Symbolic
Posted by Ted Bronson | Filed under Nostalgia
I have read Glory Road at least a dozen times. Every time I do I am reminded about how many people are out there who just don’t get Robert Heinlein. He has been called an elitist, a misogynist, an authoritarian, etc. But what his detractors seem to not understand is that he was a patriot, a graduate of Annapolis, a true believer in personal liberty and personal responsibility, and through his writings reveals that his happiest characters are the ones who conquer adversity from within as well as from without. If you haven’t read the book, or not read it in a number of years, you won’t know that the protagonist is a regular Joe kinda guy. Through a series of unlikely and harrowing events, all of which designed to sharpen his ability to face the Eater of Souls, he becomes a Hero. Born E.C. Gordon, known as “Easy” or “Flash” he becomes “Oscar” to the woman who puts his feet on the road to his destiny.
But this isn’t a book review or book report. Read it yourself, then you will get why the following makes sense.
Every time I read that book, even though I know I what is about to happen, I cry reading Chapter XII.
Oscar is leaving the lands of a local feudal lord and a local boy is in awe of “the Hero.” The boy, Pug, tells Oscar that when he grows up he wants to be a hero, too. Understand, this boy is an uneducated, illiterate, bumpkin who is barely bright enough to take care the horses. But Oscar is moved by a sense of duty. So, in perfect feudal fashion, he determines that he must make a Gesture: give the boy a bit of the old noblesse oblige. So Oscar gifts the boy with one of his own names, Easy. (And here is where I lose it.) He also gives the boy a US quarter. The following is a quote:
I gave him the quarter and showed him George Washington on the obverse. “This is the father of my house. A greater man than I will ever be. He stood tall and proud, spoke the truth, and fought for the right as he saw it, against fearful odds. Try to be like him. And here”-I turned it over-”is the chop of my house, the house he founded. The bird stands for courage, freedom, and ideals soaring high.” (I didn’t tell him that the American Eagle eats carrion, never tackles anything its own size, and will soon be extinct- it does stand for those ideals. A symbol means what you put into it.)
The Liberty Bell. The U.S.S. John F. Kennedy (CV-67). The Saturn V rocket outside of the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. “We The People” writ large against the backdrop of History. My father’s Flag. These symbols, these things, mean what I put into them, yes. The blood of heroes, the tears for the fallen, the duty to leave home to do what you can to turn the tide, and the joy of returning.
Tags: crying on the outside
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April 17th, 2008
I started reading Heinlein when I was 11 years old. I GET him, alright.
So, when I found a blog written by ‘Hazel Stone’ and ‘Ted Bronson’, it had to be added to my every day read list!
Mr. H is all abour personal responsibility. I’m not the least bit religeous but am fervrently anti-abortion. Once you involve an innocent, third person in your antics, your rights stop and their must be considered! If you don’t want to be pregnant, don’t have sex, period. No excuses.
Most of my other political ravings stem from similar outrage.
And, IMHO, most of our social peoblems today stem from people trying to not be responsible for themselves.
So called Mortgage Crisis, anyone?
Thanks for listening…
April 17th, 2008
Welcome, Elinor.
April 17th, 2008
I remember first reading that novel as a serial in a sci-fi magazine back in the early sixties. Still a classic.
April 17th, 2008
It came out in 1963, just as the US was getting involved with Vietnam. Although RAH never attributed Oscar’s war as “Vietnam”, I think it is remarkable that he saw it coming.