Asimov's Life-Line

Isaac Asimov was born on January 2, 1920. He died twenty years ago from AIDS which he got due to a blood transfusion--though this wasn't revealed until ten years ago.  I've recently been looking at his memoir I, Asimov, published in 1994.

It's actually closer to 166 short essays on various topics that take us through his life, rather than an autobiography. In fact, he'd already written a two-volume autobiography that took us up to 1978 (the guy wrote hundreds of books).  His second wife, Janet, thought he should write a third volume, this time giving us less chronology and more of his personal thoughts. Asimov, who couldn't help but write, decided to go over his life once more, this time with feelings.

It is an interesting look into his mind, though sometimes his honesty reveals things I'd almost rather not know.  Which brings me to chapter 24--about three pages long--on Robert Heinlein. So there they are, the two top sf writers of my youth. Should be good.

Though Heinlein was older, they both started publishing in 1939.  They got to know each other during WWII when they worked together at the Naval Air Experimental Station.  They were friends, and Asimov had great respect for Heinlein's writing, but felt he was rather imperious, bullying people into agreeing with his views.  Their relationship was always rocky, much of that due to political differences.

Asimov was a liberal and felt Heinlein became a 'far-right conservative" after the war when he divorced his wife at the time, "liberal" Leslyn, and married the "far-right conservative" Virginia.

Ronald Reagan did the same when he switched wives from the liberal Jane Wyman to the ultraconservative Nancy, but Ronald Reagan I have always viewed as a brainless fellow who echoes the opinion of anyone who gets close to him.  I can't explain Heinlein in that way at all, for I cannot believe he would follow his wives' opinion blindly [....] I would never marry anyone who did not generally agree with my political, social, and philosophical view of life."

A lot of ugliness in those sentences.  First, note, to Asimov, liberals are just liberals, while conservatives are "far-right" or "ultraconservative." Actually, I'm not sure you can make a case for Heinlein even being a conservative--yes, he hated communism, but he believed people should live how they choose.  His 1961 novel Stranger In A Strange Land became sacred text to the flower children.  Asimov must know this, but it doesn't matter--if you don't vote with him, you must be far right.

Then there's the stupid shot at Reagan.  Blissful in his ignorance, Asimov figures the guy must be a dolt (presumably because he believed all those stupid conservative ideas). Actually, Reagan was very much his own man, and always interested in politics--in fact, it tired out his first wife and was one of the factors that led to their split. By the way, Jane Wyman was a Republican.

I don't know why Heinlein changed his politics (maybe I'll find out more when volume two of the Patterson biography comes out), but even if he followed his second wife's lead, must it be "blindly?" Is it not possible to share Virginia Heinlein's politics without being brainwashed?

Then there's Asimov's need to marry someone who agrees with his view of life.  Hmm, maybe Heinlein wasn't the one who insisted that people had to agree with him.

Still, an enjoyable book.  I'd put it in his top 100.