The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: The American revolution in an SF context

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

“Sometimes I think that government is an inescapable disease of human beings. But it may be possible to keep it small, and starved, and inoffensive.”

It’s the year 2075. The Earth, which has a worldwide government of Federated Nations, sends its criminals and exiles to the moon where they won’t bother anyone on Earth. The “Loonies” are governed by wardens who require them to grow hydroponic grain which is sent back to Earth. This has been going on for over a century, so the lunar colony is no longer just criminals and exiles. They’ve had families and have built a society, but they’re still treated as Earth’s slave labor force. They do work for Earth, but get no benefits. Now they want to be free.

When a computer technician named Mannie realizes that the moon’s central computer (Mike) is sentient and lonely, he befriends it and they begin, with the help of a professor and a radical young woman, to plan a revolution. Along the way Mike keeps calculating the chances of their success as new developments occur.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the story of the American Revolution (or it could be any revolution) in a science fiction context. Readers familiar with Robert A. Heinlein won’t be surprised that this is an anti-authority story — Heinlein’s libertarian views are on full display and those of us with a libertarian streak will be rooting for the “Loonies” as they lament the inadequacies of representational government and demand a free market, a free press, voluntary rather than compulsory taxation, and the right for all citizens to be free and self-sufficient. (Heinlein’s libertarianism borders on anarchism, though, and his characters don’t seem to have a problem with stealing power, water, and phone services from the government, allowing the computer to steal money for their revolution, or rigging elections.) Heinlein’s fans also won’t be surprised to encounter an incestuous type of polygamy in the “line marriages” of the lunar colony.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is one of my favorite Heinlein stories. It’s exciting and well-plotted, has strong male and female characters of all ages and races (perhaps Mike the computer is the best character, though!), has some humor, interesting ideas about the purpose of government, and I learned enough about how to run a revolution that I feel like I’m prepared to plan my own. Plus, a catapult on the moon? That’s awesome! (Though Philip K. Dick did it first).

The style of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is noteworthy. The Loonies come from all over the Earth and have developed their own slang. Mannie narrates the story in a choppy voice that skips a lot of personal pronouns and articles and sounds like he’s taking notes:

 Proud of my ancestry and while I did business with Warden, would never go on his payroll. Perhaps distinction seems trivial since I was Mike’s valet from day he was unpacked. But mattered to me. I could down tools and tell them go to hell. Besides, private contractor paid more than civil service rating with Authority. Computermen scarce. How many Loonies could go Earthside and stay out of hospital long enough for computer school? — even if didn’t die. I’ll name one. Me. Had been down twice…

Listened to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in audio format. Produced by Blackstone audio and read by Lloyd James. Took little while to get acclimated to Heinlein’s strange style in audio, but Lloyd James did great job, and got hang of it after not too long. Loved what he did with Mike the computer. Recommend this version.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was published in 1966 after being serialized in Worlds of If. It received a Hugo Award and was nominated for a Nebula Award.

“Free Luna! Luna shall be Free!”

~Kat Hooper

Robert A. Heinlein’s libertarian creed is TANSTAAFL (“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”), and this book is probably the most complete expression of his political ideas about self-government, attempts to empower women while still being incredibly sexist and condescending, and some pretty good hard SF extrapolation of what a moon colony’s technology, politics and economy might be like. Oh yeah, and there happens to be an omniscient, all-powerful AI named Mike who helps the Loonies stage their revolution against the oppressive Lunar Authority (can you say DEUS EX MACHINA?). The outcome is never really in doubt, so what we are given instead is a 300-page lecture on what Heinlein’s ideal society would be.

Basically Heinlein thinks that most politicians are self-serving and corrupt (tough to argue with that), nothing important can be decided with more than three people, and intellectuals are useless yammerheads that just do a lot of talk-talk. However, for an author who doesn’t like talk-talk, I’d say about 85% of this book was just that, with almost a complete lack of action or tension and the rest being an ultra-detailed description of how a revolution could be planned and executed. The critical flaw here is that none of the revolution would work without the incredible computing power of AI Mike. The rest of the revolutionaries are simply depending on him to work his magic. So what does that say about the realization of a libertarian utopia like the Free Luna State??? Deep down, I don’t think Heinlein really believes that any such society could ever come to fruition, since regular people just aren’t smart enough to pull it off.

In the end, it’s pretty clear that Heinlein can only really be satisfied with two types of people in the world: The super-competent blue-collar engineer-type everyman that most of his protagonists are, and the super-intelligent, totally-sexy, and yet thoroughly subservient women that dig guys like that. The only thing better is if the moon has a polyandry/group marriage society where you can be married to several of these delectable creatures! It’s too bad the story takes such a backseat to the political daydreaming, since Mike the AI is such a likeable super-computer and the Loonie society is carefully constructed.

There are many readers who think this is probably Heinlein’s last readable and thought-provoking novel before he went off the deep end into his female-worship, crotchety old man stage, and I would certainly be in agreement.

~Stuart Starosta