Group Already Read: Double Start by Robert Heinlein

The purpose of this thread is to discuss/destroy the 1956 Hugo Winning Novel, Double Star, by Robert A. Heinlein.

WARNING, spoilers below! Read the book first if you want to participate in the discussion!

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Double Star is a fairly 'usual' novel for Heinlein (at least according to customary criticism), in that he has a fairly 'weak' female character; his protagonist is also both arrogant and unlikable (at least at the start of the story).

Lorenzo, a professional actor (with a professional ego), is recruited/blackmailed to play the greatest role of his life: the impersonation of a very important Earth statesman during a critical, three-cornered diplomatic tour: Mars, Venus, and back to Earth. Lorenzo is infuriated and aloof; he considers his art timeless and politics below his attention; his captors are dubious about his prima-donna ways and his almost treasonous detachment from serious matters.

Will Lorenzo torpedo the project, intentionally or accidentally, and destroy Earth's political prestige? Will Dak throw him out the airlock in frustration?

Will someone see through the impostor and get the wrong (or right) idea?

Will Bonforte regain his health and save the day?

Will the 'girl' get the 'guy'? Does it matter?

Just a quick comment (I'm at work):

This is mainly about the importance of 'face'. The things a (very flawed) man will do to keep faith with his own number one (only?) precept: 'the show must go on'.

The secondary theme is that he can and does change. By acting the part of a good and great man, he eventually comes to take on that man's moral code as well as his views, even when he is just being Lorenzo (eg rewriting his speech, taking the wand into his audience with the king).

The 'science fiction' bit is barely relevant to the story - its just there to add colour.

Of course, I'm in Indianapolis and my book is in Dayton right now, so just some general comments.

I found it fun, for once. That probably has to do with the fact that, although I haven't read Prisoner of Zenda or seen any straight adaptations of it to film or television that may be out there, I'm familiar with several other retellings of it, most notably Royal Flash. In comparison to the others, Double Star was just... too easy. Our protagonist is rarely in any real danger. It appears that the original intention really was to let him go about his normal life afterwards, no matter if he "knew too much," plus the death of the "original" means that the replacement continues to be needed indefinitely. Only once is he at any real risk of having his identity exposed to anybody who would have a problem with that, and it is quickly and thoroughly covered up.

Much of my favorite science fiction uses the "science fiction" only for color, so no complaints from me on that front.

I wouldn't so much say that it's got a weak female character as that its only female character is rather minor. I don't particularly care about her one way or another, but not everybody is Victor Hugo, determined to make you care about every single person who says more than one sentence, and I'm fine with that. Lorenzo getting the girl, meh, something tacked on to the end to give it the complete conventional happy ending. I'm slightly bothered by the nagging thought that it might have been due to a hypnotic suggestion helping her accept the replacement, but... it's not really there enough to worry about much.

So, overall: Worth reading? Yes. Worth hanging on to, considering the likelihood I'll ever want to read it again? Probably not.

I am wondering... do you think the publishing constraints of those days (>200 pages) and the parallel limitations of putting his story in an SF environment contributed to making it 'easy'? SF does require a certain amount of exposition, and RAH may have had a lot more in mind for the story but felt constrained for space.

How well do you think he did within these limitations, and considering that this was 1956?

Since I don't know what the overall effect on the page count would have been in order to put the protagonist in any real danger, I have no idea if publication limits were a factor. After all, if RAH had wanted to write a story in which the rest of the conspiracy, so to speak, didn't want to play fair by Lorenzo, it could have taken a completely different turn right after the initial Martian ceremony.

I just read the serialized version this weekend. While reading the third installment, I realized this novel is very much like the movie "Dave".

I was also struck my how this book is not a science fiction novel, at all. The Martians could have been pygmies in Africa, and the spaceships could have been boats. The isn't a single sf element that couldn't be removed which would cause the novel to collapse.

