We drove down from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. The day before the trip my wife went to the library and picked up two books-on-tapes. (I wonder when the term books-on-cds will catch up, considering that these were on CDs. Meanwhile I can also use the more popular audiobook.) I have to admit I was not overjoyed with the idea, because based on my past experiences I thought I would not be able to enjoy any books I an audio format.
My first exposure to audible books was one of the volumes of Harry Potter on twentysomethings CDs. Having read the books previously the voice o the narrator annoyed me. I think as I was reading the book I heard and visualized in a very different way than it was read aloud. I thought that Jim Dale’s voice was unnecessary pompous. Since then I learned to like his voice as the narrator of the TV series pushing Daisies. There it fits very well with the show’s unique visual style. But for Harry Potter it did not, at least not for me. My second exposure was Anita Diamant’s Red Tent. Within the first minute or so one of the main character’s name was mentioned. It, Rachel, was pronounced the English way and not the Hebrew/Biblical way. This upset me so much, leaving a deep unauthentic feeling in me that I gave up on the book/CD. Furthermore as I have been studying at various higher educational institutions for the last 6 years in the US, I very much got used to reading in English. I assumed that I am more a visual learner than an auditory. I thought I simply do not have the capacity to enjoy fiction via my ears.
This book, however, proved my assumption wrong. I could follow and enjoy the six CDs one after the other. We listened to two of them the way down to LA and the other four the way back. Our car is not perfectly soundproof. Therefore we had to turn up the volume quite a bit to be able to hear the book. If we listened to it for prolonged period it gave us a bit of a headache. So we broke it up to smaller segments and took breaks as often as needed. The timing was perfect; we finished the last volume 10 minutes before got home.
Maybe it is time that I say something about the content itself. In my twenties I read 5-6 Heinlein novels (the traditional way) I really enjoyed them. I haven’t read anything from him for at least 7-8 years. In the interim years I learned a lot, for example I am more attuned to women’s equality and depiction. This newly acquired sensibility made me realize how much Heinlein hates women, or at least how little he thinks of them. The recurring signs of his despise were really disturbing in this book.
My other issue with this item was the time travel solution. I knew about half way through the book, well before it was spelled out that the mysteries will be solved with a convenient “the hero travels back in time” option. I consider that a copout from coming up with a better and more simple twist on the story line. I was disappointed that Heinlein opted for this tool of the unimaginative sci-fi writer.
As we were listening we kept guessing when the book was written. I think we agreed on something like the late 60′s. It depicts both the years 1970 and 2000/2001 as the future. It refers to a “six-week-war” as something that happened in the past, maybe in the early sixties. I like alternative reality stories, so the idea that he wrote the book in the late sixties and imagined an earlier war was appealing for me. But I just checked and the book was first published in 1957. That creates a whole new context. For one the idea of time-travel was not as overused as it became in later years. For second the phrase “six-week-war” eerily reminds me of the Israel’s “six-day-war” in 1967. Now I know that Heinlein did not copy the phrase, but used before it happened. He did not come up with the construct, of course, e.g. the “30-year-war” was an example he could use.
A quick check at wikipedia shows that the first time travel book was published in 1733 (Memoirs of the Twentieth Century by Samuel Madden) I also learned there that the H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine (from 1895) was not the first novel that utilized a machine as the mean of time-travel. Eight years prior to Wells “El Anacronópete” appeared by Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau.
Beside the two negative aspects (misogynist and time-travel bore) I liked everything else in the book. Heinlein is a master writer in book. This particular story was interesting and easy to follow, the characters were stereotypical, but they fit well with their roles. Because the vocabulary was not overwhelming I had the sense, that Heinlein might have intended this book for younger readers. In a book format I probably would have finished in three pleasant hours. This way it provided easy amusement for a long drive. And now I can imagine listening to other books, assuming I have not read them earlier.