I recently read something where the author thought it ridiculous that Heinlein's was considered one of the three great masters of SF, along with Asimov and Clarke. Several people supported this idea and my impression was that he was seen as a hack.

I think people are missing the context of Heinlein's writing. Looking back at it from our place in time we see shlock, sexism, and political propaganda. But when he first began writing, he broke new ground in a field seen as just pulp trash fiction. He and the other two, brought science fiction into respectability as a legitimate genre.

His first stories were less pulp and more scientific and and adventurous. As he progressed, he wrote adventures about families, not just men on ships. He not only included women (almost unheard of in popular sf at the time) but the women were integral to the story, not a blob off to the side that all the men were hot for. His sexist views on women were normal, even forward for the time and they were very ahead of their time in science fiction sf.

The annoying comments by women that they were smarter then men but just let the men think otherwise was shocking because at that time women in sf were never in on the heroics, didn't really have a brain at all. He wrote this stuff before Star Trek and that show was hailed as groundbreaking in having a female officer.

As time went on, he used his plots to make political commentary, another uncommon thing in sf. That I don't agree with his politics is irrelevant: he made space in the genre for this to become popular. Later he changed the scene again by including sex and sensuality to sf. He included the late 60's ideas of free love in a book written in 1961! The main problem is that he didn't change with the times, remaining stuck in his sexism after the women's movement and not breaking new ground at all.

Heinlein's started writing this stuff for the pulp sf trade in the late 1930's/early 40's I think. What adventure stories of that time had women and families? What science fiction adventure stories for kids had a female protagonist, one who was brave and smart and capable?

We can hate his sexism and politicking now now but he was definitely one of the most influential writers of science fiction. ( )

I recently read something where the author thought it ridiculous that Heinlein's was considered one of the three great masters of SF, along with Asimov and Clarke. Several people supported this idea and my impression was that he was seen as a hack.

I think people are missing the context of Heinlein's writing. Looking back at it from our place in time we see shlock, sexism, and political propaganda. But when he first began writing, he broke new ground in a field seen as just pulp trash fiction. He and the other two, brought science fiction into respectability as a legitimate genre.

His first stories were less pulp and more scientific and and adventurous. As he progressed, he wrote adventures about families, not just men on ships. He not only included women (almost unheard of in popular sf at the time) but the women were integral to the story, not a blob off to the side that all the men were hot for. His sexist views on women were normal, even forward for the time and they were very ahead of their time in science fiction sf.

The annoying comments by women that they were smarter then men but just let the men think otherwise was shocking because at that time women in sf were never in on the heroics, didn't really have a brain at all. He wrote this stuff before Star Trek and that show was hailed as groundbreaking in having a female officer.

As time went on, he used his plots to make political commentary, another uncommon thing in sf. That I don't agree with his politics is irrelevant: he made space in the genre for this to become popular. Later he changed the scene again by including sex and sensuality to sf. He included the late 60's ideas of free love in a book written in 1961! The main problem is that he didn't change with the times, remaining stuck in his sexism after the women's movement and not breaking new ground at all.

Heinlein's started writing this stuff for the pulp sf trade in the late 1930's/early 40's I think. What adventure stories of that time had women and families? What science fiction adventure stories for kids had a female protagonist, one who was brave and smart and capable?

We can hate his sexism and politicking now now but he was definitely one of the most influential writers of science fiction. ( )