The Great Heinlein Juveniles Plus The Other Two Reread 10: Time for the Stars

[james_davis_nicoll]

In which archaic sexism and racism provide unwelcome distraction from dubious physics: Time for the Stars by Robert A. Heinlein


As ever, corrections will not be dealt with until I get home tonight.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's not so much the degree of genetic closeness (and I presume time dilation took care of the age gap), but the "with whom he has shared an intimate mental connection since she was an infant" that is the source of the squick.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

I'd think that you'd _expect_ marriage sorts of relationships to arise from the intimate mental connection, and that the Long Range Foundation's ethics board having a bad case of the stupids because so many of the original telepath pairs were twins is the kindest explanation.

So I think it's plenty squicky but not especially for the marriage at the end.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

You'd expect, but you'd probably be wrong. See the stuff on intermarriage amongst kibbutz kids. Being raised in close proximity tends to induce asexual sibling relationships, regardless of genetics. I'd expect the telepathy thing to do similar.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

The telepathy is not a peer relationship, and not a same-age relationship; the sibling detection wetware doesn't get triggered. (and never mind that probably has something to do with smell.)

You're basically plugging an infant into an eighteen year old. If the infant stays plugged in, they get influenced.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Does any influence go the other way?

"Why shouldn't I poop whenever I feel like it?"

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Telepathy is sui generis so I have few expectations of it. You could get Westermarck effect, or you could not. As Gradyon says, no smell, no sight, no physical interaction.

And if it's an "intimate" mental connection... well, how intimate?