Mention Appertaining To Books Friday

Title	:	Friday
Author	:	Robert A. Heinlein
Book Format	:	audio cassette
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 303 pages
Published	:	July 1st 1987 by DH Audio (first published August 3rd 1982)
Categories	:	Science Fiction. Fiction

Friday audio cassette | Pages: 303 pages

Chronicle Conducive To Books Friday

Robert Anson Heinlein…shame on you, sir. W…T…everwomanhating…F were you thinking when you wrote this drivel?

Friday is, in my irritated opinion, the most offensive and childishly ridiculous female protagonist since Russ Meyer and Roger Corman teamed up to co-direct Planet of the Nympho Bimbos Part II: Attack of the Soapy Breast Monsters.**

** Not a real film, so don’t bother searching Amazon for it.

Pardon my soap boxing, but this is a despicable pile of misogynistic shit that should have been dropped, wiped away and flushed from the literary world before it ever plopped on the printing press. Sorry for the dysphemism, but “I really didn’t like it” just doesn’t adequately express my loathe-on for this book.

Previously, I’d read and enjoyed a handful of Robert Heinlein’s novels and many of his short stories and considered myself a fan of his work. I have also read some reviews where people took issue with his attitudes on sex and women, but hadn’t personally come across anything I found excessively off-putting…UNTIL NOW. This noxious crap pissed me off the roof of the RAH Fan club and had me losing respect for the man all the way down.

Before I get to my major problems with the book, let me pause, slow my heart rate and give you a quick run down of the plot:

PLOT SUMMARY

Set in the future on a balkanized Earth that has splintered into a collection of rival city-states, corporate fiefdoms and criminal enclaves, Friday Baldwin is an artificial person (AP) who works as a combat courier for a mysterious employer. Her job is making deliveries and pick ups to sensitive to be entrusted to normal channels. As an AP, she is stronger, faster and supposedly more intelligent than normal humans though she hides her true nature because APs are held in contempt by society (similar to Robots in Asimov’s much better Robot novels).

Early on in the book Friday finds herself out of a job and then travels from situation to situation acting as the reader’s eyes and ears for Heinlein to share with us his vision of a dystopic future and expound on his political views.

Of the almost 400 pages in the book, there’s about 100 or so that are decent, Heinlein world building.

MY PROBLEMS WITH THIS BOOK

For all of her strength, speed and deadly fighting ability, Friday is nothing more than an insecure, bubble-headed skank who thinks that SEX is the only valuable commodity she has to offer in this world. Countless times in the book, she either sleeps with, or tells the reader she would be willing to sleep with, someone as nothing more than a courteous “thank you” for being nice.

Don’t get me wrong, sexual independence and equality…fine by me. But I got no inkling in Heinlein’s prose of sex being an uninhibited display of physicality between equals free to express themselves. Nope, didn’t see it. I saw tawdry, lowbrow objectification grounded in atavistic chauvinism rather than new age “free loveism.”

Granted, most of the sex Friday has in the book is consensual and she’s a willing participant. I say “most” because there’s an instance at the beginning of the book when Friday is kidnapped and gang-raped by 4 guys (I’m not kidding folks). Of course, Friday, for the most part, doesn’t hold a grudge against the rapists as she believes they are just “softening” her up for interrogation which she completely understands. Whoa…full stop…major HUH? Moment ahead.

Excuse me while I bang my head against the wall in frustration.

As a proud:

1. Father of two brilliant, happy and outgoing little girls,
2. Husband of a smart, confident, self-motivated woman,
3. Younger brother of two well-educated, independent sisters, and
4. Youngest son of an intelligent, successful businesswoman (and mom of 5)…

…I just wanted to bitch-slap Heinlein until I knocked the skeevy right out of him. Please don’t interpret this as some indulgent display of gender enlightenment by the PC police as I am about as opposed to militant PCness as I am about this book. Hell, the women I know can more than take care of themselves without my blundering around getting in the way. However, this book is horrible. It’s crap and I don’t want to avoid calling it what it is simply at the risk of appearing to pander.

There were dozens of instances in the book where I wanted to throw the book (with Heinlein attached) against the wall, but I’m going to mention just three of them to give you an idea of our protagonist.

