Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The White Messiah II.

This is coolbert:

Again, thanks here to Steve through Taki for the angle and lead-in to this blog entry.

The "White Messiah" was a popular theme in the various science-fiction writings of the famous sci-fi author Robert Heinlein. Heinlein, as previously has been noted, himself a military man, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis.

To refresh, as shown in the recent cinematic block-buster - - Avatar:

"[the] main plot—a human soldier teams up with a seemingly primitive but actually wise alien tribe to prevent an evil Earthling mining company from despoiling their sacred tropical homeland"

Is a plot and theme: "found in Heinlein’s 1948 'young adult' story Space Cadet"

And also in additional works of Heinlein:

* Red Planet. (1949)
* Between Planets. (1951)

"In these, the heroes are human settlers on Mars or Venus who enlist the admirable indigenous aliens in their fight for planetary independence from the oligarchic rulers of Earth."

The "White Messiah" genre' is not limited to a series of popular movies, is also the stuff as found in "fantasy" literature as well? At least in the writing and imagination of Robert Heinlein!

coolbert.

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