review of Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love"

review of

Robert Heinlein's

"Time Enough for Love"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

2341. "review of Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love""

- complete review

- credited to: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

- uploaded to my Critics website June 16, 2025

- http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticHeinleinLove.html

review of

Robert Heinlein's

"Time Enough for Lovve"

by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - June 14-16, 2025

The complete review is here:

http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticHeinleinLove.html

the truncated review is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7656180997

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1017190.Time_Enough_For_Love

I've been on a bit of a Heinlein spree, having read an Alexi Panshin critique of his work, & having read the entire "The Past Through Tomorrow" , & I'll be reading the 1st bk of a biography about him eventually. As I've probably written many times before, I discovered Heinlein as a child, probably when I was between 10 & 13, & liked his work very much until I read one that was little more than soft incest porn disguised as SF. I moved on from him after that. Still, I revisited his work from time-to-time & generally liked it although it lacked some of the subtleties & some of the complexities that other SF writers that I'd discovered had. Reading "The Past Through Tomorrow" reinvigorated my appreciation for him, I think it's fabulous & very important.

"Time Enough for Love"?! Was this the 1st of his incest novels? He goes to great lengths to establish a variety of scientific possibilities that make incest AOK. If that's all this bk were about I'd probably have trouble recommending it. The main character, Lazarus Long appeared at the end of "The Past Through Tomorrow" & I was glad to see his saga continued. Long is a member of the "Howard Families", people who've genetically bred for longevity. Long makes it to over 4,000 yrs old (the back cover has him dating from "1916-4272" but his birthyr is actually 1912). We meet him about halfway. B/c he's lived to be so old he's had "time enough for love", time enough for relationships of great substance to him, time enough to figure out what love really means to him. Heinlein explores the theme in substantial depth - plowing thru various interplanetary & time-travel adventures along the way. I admit to finding it somewhat tedious fairly often & to being a bit surprised that a publisher wd touch this - but, in the long run, I found it (provisionally) excellent.

"On the Writing of History

"History has the relation to truth that theology has to religion-i.e., none to speak of.

"-L.L." - p ix

Since there's continuity w/ "The Past Through Tomorrow", we re-encounter references to the now dear departed Libby, a natural-botn math prodigy of great importance to the inventions that made FTL space travel possible: "I am a direct-and-reinforced descendant of Andrew Jackson Slipstick Libby himself." (p x)

"The Howard Families Foundation was established by the will of Ira Howard, who died in 1873. His will instructed the trustees of the foundation to use his money to "prolong human life." This is fact." - p xii

Lazarus Long's wisdom is the central thread of this epic. Early on, he rejects IDs: "["]Ira, no doubt you mean well but I don't like set-ups where ID's are necessary. I told myself centuries back to stay away from places crowded enough to require them["]"

"When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere." - p 244

"But I have almost a year to plan it. It is easy here to be anything you claim to be-no identification cards, no computer codes, no thumbprints, no tax numbers. Mind you, this planet now has as mnay people as Secundus has (will have-your "now")-yet births are not even registered in much of this country (mine was not, other than with the Families), and a man is whoever he says he is! There are no formalities about leaving this country. It is slightly more difficult to get back in, but I have endless time to cpe with that." - p 467

I direct the reader to B. Traven's "Death Ship".

Required IDs are not only the nemesis of the criminal, they're the nemesis of the honest - & troublemakers can be either (for that matter, so can law-makers).

""That's what I intended," Lazarus agreed. "But-Son, it's your pidgin and I'll never touch that gavel again-but I have doubts about the wisdom of getting rid of troublemakers. Every loaf needs yeast. A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill. Sheep, Pyramid builders at best, decadent savages at worst. You may be eliminating your creative one-tenth of one percent. Your yeast."" - p 8

These days, the term "Sheeple" has been created to describe those that follow-the-leader-w/o-reason. It's probably obvious that I consider my self to be somewhat in the troublemaker camp - nonetheless, I find Heinlein's metaphoric "yeast" to be a bit flimsy in its romanticism - it's also out-of-character w/ earlier writings of his where he's very anti-anarchist & fellow travelers. Heinlein also speaks out in favor of one's natural immune system - something I'm a big supporter of.

