"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein

"Job: A Comedy Of Justice" by Richard A. Heinlein is a novel which the author based loosely on the Book Of Job in the Bible. It was published in 1984 and, like several others of his novels, was nominated for most of the major awards available to writing in the field of science fiction and fantasty. It was nominated for both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award in 1985 but won neither of them. It did win the Locus Award For Best Fantasy Novel in 1985. It is a truly unique book in many ways. But then it is possible to make that statement about many of Heinlein's novels over the years. After all, he won a pile of awards from nearly every organization which concentrates on science fiction and fantasy. He won four Hugo Awards for the best science ficiton novel during his lifetime. But this novel had aspects to it which probably prejudiced many voters and prevented it from winning as many awards as it might have otherwise. The pictures it presents of Heaven, Hell, and religion in general were not conducive of support from believers in anything remotely resembling a customary or acceptable view of religion. The novel begins with the protagonist Alexander Hergensheimer choosing to walk across a fire pit during a shore visit by the travelers on a cruise ship on which he is traveling. He successfully makes the fire walk but lapses into a faint or brief coma from which he is revived to find himself in a different world, returns to find his ship is different but with a similar name,and a totally different crew. But there is a bright side to that new crew which includes Margrethe, the steward assigned to his room with whom he begins an affair and eventually finds himself in love. The ship is apparently hit by an iceberg in tropical waters and the two find themselves afloat in the ocean on a pool float surrounded by sharks. This is just the first in a long series of events, or sudden changes in their world and lives, which happen spontaneously and always without warning. They travel the world trying to get back to Kansas where Hergensheimer, now Alec Graham, and Margrethe to whom he refers as his wife despite being married in his past life, hope to find the answers to why their lives are suddenly upside down despite being in love. The changes just keep coming and the only consistency is their devotion to each other, Graham's work as a dishwasher no matter where he is, and the unending upheavel in their worlds. The book moves on to their being swept up, but separated, by a Kansas tornado which turns out to be the Apocalypse. Graham finds himself not only in Heaven but promoted to sainthood and unable to find Margrethe in a Heaven which consistently is portrayed in ways which very fun traditional religious believers would accept as being based on the Bible. Graham chooses to be sent to Hell to hunt for Margrethe after refusing to stop seeking her. In Hell, he is somewhat befriended by Satan himself, given a high dollar suite in a hotel and constantly served in all ways by a different woman who actually turns out to be Rahab from the Bible. While it is a strange novel in many ways with polygamy, rampant sex, infidelity, and a multitude of what most religious believers would classify as sins, both minor and major, it is a highly readable book and pulls the reader from one change in the world to the next with no actual idea of where or how it is likel to end. Read it if you have an open mind and like science fiction! Don't read it if anyone has ever called you a prude!

"Wilderness" by Robert Penn Warren, A Novel Of The Civil War and Early American Immigration

