TIME ENOUGH FOR LOVE

Time Enough for Love is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published in 1973. The work was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974.

Plot summary

The book focuses on the adventures and musings of Lazarus Long, the oldest living human, who has grown weary and has decided that life is no longer worth living. It takes the form of several novellas tied together in the form of Lazarus's retrospective narrative. There is a reverse Arabian Nights theme to the novel, in that Lazarus will consent not to end his life as long as his companions will listen to his stories.

The Tale of the Man Who Was Too Lazy to Fail concerns a 20th-century U.S. Navy cadet who manages to move up the ranks while avoiding any semblance of real work by applying himself wholeheartedly to the principle of "constructive laziness". The events and descriptions parallel Heinlein's own Navy career. After the Naval Academy the protagonist becomes rich by taking advantage of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid farmers not to farm their land. Heinlein disdained government interference in business, especially in the form of handouts, and the level of taxation necessary to sustain such programs.

The Tale of the Adopted Daughter is a lengthy, Western-style story about his days as a pioneer, which is rather un-SF fare for a book marketed as science fiction. On the other hand, the pioneering does take place on another planet, and several genetically engineered animals — notably some talking, fertile mules — accompany Lazarus on his venture. The segment begins with a short scene-setter written after the style of "The Song of Hiawatha". The theme of the story relates to several of Heinlein's favorite aphorisms, beginning with "Never pick up a stray kitten".

The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't is a story about a pair of slaves, brother and sister, whom Lazarus buys from a slave dealer on a planet with a culture like that of the medieval Middle East (cf. Citizen of the Galaxy). He immediately manumits them. Because they have no experience in living as independent human beings, and no education to speak of, Lazarus finds himself cast in the role of the "parent," and proceeds to teach them "how to be human." The two are the result of an experiment in genetic recombination where, essentially, two parent cells were separated into haploid gametes, and recombined into two embryos. The resulting zygotes were implanted in a woman and gestated by her. Although both have the same mother and genetic parents, they are no more related genetically than any two people taken at random. Since the two are in love and have been prevented from having sex by a chastity belt, this is of some concern to Lazarus once he frees them, not wishing to have to deal with the product of a combination of unfavourable recessive genes from what may be an incestuous union. It should be noted that if there are no unfavourable recessive combinations, Long does not see any moral difficulties with the union and the breaking of the incest taboo.

There are two "Intermission" sections, each some six or eight pages long, taking the form of lists of provocative phrases and aphorisms. Some of these have become quite popular and can be found (amongst other places) in internet signature blocks to this day. (They were also published independently as The Notebooks of Lazarus Long.)

Another piece of bridging material involves the high-tech colonization of a planet in the "modern" way. In this section, we learn that Lazarus has regained his zest for life. It is followed by an excursion back in time to 1916, where Lazarus meets and falls in love with his own mother, whereupon the two of them seduce one another. Later, in order to keep her esteem and that of his grandfather (a very dominant figure, reminiscent of "The Old Man" in The Puppet Masters), he gets himself involved as a combat soldier in the First World War—in complete contradiction to his firm intention when he traveled in time to that period—and very narrowly avoids having his very long life terminate at an anonymous grave in the trenches of the Western Front. An error in the time machine sent him to an earlier date than he intended. Not only was he forced to enlist in the Army to avoid being branded a coward, he had to destroy most of the money he brought with him, since it was dated later than 1916.

Major themes

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Time Enough for Love explores a number of themes, all of which appear to have been important to Heinlein, as each of them is featured in many of his other novels and short stories.

Love

One of the central themes of the book is the importance of love in human life. In discussing love, Lazarus and the other characters develop the distinction between Agape (spiritual love) and eros (sexual love). Later in the novel, Lazarus credits his friends and family with reminding him of the importance of love, thereby restoring his will to live.

Incest

Incest and discussion of incest recurs throughout the novel, especially in The Tale of the Adopted Daughter, The Tale of the Twins Who Weren't and the bridging material that ties the various tales together. As noted earlier, while traveling back to 1916 Lazarus meets and falls in love with his own mother, and feels singularly free of any guilt at having sex with her.

The philosophical question raised is whether the near-immortal who already spent thousands of years of adult life is truly the same person as the small child, the young Lazarus whom the older Lazarus also meets. Significantly, since starting to think of her and behave to her in this way, Long refers to his mother as "Maureen" rather than "my mother".

In this book she never finds out who he really was, although she deduces that he is somehow related by descent. In later books she appears again, knowing the truth; she is more amused than angry about their relationship, and eagerly joins the family group.

Each of the 'incestuous' relationships described is in some way different from traditional incest and explores a different philosophical point of view. The "twins who weren't", for example, share no common genetic material, and their offspring have no greater chance of genetic defects than the offspring of two strangers. The pair are siblings, but had been told by authorities that they were to be a breeding pair. In their minds, there is no sin. Lazarus Long wrestles with the implications, and eventually decides the two should remain together.

