THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS
By Robert A. Heinlein
A Tom Doherty Associate Book
382 pgs
I discovered science fiction while a
high school. As it was always intended to do, the genre fired my imagination aided
me to looking beyond the every day world I inhabited and explore the infinite
possibilities of what the future might bring. This was the early 60s, the
amazing leap from turn century flight to the world reaching for the Moon had
all happened within relatively short moment in human history. And I was
discovering new and amazing writers every day; names like Isaac Asimov, Ray
Bradbury, Arthur C. Clark, Gordon Dickinson, Frank Herbert and Robert Heinlein.
Among all of them, Heinlein stood higher on my list as his range of fiction
went from the silly, to the sarcastic and eventually the political. In a unique
voice, he mirrored the world we will lived in and skewered its shortcomings and
lack of vision whenever necessary.
A graduate of the Naval Academy and
veteran of World War II, there was no arguing is patriotism or love of country,
but the man detested the inherent tyranny of all formal government and by the
end of his life was a staunch Libertarian. Government will always be evil and
the antagonist of personal freedom and responsibility. Government breeds slavery.
He was never more forceful about liberty and the sacredness of individual
rights than in his masterwork, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
In the distant future the moon has
become a penal colony and convicts sent there work on giant tunnel farms
producing wheat for the Earth’s population. As generations pass, the “Loonies”
born there begin to chafe at their unjust servitude. Whereas gaining their
independence is impossible until a computer tech named Manuel Davis discovers
the giant computer that controls nearly all of the satellite’s functions has
become self-aware; alive for want of a better term. Mannie dubs the computer
Mike. Only then does the possibility of a successful rebellion become viable
and when Davis joins forces with a political anarchist named Professor La Paz
and a rebellious hellion named Wyoming Knott. Thus the book is about three
humans and a computer waging a war of independence and it is masterfully
written with many of Heinlein’s political views scattered throughout. It is a
thought provoking adventure while at the same time offering a realistic view on
the physical challenges that will face men and women who dare venture beyond
the Earth’s bounds.
In the course of a lifetime, I’ve
read thousands of books. Most I’ve forgotten weeks after finishing them. A
select group, maybe a few dozen became cherished whereas only a handful reached
a point in my memories where it was necessary to go back and re-read them. In
re-reading “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” over fifty years later, I realize
it’s daring in challenging authority is what molded a great deal of my own
life’s personal philosophies. Good or bad, it subtly shaped the way I think and
see the world. Re-reading was very much like going home again.
