The film is also divorced from context. The novel, written during the Cold War by a man (Robert Heinlein) who has deeply ingratiated into the Cold War apparatus. The bugs are an allegory for the Eastern Block, with an intelligent but deracinated hive mind hell-bent on domination and destruction being an obvious parallel to the Bolshevik menace. The book was written less than twenty years after the communists raped and butchered their way through Europe and Asia.
It’s also far easier to make the “fascist propaganda” argument post 9-11 and War on Terror, all though mass technocratic surveillance has little to do with fascism (or any kind of rightist authoritarianism) in and of itself. Any system can be autocratic, and historically liberalism has degraded into tyranny and oligarchy much faster than any other system (see revolutionary France). Liberals are just to blind/dumb/cowardly to address this in any kind of introspective way.
Great essay! So glad you explain the concept of midwits and shitlib yokels ("hicklib" is the term I like to use) who make up the bulk of the American Left today. For most os us, these are the liberals we encounter and have fruitless debates with. And you're right: all of them are mindless sheet and utterly helpless without their supposed "authorities."
I think most fans of Starship Troopers would agree with your assessment. We know it's supposed to be some kind of satire on militarism or fascism, but we still root for the human race and the film's protagonists. They're unified, patriotic, brave, diverse, earnest, and yes, physically attractive.
It makes you wonder what the typical midwit lib would want to change about this to make the satire more apparent. Put in more LGBT people, more fat people, and depict humanity as a chaotic mess that can't muster any counteroffensive to the alien attack? Pull an Avatar, and make the aliens the beautiful people who're in touch with their planet? I mean, I guess at that point, it's just the movie Avatar, which sucked.
By all means, let's talk about our satires and see how close or far they come. Starship Troopers is a classic as far as I'm concerned. Let's hope Verhoeven makes another failed satire. I was a big fan of Robocop too.
It's honestly WILD that my thread started such a huge discourse. It still boggles my mind. Great article! The best part of the reactions were everyone openly siding with the bugs over humanity. Really shows their true colors.
It isn't art if it is a happy accident. For the person who sees the failures is the one who can see the intentionality of true genius. Only this combination of virtues, intentionality and rare human genius, combined with mastery of one's craft can produce art. We use the term art very liberally in this world of the Mass Man.
Nonetheless, this happy accident is full of laughs as total lack of self awareness results not in parody, but in unconscious self-parody. My favorite happy accident is the bugmen siding with the bugs.
I never saw the movie, because I read the book when I was 13 years old and it was an instant favorite and it has remained favorite ever since. The shower scene is probably a nod to a similar scene in Joe Haldeman‘s book The Forever War, which is itself a Vietnam era, satire, and repudiation of Starship Troopers. The one thing that Jacques Derrida supposedly said, I have never read him, that is obviously true, is that the artist does not have some privileged ability to tell you what a work of art means. The artist's opinion about his work means may have some value, but it’s not final. The work of art stands by itself, and for itself. Artists or authors or directors often work in ways that contradict their professed, or even their intended purpose. Good artists can’t help themselves, because good art is truth-telling. So they end up telling the truth through their work, even if they claim to intend some other, often political, message.
It’s always telling to see WHAT someone satires and HOW they satire it. Verrhoven basically wants us to sympathize with the swarm of mindless killing machines? Okay, good to know.
Also: “attractive people bad” is a tell about the person who holds this thought. I fully expect to dig into Veerhoven’s personal life and see him consorting with ugly women.
Robert Heinlien's Starship Stroopers was published 1959. I first read it 50 years ago. Your commentary puts light on his life, his novels and his critics that followed him throughout his career. Heinlien's first novel, 'For Us The Living' was written 1938-1939. After 50 years I had no idea how large the chorus has grown critical of "The Father of Scifi" since his first of novels of long, long, long ago, far, far, far away.
I wrote on this theme because it is a good vehicle for other things that I wanted to say.
I have a huge volume of original pieces but my audience tends to skew older and doesn't really share my work to social media. I'm also banned from Twitter so I am not really in a position to shape that world.
The book is better than the film. It makes a number of moral points. Heinlein, a former naval officer, makes an argument that voting rights should be limited to citizens who have served their country. His speech to the Naval Academy in 1973 was classic: https://technochitlins.com/2015/10/31/r-a-heinleins-address-to-the-naval-academy-1973/
The film is also divorced from context. The novel, written during the Cold War by a man (Robert Heinlein) who has deeply ingratiated into the Cold War apparatus. The bugs are an allegory for the Eastern Block, with an intelligent but deracinated hive mind hell-bent on domination and destruction being an obvious parallel to the Bolshevik menace. The book was written less than twenty years after the communists raped and butchered their way through Europe and Asia.
