As for homophobia, I agree with #13 (Peter). It’s a way to make him seem utterly alienated by the new society.

I think the accusation of homophobia is interesting in itself. I read this when I was a kid. After I went off to college, my mom came across it and leafed through it. She thought it was a depraved promotion of homosexuality. We see what we want to see and we see what we fear.

#19: Taintmaster, counterexample: The Red Badge of Courage

This has been one of my favourites since I was 14..
I’m so happy, I’ve been thinking of a movie adaptation for this for years…

To repeat: YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

I highly recommend both to those unfamiliar with his work.

Spider Robinson tells a story about being in line behind Joe Haldeman at one of RAH’s book-signings at an SF convention after Forever War was published. Mr. Robinson overheard a couple of fans saying somthing to the effect of “OMG, He’s going up to Heinlein after making a huge parody of his book! Heinlein will devour him!”

Upon which RAH promptly told Mr. Haldeman something to the effect that he thought Forever War might just be the finest science fiction war story he had ever read.

Mr. Haldeman was apparently floating about with a very happy dazed expression. (apologies to Spider this is from memory …)

I think Starship Troopers has gotten a bad rap (“Hitler Youth meets Mickey Mouse Club”).
I see Starship Troopers more as an examination of the accidental development of a Spartan culture, with some very clear imagining about a society with a voting franchise that required willingness to provably commit ones self to actual physical and mental sacrifice. (“Putting one’s body between the Body Politic and War’s Desolation, or some such Capitalized Sentiment) I seem to recall that even physically handicapped people were given something to the limit of their abilities so they could qualify for the vote. And that was all they got. One vote. No other rights or privilges were extended.

It was definitely food for thought. That being said, I was really, really pissed off when I saw that one has to be registered 29 days before election in my home state. Scoundrels.

At another panel at WorldCon he also said that he wrote a homosexual protagonist in one of his more recent works (unfortunately I can’t recall which one) partly as an apology for the way he treated them in The Forever War.

“The majority of people have suddenly decided to become homosexual” would be like saying people in China ‘decided’ to only have one child.

If you found anything but individual character’s reactions homophobic, you have missed the thrust of the book.

IMHO, it was Heinlein trying to get across the EXPERIENCE of being a combat soldier (you go thru boot camp w/ ‘Juan Rico’ as well as his reasons for joining up- for example: his boot camp was a much more strenuous thing than the movie showed), along with a few monologues on the reasons fighting men fight, and have fought throughout history (besides the usual megalomaniacs).
The movie, however, in order to fit in a 2-hour slot, really gutted the story in order to make it a run-of-the-mill ‘soldiers in space’ movie. It was somewhat enjoyable to me, but my favorite parts of the story (and props) were completely missing.
I still want a powered (and armored) combat suit, so that I too may look like ‘an encephalic gorilla’ w/ automatic grenade launchers, built-in radio and radar, etc., etc.

Haldeman was trying to show a future where conventional 1970s mores were overturned. You know the cranky old teacher you had in school, always mumbling about the rap music and teenage pregnancies and how everything was better way back when? Haldeman’s trying to put the reader in that situation (and I think he did it with a lot more deftly than Aldous Huxley did.)

How they’ll achieve that sense of future shock now, I have no idea. Maybe have everyone living in cans, copulating with plant life, or bring back Art Deco, whatever.

–Devin

For anyone reading these comments, take them at face value or less. The homosexual aspects of the story are light & anecdotal and simply add to the fish out of water aspect of the main character. Do not avoid reading the book based on this. It is an excellent read.

http://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Dexter-Filkins/dp/0307266397

Whatever. All I know is, Bladerunner and the first two Alien movies are some of my all-time favorites, so I’m looking forward to see how Scott does with this project.

Sure, the books always have more in them than the movies, but that’s fine. It’s two different mediums, and most people don’t want to sit through a Dune-like epic every time they visit the theater or pop in a DVD. The trick to a good movie is in conveying the same basic point as the book.

Eric Nylund makes the point in Signal to Noise that China’s one child only policy results in a male society with too few women. So more men are stuck with gay love, or no love at all. Oh well.

Okay, I’ll try that sometime! Thanks for the great idea, Jeff!

i missed all the religious elements in “Androids”.
“Blade Runner” was worth it but i wonder if it could have been a good film with the religion.

i like to think it could have…

There’s several versions of the novel THE FOREVER WAR.

One section of the book (when the veterans return to Earth), Haldeman rewrote at the advice of the editor.

Later Haldeman released a new version with the excised part restored.

Like a lot of Director’s Cuts, I think the originally published version is the better one, but it’s worth hunting down both versions.

There’s a sequel of sorts to THE FOREVER WAR, FOREVER FREE, which isn’t so great as a sequel, but is an interesting read in its own right.

Also, Haldeman wrote a novella for Robert Silverberg’s anthology FAR HORIZONS called A SEPARATE WAR that tells Marygay’s experience during the war. It was later republished in A SEPARATE WAR AND OTHER STORIES.

And there was a three part FOREVER WAR graphic novel done by artist Marvano.

One time I caught a bit of the 1990 movie ROBOT JOX on TV (Screenplay by Haldeman), and was surprised to hear some dialogue right out of THE FOREVER WAR made it into the movie. At first, I thought, “Wait, when did they do a FOREVER WAR movie?!”