The Forever War
By Joe Haldeman
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The conventional wisdom on this book pigeonholes it as a
response to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. According to
this interpretation, Haldeman’s 1974 anti-war tale is a corrective
to the fascist militarism of Heinlein’s
1959 novel.
One might call this the “whig approach”
to literary criticism – something akin
to what Herbert Butterfield once called
the “Whig interpretation of history.”
It reduces all the complexities and
richness of past fiction to some simple
coordinate based on the conventional
wisdom as of this morning. So Sappho
is only understood in terms of today's
view of gender roles; Hemingway is
dissed because he falls short on the same
scale; Twain moves from being anti-
racist and into the racist camp because
he didn't know the acceptable "framing"
words of the 21st century. Who cares
anymore how these writers related to the value systems of their
times? We judge them based on the prevailing mood of the most
recent MLA. Of course, it hardly occurs to us that we ourselves
may be found wanting according future MLA truisms yet to be
invented.
Under this sledgehammer approach, novels are either written by
progressive authors or reactionary authors, and once you know
which bucket in which to toss any given writer, you are no longer
obliged to read them. And the Whig view of sci-fi makes
Haldeman into the hero and Heinlein into the villain. End of
story.
This approach to fiction is, of course, mind-numbing, but in the
case of Haldeman and Heinlein it is just plain wrong-headed too.
Both The Forever War and Starship Troopers are powerful
books, and both are far more nuanced in their presentation than
the “whigs” would have you believe. Even more to the point, the
attitudes toward militarism, which form only a small part of these
multifaceted works, present less a debate between the two
authors working within the value systems of our time, but more a
chronicle of how the American perspective on war evolved
between 1959 and 1974, the respective publication dates of the
two volumes. (By the way, Haldeman has often lavishly praised
Heinlein and in 2003 joined the board of the Heinlein Society –
which sort of blows the whole Whig case, huh?)
No tears here, my friend. I've never looked good wearing a
Whig.
The virtues of Haldeman’s novel shouldn't be forgotten in all this
noise. It is not a rant. It is a smart, tautly written, creative book
that is artfully paced from start to finish. And pacing is a major
issue with a novel of this sort--the “forever war” lasts 1,143 years,
and even a masterful story-teller could get lost squeezing that into
a 280 page book. Heck, Gibbon needed more than 3,000 pages to
cover the mere decline and fall of the Roman Empire. To some
degree, Haldeman faces the same challenge Asimov undertook in
his Foundation series, which required the compression of an
enormous timeline into a short narrative without losing the
thread or getting lost in the details. A page of “begats” might
suffice to fill in the gaps in the Old Testament, but it hardly works
in the modern novel.
Haldeman not only pulls this off (perhaps better even than
Asimov), but he flourishes in his account of the forever war. We
follow the story through the perspective of William Mandella, the
only soldier to survive the entire course of the war (his longevity
due to the time-space quirks of traveling to battles at faster than
the speed of light. Just trust me on this, and don’t ask for
details). The narrative voice of Mandella is somewhat
reminiscent of the plain-spoken talk of Johnny Rico, the
protagonist of Starship Troopers, and it is here that the two books
show their greatest similarity. The dialogue and narrative voice
are hard-boiled and engaging, and again one is reminded of the
way actual soldiers spoke at the times when the books were first
published.
Haldeman is especially adept at describing combat. Few authors
have ever adequately captured the intricacy and pace of a battle
scene in prose. Sometimes (as in Homer’s Iliad) the conflict is
reduced to individual fighting between heroes—an approach that
may be exciting, but is highly unrealistic. At the other extreme,
we have Tolstoy (in War and Peace) who understands the
confusion and disarray of real battlefield conditions, and presents
this complexity in prose. This approach may be more realistic,
but less aligned with traditional narrative forms. With Tolstoy,
for example, his discussions of combat sometimes read like
philosophical treatises. Haldeman avoids both extremes, and
gives the readers, toward the conclusion of The Forever War, one
of the best battle descriptions I have ever read.
Over the course of more than thirty pages, he does it all—
bringing in tactics, the psychological element, the technology,
and the uncertainty and excitement of the back-and-forth
action. To add to the mix, he manages to use almost every
conceivable weapon, from nuclear bombs to bow and arrows,
during this extended conflict. Yet every time the weaponry
changes, Haldeman provides compelling reasons for the shift –
unlike those ridiculous movies where futuristic combatants rely
on some strange antiquated device (for the example the light
swords from Star Wars) without any plausible explanation
offered. When it comes to future war, Haldeman is the exact
opposite of George Lucas. During his battle scenes, his
descriptions are both breath-taking and believable.
Don’t let the critics prevent you from enjoying this fine book. It
is not a diatribe, as some might have you believe, but a first class
piece of story-telling. By the same token, don't assume that
Haldeman's success here negates the value of its supposed evil
twin, Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Both are important works of
conceptual fiction, and their relationship should be seen as a
dialogue and not as another type of forever war.
By Joe Haldeman
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The conventional wisdom on this book pigeonholes it as a
response to Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. According to
this interpretation, Haldeman’s 1974 anti-war tale is a corrective
to the fascist militarism of Heinlein’s
1959 novel.
