I recently attended Cosine science fiction convention in Colorado. The always gracious Connie Willis was Guest of Honor. One of the things she spoke about was how Robert Heinlein changed everything.
My college training in English left me thinking it was Hemingway who changed everything. So let’s look at the dates. Hemingway’s first book came out in 1923. He stopped writing in 1961, although his estate put out a number of books posthumously. Heinlein’s first stories appeared in 1939, and his first book publication wasn’t until 1947. He stopped writing with To Sail Beyond the Sunset in 1987.
And let’s look at the memes. Can you recall a line from Hemingway that still resonates? (Nope, he was quoting ‘For whom the bell tolls’.) How about these: Specialization is for insects. An armed society is a polite society. Love is that condition in which the happiness of another is essential to your own. All Heinlein.
Do you use a waterbed or a Roomba? Recognize the words ‘waldo’ and ‘grok’? All Heinlein.
It was of Heinlein that Tom Clancy wrote: “We proceed down the path marked by his ideas. He shows us where the future is.”
They both wrote clean, elegant prose that contrasts strongly with the style that proceeded them. (Think Lovecraft.) They both moved the emphasis from interpretation to action. But Heinlein believed in progress and space, and Hemingway ultimately despaired.
I argue with Heinlein sometimes. I also know that my thinking about the future reflects his words at many levels.
I’m glad to be living in the world he wrote.