Sixth Column

I really don't know why I keep reading Heinlein's novels. I think the only one I ever really enjoyed was The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Stranger in a Strange Land was, uhm, weird, albeit not really bad. Double Star was essentially The Prince and the Pauper IN SPAAAAAACE! (Only, er, without the Prince's side of things.) Starship Troopers was silly, albeit not as silly as the movie. Rocket Ship Galileo was incredibly dated and very obviously written for preteens, and I couldn't get through it out of boredom.

And yet, here I am, having just finished yet another Robert Heinlein novel, The Day After Tomorrow, AKA Sixth Column, an incredibly racist little novel taking place in an America that has just been taken over by Asian stereotypes and in show more which Blacks, Hispanics and Amerindians apparently do not exist. Using a particularly bullshitty kind of technobabble that can do everything from kill people of only a selected race to transmuting elements to creating forcefields, a half-dozen white men manage to beat back the ravaging yellow hordes of the PanAsian Empire. Oh, and it features a token Asian-American who performs a pointless heroic sacrifice five pages before the end. Keen.

If it isn't clear yet, I really loathed this book. As I said, I've never been a big fan of Heinlein, but I still didn't expect this kind of poorly-plotted and transparently bigoted crap from him. I really wouldn't recommend this novel unless you have a love for the man that knows no bounds of time, space or good taste. show less

Fun. It's pretty much pure fluff, and racist with it, but it's fun to read. There's one big coincidence at the start - that the 'Ledbetter Effect' was discovered at the exact same time as the PanAsian attack. After that, everything is juggling and improvisation - unlikely, but given the circumstances relatively reasonable. A lot of the results depend on the PanAsians being exactly as stereotype paints them - relatively stupid and rule-bound, concerned primarily with saving face rather than with achieving their collective aims, and with, as Heinlein explicitly has a character say, a racial inferiority complex that dictates each one's attitude towards 'white men' as a whole. And while there is at least one racial Asian (cultural American) show more who's a good guy, there don't seem to be any other races besides white and PanAsian - where are the black people? The attitude towards women is odd - women are considered for every available job and mostly rejected except for safe, non-contact positions. At the end there's an assumption that every man will be armed, and if there's any weapons left over see if there are any smart, tough women you can give them to (no suggestion that a smart, tough woman would make better use of a weapon than a weak or weak-minded man). I can pick holes in it all night, but it's still a fun read. About at the level of Independence Day, and for similar reasons - if you think about the science or the psychology of it, it all falls apart, but the story catches you up and sweeps you along. I've read it several times before, but I always forget some of the neat scenes and lines. I read it for the Readathon - got through 9 of 12 chapters in one hour, and finished it in a bit less than another hour. show less

Although I've had a longstanding interest in science fiction, I've read almost no Heinlein. This book I inherited in battered paperback after my father passed away a few years ago, and I've just now gotten to reading it. It's easy to see why Heinlein has the status he does. This was his fifth novel, published in 1949 under the title Sixth Column. The world is being conquered by the military might of a "PanAsian" nation that is a sort of amalgam of China, Japan, and other peoples of the region. As the story opens, the PanAsians have completed their conquest of the United States and initiated a brutal rule of the remaining Americans. The only vestiges of the U.S. military are at a secret research facility in the Rocky Mountains. They show more alone have the ability to continue the fight.

It's an intriguing story that moves along at a good clip, but it definitely is showing its age. The tiny research team manages to solve all the mysteries of the universe in record time--or at least all those necessary to transmute the elements, supply themselves with unlimited gold for funding, 3D print buildings from thin air, cure any illness, and manufacture vastly superior weaponry and communications systems. It's quite a stretch, but it counts as the one independent miracle an author is allowed, so okay, we can go along with it.

The plethora of racial epithets aimed at the PanAsians might make a lot of readers today cringe, and worst of all is the weapons technology that can be tuned to target different ethnic groups, as though there is something fundamentally different about them. But okay, the Marx Brothers occasionally got laughs from racial epithets and stereotyping, too. It was the tenor of the times.

The use of religion, too, is a bit problematic. The Americans' plan involves constructing a fake religion as a front for their activities, which may sound clever but shows, in its execution, a fairly flawed understanding of what religion is really about. It's hard to imagine such a plan fooling anyone who had studied their enemies enough to defeat them, much less actually working.

Still, if you can overlook these flaws, it's a fun read. Just be aware of what you're getting, and try not to judge it too harshly. It's a product of its times. show less

This is the book upon which Heinlein's reputation for racism mainly hangs. In fact, it is no more racist than the times it was written in. And misogynist. And elitist. Which just goes to show how much things have changed, I'm pleased to say.

