Re: I Can't Believe It's Not Heinlein

On 2006-02-06 09:42:34 -0800, jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx (James Nicoll) said:

In article <2006020609225427544-kurtbusiek@aolcom>,
Kurt Busiek <kurtbusiek@xxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2006-02-06 09:13:37 -0800, jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx (James Nicoll) said:
One big difference that I saw from my model and the one
the Jupiter series used is that in the ones I saw, the kid was generally faced with two crises, one big and one small. The kid
would deal with the little one on his own but some external
force would deal with the big one.

I'm not remembering all the details, but is that truly alien to Heinlein? Don't books like SPACE CADET, STARMAN JONES and RED PLANET have crises that the lead affects and then authority takes over and based on what the kid did, is able to solve the big crisis? [In the case of JONES, actually, it's the other way around -- he solves the big crisis, authority solves what has become by then the secondary crisis that he joined the crew under false papers.]

RED PLANET, maybe, but not the other two. In SPACE CADET,
the kids get themselves off the planet on their own and in JONES,
he gets the ship back to civilization.

Sure, but in SPACE CADET, don't they make peace with the aliens and figure out the hows and whys on the native trouble (while chugging maple syrup), but then the larger authority structure uses what they've learned to fix the planetwide problem? And in JONES, he gets the ship back to civilization, where he faces the problem he can't solve -- his disciplinary hearing.

I may be merely misunderstanding what you're saying. Still, it seems even Heinlein didn't consistently follow your model -- there are numerous crises too big for the leads to solve alone; they try, they often point the way for others to succeed, but it's enough of an open pattern that it doesn't seem to be a necessity.

kdb

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: I Cant Believe Its Not Heinlein
    ... the Jupiter series used is that in the ones I saw, the kid was ... STARMAN JONES and RED PLANET ... crisis, authority solves what has become by then the secondary crisis ...
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  • Re: I Cant Believe Its Not Heinlein
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