An Adventure in Sound—The Robert A. Heinlein Audioplays by Anders Monsen
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Liberty and Culture Vol. 25, No. 2 Winter 2007 An Adventure in Sound—The Robert A. Heinlein Audioplays By Anders Monsen Old Time Radio Radio more than once sparked major changes in my life. back even further. With all the different forms of entertain- As a high school kid in western Norway ment available to radio, such as sports, in the mid-1980s it opened up worlds religious sermons, political talk formats, for my music sensibilities as I listened and music, adapting the written word to John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 shows late into a form of audio theatre is merely at night on old portable. As a college one other format. And yet, there’s an student in the early 1990s in Austin, inherent nostalgia around this format, Texas, driving an old VW bug with only for in our present age listening to a play AM radio, it fired an interest and love seems quite old-fashioned compared to for baseball listening to college and pro- watching TV or renting DVDs. Orson fessional broadcasts. Where TV failed Welles 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells in igniting the imagination, as baseball story, “War of the Worlds,” on his show on the small screen is far duller than in entitled The Mercury Theatre of the real life, radio listeners must pay greater Air, stands out perhaps as the pinnacle attention, and the announcer’s spare no of the power of entertainment on radio. effort in their descriptions. In those days the lines between news In 1998 I conducted an interview and entertainment were still blurred. with Brad Linaweaver and William The imagination of the mind so suited Alan Ritch that ran as a two-parter in for radio made it quite popular was a the pages of Prometheus, called “Travel- way to reach millions of eager young ing in Elephants” (Volume 16, No. 3 kids and adults, especially fans of the & 4). Linaweaver and Ritch had just growing science fiction genre. completed their first adaptation of a In the 1950s NBC carried two shows Robert A. Heinlein short story, “The of adapted science fiction stories, Di- Man Who Traveled in Elephants,” into mension X (1950-1951) with 50 stories a radio audioplay performed by the by now well-known writers in the field, Atlanta Radio Theatre Company. This group, which might and X Minus One (1955-1958); the latter started as a revival be called an amateur production company with professional of Dimension X, but offered over 100 new episodes. Some of abilities, put together performances at local sf shows and other the stories adapted into audio plays on Dimension X included venues, and recorded these as well for sales as CDs. In 1995 I witnessed one of their many live performances at DragonCon. —Continued on page 6 Although many years passed and I never heard “The Man Who Traveled in Elephants,” I kept thinking about reviewing it for Prometheus. In 2005 I checked out the ARTC web site <www. Inside Prometheus: artc.org> and saw that they had adapted two more Heinlein Ficton by Tamara Wilhite; stories, all available online to order as CDs under their Dean’s Reviews of fiction by John Scalzi, Lewis Sinclair, List program. Call me a procrastinator, but I didn’t order the & Jack Williamson; three CDs until the summer of 2006. Review of Brad Linaweaver’s political broadside; The age of radio broadcasts for entertainment purposes Preliminary Prometheus Award nominees; & Letters dates back to the 1920s, whereas wireless transmission dates Prometheus Volume 25, Number 2, 2007 On re-reading the classics I first read Sinclair Lewis’ novel, It Can’t right. But we can’t forget that Buzz Windrip, The newsletter of the Happen Here, over twenty years ago. I the American Führer who rises to fame and Libertarian Futurist Society found copy of the book, a hardcover Brit- power in the novel, defeats Franklin Delano ish edition dated 1936, in a used book store Roosevelt in the Democrat primary. The key Editor in Bergen, Norway. I had recently acquired platforms in Windrip’s campaign all are Anders Monsen some of the early letters about the founding working class related, and he draws his sup- of the LFS, and seen the title listed in several port from the less fortunate (he also courts Contributors recommended sections, so naturally I checked big business and a host of contradictory Chris Hibbert that section for any books by Lewis. Time and interests as well). Victor Koman a host of other books since then had erased When re-reading It Can’t Happen Tamara Wilhite many of my memories of that novel, first Here, I was shocked at how much I had published in America in 1935. Still, almost forgotten. The quick rise of despotism seems every year someone nominates It Can’t a little unreal, but happens to this day in many Happen Here for the Hall of Fame award. other countries, with little room for resistance. Every year it falls short, and I remind myself Witness the despair in Robert Mugabe’s that I need to re-read the book. Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket of Africa, Recently a weird idea crept into my head. where people are reduced to eating rats to Letters and Submissions: By strange synchronicity, “King Lear” and survive, and government agents abroad justify Anders Monsen “Sinclair” sound very much alike. A long time this as quaint tribal delicacies. America in the 501 Abiso Ave fan of the poet John Keats, I remembered 1930s, in the midst of a crushing depression, San Antonio, TX 78209 his poem, “On Sitting Down to Read King might have experienced the same fate. Our [email protected] Lear Once Again,” and the English Lit geek perceptions are clouded by what we see today, in me thought it might be neat to use this and we all probably think, like many of the Subscriptions & Advertisements poem as jumping off point to riff on re- respectable people in the novel as they were Libertarian Futurist Society reading Sinclair; thus perhaps the strangest hauled away to concentration camps, or saw 650 Castro St. Suite 120-433 review in life that appears elsewhere in this former friends summarily shot in the streets, Mountain View, CA 94041 newsletter. I read that it still can’t happen here. [email protected] It Can’t Happen Here and a biography on Lewis, and found to my What protagonist Doremus Jessup sees surprise that it’s a damn good book, and he as “this comic tyranny” of Windrip’s reign, LFS Online: led quite an interesting life. Though no one becomes a series of tragedies, one after the http://www.lfs.org can say he’s a libertarian, he certainly is a other, as people lose life and hope while the contrarian, an ambitious writer who found party members willingly give up their human- Basic Membership: $25/yr. ($30 int'l) himself a perpetual outsider then as well as ity. It can’t happen here? Really? Our own Full Membership: $50/yr. now. He dedicated his 1927 novel Imperial President assumes greater power Sponsors: $100/yr. Elmer to H. L. Mencken, and saw it banned with each legislative interpretation. In the Benefactors: $200/yr. Gantry in Boston as well as other cities. His more guise of “security” we lose freedoms almost Subscriptions: $20/yr. ($25 int'l) famous novel (1920) also was daily, and in many cases remain blissfully All memberships include one-year Main Street banned by overly sensitive towns. Lewis was unaware. So far there are no concentra- subscriptions to Prometheus. a masterful satirist, who wrote about small- tion camps, but instead countless lists and town life and conformity. His novels are databases, each secret and classified. And Classified ads: 50 cents/word, 10 per- filled with idealists, rebels, non-conformists, yet people justify and support their very cent off for multiple insertions. Display many who ultimately fail to break free but existence, as supposedly critical tools in the ad rates available. All checks payable to instead fall back into the sludge of their bland never-ending “War on Terror.” There’s a the Libertarian Futurist Society communities. thin line indeed between being on a list so Lewis recognized the threat of state prone to error that toddlers and Senators are control. Critics usually allude to It Can’t denied the ability to board airplanes, and Prometheus © 2007 the Libertarian Fu- Happen Here as showing the growth of ending up behind bars for crimes unstated, turist Society. The LFS retains a non- right wing tyranny in America, yet this is with no recourse of habeas corpus. exclusive license to republish accepted because people see socialism as to the left So, if you want a terrifying work of fiction, articles on its Web site; all other rights and fascism as to the right on the political read Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here. revert to the contributor. Letters and spectrum. Lewis once wrote that “[w]hen This is a novel that highly deserved the Hall reviews are welcome. Bylined articles fascism arrives in America it will be wrapped of Fame award, which long has been overdue are strictly the opinion of the writer and in the flag and carrying a cross,” and today recognition from a group that promotes the do not necessarily reflect the opinion this concept is firmly rooted in evangelical way liberty is discussed in fiction. I only hope of the LFS members. Republican Party conservatism. So in that that next time twenty years does not pass sense, the corporate Rotarian fascism por- before I re-read this book.