It’s also far easier to make the “fascist propaganda” argument post 9-11 and War on Terror, all though mass technocratic surveillance has little to do with fascism (or any kind of rightist authoritarianism) in and of itself. Any system can be autocratic, and historically liberalism has degraded into tyranny and oligarchy much faster than any other system (see revolutionary France). Liberals are just to blind/dumb/cowardly to address this in any kind of introspective way.
Never ask
A man his salary.
A woman her weight.
A media literate Communist why hehim enjoys Lovecraft.
🤣
Great essay! So glad you explain the concept of midwits and shitlib yokels ("hicklib" is the term I like to use) who make up the bulk of the American Left today. For most os us, these are the liberals we encounter and have fruitless debates with. And you're right: all of them are mindless sheet and utterly helpless without their supposed "authorities."
I think most fans of Starship Troopers would agree with your assessment. We know it's supposed to be some kind of satire on militarism or fascism, but we still root for the human race and the film's protagonists. They're unified, patriotic, brave, diverse, earnest, and yes, physically attractive.
It makes you wonder what the typical midwit lib would want to change about this to make the satire more apparent. Put in more LGBT people, more fat people, and depict humanity as a chaotic mess that can't muster any counteroffensive to the alien attack? Pull an Avatar, and make the aliens the beautiful people who're in touch with their planet? I mean, I guess at that point, it's just the movie Avatar, which sucked.
By all means, let's talk about our satires and see how close or far they come. Starship Troopers is a classic as far as I'm concerned. Let's hope Verhoeven makes another failed satire. I was a big fan of Robocop too.
Hicklibs are performing cultural appropriation.
This poses a civilizational
"They loved the praise that comes from men rather than God."
Kingdom of the world in a nutshell.
It's honestly WILD that my thread started such a huge discourse. It still boggles my mind. Great article! The best part of the reactions were everyone openly siding with the bugs over humanity. Really shows their true colors.
That was a great thread, Isaac. I didn't know you were a reader!
Yeah! My mother is especially a big fan of yours. She introduced me to your Substack.
Great!
I also subscribe to Imprimis! Keep up the good work Josiah - I enjoy your substack readers comments too!
Thank you! I really appreciate it!
It isn't art if it is a happy accident. For the person who sees the failures is the one who can see the intentionality of true genius. Only this combination of virtues, intentionality and rare human genius, combined with mastery of one's craft can produce art. We use the term art very liberally in this world of the Mass Man.
Nonetheless, this happy accident is full of laughs as total lack of self awareness results not in parody, but in unconscious self-parody. My favorite happy accident is the bugmen siding with the bugs.
I never saw the movie, because I read the book when I was 13 years old and it was an instant favorite and it has remained favorite ever since. The shower scene is probably a nod to a similar scene in Joe Haldeman‘s book The Forever War, which is itself a Vietnam era, satire, and repudiation of Starship Troopers. The one thing that Jacques Derrida supposedly said, I have never read him, that is obviously true, is that the artist does not have some privileged ability to tell you what a work of art means. The artist's opinion about his work means may have some value, but it’s not final. The work of art stands by itself, and for itself. Artists or authors or directors often work in ways that contradict their professed, or even their intended purpose. Good artists can’t help themselves, because good art is truth-telling. So they end up telling the truth through their work, even if they claim to intend some other, often political, message.
It’s always telling to see WHAT someone satires and HOW they satire it. Verrhoven basically wants us to sympathize with the swarm of mindless killing machines? Okay, good to know.
Also: “attractive people bad” is a tell about the person who holds this thought. I fully expect to dig into Veerhoven’s personal life and see him consorting with ugly women.
Robert Heinlien's Starship Stroopers was published 1959. I first read it 50 years ago. Your commentary puts light on his life, his novels and his critics that followed him throughout his career. Heinlien's first novel, 'For Us The Living' was written 1938-1939. After 50 years I had no idea how large the chorus has grown critical of "The Father of Scifi" since his first of novels of long, long, long ago, far, far, far away.
chasing the latest twitter discourse doesn't make for interesting topics
to use a hockey analogy, you need to skate to where the puck is going to be, not skate to where it was 5 minutes ago
i dont mean this in a mean spirited way, honest feedback
I wrote on this theme because it is a good vehicle for other things that I wanted to say.
I have a huge volume of original pieces but my audience tends to skew older and doesn't really share my work to social media. I'm also banned from Twitter so I am not really in a position to shape that world.