"["]scalp-to-toe sterilization of skin, hair, ears, nails, teeth, nose throat-even a gas inhalation which I can't name but did not like-while my clothes were sterilized even more["]

[..]

""Ira, such precautions are silly. Unless my immunity has been intentionally lowered?"" - p 16

"Lazarus scowled and bit his lip. "Son, one of the few things I've learned is that humans hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn-when they do, which isn't often-on their own, the hard way."" - p 19

Waddaya think? Sometimes I think I've accumulated some 'wisdom' in my 71 yrs - wisdom meaning opinions based on observation that can be successfully applied. HOWEVER, the likelihood of anyone biding my wisdom is small-to-almost-nonexistent - partially b/c I'm not a societally approved source. Some time ago when a friend of mine asked me whether I thought 'drugs were the answer' & I told her NO I was hoping that my opinion wd carry some weight. That doesn't seem to've been the case since my friend's life seems to've been reduced to self-destructive chaos in wch drugs appear to play a major part. NONETHELESS, learning from one's own experience strikes me as 'valid' - however, being able to incorporate other people's experience in a way sensitive to its possible inadequacies seems like it shd be part of that - when it's not, one's own experience can be rather myopic, eh?

""Then you don't believe in an afterlife?"

""Slow up! I don't 'believe' in anything. I know certain things-little things, not the Nine Billion Names of God-from experience. But I have no beliefs. Belief gets in the way of learning."" - p 20

Yes, in the sense that belief is prejudicial. If you've grown up in a perpetually snowy environment you might believe that that's all there is, that that's all that's possible - so what happens to that belief when you're transplanted to a warmer clime? Presumably, most people will adapt to their new perceptions - but what about the true beleievers?! I'm using a melodramatic example that's not likely to happen - but what about people who form their beliefs on a mediated environment? Their prejudicies are much harder to re-educate.

"["]'Common sense'?"

""Son, that phrase is self-contradictory. 'Sense' is never 'common.'["]" - p 26

Ha ha! Well that's a bit cynical. It's probably Common Sense for humans to not drink water w/ a turd floating in it - & I'm sure there're many other examples equally obvious. Heinlein's implication that being sensible isn't common is fair enuf but maybe a bit too nasty.

& then Heinlein's character Lazarus anticipates SpellCheck, something potentially useful turned insidious:

""Good, do it that way. But tell it not to correct my grammar. Human editors are difficult enough; I won't accept such upstart behavior from a machine."" - p 27

OOOOOOOOhhhhh, how I can relate! Note that his 2nd sentence starts w/ "But".

This tale of Lazarus begins w/ his plans for suicide interrupted by descendents of his who want to reinvigorate his life out of respect for his incredible accomplishments.

"["]Hmm- The situation is not quite as it appears to be; he has suicided four times already."

""What?"

""Oh, he doesn't remember it. If you think his memory is bad now, you should have seen him three months ago. Actually, it speeds up our work every time he does it. His switch" [that he was going to commit suicide w/] "-when he had it-was gimmicked; it simply made him unconscious, then we would go ahead with whatever stage was next while hypnoing more of his memory tapes into him. But we had to stop that-and remove the switch-a few days ago; he remembered who he is."

"But- That's not by the Canons! 'Death is every man's privilege.' ""- pp 37-38

I've only made it to 71 & I have more than enuf reason to find suicide alluring, it's hard to imagine making it to 2,000 & not having that morbidity even more prominent.

"David had always followed his own opinion-against the whole world if necessary." - p 70

Once again, I can relate - what was probably my largest test of my personal strength yet was when I witnessed almost everyone I know become BELIEVERS in a pandemic that I found preposterous. Contrary to people's predictions, I'm still alive - despite not having bowed down to the Doctor Gods & submiited - I'm also still widely shunned. Nonetheless, I'd rather go "against the whole world if necessary" than become mired in a delusion constructed to serve economic purposes at my expense. Better a clear-headed thinker than brain-washed.