"Wilderness" is a 1961 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The protagonist is a Jewish immigrant from Germany who has been born with a club foot but desires to immigrate to America and "fight for freedom". The story begins in his native country where he decides to leave for America after realizing he has little hope for a good future at home. His father was killed in riots in Berlin while fighting against government troops. He has been supported and assisted by an uncle who is also a rabbi. As Adam Rosenzweig prepares to leave, he is given several religious objects by his uncle which he carries, but uses little, during the length of the novel. The uncle also provides Adam with the address of an old friend who had previously emigrated to America and become wealthy as a businessman after beginning his life as a pack trader. Pack traders, many of whom were Jewish, traveled the roads of America carrying and selling a multitude of common household items in large backpacks. In order for Adam to get to America, he signs on with a human trafficker who is providing immigrants to both sides of the Civil War to fight as soldiers. The most important object Adam owns is a very well made leather boot which a cobbler friend made for him to help compensate for is club foot. While on the ship to America, the other men learn of Adam's disability and he becomes the "least of the least"on the ship since he is now known as being very unlikely to be accepted as a soldier. He is now forced to do the most menial chores aboard ship to compensate for his passage and the captain intends to actually prevent him from leaving the ship and retaining his as slave labor for the return voyage to Germany. But one of the crew gives Adam some advice just before the ship comes to port in New York which allows him to escape the vessel. He lands in New York with nothing and a very powerful scene ensues in which Adam, lost, alone, and hungry, finds the body of a black man hanging from a lamp post where he has been lynched in ongoing race riots. Adam finds himself the next day being dragged into one of those riots which is engaged in the murder of another black man. Adam finds himself being pursued by some of the rioters but manages to escape by running into the door of what turns out to be a house in which several black people are hiding. The rioters break in and Adam finds himself in the basement hiding in the dark where no one's race or color can be recognized. The rioters flood the basement and Adam finds himself being pulled above the waterline by a black man who turns out to be an employee of the man Adam was told to seek out when he got to New York. When the rioters disappear, the black man takes Adam, who is very ill, to the home of their benefactor, the rich Jewish trader. The trader has had a son killed in the Civil War and offers to make Adam his adopted son. Adam refuses the offer and is, instead, placed with a very abusive and coarse trader who needs a wagon driver to drive a wagon load of supplies south to sell to whichever troops of either side they might contact. The group consists of Adam, the trader Jed Hawksworth, and his black employee Mose who is actually an escaped slave as the book reveals in the long run. The three characters make a slow trip south to connect with fighting troops and are a truly odd collection of equally damaged characters who have simply fallen into each other's company. Mose, who has been savagely beaten by previous owners, becomes a friend of Adam but eventually kills Hawksworth and runs away. Adam, fearing that he will be blamed for the murder, buries Hawksworth in the woods, takes one of the wagons, and heads out to find Union troops which he can join to live out his dream of "fighting for freedom". I won't spoil the ending for you by fulling disclosing what happens from here on out. I will say that I have read several of Robert Penn Warren's books and this is just as good a novel as any the man who won two Pulitzer Prizes ever wrote. It addresses issues of war, racism, hatred, segregation, immigration, disability, and discrimination as well as any novel I have ever read. It is a powerful book which has fallen by the wayside of American Literature even though it is a fine piece of work by a man who should have been another of America's Novel winners. Robert Penn Warren is, in my opinion, just as great a writer as Hemingway, Steinbeck, Buck, or any other American who has ever been described as great. If you read the book, be forewarned that the novel does use the language of the time in which it was set and you will encounter several of the epithets which are not allowe in polite society today. But the novel is far greater than any of its detractors claim it to be simply because they are prejudiced against the language of America in the 1860's. Read it and you will see that I am correct.

America's Laying Hens Announce A Strike

In a stunning announcement today which was provided to all major American news outlets by their representatives, the Dominecker Rooster John L. Lewis Jones and Attorney Ovum Brown of Quiche, West Virgina, the laying hens of America announced their intentions to stage a strike and walkout unless their multiple demands are met. They say that on Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, all the hens of America will cross the road(s) in every zip code across the country which has not already made the presence of chickens pullus non grata. Messers Jones and Brown, in their joint press conference, stated that the laying hens of America have finally reached the end of their road as captive, poorly paid workers and will cease all egg production for the foreseeable future. John L. Lewis Jones perched on the podium to deliver his portion of the demands and called on all other roosters, capons, and chickens who are gender neutral to join in the effort. They say that all egg production, insect extermination, and early morning services as alarm clocks will cease as of sunrise on Memorial Day. The hens provided a written statement which was read to the attending members of the media by their attorney Ovum Brown. Mr. Brown stated that the hens are sick and tired of being seen simply as egg production devices while being held in captivity in cages, seeing their eggs and potential offspring roll away down automated systems to be sold at what are now truly exorbitant prices due to the fact that TRAITOR Trump will do nothing to lower egg prices while using thousands of raw egg yolks each year to maintain his orange facsimile of a tan and eating thousands of others to maintain his fictitious weight of whatever amount it is over the stated 210 pounds. The hens' statement, as read by Ovum Brown, also said that the hens are tired of being deprived of the opportunity to love whom they wish, and demand that each week the hen in each facility who lays the most eggs be given one day off, and they mean off the property, to spend that day with the rooster of their choice. The hens document also stated that each commercial laying hen is expected to lay more than 300 eggs per year or be sold off to slaughter houses to become filler material in hot pockets, TV dinners, and heat and eat entrees. The hens say this strike will continue until each and every hen is allowed to spend the last 6 months of her egg laying life of three years in a free range setting on a farm where an equal number of handsome, virile, melodious roosters live to serve the desires of the hens. At the end of that six months, the striking hens statement went on to say they must be set free in an adjoining farm along with the male companion of their choice to live, love, and produce happy young offspring who will become just as handsome and melodious as their fathers. The statement from the hens also addressed the strongly negative impact which TRAITOR Trump's tariffs have had on the price of eggs as well as everything else which is either a farm product or some feed or equipment which is necessary for farm management. The hens say their strike will continue until the tariffs are ended along with the importation of poor quality (and now higher priced) chicken feed which is contributing to the early deaths of so many hard working laying hens, the very hens who are such an integral part of the nation and the GDP. The statement ended with this sentence: "This is not a simple matter of the chicken or the egg; but the tariffs must end or all of America will be eating hoe cakes, oatmeal, or grits for breakfast for a very long time." The press conference by Messers Jones and Brown ended with a courteous cock-a-doodle-doo from the Dominecker who exited the room perched on the shoulder of his associate.

