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Jubal Harshaw
Jubal Harshaw is a fictional character featured in several novels by Robert A. Heinlein, most prominently 1961's ''Stranger in a Strange Land''. He is described as: "Jubal E. Harshaw, LL.B., M.D., Sc.D., bon vivant, gourmet, sybarite, popular author extraordinary, neo-pessimist philosopher, devout agnostic, professional clown, amateur subversive, and parasite by choice." Character description The character's name was chosen by Heinlein to have unusual overtones, like Jonathan Hoag. The character shares a surname with radio host Ruth Harshaw, a Denver radio host on whose program Heinlein frequently appeared, likely as a tribute.William H. Patterson Jr., ''Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue With His Century'', vol 2, p.70 The main character of the novel, Valentine Michael Smith, enshrines him (much to Harshaw's initial chagrin) as the patron saint of the church he founds. Critics have also suggested that Harshaw is actually a stand-in for Heinlein himself, based on similarities in ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudy Rucker
Rudolf von Bitter Rucker (; born March 22, 1946) is an American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement. The author of both fiction and non-fiction, he is best known for the novels in the Ware Tetralogy, the first two of which (''Software'' and '' Wetware'') both won Philip K. Dick Awards. Until its closure in 2014 he edited the science fiction webzine '' Flurb''. Early life Rucker was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, son of Embry Cobb Rucker Sr (October 1, 1914 - August 1, 1994), who ran a small furniture-manufacture company and later became an Episcopal priest and community activist, and Marianne (née von Bitter). The Rucker family were of Huguenot descent. Through his mother, he is a great-great-great-grandson of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Rucker attended St. Xavier High School before earning a BA in mathematics from Swarthmore College (1967) and MS (1969) and PhD (1973) degrees ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1987 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1987. Events *January 2 – Golliwogs in Enid Blyton children's books are replaced by the British publisher with gnomes after complaints of a racial offence implication. *April – K. W. Jeter coins the term "Steampunk" in a letter published in '' Locus: the magazine of the science fiction & fantasy field''. *June – Virago Press of London publishes ''Down the Road, Worlds Away'', a collection of short stories ostensibly by Rahila Khan, a young Muslim woman living in England. Three weeks later, Toby Forward, an Anglican clergyman, admits to writing them and the publisher withdraws the book. "He, unlike the editors at Virago, had grown up in precisely the kind of area and social conditions that the book described.... Although the book never claimed to be other than a work of fiction, the publishers destroyed the stock still in the warehouse and recalled all unsold copies from the bookshops, thus turni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
To Sail Beyond The Sunset
''To Sail Beyond the Sunset'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1987. It was the last novel published before his death in 1988. The title is taken from the poem "Ulysses", by Alfred Tennyson. The stanza of which it is a part, quoted by a character in the novel, is as follows: ... my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It is the final part of the "Lazarus Long" cycle of stories, involving time travel, parallel dimensions, free love, voluntary incest, and a concept that Heinlein named pantheistic solipsism, or 'World as Myth': the theory that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that somewhere (for example) the Land of Oz is real. Other books in the cycle include ''Methuselah's Children'', ''Time Enough for Love'', '' The Number of the Beast'', and ''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls''. Plot The book is a memoir of Maureen Johnson Smith Long, mother, lover, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1985. Events * February 25 – Sue Limb's parodic pastiche of the Lake Poets, ''The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere'', begins broadcasting on BBC Radio 4 in the U.K. *March 1 – The GNU Manifesto by Richard Stallman is published for the first time, and becomes a fundamental philosophical source within the free software movement. * August 11 – A memorial to the poet Hugh MacDiarmid is unveiled near his home at Langholm, Scotland. *''unknown dates'' – Three notable novels in English by female authors are published during the year: Margaret Atwood's ''The Handmaid's Tale'', Jilly Cooper's '' Riders'', the first of the Rutshire Chronicles, and Jeanette Winterson's ''Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit''. New books Fiction * Isaac Asimov – ''Robots and Empire'' * Margaret Atwood – ''The Handmaid's Tale'' *Jean M. Auel – ''The Mammoth Hunters'' *Iain Banks – ''Walking on Glass'' *Clive Barker – '' The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