Now we've disposed of these issues, what do we find? A wish-fulfillment fantasy of super-science winning the day against impossible odds. After the invasion of the USA by the Chinese and its defeat, the six remaining men of the US military decide to use that super-science to fight back through the agency of a fake religion, thus giving rise to one image that redeems this book in my mind (though not very much, and I wouldn't advise anyone to seek out a copy for this reason alone): the characters are show more discussing how they will pay for setting up their fake religion nationwide, and one of them says that they will use their powers to transmute base metal into gold and pay with solid gold coins. "After all" he says, "you wouldn't expect a priest with a long beard and flowing white robes to whip out a chequebook and pen, would you?" I found that image amusing. (Incidentally, I once saw an illustration in a World SF Convention programme book from the 1970s where the image of the god Mota deployed against the godless heathen looked suspiciously like a Muslim cleric...) show less

Six men are trapped at a secret Colorado military base after an Asian coalition successfully invades and conquers the United States. To fight back, the survivors use advanced magneto-gravitic science to build a targeted weapon and establish a faux religion to build an underground resistance movement.

The United States is devastatingly conquered by the PanAsian Empire. With Washington, D.C. and Manhattan destroyed, the American government is wiped out before a counterattack can be launched. The country is placed under brutal martial law.

The Citadel is a highly classified United States Army research facility hidden in the Rocky Mountains. A freak accident at the facility kills almost everyone, leaving only six men alive: military officers, show more scientists, and enlisted personnel.

The scientists discover The Ledbetter Effect, a magneto-gravitic phenomenon that allows them to manipulate matter and cellular structures. They refine this discovery to create a weapon that selectively kills or stuns the occupying forces while leaving the American population unharmed.

Knowing a direct military assault by six men against millions of invaders is suicidal, the survivors create a cover story. They establish the Priests of Mota, atom spelled backward, a new religion to act as an underground network. They use the miraculous-seeming science to perform miracles and preach to the masses, secretly building an uprising, the sixth column, as opposed to a fifth-column traitorous force, to systematically retake the nation show less

The day after Tomorrow - Robert Heinlein (1983 my copy, originally Published 1949)

This is my copy of the book I’ve had since 1983 with a gorgeous Tim White cover. I’ve read it a couple of times since then, this was probably the first time in over a decade. It was originally published as The Sixth Column and was based on a story idea from the editor of Astounding Science Fiction John W Campbell, where it was originally published in serial form.

I’ll start with the Elephant in the room, I have seen some people accuse this book and Heinlein of being racist especially in his portrayal of what is called in the Book the PanAsians. This is meant to be a super state that is neither stated as Japanese, Chinese or any other east Asian show more country. I have seen the Term PanAsian’s used in other books from later periods by other authors, so the idea isn’t exclusive to him.

Yes, there are some racial slurs within the book, but I think people need to put some context to it. This was Heinlein’s first published Novel it was 1949 but had been written earlier so it was post-war and the perceived threat was from communism (The Red Threat) specifically China and Korea. Parts of the book had been written around 1941 when the Second Sino Japanese war was in progress and parts of China had been occupied by what can only be described as a brutal way by the Japanese. If you look at Heinlein’s career and personal life he frequently fought for equality and included diverse characters from diverse backgrounds within his books. Johnny Rico the protagonist in Starship Troopers was Filipino for example.

Now onto the specifics about this book, the story revolves around an invasion and occupation of America from what is known as PanAsia. One secret Military base is the only American base to survive and they have the possibility of fighting back. They have what was discovered by accident a scientific effect (The Ledbetter Effect) that can do multiple things that could look like magic to others and could be a formidable weapon. The problem is any direct attack could end with a threat to the safety of the civilian population. After much deliberation it’s discovered that one of the only ways citizens can gather under the new regime is to participate in their Religion. It is decided that to fight back they will start a Religion and use that to hide and use it as a springboard to fight back against the invasion.

The overall premise of the story is interesting with the idea of using a fake religion as a resistance an interesting one. The discussions about the morality of doing that and the perception of the incumbent Religions are very interesting. This is not Heinlein at his best but as always there are interesting concepts. The Ledbetter effect that the ‘Priests’s use can be seen as a little too convenient in the overall plot, it does also give thought to what people can think of science when they do not know that is the cause and it can seem like magic.

I discussed the portrayal of Race earlier but what I will add its obvious how Heinlein is trying to portray racism on both sides. It may be a little clunky narratively how he introduces the concept, but it is there. There is an Asian American character that is on the receiving end of racism from the Pan Asian occupiers for example. If the book had been longer (it's only 221 pages) and more time given to develop the Characters this may have worked a little more smoothly.

Overall an interesting example of Heinlein’s early work but not his best. show less

First, this book comes across as kind of racist at times, but I partially attribute that to when it was originally written (1941 in magazines, 1949 in hardcover). The US is overrun by "Pan-Asians" and the stereotypes are really in evidence in this book. That said, the basic plot is interesting. After the military has been wiped out, a small group of the military working on scientific projects is basically all that's left. They've developed truly fantastic new technology that's better than anything the enemy has, but there isn't the military to make use of it. Americans aren't allowed to congregate except in religious ceremonies, so they make use of the tech to found a new religion as a "Sixth Column" against the enemy.

If it wasn't for show more the racism, I'd probably rate it 4 stars, but the racism can be really bad. I highly recommend that younger children not read this book (at least not without adult supervision to discuss the issues). That said, I do like the overall plot. Also, this book doesn't suffer from Heinlein's usual problem of poor endings, it's actually fairly decent. show less