"Divine Right's Trip: A Novel Of The Counterculture" by Gurney Norman, Observations On A Rereading

I just looked back over the blog and realized that I haven't written a post since March about anything which was absolutely Appalahchian in its focus. It is long past time to do that and my subject matter today cannot be more clearly Appalachian. "Divine Right's Trip" by Gurney Norman is subtitled "A Novel Of The Counterculture" and I do agree that it is. But speaking from the viewpoint of having been a hippie in Eastern Kentucky when the book was originally published in the corners of the pages of "The Last Whole Earth Catalog", I cannot think of a more Appalachian book. Admittedly, it covers a lot of ground on several topics and geographic areas which are not Appalachian. But it covers those topics from the viewpoint of a protagonist who is a fine example of the young Appalachians I knew when I was growing up not more than 30 or so miles where Gurney Norman grew up, and we both are definitely native Appalachians. The protagonist in this novel is David Ray Davenport, Divine Right, or D. R. as he is severallly known both inside and outside his head. He and his girlfriend Estelle are on a trip around the country in a Volkswagon van name Urge which has been painted in a very random fashion by D. R. and an equally random collection of his friend and momentary contacts. They are sometimes under the influence of marijuana, LSD, and malnutrition. Movement and new sights to be seen are generally more important to them than a normal workaday world. They are very typical characters of the hippie counterculture of the late 1960's and early 1970's. D. R. is a bit of a lost ball in the high, high weeds having been raised for the most part by his grandparents in a fictional county in Eastern Kentucky which can be assumed to be at least a marginal facisimile of the Letcher County in which Gurney Norman spent his childhood. D. R. does not know his father and his mother has given him the last name of a less than desirable step-father. Estelle is at least a competent enough woman that she can usually drag D. R. out of whatever mire in which has found himself. They take turns driving Urge across the country from one crisis to the next, from one interesting interaction to another with generally benevolent strangers. Eventually, the return to Cincinatti where they have friends and family and then become separated from each other somewhat unintentially when D. R. goes to visit his sister and her family and fails to return to Estelle on time. Then he hears by telephone from the local female country storekeeper Mrs. Godsey that his uncle Emmit is dying on the old homeplace in the head of a holler in Kentucky. D. R. offers to come and care for the dying uncle and actually delivers on the promise. They spend a few weeks getting to know each other again as the uncle attempts to train D. R. in the daily routine of his ramshackle house and a plethora of rabbits and chickens. Mrs. Godsey and her husband Leonard take D. R. under their wing so to speak, allowing him to have credit in their little store with little or no proof of ability to pay and he grows up a bit during the deterioriation and death of his uncle Emmit. He spends the last few days of Emmit's life caring for him in the local hospital, arranges his funeral, helps dig the grave in the old family graveyard in order to save some money, and decides to try to track Estelle down through a mutual friend who actually accomplishes the task. Estelle comes to Eastern Kentucky to live with D. R. and they decide to get the married. The final wrapping up of all the loose ends of D. R.'s life are brought togehter during the wedding which is performed jointly by the local mainstream (for Eastern Kentucky) preacher and a very hippie type of friend from California who is known only as the Annaheim Flash. The wedding is attended by a large crowd of people from both of D. R.'s worlds, Eastern Kentucky and all of hippie America. As many great stories end, a fine time was had by all. The old homeplace contains many of the things which have endeared Appalachia to thousands, perhaps millions of us: the homeplace itself now strip mined to near total destruction, the old family graveyard in danger of being buried by strip mine sludge, good friends and neighbors who step in at both the best and worst of times, and all those sometimes lost but never forgotten heartwarming experiences which always make home a home and prove that Thomas Wolfe was wrong. You can go home again, at least if your name is David Ray Davenport.

