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Robert Heinlein's Pre-Internet Fan Mail FAQ
Hugh Pickens writes "Kevin Kelly has an interesting post about a letter he found amongst correspondence from his days editing the Whole Earth Catalog. The letter is Robert Heinlein's own nerdy solution to a problem common to famous authors: to deal with fan mail. In the days before the internet, Heinlein's solution was to create a list of frequently asked questions, answer them, and remove the questions. Then he, or rather his wife Ginny, checked off the appropriate answer(s) and mailed it back. Some of the entries in Heinlein's answer sheet are quite illuminating and amusing. Our personal favorite: 'You say that you have enjoyed my stories for years. Why did you wait until you disliked one story before writing to me?'"
Why did I wait?! Because I am Lazarus Long and I do things my own way, Bob.
is this idiot ? and why cvant he use a computer ?
TFA makes it quite clear that it's talking about days before home computing, not the days before the internet.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
is this person who reads the TFA ? and why cant he act like other /.ers ?
Anyone know off hand what the papers and articles he cites are all about? I'm curious to know what questions The Saturday Evening Post, Mark Twain and Who's Who's in America might answer, especially since they were common enough to be included in the FAQ.
Some of the answers were amusing. Good to know that fannish entitlement and the false sense of intimacy are not merely a product of the internet.
http://transformativeworks.org/
(X)The article
( )The intervieuw
( )The ramblings
was
( )intresting
(X)informative
(X)funny
( )bullshit
and thank you for
(X)sharing this with us
( )informing us of such a very important item.
( )wasting our time
I'm not sure that is an excuse; I'm fairly confident that Robert & Virginia Heinlein were fully capable of producing a computer from parts from a TV, washing machine, and whatever was laying around in the basement, anytime from about 1946 on.
I bet it was the printer that was the sticking point.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
Stephen Goldin's 23 rules how to act when you meet a pro at an Sci-Fi convention. Not as amusing as Heinlein's, but an interesting read.
via
There's a copy here: http://mackereth.net/images/SotW_Thank_You_Card.jpg
One of the big-name televanglists (Billy Graham?) had an early computerized system for answering his fan mail. A staff of people read the mail, and used highlighter to mark phrases that contained relevant keywords. Data entry operators keyed in the address and the highlighted phrases. A program used the phrases to select an appropriate canned reply, filled in keywords, added bible citations, and printed out a letter.
Every time I feel like writing fan-mail, I think, "Wait, would I really want to be bothered by this? And is it creepy?" and then I don't send it. I'd love to tell Alastair Reynolds how much I enjoy his work, but then I stop myself because the last thing I want to do is waste his time reading "gosh I sur luv ur books lawl" when he could be spending that time writing more books...
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
This is why hate mail makes so much more sense. People like reading their hate mail.
How we know is more important than what we know.
What question in a fan's mail will receive the answer: "Please do not write to me again" ?
" Your letter was most welcome! - loaded with friendliness and with no requests or demands. You suggested that no answer was expected but I must tell you how _much_ it pleased me. I wish you calm seas, following winds, and a happy voyage through life. "
I know that your post is tongue-in-cheek, but the reality is that Heinlein didn't foresee electronic computing and in all of his early works which I am familiar with (e.g., the "Future History") he has human mathematical savants being used for navigation calculations.
What question in a fan's mail will receive the answer: "Please do not write to me again" ?
Writing to say you loved his foundation series.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
"Grumbles from the Grave" is a (now out-of-print) posthumous collection of letters from Heinlein, mostly between himself, publishers, and other SF Authors. It contains many letters on dealing with Fan Mail, Fans themselves, critics, publishers, etc. Quite an interesting little book.
SirWired
Heinlein was very intolerant of anyone who challenged certain of his political views, even driving away life-long friends over very minor issues. He didn't suffer those he saw as fools gladly, and I'm sure he used that check-box often. You can read Spider Robinson's biography and literary reviews of Heinleins work for the sordid details, if you care about that sort of thing. Don't mistake the author for his protagonists.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Do you like what Stanley Kubrick did in the on-screen adaptation of your book?
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Even in real life he was way ahead of his time. Look, the letter has underlined links!
My fans are pretty well-behaved. Sometimes they'll say "hi" to me on the street, but they're almost always too shy to tell me that they recognize me from the photos on my blog. Occasionally, my more enthusiastic fans will take time out of their workdays to send me fan mail, often exclaiming that I'm "Super lucky!" or "Pre-qualified!". I do find it a bit creepy when my more ardent fans send me lists of all of the public places I've been in the past few weeks. Although I don't usually notice them when I'm out and about, some of them must get pretty close, as they've been keeping track of my spending habits.
Come to think of it, rising political stars often take advantage of the boost in self-confidence that comes with their new stature on the national stage to send me personalized greetings in the mail, praising our shared values and beliefs. Somehow, though, we always lose that special connection once they're in office.
You need to maintain a balance. In any room an ideal mixture is half ready to kill you, and half eager to defend you. That's maximum entertainment.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Read The Door Into Summer: the guy practically designed AutoCAD in 1956, but with the computer interfacing directly with a plotter. The missing piece was the idea of using video rather than the paper itself to visualize intermediate results.