/lit/ - Literature

Well this was... something. Probably the thiccest standalone sf book I've ever read.

I really liked the long philosophical musings, the satire, the euphemisms etc. I think Heinlein's writing is a lot less dry than the other Big Three.

I really liked Jubal Harshaw, especially when he BTFOd the government using his knowledge of the law. It has always been a power fantasy of mine to be able to do this.

The second half was worse, though. I wish it didn't decide to literally have no plot at all (which says something since the plot in the first half is also relatively thin).

Why did he choose Fosterism to be the stand-in for Christian fundamentalism in the novel? After all, it supported hedonism and free love almost as much as the CoAW. Seems like they weren't that different.

Also the beginning of the novel says that character names are supposed to have hidden meanings, but I couldn't figure it out by myself; and when I looked it up the only thing I could find was:

>Michael means "who is like God," and his life has a lot of parallels to Jesus'.
>Jubal means "ram's horn," and, yeah, he's stubborn as a ram and willing to butt heads with anyone, any time.
>Gillian (Jill) means "Child of the gods." She becomes one of Mike's high priestesses. During one Church of All Worlds service, Mike refers to her as "'Frigg!'…'Ge!'…'Devil'…'Ishtar!'…'Maryam!'" (31.124) and a host of other god/goddess names.
>And Rebecca—Madame Vesant's first name—means "to tie or connect." This lady serves as Agnes's connection to the stars as an astrologer, but more importantly, she connects Jubal to Joe Douglas in Chapter 16.

which sounds kind of vague and unimpressive to me. I really don't grok it.