RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Leonard C. Porrello wrote:
 
> Along similar lines, I wonder how many of things in Heinlein list he
> himself could do. Program a computer? I doubt it. Plan an invasion?
Yea
> right. And while I enjoyed his science fiction, I'm not sure he could
> have written a decent Sonnet had his life depended on it. I've read
just
> about everything he's written, and nothing comes to mind.

I'm pretty certain Heinlein dabbled in programming (in fact, I vaguely
recall a picture of him with his Altair computer). And he attended the
Naval Academy, so he certainly learned enough about military strategy
and tactics to plan an invasion (and in fact, planned some fictional
ones in his novels). 

As for poetry, his first known work (unpublished) was a poem written
while at Annapolis, and I believe some other unpublished poems of his
have been published since his death. I don't know if any of them are in
sonnet form, but at least one is a love poem, so it's likely. 

Heinlein incorporated poetry (OK, some would call it doggerel) into a
number of his novels and short stories. Sometimes it was just a stanza
or two, as in _Ordeal in Space_, where he added a new verse to the Navy
Hymn. But sometimes it was more, as in _The Green Hills of Earth_, the
story of Rhysling, a blind spacefaring poet/singer. The complete poem of
the same name is central to the story -- and quite good, IMHO. 

IIRC, _The Roads Must Roll_ contained a fair amount of poetry/doggerel,
too. 

I'm quite certain Heinlein could do all the things in his list at least
reasonably well, or they wouldn't have been included in the list. After
all, there's no shortage of other examples he could have chosen to make
his point, so why would he choose something that he couldn't do? 

I'm a big fan of Heinlein's works (including the poetry/doggerel) -- can
you tell? ;-)

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------





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