Considering the points that the class made on Monday concerning the definition of Science Fiction, the way this novel presents the present psychology of chastisement and punishment outlined in the lecture given by Mr. Dubois to the History and Moral Philosophy class was very interesting.

I found Starship Troopers to be a very disturbing read. The story effectively chronicles Rico’s assimilation into the Mobile Infantry. It’s a story of personal development, however, for such a story to be compelling, the protagonist needs to be a character for which the reader can have some pathos. For someone like me, who doesn’t believe in the necessity for a powerful military, relating to someone who chose to fight might be difficult. However, Starship Troopers manages a wider appeal by presenting social context for the protagonist’s actions.

So here it is, my very first reading response for my very first lit class!

While I was reading Starship Troopers over the weekend, I found that I was rather surprised with the parallels between the Bugs and the people of the Terran Federation. There seemed to be this common need to put the needs of the group in general before the needs of the individual. This in turn, I found a bit strange because I was under the impression that Heinlein was opposed to communism which is almost what he was advocating. Anyway, there were two parallels in particular that caught my attention.

I did not really like Starship Troopers. It was a quick read and I thought the descriptions of the technology used and of the action were interesting, but ultimately the novel just felt like a piece of propaganda to me. The military is very glamorized and Heinlein’s own political views are beat into the reader throughout the story. Both of these aspects of the story brought down the novel for me, as Starship Troopers seems like a call to action for people to either support or join the military and perform the noblest action of all, which is to put one’s life at stake for one’s country.

I think this is a little more formal than what others have been posting, but here it is anyway. It's somewhat an expansion of the comment I made earlier, with some more points and some textual support:

Of the many things we discussed in class, there was one topic that intrigued me the most—perhaps because it was only briefly touched upon. Someone mentioned the apparent paradox that the enemy Bug society is pure communism and yet the human society considers that system ideal. Certainly it is intriguing that the M.I. are fighting against a system they have bought into.

We all know that it's a common trope in science fiction for ideas about divisions of race to be transplanted to racial boundaries – as if the authors are saying, “Look, if they can get along with wookies, why can't we humans all get along among ourselves?” It's such a common device, in fact, that it becomes difficult to recognize when alien species are actually not supposed to represent ethnicities.

Someone in class on Monday had mentioned that in the MI, humans are the (vessel for) technology. I think this is an interesting point, especially in conjunction with the developments of our current military. The United States Army has been implementing robots in the Middle East to prevent unnecessary casualties. Soldiers can now direct these robots, which can detect and disable mines and have the capability of firing back at any hostiles, with remote controls from a safe distance away. There remains that element of human judgment, although in a much more diluted form.

I would like to preface this response paper by saying that I am not a science fiction reader. With the exception of Handmaid’s Tale, which I read purely on the basis of its being by Atwood, I have never even heard of any of the books on the syllabus. However, I am an English major, and I thought it downright prejudiced of me to discount an entire genre without even giving it a chance. That being said, I loved Starship Troopers.

While I was reading this book it occurred to me that the the "bugs" that the humans are fighting could potentially represent some different themes. The ones that I could quickly come up with are: (1) there were some obvious communist references to the bugs' way of life and getting rid of the "bugs" or commies might be something Heinlein is trying to say. Considering the book was written in 1959 I think this could make sense. (2) As was briefly mentioned in class on Wednesday, when inter-species extermination is involved, racial purification might be implied.