I was struck by a few things on rereading this:

The picture of “government” here is pretty benign. John Joseph Bonforte seems as honest as a person as he is idealistic and bold as a political leader. The subordinates are loyal and more than competent,with the exception of Bill Corpsman -- nice name, huh? -- whose rebellion is portrayed as due more to personal inadequacy than subversive philosophy, and he's quickly disposed of. Even the Emperor is wise and kind.

There aren’t too many “good governments” in science fiction. I can think of Michaelmas off the top of my head, that's about it.

I agree with everybody who's said that the science fictional elements aren't necessary, but at least they give Heinlein an excuse to have Lorenzo Smythe say some bigoted things about Martians that he may not have wanted his protagonist to say about, say, Asians (though that didn’t stop him in Sixth Column). I haven’t reread many of Heinlein’s early books recently, but Space Cadet was kind of a World War II story and Farmer in the Sky could have been about the settlement of the American Midwest, and if I went back and reread some more (which I'd like to do), there'd probably be some more like that. (I couldn't handle The Rolling Stones a couple of years ago, but got the idea that it could have been about show biz, or a traveling circus, anywhere on Earth.)

Ultimately, Double Star didn’t stay with me long, but I enjoyed reading it a lot. It wasn’t until after I was done that I decided that Lorenzo’s transformation from narcissistic actor to Leader of the Free World was a little too perfect and complete, and that they got away with it mighty easy. But while I was there, it took me away.

I can't think of any RAH book with different attitudes to government - I think this is just a given when you read him, so can be pretty much ignored. Edited to add: Ditto about women. In fact, it interests me how ignorant he appeared to be of his own failings, given that he wished to educate his readers.

Bigoted comments: yes indeed. But I think that was an intentional point to try to show his readers what bigotry is and to effect a change in their (young males in the 50s) attitude. RAH was very strong on teaching his readers, and worked hard to dress that up in exciting stories.

I really must check through Grumbles From the Grave to see if there is any reference.

I finished it yesterday. This is only the second Heinlein I've read, the first having been Job. I picked up a copy of Starship Troopers recently, so I'll have to try that soon.

I really don't have much to say about this book. It was alright, I guess. The protagonist grated on me, and even if I felt I could tolerate him by the end of the book I still didn't understand how Dak could have come to be so supportive of him.

I mean, the whole premise is pretty silly. Out-of-work starving-artist type is offered a job impersonating a high profile political figure, but pretty soon the trusted cadre of intelligent, ambitious and passionate staffers are deferring to their hired actor on questions of policy and cabinet make-up.

I don't have a problem with the SF content having little to do with the plot, but I'm amused by things such as in-desk microfiche readers. Of course this story would have been a perfect platform for exploring technologies related to authentication of identity - perhaps it's too much to expect Heinlein to have predicted DNA (although wikipedia tells me there was a lot of action on that front around the time the book was published), but all we get is one brief mention of fingerprints, and that turns out to be no problem because someone managed to alter the (sole? unauthenticated?) records.

> 9 Yes, you have to put it in context.

From Victoria Heinlein's biography in Grumbles from the Grave:

One day he found an ad in a science fiction magazine for a contest. So he sat down and wrote a story ('Life-Line'). ... The next several stories he wrote were less salable... but Robert was hooked for life on writing. ...

During World War II, Robert left his writing to do engineering work for the U.S> Navy. ...The war over, he returned to his writing. By this time, he was looking for wider horizons. He was persuaded to begin the juvenile line, and he sold stories to the Saturday Evening Post. His second juvenile was picked up by television, in a series that ran for five years. He also wrote the classic filem, Destination Moon, and he began to think about writing serious adult novels to open up that market to science fiction. ...

With the juvenile series well launched, and selling many copies primarily to libraries, Robert became the darling of librarians. He was asked to give endless speeches, and when his annual books for boys came out, he did a special program for general radio distribution on each new book. ...

From Chapter XI Adult Novels:

March 23rd, 1955: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame

I am aware that I should have written to you several days ago, but I trust that you will forgive me when I say that I have completed the novel I was working on. Its present title is Star Role (Double Star), it runs about 55,000 words, and is intended for an adult audience. (No sexy scenes, however, and no taboo monosyllables--just an occasional damn or hell, and I may even take those out. The book should be suitable for the kids who will read it anyway.)

