Heinlein and Asimov: Questions of the Day

1. For whom are these works written? Is it difficult for works "written for teenage boys" to command respect?

2. What is Heinlein's opinion of women? Where are the women in the story, why are there so few, and what does this mean for gender issues in this story overall? Were the women presented in such a misogynistic way in order to prove a point about the fictional society presented, or due to the author's actual beliefs? Is this misogyny unique to Heinlein? We see Hugh take two wives, one of whom is clearly a victim of domestic assault; is there any way to redeem this narrative construction? Why is such a sexist asshole one of the most famous American science fiction writers?

This is a problem not unique to this text, with several explanations, some bad anthropology, but no excuse.

3. Are the "logical" thinkers in Heinlein and Asimov (who use deductive reasoning correctly but reach ridiculous conclusions) satires of something? Of what? Is there a tension here between observation and "pure" reason?

Or between induction and deduction? Between a literature for engineers and a literature of first principles? What would Hume do?

4. Cutie's reasoning could be interpreted as a parody of how religious thought develops. Was Asimov anti-religion? Does Heinlein think of the Bible as a fiction created by man, just as the "holy scriptures" of the novel are simply the works of NASA-like exploratory scientists? Does SF, in general, mock or oppose religion?

What's up with the Shahada??

5. Why is the Ship spinning? Are the physics plausible?

Actually, yes! Here's why.

6. What do you call one of these?