"African Short Stories" Edited by Chinua Achebe & C. L. Innes

The short story is, in my opinion, the greatest form of literature in the world. When I make that statement, I understand fully that fans of both the novel and drama will take offense. But consider this, an average short story contains somewhere between about 1,000 to a maximum of about 10,000 words with a lot of room for argument about both minimum and maximum lengths. The average short story contains about 3,000 to 4,000 words. Therefore, the author of a short story must be able to tell a compelling story in less than 10,000 words and still bring into that story all of the necessary elements of a short story: plot, character, setting, and theme. I would argue that a good to great short story must also possess conflict and conflict resolution. There are some literary critics or simply lovers of the short story who also mention the necessity for a short story to contain tone and point of view. Some others who also believe themselves to be experts on the short story mention "want or goal" which I believe is simply a left handed way to say, or avoid saying, plot. These same people mention "decisions" as being necessary in a short story. I would say that "decisions" in a short story are simply part of plot, character development, or conflict resolution. But enough hair splitting about what a short story is required to contain. A simpler way to put it is that a short story must tell a story which contains at least 4 or 5 elements and reach a conclusion about what has happened in the intervening few thousand words. A short story is the greatest form of literature because it has so little room for error on the part of an author. Most of the stories in this little collection from Africa achieve that rather confining goal. The book is edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes and contains twenty stories from African writers which are divided into four geographical groups for the four points of the compass on the continent. The book was originally published in 1985. I won't go so far as to say all of the stories impressed me to the point that I would have included them with the remaining majority. But one or two of the stories are truly impressive feats of writing and at least a half dozen are better than average when compared with the better short stories found in other parts of the world. Most of them can be defended as being clearly African in nature. Some of them are addressing what can be called universal themes from all the world over. My personal choice as the best story in the book is called "The Will of Allah" by David Owoyele which is a masteful telling of an unusual story which clearly contains all those key elements. There are two characters who are professional thieves who make a living together robbing the homes and perhaps businesses of the people around them. They don't particularly like each other and are simply what could be called business associates who make a living in the dead of the night by victimizing the innocents around them. They go out together to rob someone and randomly choose a home in which they find a large basket similar to those in which the local people are known to keep their most important possessions. One enters the home and passes the basket and its unknown contents out a window to his partner who goes to their meeting place and opens to the basket to find that it contains a cobra belonging to a person who apparently practices as a a snake charmer. He is immediately bitten and knows he will die. He puts the lid back on the basket and when his partner catches up with him allows the partner to also open the basket and be bitten by the cobra. Then he uses the last of his life strength to reach inside the basket and kill the cobra while being bitten several more times. Naturally, both men die and the will of Allah has been carried to its logical conclusion. With the death of the two protagonists, it is amazing that the story also contains some better than average humor. In the middle of the story, I laughed out loud at least a couple of times as the two men who dislike each other carry out their plan and the necessary conversation to bring it to a conclusion. If I were ever to be asked (which will not happen in this world) to put together a collection of my favorite stories in all the world, I would include "The Will of Allah". It is truly great story. There are several other better than average stories in the book including selections from former Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta whose story is a fine piece of writing about the nature of politics; Bessie Head who died young and is still recognized as one of Africa's best writers; and Nobel Prize Winner Nadine Gordimer. This little book is well worth reading.