One might call this the “whig approach”
to literary criticism – something akin
to what Herbert Butterfield once called
the “Whig interpretation of history.”
It reduces all the complexities and
richness of past fiction to some simple
coordinate based on the conventional
wisdom as of this morning. So Sappho
is only understood in terms of today's
view of gender roles; Hemingway is
dissed because he falls short on the same
scale; Twain moves from being anti-
racist and into the racist camp because
he didn't know the acceptable "framing"
words of the 21st century. Who cares
anymore how these writers related to the value systems of their
times? We judge them based on the prevailing mood of the most
recent MLA. Of course, it hardly occurs to us that we ourselves
may be found wanting according future MLA truisms yet to be
invented.
Under this sledgehammer approach, novels are either written by
progressive authors or reactionary authors, and once you know
which bucket in which to toss any given writer, you are no longer
obliged to read them. And the Whig view of sci-fi makes
Haldeman into the hero and Heinlein into the villain. End of
story.
This approach to fiction is, of course, mind-numbing, but in the
case of Haldeman and Heinlein it is just plain wrong-headed too.
Both The Forever War and Starship Troopers are powerful
books, and both are far more nuanced in their presentation than
the “whigs” would have you believe. Even more to the point, the
attitudes toward militarism, which form only a small part of these
multifaceted works, present less a debate between the two
authors working within the value systems of our time, but more a
chronicle of how the American perspective on war evolved
between 1959 and 1974, the respective publication dates of the
two volumes. (By the way, Haldeman has often lavishly praised
Heinlein and in 2003 joined the board of the Heinlein Society –
which sort of blows the whole Whig case, huh?)
No tears here, my friend. I've never looked good wearing a
Whig.
The virtues of Haldeman’s novel shouldn't be forgotten in all this
noise. It is not a rant. It is a smart, tautly written, creative book
that is artfully paced from start to finish. And pacing is a major
issue with a novel of this sort--the “forever war” lasts 1,143 years,
and even a masterful story-teller could get lost squeezing that into
a 280 page book. Heck, Gibbon needed more than 3,000 pages to
cover the mere decline and fall of the Roman Empire. To some
degree, Haldeman faces the same challenge Asimov undertook in
his Foundation series, which required the compression of an
enormous timeline into a short narrative without losing the
thread or getting lost in the details. A page of “begats” might
suffice to fill in the gaps in the Old Testament, but it hardly works
in the modern novel.
Haldeman not only pulls this off (perhaps better even than
Asimov), but he flourishes in his account of the forever war. We
follow the story through the perspective of William Mandella, the
only soldier to survive the entire course of the war (his longevity
due to the time-space quirks of traveling to battles at faster than
the speed of light. Just trust me on this, and don’t ask for
details). The narrative voice of Mandella is somewhat
reminiscent of the plain-spoken talk of Johnny Rico, the
protagonist of Starship Troopers, and it is here that the two books
show their greatest similarity. The dialogue and narrative voice
are hard-boiled and engaging, and again one is reminded of the
way actual soldiers spoke at the times when the books were first
published.
Haldeman is especially adept at describing combat. Few authors
have ever adequately captured the intricacy and pace of a battle
scene in prose. Sometimes (as in Homer’s Iliad) the conflict is
reduced to individual fighting between heroes—an approach that
may be exciting, but is highly unrealistic. At the other extreme,
we have Tolstoy (in War and Peace) who understands the
confusion and disarray of real battlefield conditions, and presents
this complexity in prose. This approach may be more realistic,
but less aligned with traditional narrative forms. With Tolstoy,
for example, his discussions of combat sometimes read like
philosophical treatises. Haldeman avoids both extremes, and
gives the readers, toward the conclusion of The Forever War, one
of the best battle descriptions I have ever read.
Over the course of more than thirty pages, he does it all—
bringing in tactics, the psychological element, the technology,
and the uncertainty and excitement of the back-and-forth
action. To add to the mix, he manages to use almost every
conceivable weapon, from nuclear bombs to bow and arrows,
during this extended conflict. Yet every time the weaponry
changes, Haldeman provides compelling reasons for the shift –
unlike those ridiculous movies where futuristic combatants rely
on some strange antiquated device (for the example the light
swords from Star Wars) without any plausible explanation
offered. When it comes to future war, Haldeman is the exact
opposite of George Lucas. During his battle scenes, his
descriptions are both breath-taking and believable.
Don’t let the critics prevent you from enjoying this fine book. It
is not a diatribe, as some might have you believe, but a first class
piece of story-telling. By the same token, don't assume that
Haldeman's success here negates the value of its supposed evil
twin, Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Both are important works of
conceptual fiction, and their relationship should be seen as a
dialogue and not as another type of forever war.
| conceptual fiction |
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way
Comes
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's
Stone
Saramago, José
Blindness
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Verne, Jules:
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules:
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Ted Gioia's personal web site
SF Site
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors,
publicists or other parties.
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way
Comes
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's
Stone
Saramago, José
Blindness
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Verne, Jules:
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules:
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Ted Gioia's personal web site
SF Site
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors,
publicists or other parties.