"Robert A. Heinlein - For Us The Living" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

FOR US THE LIVING

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN


From Grandmaster Robert A. Heinlein comes a long-lost first novel, written
in 1939 and never before published, introducing ideas and themes that would
shape his career and define the genre that is synonymous with his name.

JULY 12,1339

Perry Nelson is driving along the palisades when suddenly another vehicle
swerves into his lane, a tire blows out, and his car careens off the road and
over a bluff. The last thing he sees before his head connects with the
boulders below is a girl in a green bathing suit, prancing along the shore....
When he wakes, the girl in green is a woman dressed in furs and the
sun-drenched shore has transformed into snowcapped mountains. The woman,
Diana, rescues Perry from the bitter cold and takes him inside her home to
rest and recuperate.
Later they debate the cause of the accident, for Diana is unfamiliar with
the concept of a tire blowout and Perry cannot comprehend snowfall in
mid-July. Then Diana shares with him a vital piece of information: The date is
now January 7. The year ... 2086.
When his shock subsides, Perry begins an exhaustive study of global
evolution over the past 150 years. He learns, among other things, that a
United Europe was formed and led by Edward, Duke of Windsor; former New York
City mayor LaGuardia served two terms as president of the United States; the
military draft was completely reconceived; banks became publicly owned and
operated; and in the year 2003, two helicopters destroyed the island of
Manhattan in a galvanizing act of war. This education in the ways of the
modern world emboldens Perry to assimilate to life in the twenty-first
century.
But education brings with it inescapable truths-- the economic and legal
systems, the government, and even the dynamic between men and women remain
alien to Perry, the customs of the new day continually testing his mental and
emotional resolve.
Yet it is precisely his knowledge of a bygone era that will serve Perry
best, as the man from 1939 seems destined to lead his newfound peers even
further into the future than they could have imagined.
A classic example of the future history that Robert Heinlein popularized
during his career, For Us, The Living marks both the beginning and the end of
an extraordinary arc of political, social, and literary crusading that
comprises his legacy. Heinlein could not have known in 1939 how the world
would change over the course of one and a half centuries, but we have our own
true world history to compare with his brilliant imaginings, rendering For Us,
The Living not merely a novel, but a time capsule view into our past, our
present, and perhaps our future.
The novel is presented here with an introduction by acclaimed science
fiction writer Spider Robinson and an afterward by Professor Robert James of
the Heinlein Society.