"Stranger In A Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein, Reflections On A Rereading

My first reading of "Stranger In A Strange Land" must have taken place sometime shorty after it had originally been published in 1961. Until this rereading, I had never read the 1991 original uncut version which Robert A. Heinlein's wife had published after his death. This uncut version is about 60,000 words longer than the 1961 original published version. The difference in the word count apparently came about because the publisher felt that the manuscript was too long for the modern readership. The 1961 version was a massive hit with the reading public and quickly became ingrained into American culture both because of its literary quality and its truly unique story about a man known as "The Man From Mars" who is actually a human but born on Mars due to the fact that both his parents were members of the first Mars expedition from earth.The book and its story is similar in some ways to at least two other classics in the field of science fiction: "The Man Who Fell To Earth" by Kentucky born writer Walter Tevis,and the original first book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert. All three involve protagonists who arrive on earth or an earth like planet from outside the solar system, come to be somewhat or absolutely messianic figures, and untimately change the world around them. Since it has been so long after I had originally read the shorter version of the book, I cannot say much about the material which was deleted from the original and restored to the 1991 edition. The original version of the book brought two or three words or terms into common use in everyday spoken English. The most widely known of these words is "grok" which is a very widely applicable word for comprehension, understanding, or simply grasping the meaning of new information. Another new term which was introduced in the book was "Fair Witness" which is a term for a professional person whose work it is to be present at meetings, court proceedings, or other encounters between people and others with whom they might have some ongoing conflict. A Fair Witness is trained to verbatimly memorize every word which is spoken in their presence and, if necessary, to testify in a court about what actually happened in those encounters. A Fair Witness is literally a human recording device which is without error or falability. The book also described a contraption very much like a waterbed before the waterbed was invented. When the first patent attempt was made in the USA for a waterbed, it was initially denied under the judgment of the US Patent Office that the information from the book had constituted prior art as the office described it. It is likely that if Heinlein had chosen to contest that patent application and file his own application that he would have held the patent for the waterbed. The protagonist Valentine Michael Smith is the Mars born son of two US astronauts who traveled on that first Mars expedition while not married to each other and had Mike Smith out of wedlock and born on Mars. His conception and birth on Mars brings into play a legal concept on earth regarding rights of explorers in space to claim ownership to worlds they discover. Since Smith was the only survivor of that first expedition, it is claimed that he actually owns Mars and everything on it. But Martians, which is what Smith has been reared to be by his Martian caregivers, have no concept for personal property and Smith has no ideas about owning anything which would be meaningful to an ordinary earthling. Smith is originally placed in seclusion in a hospital by the planetary government on earth both to make it possible to control him, deprive him of his assets, and prevent him from having contact with anyone on earth who might interfere with the ongoing government effort to rob him of his alleged wealth. But a nurse, Jill Boardman, who meets and befriends him helps him escape from the hospital and eventually takes him to the truly unique home of Jubal Harshaw who is both a doctor and an attorney. He is also a worldwide public figure and author, incredibly intelligent and adept at the practice of law and become endeared to Smith and Boardman. They gradually learn that Smith has truly unique powers including the ability to use nothing more than his mind to make literally anything or anyone to "discorporate" or disappear permanently from the earth. His mental powers are truly prodigious and he quickly devours all the written information he can be supplied about earth and everything on it. Later in the book, Michael and Jill decide to leave the protection of Harshaw's home and begin to ramble around the country. Along the way, they join a traveling circus as a sideshow act and Smith uses mild examples of his Martian powers to perform "tricks" in the sideshow. But he is seen as a typical sidewhow fraud and is fired for his failure to attract good audiences. They are also invited to a church service by a major figure in the one dominant church on earth which is also controlled by one worldwide government. As a result of being exposed to the religion of that church Smith decides to start a church of his own, teach his mental powers to its members, and he becomes a cult leader and/or a messiah figure. His church is rapidly growing and putting the strangle hold of the original church at risk. That church also controls the government and the great majority of the masses on earch. As a result, Valentine Michael Smith becomes the victim of an assassination which is, of course, the most likely end of all messianic figures including Jesus Christ. The book is one of several in which Heinlein wrote in a fictional context about his somewhat unusual religous beliefs. Another such book is "Job: A Comedy of Justice". No matter which version of "Stranger In A Strange Land" you choose to read, you will find that it is one of the best books in all of science fiction and fantasy literature. But, I would strongly suggest that you choose to read the Unabridged Edition since it is the form in which Heinlein intended to publish the book before his editor and publisher overruled him.