Heinlein's certainly a futuristic thinker, in the following passage he provides a much more realistic version of a 'sex change' than today's shallow fake version:

"["]It works best in changing a male to a female. A single cell is selected for cloning. Before cloning is started, the Y chromosome is removed an an X chromosome from a second cell of the same zygote is supplied, thus creating a female cell of the same genetic pattern as the zygote save that the X chromosome is replicated while the Y chromosome is eliminated. The modified cell is then cloned. The result is a true female clone-zygote derived from a male original."" - p 103

Lazarus recounts saving some slaves & reraising them, encouraging their being a couple even though they're genetically differently sexed twins - after meticulously going over their genetic make-up to decide that there was an extremely minimal chance of their producing progeny w/ reinforced recessive genes. He taught them to read.

"mostly I let them wallow in stories-The Just So Stories, and the Oz books, and Alice in Wonderland, and A Child's Garden of Verses, and Two Little Savages, and such. Too limited; they were books from my childhood" - p 176

W/ the exception of Two Little Savages these are also bks from MY childhood, even though Heinlein was born in 1907, 46 yrs earlier than me. People born 46 yrs later than me, in 1999, wd've read what? As childhood bks? I doubt that Kipling or Stevenson wd've been part of their upbringing.. Baum might've been, Carroll might've been. Imagine having written something so engaging, so awe-inspiring, so wonderful that kids wd still be reading it a century or more after yr death! I don't think my bks stand a chance - I can't even get people to read them in my lifetime.

The 2 ex-slaves have their 1st child:

""Uh-" she said breathlessly. "I-I'm starting another one!"

""Bear down, dear!" I made sure my left foot was positioned for the gravistat control and watched her belly.

"Big one! As it peaked, I switched from two-quarter gravity up to two gravities almost in one motion-and Llita let out a yip and the baby squirted like a ripe watermelon seed right into my hands." - pp 203-204

This epic takes the reader thru alot [portmanteau intentional], this description of a birth on a spaceship being pretty indicative of the overall scope.

"The computer replied, " 'Incest' is a legal term, not a biological one. It designates sexual union between persons forbidden by law to marry. The act itself is forbidden; whther such union results in progeny is irrelevant. The prohibitions vary widely among cultures and are usually, but not always, based on degrees of consanguinity."

""Y'r durn tootin' it's 'not always.' There are cultures which permit first cousins to marry-generally risky-but forbid a man to marry his brother's widow, which involves no more risk than it did for the first union. When I was a youngster you could find one rule in one state, then cross an invisible line and find exactly opposite laws fifty feet away. Or some times and places both unions might be mandatory. Or forbidden. Endless rules, endless definitions for incest, and rarely any logic to them. Minerva, far as I recall, the Howard families are the first group in history to reject the legalistic approach and to define 'incest' solely in terms of genetic hazard."" - pp 221-222

Some of Heinlein's claims as presented thru Lazarus are hard for me to believe, in particular: "When I was a youngster you could find one rule in one state, then cross an invisible line and find exactly opposite laws fifty feet away." Exactly opposite? That strikes me as possible but not likely. SO, I did a search online for "variations in incest laws state by state in the US in 1925" & got this "AI Overview":

"In 1925, incest laws across the United States varied considerably, reflecting the diverse legal and social attitudes of the time.

General Trends:

· Criminalization: In most states, incest was criminalized and considered a felony or at least a high misdemeanor.

· Definition: Incest generally involved sexual intercourse between individuals related by blood within prohibited degrees of consanguinity.

· Punishment: Maximum sentences for incest varied widely, with some states imposing heavier penalties for certain relationships, such as father-daughter incest.

Key Variations:

· Rhode Island and New Jersey: These states appeared as exceptions, as incest between consenting adults (above the age of consent) was not a criminal offense, though marriage remained prohibited.

· Ohio: This state primarily criminalized incest when a parental figure was involved, allowing relationships between consenting adults if one was not a parent, step-parent, or guardian.

· Colorado, Nebraska, and New Jersey: These states imposed harsher sentences for fathers involved in incest compared to other male offenders.

· North Carolina: Differentiated penalties based on the closeness of the relationship, with more severe consequences for immediate family members.

· West Virginia: Annulled cousin marriages but did not punish the participants.

· Louisiana: Prohibited sexual intercourse between biological family members but did not include stepchildren and stepparents."

Now, strictly speaking, that's not the 1st "AI Overview" I got, I accidentally left the 1st result & when I asked the exact same question less than a minute later I got the above. This has similar information but is formatted dramatically different. At any rate, I don't find Heinlein's claim substantiated - there's no "exact opposite", more variations of similar nature. That doesn't mean that Heinlein's claim is necessarily not true but I don't, personally, believe it.

