In the early 1940’s, Robert Heinlein wrote two charming novelettes, which have most of the elements of his mature style, but with a lighter, more impish tone. The two novelettes have been in print together under the title Waldo & Magic, Inc. for the last 58 years.
Waldo (published in Astounding in 1942) is set in a future (apparently around our present, now) where Nikola Tesla’s radiant power forms the backbone of the technological infrastructure. The problem is, the technology is mysteriously failing, and there is the possibility radiant power is creating an ecological disaster. It may be sapping everyone’s vitality, turning humanity into helpless couch potatoes. Nobody is better qualified to solve this problem than Waldo, the obnoxiously bratty super-genius who lives in orbit above the earth, and is afflicted with myasthenia gravis, a degenerative muscular disease that makes him helpless. To compensate, he has invented various forms of remote control devices, known as waldos, which Heinlein describes in detail. But he needs the help of a Pennsylvania hex doctor to solve the problem. Heinlein conceived of the remote control devices long before they were actually built, and it is said that the story led directly to their invention.
Magic, Inc. (published in Unknown in 1940 as “The Devil Makes the Law”) is a minor masterpiece of fantasy, with hardly a word out of place, an admirable lesson in how to make a story work. With a few, simple narrative strokes, Heinlein creates a completely consistent world that combines traditional ideas of magic and mythology with the day-to-day world of suburbia. The hero, a building contractor, struggles with corrupt politicians, small-time gangsters, and a “magician’s association” trying to establish a coercive monopoly. He does so with the help of delightful allies ― an elderly witch, and an African “ghost sniffer” among them. The tale moves swiftly from incident to incident, and the reader even learns a bit about the construction business. This is among the most good-natured fantasies ever written. The basic idea was purloined (without credit) by the 1994 film Witch Hunt.
15744. [4] (Robert A. Heinlein) Waldo [story]
15745. [4] (Robert A. Heinlein) Magic, Inc. [story]
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