Time Enough for Love by
Robert A. Heinlein
My rating:
2 of 5 stars
It's not just that there was incest in the book, or that it was long and boring, it was that it was a long and boring book almost entirely for the purpose of justifying incest and almost entirely full of stories of incest in various different futuristic variations. Taboos are taboos for a reason, but Heinlein postulates what if the genetic reason was totally gone?
My answer is that it would still be totally gross because it's still an emotionally messed-up relationship. (Did Heinlein even have children?) For example, the story of Dora- arguably one of the more interesting stories in this novel- is still gross even though she is not related to him. That's because he knew her since she was a child (sufficient in my opinion) and took care of her as if she were his own family.
Heinlein tries to mask how totally abusive these relationships are by writing all the situations in the following format: the girl or woman begs him to ignore their family relationship and sleep with her. He has the women be the aggressors 100% of the time, even though this would never happen in such cases of incest, in order to shed the responsibility of the parent-figure. He knows a more realistic portrait of the adult male being the instigator wouldn't be helpful to his point that incest is okey-dokey.
Even assuming that there's a futuristic world where incest is not a genetic problem and all these women are begging for it, I still have the following objections: 1) as the adult and/or parent-figure he should still say no to Dora, the twins, etc. 2) this futuristic mentality wouldn't account for his mother being exactly like all the futuristic women (it also can't be explained in the inverse, as the futuristic women being her ancestors, as Dora is not related), 3) he doesn't tell his mother who he really is and that's unfair and immoral, though I suppose that in Heinlein's universe she still wouldn't care because he has written everyone as basically amoral.
I am also deeply troubled by Heinlein's inability to distinguish physical attraction from romantic love, and especially from platonic or maternal love. I am also troubled by his general rejection of ethics as linked only to religion and therefore antiquated.
Finally, I am really troubled by some of the reviewers that said things to the effect of, "the incest in this novel didn't bother me that much." Well, did it bother you that the entire book was just a vehicle to argue in favor of incest? No? Well, then maybe time to switch to books about ethics, philosophy, behavioral economics, and parenting because you might be missing some relevant information that you need to add to your worldview. Just a suggestion.
I liked entire concept of Minerva, the computer turned flesh-and-blood human. That would have been a more interesting novel.
P.S. I really hope this isn't your first Heinlein book. I recommend
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and
Stranger in a Strange Land instead.
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