ALT.SF4M

  Starship Troopers (Book)

   • j********o@***.com
     06/12/1997 00:00:000 UTC

     I was surprised how different the book and movie incarnations were. The

     cardinal distinction is that the movie is a heroic war story, while the
     book is

     a matter-of-fact and realistic-minded biographical account of one man's

     progression through the military. The mood of the movie is alternatingly

     cynical and patriotic, while the book is a series of adulatory
     explanations for

     how they do things, from the largest political principle to the smallest
     detail

     of military bureaucracy.

     Johny Rico is the only persistent character in the book, and the other
     major

     characters in the movie are but short-lived acquantances who make
     walk-ons

     without much impact. Correspondingly, a number of particular scenes are

     repeated in the film, but with a compressed cast of characters to lend a
     drama

     and close scale that are (deliberately) absent from the book; the
     details of

     some scenes are recast to lend them an entirely different significance:
     for

     example, the leg-less, one-armed recruiting sargeant from the movie
     makes a

     cynical observation about the bloody war, while in the book (after the
     recruits

     have signed up) he (wearing excellent prosthetics) congratulates recruit
     Rico

     and explains that his presense is intended to scare off those who aren't

     serious about the commitment they are considering.

     The campiest '50's-type elements of the movie (brain-sucking monsters,
     romantic

     pining, etc.) are entirely absent from the novel. These bugs aren't very
     big,

     and use guns and starships like everyone else. The realities of
     geopolitics

     (if not human nature!) are emphasized in the book, and Heinlien's social

     predictions and technological foresight are quite prescient. The book
     could

     just as well have been written by a right-wing blow-hard yesterday,
     rather than

     forty years ago. The political philosophy is silly - Heinlien avoids the
     most

     hackneyed, and convincing, arguments for a military oligarchy, but it is
     almost

     possible to treat these as the values of the characters and society,
     rather

     than of a polemical writer. The unanimity and cock-sure certainty with
     which

     the characters parrot these principles is rather annoying, as is the

     worshipful treatment of the army and political system. No detail of
     either is

     ever criticized, every officer is a better fighter than the men he
     commands,

     etc.. It is this attitude, and the idiotic operating philosophy of their
     army,

     that are the novel's least agreeable elements. The weird
     anti-mechanization

     bias I postulated about the army of the movie is indeed present in that
     of the

     book, and their chief priority seems to be testing potential citizens,
     rather

     than winning wars! (Or eradicating racial and sexual prejudice, as in
     our own

     Army, eh-hem!) The tendency of every scene to argue for the system, and
     the

     complete absence of counter-points, is quite tedious. The book seems to
     be a

     big, lipstick-smootched Valentine to the military (and the training
     process,

     perhaps a result of what I understand to be Heinlien's abortive Naval
     career -

     I guess this is a case of institutionaphilia).

     Heinlien can't seem to make up his mind about how tough their armor is,
     and

     underestimates the blast radius of the two kiloton bombs they use.
     Again, it's

     (unfortunately) not a war story: only two engagements are described, and

     neither is very engaging. All in all, though, I give the book a nearly
     neutral

     rating: I don't recommend it, I don't recommend against it (well, maybe

     slightly). It was a quick, painless read (except for the repetitious use
     of

     the phrase "buying the farm" plus a few boring pages about military

     organization).

     Gorno

       • j********o@***.com
         16/12/1997 00:00:000 UTC

         In article <1*************.********5@l*******.****.***l.com>,
         j********o@***.com

         (JohnGorno) writes:

         >The campiest '50's-type elements of the movie (brain-sucking
         monsters,

         >romantic

         >pining, etc.) are entirely absent from the novel. These bugs aren't
         very

         >big,

         >and use guns and starships like everyone else. The realities of
         geopolitics

         >(if not human nature!) are emphasized in the book,

         I had forgotten: these Bugs take prisoners! That's the chief
         justification

         for the mission to P, to get someone to talk to and potentially
         trade for human

         POW's.

         Gorno