| Time Enough For Love |
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PLOT SUMMARY The book focuses on the adventures and musings of Lazarus Long , the universe's oldest living person, who has grown weary and has decided that life is no longer worth living. It takes the form of several Novella s tied together in the form of Lazarus's retrospective Narrative . ''The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail'' concerns a U.S. Navy cadet who manages to move up the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself wholeheartedly to the principle of "constructive laziness". ''The Tale of the Adopted Daughter'' is a lengthy, western-style story about his days as a pioneer, which is rather un-SF fare for a book proclaimed as a SF classic. On the other hand, the pioneering does take place on another planet, and several genetically engineered animals — notably some talking, fertile mules — accompany Lazarus on his venture. The segment begins with a short scene-setter written after the style of The Song Of Hiawatha . ''The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't'' is a story about a pair of slaves, brother and sister, whom Lazarus buys from a slave dealer. He immediately Manumit s them. Because they have no experience in living as independent human beings, and no education to speak of, Lazarus finds himself cast in the role of the "parent," and proceeds to teach them "how to be human." There are two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and Aphorisms , possibly based on the author's views on Life, the Universe, and Everything. Some of these have become quite popular and can be found (amongst other places) in internet Signature Block s to this day. Another piece of bridging material involves the high-tech colonization of a planet in the "modern" way. In this section, we learn that Lazarus has regained his zest for life. It is followed by an excursion back in time to 1916, where Lazarus meets and falls in love with his own mother, whereupon the two of them seduce one another. THEMES ''Time Enough for Love'' explores a number of themes, each of which appear to have been important to Heinlein, as each of them is featured in many of his other novels and short stories. Love One of the central themes of the book is the importance of Love in human life. In discussing love, Lazarus and the other characters develop the distinction between AgapÄ“ (spiritual love) and Eros (sexual love). Later in the novel, Lazarus credits his friends and family with reminding him of the importance of love, thereby restoring his will to live. Incest Incest and discussion of incest recurs throughout the novel, especially in ''The Tale of the Adopted Daughter,'' ''The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't'' and the bridging material that ties the various tales together. Pioneer Life Pioneer life is heavily represented throughout the novel, as noted in the plot summary, above. Outer Worlds vs. Earth From several references in the book, it is clear that Earth - humanity's original home - has deteriorated to an impoverished, diseased, overcrowded place which people in the outer worlds have no wish to even visit, and are grateful that their ancestors got away from there in time. Interestingly, this is very similar to the situation in the Robot Series and several other books of Isaac Asimov . However, in Asimov's books the situation is always viewed from the point of view of the Earth people, asserting themselves against the arrogance of the Outer Worlds, while Heinlein writes from the Outer Worlders' point of view. The difference might be attributed, at least in part, to Heinlein's being born to a family long established in America while Asimov was a member of an immigrant family to whom a miserable Eastern European society was still a fresh memory. Failure of democracy In the universe of this book, democracy and representative government are considered to be an experiment which was tried for a brief period in the distant past and proved to be unworkable, mainly due to the voting public's stupidity and short-sightedness. While a group called "Democrats" still exists in this universe, they are just members of a religious sect called "The Church of the Holy Democrat". It has been long and unconclusively debated whether this reflected Heinlein's own considered opinion on the future of democracy, or was just an attempt to startle his readers with a provocative idea. CONNECTIONS TO HEINLEIN'S OTHER WORK This book is an outgrowth of the earlier '' Methuselah's Children '' and is connected to '' The Number Of The Beast '', '' The Cat Who Walks Through Walls '', and several other Heinlein novels. The book also marks the conclusion to the evolution of Heinlein's view of Homosexuality . In The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress (published only seven years before), homosexuals were seen as defectives, and homosexual sex a poor substitute. A more accepting view was put forth in I Will Fear No Evil , and in this book, it is seen as fully acceptable and almost indistinguishable from the Heterosexual variety. Finally, most of the events are told in first person from the Point Of View of the Protagonist , Lazarus Long. Many are retold, also first person, from the point of view of his mother, Maureen Johnson Long, in '' To Sail Beyond The Sunset '', the last novel Heinlein wrote and published before he died in 1988. This approach to storytelling can also be seen in the first two books of Orson Scott Card 's Alvin Maker series. EDITIONS
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