Starship Troopers is a novel written by Robert A. Heinlein and is considered a “controversial” classic of science fiction. Heinlein was a prolific writer with a couple of best sellers but none were quite as popular or captured the imagination of a public as Starship Troopers. Now to be frank when I first read the book I was expecting more, quite a bit to be honest. Not that it’s a bad book but let me explain.
First off this book was labeled “controversial” because of its “fascist” and warlike tendencies I thought “Okay since in the modern world fascist means anything with testosterone I’ll probably love it.” but when I read the book I found that it was actually extremely tame and the ideas in it are pretty much Libertarian/Classical Liberal but with some actual common sense in them as well.
Most of the book is a description of one man’s journey through boot camp that can drag on at times. The battle scenes are sparse and the “ideological” dialogue pretty sparse as well. But overall I’d say that this book is worth reading because it does bring up some salient points that are worth taking a look at.
Duty & Manhood
Now Heinlein was a libertarian so you’ll get some weird libertarian stuff in his books such as in Starship Troopers women make the best starship captains because of…umm…uhh…libertarian magic or something and you’ll get dialogue along the lines of “Well golly gee sergeant that sure sounds swell.” said Tyrone Ramirez Wong but aside from occasionally lapses into libertarianism there is some reality to the story which is rare for science fiction (or what little I’ve read).
One big topic brought up is that of duty. In “The Federation” the governing body of the human worlds of Starship Troopers only “citizens” can vote. Now citizen does not mean anyone who spits out a kid on a geographical location but rather only those that serve in the military. The logic goes if you aren’t willing to sacrifice for the governing body politic why would you have a say in what happens with it? I think this is probably part of what was considered “controversial” about the novel. Makes sense, why should those who do not sacrifice for the body politic have a say in it?
The man character in this novel is a well off kid from a preppy neighborhood who ends up joining the “Mobile Infantry” partly to chase some some chick who makes space pilot while he ends up infantry. He ends up in boot camp which Heinlein frankly does a good job of describing and making to seem like a real boot camp. The basic human emotions one experiences, the relationships with the D.I.s and others in the camp, wanting to quit at some point, and so on and so forth. Eventually throughout it Juan Rico the main protagonist, learns somewhat about civic duty, sacrifice, and service and while Heinlein doesn’t explicitly state this their relation to manhood.
Merchant Vs. Warrior
There is one relationship in the book that was interesting to me and I though done very well and that’s between Juan and his father. Juan’s father is a wealthy businessman and stops talking to Juan when he learns that he has jointed the military. He even tries enticing him away with a nice vacation to Mars but to his surprise his son cannot be bought. After all his father had him on the fast track to business success he’d been known and have an in. Sort of like those frat boys who’s daddy hook them up with top jobs after their 6 years in college.
But Juan is determined to do otherwise. I should mention that Juan’s father also considered the Federal Service a parasite that just takes money as there are no wars going on and humanity has “outgrown” war. So Juan and his father part ways and Juan ends up going through boot camp and serving in combat. Eventually Juan’s home is destroyed by a bug attack and his mother is killed, his father lucky for him was away on business at the time so lives.
Surprisingly Juan eventually meets his father on a ship while changing units and finds out his father joined up and is being placed in Juan’s old unit where he served well. Juan’s father’s character arc essentially goes from a capitalist to a man. I know they meet up again later in the novel after his father has seen combat and discuss a bit of this and how he has changed or what he sees differently. Like I said a interesting character arc.
Starship Troopers
Now there is much more meat to this book then what I am pointing out here. My intention with this fiction for men series is to simply whet your appetite, highlight some interesting themes in regards to the book, and get you thinking a little bit. This book isn’t quite the intense read you’d think it’d be what with all the hype and “controversial”-ness surrounding it but most of that is more a reflection of how far man has descended than anything else.
But this book is still worth a read and does bring up some interesting topics in regards to civic duty and by extension manhood, even though Heinlein does not use that term. There also some good quotes in here like my favorite “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms” and the runner up “The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion.” So be sure to get yourself a copy and give it a read and let me know what you think.
