{"id":815,"date":"2008-03-05T01:37:50","date_gmt":"2008-03-05T06:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=815"},"modified":"2018-08-14T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T20:08:05","slug":"robert-a-heinlein-waldo-magic-inc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=815","title":{"rendered":"(Robert A. Heinlein) Waldo &<\/span> Magic, Inc"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ear\u00adly 1940\u2019s, Robert Hein\u00adlein wrote two charm\u00ading nov\u00adel\u00adettes, which have most of the ele\u00adments of his mature style, but with a lighter, more imp\u00adish tone. <\/span>The two nov\u00adel\u00adettes have been in print togeth\u00ader under the title Wal\u00addo <\/em>&<\/span><\/i><\/span> Mag\u00adic, Inc.<\/em> for the last 58 years.<\/p>\n

Wal\u00addo <\/em>(pub\u00adlished in Astound\u00ading<\/em> in 1942) is set in a future (appar\u00adently around our present, now) where Niko\u00adla Tesla\u2019s radi\u00adant pow\u00ader forms the back\u00adbone of the tech\u00adno\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal infra\u00adstruc\u00adture. The prob\u00adlem is, the tech\u00adnol\u00adogy is mys\u00adte\u00adri\u00adously fail\u00ading, and there is the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity radi\u00adant pow\u00ader is cre\u00adat\u00ading an eco\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal dis\u00adas\u00adter. It may be sap\u00adping everyone\u2019s vital\u00adity, turn\u00ading human\u00adity into help\u00adless couch pota\u00adtoes. Nobody is bet\u00adter qual\u00adi\u00adfied to solve this prob\u00adlem than Wal\u00addo, the obnox\u00adiously brat\u00adty super-genius who lives in orbit above the earth, and is afflict\u00aded with myas\u00adthe\u00adnia gravis<\/em>, a degen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtive mus\u00adcu\u00adlar dis\u00adease that makes him help\u00adless. To com\u00adpen\u00adsate, he has invent\u00aded var\u00adi\u00adous forms of remote con\u00adtrol devices, known as wal\u00addos<\/em>, which Hein\u00adlein describes in detail. But he needs the help of a Penn\u00adsyl\u00adva\u00adnia hex doc\u00adtor to solve the prob\u00adlem. Hein\u00adlein con\u00adceived of the remote con\u00adtrol devices long before they were actu\u00adally built, and it is said that the sto\u00adry led direct\u00adly to their invention.<\/p>\n

Mag\u00adic, Inc.<\/em> (pub\u00adlished in Unknown in 1940 as \u201cThe Dev\u00adil Makes the Law\u201d) is a minor mas\u00adter\u00adpiece of fan\u00adtasy, with hard\u00adly a word out of place, an admirable les\u00adson in how to make a sto\u00adry work. With a few, sim\u00adple nar\u00adra\u00adtive strokes, Hein\u00adlein cre\u00adates a com\u00adpletely con\u00adsis\u00adtent world that com\u00adbines tra\u00addi\u00adtional ideas of mag\u00adic and mythol\u00adogy with the day-to-day world of sub\u00adur\u00adbia. The hero, a build\u00ading con\u00adtrac\u00adtor, strug\u00adgles with cor\u00adrupt politi\u00adcians, small-time gang\u00adsters, and a \u201cmagician\u2019s asso\u00adci\u00ada\u00adtion\u201d try\u00ading to estab\u00adlish a coer\u00adcive monop\u00adoly. He does so with the help of delight\u00adful allies \u2015 an elder\u00adly witch, and an African \u201cghost snif\u00adfer\u201d among them. The tale moves swift\u00adly from inci\u00addent to inci\u00addent, and the read\u00ader even learns a bit about the con\u00adstruction busi\u00adness. This is among the most good-natured fan\u00adtasies ever writ\u00adten. The basic idea was pur\u00adloined (with\u00adout cred\u00adit) by the 1994 film Witch Hunt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

15744. [4] (Robert A. Hein\u00adlein) Wal\u00addo [sto\u00adry]
15745. [4] (Robert A. Hein\u00adlein) Mag\u00adic, Inc. [sto\u00adry]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the ear\u00adly 1940\u2019s, Robert Hein\u00adlein wrote two charm\u00ading nov\u00adel\u00adettes, which have most of the ele\u00adments of his mature style, but with a lighter, more imp\u00adish tone. The two nov\u00adel\u00adettes have been in print togeth\u00ader under the title Waldo &<\/span> \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=815"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8620,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815\/revisions\/8620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}