Another point of view presented in this and other Future History stories is that the social stigma attached to incestuous relationships is no longer necessary when deleterious genes can not accumulate in offspring. One example is how the relationship between Lazarus and Maureen only moves beyond smoldering looks when Maureen admits she is already pregnant by her husband, and therefore can not conceive. Another example is how Lazarus is quite willing to have children with his descendants, as genetic screening and gene surgery in the far future utterly removes the possibility of bad outcomes from inbreeding.

Pioneer life

Pioneer life is heavily represented throughout the novel, as noted in the plot summary above. Lazarus is of the opinion that "when a society has grown to the point where it requires people to carry identification, it is time to move out." Heinlein himself deeply resented having to carry or supply identification. On his tour of the world with Virginia, recounted in "Tramp Royale" he went so far as to walk out of hotels which required him present identification, or surrender his passport, and try to find a more liberal place to stay. Since he paid with either cash or traveler's checks, he saw no reason for hotels to impose any other requirement on him (in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Heinlein describes the Earthside practice of requiring a traveler to show identification as "insolent").

Outer worlds vs. Earth

From several references in the book, it is clear that the Earth has deteriorated to an impoverished, diseased, overcrowded place which people in the outer worlds have no wish to even visit, and are grateful that their ancestors got away from there in time. Interestingly, this is very similar to the situation in the Robot Series and several other books of Isaac Asimov. However, in Asimov's books the situation is always viewed from the point of view of the Earth people, asserting themselves against the arrogance of the Outer Worlds, while Heinlein writes from the Outer Worlders' point of view. The difference might be attributed, at least in part, to Heinlein's being born to a family long established in the New World while Asimov was a member of an immigrant family to whom a miserable Eastern European society was still a fresh memory.[citation needed]

Failure of democracy

In the universe of this book, democracy and representative government are considered to be an experiment which was tried for a brief period in the distant past and proved to be unworkable, mainly due to the voting public's stupidity and short-sightedness.

A group called "equalitarians" still exists in this universe, and the Chairman Pro Tem notes in conversation with Lazarus that this group were infiltrated at intervals, rounded up and sentenced to involuntary transportation. They were not to be confused with members of an obscure and harmless religious sect called "The Church of the Holy Democrat".

It has been long and inconclusively debated whether this reflected Heinlein's own considered opinion on the future of democracy, or was just an attempt to startle his readers with a provocative idea. Heinlein frequently used his writing as a means to express provocative ideas about politics and society, including military hegonomy (where only veterans have the franchise - see Starship Troopers, armed societies, and the restriction of the franchise to literate and numerate persons only (see Expanded Universe).

One of the examples in the book occurs in "The Tale of the Adopted Daughter". Lazarus sets up a bank to help a pioneer town to grow, carefully controlling the money supply so that prices remain stable. A "democratic" government passes a law allowing them to take over his bank, but its representatives know nothing of economics, and are astonished that he burns most cash deposited at the bank, printing measured amounts of new notes to satisfy withdrawals.

Connections to Heinlein's other work

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This book is an outgrowth of the earlier Methuselah's Children and is connected to The Number of the Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, and To Sail Beyond the Sunset, as well as several other Heinlein novels and stories in his Future History.

The book also marks the conclusion to the evolution of Heinlein's view of homosexuality. In The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (published only seven years before), homosexuals were seen as defectives, and homosexual sex a poor substitute. A more accepting view was put forth in I Will Fear No Evil, and in this book, it is seen as fully acceptable and almost indistinguishable from the heterosexual variety.

Finally, most of the events are told in first person from the point of view of the protagonist, Lazarus Long. Many are retold, also first person, from the point of view of his mother, Maureen Johnson Long, in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, the last novel Heinlein wrote and published before he died in 1988. (According to Maureen in that book, Lazarus' account in Time Enough For Love of their 1916-7 meeting is incomplete and inaccurate in many respects.) This approach to storytelling can also be seen in the first two books of Orson Scott Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker series.

The book references many of the previous works of Heinlein either directly or obliquely.

There is much discussion of the events and characters of Methuselah's Children.

Lazarus mentions a blind accordion player who shows up at the bordello he manages. This is Rhysling of The Green Hills of Earth.

Multiple references are made to the song "The Green Hills of Earth", with Lazarus unaware that he had known its composer.

The starship Vanguard, the sister ship to the New Frontiers, is mentioned as having been found lost in space. This is the ship from Orphans of the Sky.

Multiple references are made to the Harriman Foundation, founded by D. D. Harriman of "Requiem" and The Man Who Sold the Moon.

Lazarus makes reference to an experiment where a male brain was transplanted into a female body, which occurred in I Will Fear No Evil.