reading (Friday)
Apr. 23rd, 2007 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorI finished re-reading "Friday" in a marathon session last night. Why does that "oh, just a little bit more" even come into my head? I turned the last page and turned off the light just before midnight with a raging headache from eyestrain. Silly person.
Anyway, I last read "Friday" so long ago that I'd forgotten most of the plot. Occasionally I'd come upon a bit that I remembered, but on the whole it was a new book for me.
All the Heinlein favorites are here, beautiful people with marvelous brains and exotic professions, political commentary, social commentary, group marriages, reproductive fetish, and action. The social and political commentary take a back seat to the action plot, which works. Heinlein lets the reader and his main character stop and breath every now and then, but not much.
The rape and torture scene in the first 30 pages is perhaps necessary, but I'm not sure Heinlein's treatment of it later in the book is necessary. According to Friday's own words, to her sex is no different than hugging, talking, eating, etc. She was given basic prostitute training early in life, then later given mental training of how to deal with rape and torture as part of her professional basic. But, it comes up periodically throughout the book and Friday seems to be reacting to it more emotionally than that initial statement. Perhaps this was Heinlein's way of showing how human Friday was despite her protestations to the contrary.
Also, why didn't Friday try the address her Boss had given her to memorize. At first I thought this was a plot hole, but maybe it was a good way of showing just how sheltered a life she had lead: she followed orders, took assignments, and vacationed in her free time. She didn't make up her own assignments and was used to not asking more than need to know.
Pet peeve: Heinlein loves group marriages and he likes to have women love each other, but he's definitely go that 70's sensibility about it. It's okay if the girls love each other and cuddle, but they aren't really that way, they really prefer men most of the time. Why? Why are all the group marriages so conspicuously heterosexual-couple-centric?
28. Robert A. Heinlein "Friday"
Anyway, I last read "Friday" so long ago that I'd forgotten most of the plot. Occasionally I'd come upon a bit that I remembered, but on the whole it was a new book for me.
All the Heinlein favorites are here, beautiful people with marvelous brains and exotic professions, political commentary, social commentary, group marriages, reproductive fetish, and action. The social and political commentary take a back seat to the action plot, which works. Heinlein lets the reader and his main character stop and breath every now and then, but not much.
The rape and torture scene in the first 30 pages is perhaps necessary, but I'm not sure Heinlein's treatment of it later in the book is necessary. According to Friday's own words, to her sex is no different than hugging, talking, eating, etc. She was given basic prostitute training early in life, then later given mental training of how to deal with rape and torture as part of her professional basic. But, it comes up periodically throughout the book and Friday seems to be reacting to it more emotionally than that initial statement. Perhaps this was Heinlein's way of showing how human Friday was despite her protestations to the contrary.
Also, why didn't Friday try the address her Boss had given her to memorize. At first I thought this was a plot hole, but maybe it was a good way of showing just how sheltered a life she had lead: she followed orders, took assignments, and vacationed in her free time. She didn't make up her own assignments and was used to not asking more than need to know.
Pet peeve: Heinlein loves group marriages and he likes to have women love each other, but he's definitely go that 70's sensibility about it. It's okay if the girls love each other and cuddle, but they aren't really that way, they really prefer men most of the time. Why? Why are all the group marriages so conspicuously heterosexual-couple-centric?
28. Robert A. Heinlein "Friday"