1. A young man offers Friday his seat on a crowded passenger train. She accepts and then proceeds to lean forward as he stands next to her so as to allow him to look down her shirt. She does this as a gesture of thanks.

2. Friday explains her belief that it is inappropriate for her to allow someone to buy her a meal unless she is willing to give them a legitimate shot at sleeping with her. Now that’s class.

3. I don’t want to give away a spoiler so let me just tease you by saying that one of the 4 rapists from the beginning of the book reappears later in the novel and Friday’s interaction with him will cause you to fume, spit blood and hack up bile….TRUST ME ON THIS.

This is not some strong, independent woman who isn’t afraid of her sexuality and explores it with confidence and on her own terms. This is a timid, naïve woman with a massive inferiority complex who feels she “owes” a guy the opportunity of getting her into her pants because he offered her his seat on a passenger train. Are you F@#KING kidding me?

This book was a big, hairy Neanderthal of a novel with its knuckles dragging along the floor and had more in common with the soft-core porn of John Norman’s Gor novels than the previous work I’ve read by Mr. Heinlein.

A horrible, massive disappointment and it will be a while before I give one of his books my time. For now, Mr. Heinlein, let me just say:

Define Books In Favor Of Friday

Original Title:	Friday
ISBN:	0886461863 (ISBN13: 9780886461867)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Friday
Literary Awards:	Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1983), Nebula Award Nominee (1983), Locus Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (1983), Prometheus Award for Best Novel (1983)

Rating Appertaining To Books Friday

Ratings: 3.84 From 25824 Users | 748 Reviews

Rate Appertaining To Books Friday

Two months before the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner was released, Robert A. Heinlein first published Friday.Blade Runner was the film adaption of Philip K. Dicks 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? but Heinlein may also have been influenced by PKD, in that Friday concerns the creation of enhanced humans.Both works also feature and highlight a strong female lead character. Friday for Heinlein and Priss in Blade Runner have created in speculative fiction an archetypal female:



The first few pages had me thinking "Wow, when the old goat isn't preaching his agenda of communal polygamist living and actually TELLS A STORY, he makes you remember how good he is at it!" Then he promptly settles in for about 100 pages of agenda and leaves most of the potential that this character had to fizzle. Even though Friday is just another incarnation of Heinlein's typical horny-bimbo-with-a-Ph.D. dream girl (and there's nothing wrong with that), her artificial person status, ninja-like

Asking me to pick my favorite Heinlein is like asking me to pick my favorite friend. My favorite changes depending on my feelings, my life at that moment, and probably a heap of things I don't even notice.I loved science fiction and fantasy from an early age, but the heroes I found were almost entirely male. Females were either supporting characters or props. Friday is tough, independent, brave, and makes things happen. She wrestles with insecurity, but it never keeps her from taking action. At

I read this in high school (the cover really helps these star ratings). If I were to reread this today (which I have no desire to do), I would give it 2 stars, mostly for the ending ((view spoiler)[which reduces the eponymous Friday to a barefoot-and-pregnant housewife of one of the men who raped her in the first chapter (hide spoiler)]). Addendum (11/22/11): Upon further reflection and in light of the comments below, I'm revising my rating to 2 stars: Get past chapter one and ignore the ending

This is one of the most Heinlein books ever Heinleined. Nearly all of his tropes are here: Open relationships/shared partners, promiscuous sex being no big deal and as taboo as shaking hands, shady corporations, war, people fighting for personal freedoms, people hiding from crooked authority figures who are on their trail, noble older men, an emphasis on scholarship and learning, people getting rich by luck and/or tricky shenanigans, anti-bigot sentiments, anti-organized religion sentiments...I

Robert Anson Heinleinshame on you, sir. WTeverwomanhatingF were you thinking when you wrote this drivel? Friday is, in my irritated opinion, the most offensive and childishly ridiculous female protagonist since Russ Meyer and Roger Corman teamed up to co-direct Planet of the Nympho Bimbos Part II: Attack of the Soapy Breast Monsters.** ** Not a real film, so dont bother searching Amazon for it. Pardon my soap boxing, but this is a despicable pile of misogynistic shit that should have been