I held down the length in the belief that serial sale would be easier; I hope that this one will finally crak Colliers, the Post or some other adult and not-SF-specialized market. I figure that, costs being what they are, a short length will make it more attractive for both trade book and pocket books as well.

I don't know whether you should advise Doubleday or not. I like {Walter} Bradbury but I do not like the screwy 'Science Fiction Book Club' aspect of their contract; they sold a lot of copies of my books with them and I got very little out of it--I do not regard two and a half cents per copy as a good royalty on a hardcover edition put close on the heels of the trade book. Since Bradbury turned down the travel book, we are no longer under option to Doubleday; perhaps this would be a good time to look into the Ballantine deal if it is still being offered.

In any case, I have an adult book available for book and serial.

>10 sarahemmm: Thanks, sara, for the stuff out of Grumbles. I lost my copy long ago. I'd remembered vaguely that he operated under a lot of constraints in his 50's novels; Starship Troopers was ground-breaking not just because of its content, but because it gave RAH an excuse to break with a publisher/editor combination he really disliked and write things he liked, as opposed as to what he thought would sell.

This opened up a lot of markets for OTHER writers as well; no matter what you think of RAH, he did a lot to make SF legitimate, without dumbing it down or selling it down the river as 'mainstream' lit.

As you say; people need to understand the context, and in that regard RAH holds up pretty well.

> 11 Yes indeed! I had been reading RAH for many years before I got a copy of Grumbles - it really opened my eyes. Partly because we tend to think that sex was invented in 1960! But just from that passage you can see there was a huge dichotomy between the 'librarians' and people like RAH. And I guess its still there...

12>I'd heard someone in another thread, a few months ago, bitching about how 'racist' and 'dated' Huckleberry Finn was! As if Twain could somehow channel GenX political correctness after being dead for 90 years.. and somehow I think this person missed the point that satire might somehow be involved....

It took me a long time to understand why classics were important, narrow-minded science geek that I am, but when my favorite SF writers said there was something to them; damn them for trying to teach me something *smirk*.

> 13 I find I can read a book 'in its time' quite comfortably, where I would be horrified by anyone writing like that today.

I finally got a copy and finished it today.

I find it hard to decide about this book: like you Sarah I found it OK for its time (wouldn't if it was written today); found it lightweight in its premise and the ease of succession in the plot but on the whole very enjoyable.

Once I read all these posts (especially concerning Grumbles) it becomes much more interesting and I think it was very innovative for the time - I liked some of RAH's philosophy. I gave it three stars and I'm glad it was offered as a group read and I could partake.

I wrote a review here

>15 Lman: Glad you enjoyed it, Lman.

Are we up for another one?

Heinlein always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, the best I can say is that this one was fairly unoffensive (say, compared to Job). Heinlein's fascination with power and his contempt for democracy is pretty obvious in this one, too. The most notable and interesting thing about the book is that the creators of the movie "Dave" clearly read it and were, ahem, inspired by it.

I had not read this for a longtime and in re-reading I was struck by how much it was basically a one-character story. Although the protagonist meets and interacts with others in the story, for the most part they are one-dimensional characters who appear when they are needed to advance the story and disappear as soon as they have served their function.

Despite the serious subject matter, impersonating a political figure, the story glosses over the moral ethics, as well as the legal and political ramifications. Even more incredibly, the protagonist is never in any real danger of being exposed. This despite the fact that any such impersonation would be virtually impossible to carry off for even a short period of time, let alone the length of time it was done so in the story.

Lorenzo Smythe makes for a sympathetic protagonist, even with his less then endearing characteristics. There is also the romantic sub-plot, such as it is, that seems be in every Heinlein novel. That is probably one of the reasons I enjoy Heinlein’s works more than many other writers. It was a fast and light read, which I enjoyed. I liked the story when I first read it and I still like it now.