Status Updates From Time Enough for Love

This is the strangest combination of charming-but-perverted that I've ever read on the topic of "forbidden love" or whatever you might call it.

I bet book club discussions were quite interesting back when this was new on the shelf.

Summarized and cynical takes on World War One, though Lazarus agrees to participate in it to some degree- with his advanced knowledge and experience as a "cheat code" of sorts. Since this is so close to the end of the book, I wonder if he's going to be killed in the war (and I wonder if the director/writer of 12 Monkeys borrowed heavily from this concept for that movie).

Okay, the time travel bit with Laz going hundreds of years back to see the "genesis" of his family is kinda neat; contemplating whether or not he could/should have sex with his own mother, not.

Why didn't he just cut the fluff and give Lazarus the name Casanova instead? =P

I do admit that the question of fathering a child through a female-clone version of yourself is as amusing as it is *extremely unlikely* to ever be a concern in the next 1-200 years.

Okay Rob we get it, you like making your characters talk obliquely about fornication. In a distant galaxy-spanning futuristic model of humanity, I would think (hope) that we'd feel less need to dwell casually on the topic so frequently.

...or is this a "the more things stay the same" kind of commentary on human nature?

Good ol' fashioned pioneer-style (attempted) bushwhacking! The way it was choreographed was certainly interesting, but hard to say how realistic it is.

I appreciate the drama and narrative significance of it all- however, "futuristic pioneering" is a lot less dangerous and suspenseful when you have portable long-distance means of (radio) communication available...which Heinlein knew we all did in the early 1970s.

Ah, I liked the brutally descriptive way he explains the (non-) value of fiat currency. I bet Heinlein and Thomas Sowell would've gotten along.

Got through the big ol' bank of "drops of wisdom from Lazarus" quotes; many I heartily agree with, others I don't. My favorite, "...specialization is for insects," is distinctly present.

"Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love."

That one works in-context as well as in general. Tipping my hat to you, Mr. Heinlein sir.

Lots of pontificating on eugenics, family, and enhancements to selective breeding thanks to the massive improvements to science and technology in this hyper-futuristic time.

Also a brief jab or two at the 17th-19-century breeding tendencies of the royalty at the time (and understandably so).

...and now some oblique computer-AI/human banter, reminiscent of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I can't tell whether Heinlein is just dropping easter eggs for his fans, or that by this point (1973, after all of the aforementioned books have been published) he's simply making some kind of compilation of all his ideas. They've even had discussions about time travel, which touches a multitude of his previous works.

This main character made an unambiguous reference to I Will Fear No Evil; it's clearly intended to be in the same universe.

His tone and speech patterns also remind me of Jubal from Stranger in a Strange Land (and the narrator voice matches the reader in the other book), but I'm thinking that's just Heinlein's personal voice shining through.

The "account of the laziest man" story is going in about the same direction as I thought it would...

This bizarre, "multifaceted" take on future sexuality reminds me of I Will Fear No Evil, but I don't expect it to be flaunted as repeatedly here as in.the other book.

(Paraphrased) "...a government that guarantees privacy to its citizens only ensures that listening devices will be harder to find."

Always fun to see that good ol' reliable Heinleinian cynicism.

Imagining the human race expanding throughout the galaxy and also growing in numbers up past trillions, is a staggering thought exercise.