I'm replacing my whitefonted spoiler with a link to the script, which explains things better than I did anyway.

Ahem. Spoilers.

Sorry, ita. Is there anywhere besides the Wonderfalls spoilers thread where people can talk about the episodes they've seen? That thread spoils all the episodes, and some people don't want to know what happens in later ones.

My bad. I should have just asked for that to be backchannelled.

Unfortunately no -- there's no real middle ground that doesn't involve e-mail.

Is there anywhere besides the Wonderfalls spoilers thread where people can talk about the episodes they've seen?

Unless we have a separate thread for every single unaired episode, I don't see how that's possible.

Massive x-post! Today's IMDb poll is relevant and interesting. And saddening.

Unless we have a separate thread for every single unaired episode, I don't see how that's possible.

Spoilsport. It's people like you who deny me my "Last fifth of The Fountainhead, except for the very end because I have this suspicion that it'll be disappointing" thread.

"Last fifth of The Fountainhead, except for the very end because I have this suspicion that it'll be disappointing" thread.

I'd subscribe to this thread. Totally. And then make everybody mad by posting things like "The ending is good if somewhat weird!!!" and then summarizing the ending completely, not in whitefont.

Because I like nothing more than entirely ruining the purpose of a thread.

Where does Tim live again? t cue scary music

Here's the thing. I started reading Heinlein in roughly 1974. There was no Elizabeth Moon, C.J. Cherryh, Tamora Pierce. There were very, very few female agents: most of the females in SF novels were good-conduct prizes. (A laudable exception was Andre Norton.)

Look at Glory Road, published in 1963. The heroine, Star, is a competent fighter. She turns out to be the Empress of the Universe, and this doesn't involve sitting around half-naked on thrones. She's making difficult political decisions, and it's a more-than-full-time job. She has a broad sex life and she enjoys it. The hero eventually realizes that she doesn't have time for both the job and him. That's pretty damned powerful and advanced for 1963. That's worlds beyond what Asimov, for instance, was doing.

Today, in 2004, I look at Heinlein women with despair and disdain. I can't live up to that model. (I mean, wanting sex in the cab on the way to give birth? As IF.) Heinlein's views on women were genuinely advanced in the 1950s; the society moved on past him, and thank Heaven for that. But there's more to Heinlein than the caricature of himself he became after the stroke. I don't think he wrote a good book after I Will Fear No Evil. I think the books he wrote in his prime have dated badly. But I also think that they set a generation of children to thinking about spaceflight; over the years, many astronauts and rocket scientists came up to Heinlein and thanked him.

I completely respect people who have tried Heinlein and disliked him. But he was important to me in my teens, and I'll always respect him and love him for that.