''The Cat Who Walks Through Walls'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1985. Like many of his later novels, it features Lazarus Long and Jubal Harshaw as supporting characters. Plot summary A writer seated at the best restaurant of the space habitat "Golden Rule" is approached by a man who urges him that "Tolliver must die" and is himself shot before the writer's eyes. The writer—Colonel Colin Campbell, living under a number of aliases including his pen name "Richard Ames"—is joined by a beautiful and sophisticated lady, Gwendolyn Novak, who helps him flee to Luna with a bonsai maple and a would-be murderer ("Bill"). After escaping to the Moon, Gwen claims to have been present during the revolt described in ''The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress''. Still pursued by assassins, Campbell and Novak are rescued by an organization known as the Time Corps under the leadership of Lazarus Long. After giving Campbell a new foot to replace one lost i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1980 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1980. Events *March 6 – Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman elected to the Académie française. * June 5 **The Royal Shakespeare Company opens a production at the Aldwych Theatre, London, of ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'', adapted from Charles Dickens's novel by David Edgar. **Willy Russell's comedy ''Educating Rita'' opens in a Royal Shakespeare Company production with Julie Walters in the title rôle, at The Warehouse in London. *August 25 – Pramoedya Ananta Toer's '' This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia)'', the first of a tetralogy of historical novels, the Buru Quartet, is published in Indonesia after Toer's release from ten years' political imprisonment. It is banned in the country the following year. *September – A production of Shakespeare's '' Macbeth'' with Peter O'Toole in the lead opens at the Old Vic Theatre, London. It is often seen one of the disast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Number Of The Beast (novel)
''The Number of the Beast'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1980. Excerpts from the novel were serialized in the magazine '' Omni'' (1979 October, November). Plot The book is a series of diary entries primarily by each of the four main characters: Zebadiah "Zeb" John Carter, programmer Dejah Thoris "Deety" Burroughs Carter, her mathematics professor father Jacob Burroughs, and off-campus socialite Hilda Corners. The names "Dejah Thoris", "Burroughs", and "Carter" are overt references to John Carter and Dejah Thoris, the protagonists of the Barsoom novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the opening, Deety is dancing with Zeb at a party at Hilda's mansion. Deety is trying to get Zeb to meet her father to discuss what she thinks is an article Zeb wrote about n-dimensional space, even going so far as to offer herself. Zeb figures out and explains to Deety that he is not the one who wrote the article but a relative with a similar name. Aft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thou Art God
''Stranger in a Strange Land'' is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Terran culture. The title "Stranger in a Strange Land" is a direct quotation from the King James Bible (taken from Exodus 2:22). The working title for the book was "A Martian Named Smith", which was also the name of the screenplay started by a character at the end of the novel. Heinlein's widow Virginia arranged to have the original unedited manuscript published in 1991, three years after Heinlein's death. Critics disagree about which version is superior. ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to enter ''The New York Times Book Review'''s best-seller list. In 2012, the Library of Congress n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pandeistic
Pandeism (or pan-deism), is a theological doctrine that combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. Unlike classical deism, which holds that God does not interfere with the universe after its creation, pandeism holds that a creator deity became the universe and ceased to exist as a separate entity. Pandeism (as it relates to deism) purports to explain why God would create a universe and then appear to abandon it, and (as it relates to pantheism) seeks to explain the origin and purpose of the universe. Various theories suggest the coining of the word "pandeism" as early as the 1780s, but one of the earliest unequivocal uses of the word with its present meaning was in 1859 with Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal. Definition The word "pandeism" is a hybrid blend of the root words "pantheism" and "deism" ( grc, πᾶν, pan, all and la, deus 'god'). The earliest use of the term ''pandeism'' appears to have been 1787, with another usage found in 1838, a first app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition. Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame. Whether free will exists, what it is and the implications of whether it exists or not are some of the longest running debates of philosophy and religion. Some conceive of free will as the right to act outside of external influences or wishes. Some conceive free will to be the capacity to make choices undetermined by past events. Determinism suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is inconsistent with a libertarian model of free will. Ancient Greek philosophy identified this issue, which remains a major focus o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
