardly free, they still remained at the bottom of the social order and lived/worked in slave-like conditions. Other ethnic groups also suffered slave-like abuses, for instance the "orientals". Even with the advent of the Civil Rights movement, strong arguements continue to this day whether slavery has truly been abolished. IMO- The Civil War was really a war over economy, control/power, and real estate. Slavery was used as an easy cause to rally under.
- ALL SLAVERY IS WRONG! I am not trying to justify slavery, but denying that it existed or turning a blind eye to all types of slavery is plain wrong.
More to the point, I don't know what Heinlein's intentions or motivations were in writting this story. I do know that the story is valuable and important in that a reader is presented with a situation that encourages the reader to experience the emotions of role-reversal and "what would I do". If after reading the story you find that you learned something about yourself or you feel uneasy, dirty, unsatisfied, or even sick to your stomach, then the story accomplished it's purpose.
--Steve 05:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC) (Sorry...couldn't hold my indignation)
[edit] the West Indies story
I changed it to "in the second half of the story" rather than "early on" because I just finished the novel today and that anecdote comes well into the book, probably around 2/3 of the way through.
[edit] trivia question
Do I remember right that Mrs Farnham had a Miltown habit? I think that's where I first heard of the stuff. —Tamfang 20:44, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
- As I recall, she abused Miltown after their supply of alcohol is exhausted. In any case, I think this book is my least favorite of RAH's works. Quite unpleasant, too unpleasant for me to appreciate it. Phasmatisnox 15:51, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