Lazarus Long's philosophizing continues:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - p 248

Ha ha! I quite agree w/ Heinlein's diatribe against specialization but my priorities are quite different.

Heinlein manages to squeeze in a long section that combines a pioneer narrative set on a non-Earth planet w/ one of Long's great loves:

"I couldn't let that happen even once. Not ever <i>risk</i> letting it happen. We could lose one wagon and six mules and still go on. But I was not expendable. (Dora would not be in the wagon.) If that wagon cut loose, my chances of jumping clear would be so-so.

"If the grade was steep enough to give me even a trace of doubt that I could hold a wagon with its brakes, we did it the hard way: used that expensive imported line to check it down such pitches. Lead the line out fair and free for running, pass the bitter end three times around a tree stout enough to anchor it, secure it to the rear axle-then our four steadiest mules, Ken and Daisy, Beau and Belle, would take the wagon down at a slow walk (no driver) following Buck, while I kept tension on the line, paying it out very slowly." - p 308

"The first summer I was able to farm I killed more than a hundred dragons in trying to save my crops . . which was a defeat for me and a victory for the dragons. Not only was the stench terrible (what can you do with a carcass that big?), but, far worse, I was running out of charges and they didn't seem to be running out of dragons." - p 314

"I recall two young couples who decided to combine their farms, then built a house big enough by adding to the larger of their two houses and making the other into a barn. Nobody asked who slept with whom; it was taken for granted that it was then a four-cornered marriage, and no doubt had been one before they enlarged that house and pooled their goods. Nobody's business but theirs." - p 339

That seems like the porn version of such a relationship. Having been in a menage-à-trois, I found that emotional complications were rampant & I don't think my experience was unusual.

"If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for . . but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong." - p 346

Really? Voting by the above strategy still means that you're voting for something that you're against. I'm sick & tired of this 'lesser of 2 evils' bullshit.

"Those who refuse to support and defend a state have no claim to protection by that state. Killing an anarchist or a pacifist should not be defined as "murder" in a legalistic sense."

[..]

"However, the state may reasonably place a closed season on these exotic asocial animals whenever they are in danger of becoming extinct. An authentic buck pacifist has rarely been seen off Earth, and it is doubtful that any have survived the trouble there . . regrettable, as they had the biggest mouths and the smallest brains of any of the primates.

"The small-mouthed variety of anarchist has spread through the Galaxy at the very wave front of the Diaspora; there is no need to protect them. But the often shoot back." - pp 346-347

Ha ha! What happened to "I have doubts about the wisdom of getting rid of troublemakers. Every loaf needs yeast. A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill."?! Heinlein's (somewhat) inconsistent, I'm glad he's dead. Then again, he DID question Jesus.

"Justin Foote looked surprised. "You mean the Christian Messiah? Admittedly many stories about him are myths, but-"

""How do you know they are myths? But that he ever lived is the point that has never been established. Take Socrates, four centuries earler-his historicity is as firmly established as that of Napoleon. Not so with the Carpenter of Nazareth. Despite the care with which the Romans kept records and the equal care with which the Jews kept theirs, none of the events that should be on record can be found in contemporary records." - p 357

Then again, the main theme of this bk is love, so we may as well move away from religion, where love is only a smokescreen.

"["]Babies or big computers-they become aware through being given lots of personal attention. 'Love' as it's usually valled.["]" - pp 373-374

While this is more philosophical than adventurous Heinlein still manages to throw in time travel.

"["]well, a man who refuses to take his own death into account in making plans is a fool. A self-centered fool who does not love anyone."" - p 432

Minerva, the master computer, becomes human thru an elaborately described process. Then, of course:

"Her eyes were welling tears, but she stared at him steadily. "I want your child, Lazarus, I will not ask twice . ." - p 433

Never let it be sd that Heinlein isn't thorough in his variations.

""Later, Dora," aid Captain Lorelei, "Now we tell him."

""Oh! All right, I'll be very quiet."

""Tell me what?" demanded Lazarus.

""That it's time for you to impregnate us . . Lazarus."

""Both of us," agreed Lapis Lazuli.

"Lazarus counted ten chimpanzees in his mind-then ten more. "Absolutely out of the question!"

"They glanced at each other. Lorelei said:

""We knew you would say that-"" - pp 441-442

Given all the medical possibilities of this predicted future, Lazarus's family relations are more than a bit complicated.

"["]We are artificial constructs, and the soi-disant 'incest' mores of another time and utterly different circumstances don't apply to us and you know it; that's just an excuise to avoid something you don't want to do. Coupling with us might be masturbation, but it can't be incest because we aren't your sisters. We aren't your kin in any normal sense; we're you. Every gene of us comes from you." - p 448

The eagerness to get impregnated by Lazarus is predicated on his being about to go on a dangerous time travel excursion in wch he might get killed. Once he's back to the time shortly after he was born he sends letters to his future companions who'e scheduled to pick him up in their space-ship.

"Dear Laz-Lor,

"This is the second of many letters I will attempt to send, using all the Delay Mail drops Justin suggested-three law firms, Chase National Bank, a time-capsule to be forwarded with instructions to a Dr. Gordon Hardy via W. W. Smith via a safe-deposit box (unreliable coot, that Smith; he'll probably open it and thereby destroy it ,-although I don't recall it, either way), and all the other dodges I memorized. If I can get just <i>one</i> into the Archives just before the Diaspora, it should be delivered when you ask for it, late in Greg. 4291 by the schedule we worked out." - p 460

Heinlein, thorough, as usual, is thinking about the details of how to send messages to the future that may survive thousands of yrs. Yes, Long has time-travelled back to shortly after the time of his birth. It's 1916, he was born in 1912.

"The major commercial entertainment is called "moving pictures"-dramatic shows presented as silent black-and-white shadow pictures flickering against a blank wall. These are quire new, very popular, and very cheap-they are called "nickle shows" after the minor coin charged a a fee. Each neighborhood (defined as waling distance) has at least one such theater. This form of entertaibment, and its technological derivatives, eventually had (will have) as much to do with the destruction os this social pattern as the automobile carriages" - p 469

It's fascinating to me how technological changes can reshape society. The TV drove Vaudeville out, making it difficult for some very talented people to survive. What are 'smart phones' doing? Bk reading, something presumably precious to Goodreads people, is being increasingly marginalized after centuries of central importance to scholariness.

Lazarus meets his mother, who, of course, is unaware that he's her son come back from the future as a much older man. Long immediately falls in lust w/ her.

"Ira Johnson unlocked the front door, then called out as he opened it: "Maureen! I have company with me."

""Coming, Father." Mrs. Smith met them in the hall, moving with serene dignity and dressed as if she expected callers. She smiled, and Lazarus suppressed his excitement.

""Maureen, I want to present Mr. Theodore Brosnon. My daughter, Ted-Mrs. Brian Smith."

"She offered her hand. "You are most welcome, Mr. Bronson," Mrs. Smith said in warm, rich tones that made Lazarus think of Tamara.

"Lazarus took her hand gently, felt his fingers tingle, had to restrain himself from making a deep bow, then let go at once. "I am honored, Mrs. Smith."" - p 480

"He had fallen in love with his mother." - p 487

Yes, more complicated incest. It's not like he's a 4 yr old wanting to fuck his mom, he's a couple of thousand yrs old come back from the future (where his mom is long since dead) meeting his mom as an adult when she's very much a sexual being. Ironically, he's prevented from fucking her by his younger self stowing away in the car that they go for a drive in. OK, that's a spoiler but there are so many twists & turns in all this that it's just a speck of dust in the ocean, it hardly matters.

Long, despite his intentions to the contrary, enlists to be a soldier in WWI in order to impress his actual gradfather (who doesn't know who he is) & the mother he's in love w/. Stupid reason.

""Hold up your right hand and repeat after me . . . . . ."

""Hang onto these slips of paper. Be at the station before seven tomorrow morning, show your slip to a sergeant at the information desk; he'll tell you where to board. If you lose your slip of paper, be there anyhow or Uncle Sam will come looking for you. That's all, men, you're in the Army now! Out through that door."" - p 509

WTF, this is another masterpiece from Heinlein, a writer I'm glad to have started to reappreciate after roughly 55 yrs of not respecting him much.

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