Into the Wardrobe

I'm just in the process of re-reading a book by Robert Heinlein called Methuselah's Children. At one point, a character in the book quotes a 'Bill Gresham' as using the phrase (I'm not quoting exactly) 'Find out what a man wants and offer it him - he'll geek'. Can anyone think of a probable connection between Heinlein, and the Bill Gresham who was the former husband of Joy? Could just be a made-up name.

I'm fascinated by similarities between Heinlein and Lewis both in imaginative invention and in ways of thinking, even though they are poles apart in their personal beliefs. Compare, for instance, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land with Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy. Obviously some of the parallels can simply be explained by what Lewis explicitly identified as common 'types' , 'shadows' in universal human mythology, and others can be attributed to Heinlein's conscious intention to parallel Christianity, but I think some of the imaginative interpretation is uncannily similar. One example - Heinlein's incorporeal 'Old Ones' compare to Lewis's eldila.

Anyone want to pursue this one?

hnau, I split off your digression. Please start new threads whenever you want to discuss a new topic.

In answer to your question about the quote, I'm almost positive that Heinlein would have read Gresham's Nightmare Alley, which is probably where the quote comes from.

Thanks, Sven - apologies for my laziness...

Heinlein's a very right wing writer, probably much more so than Lewis. Stranger in a Strange Land facinated me as a teenager but I can't imagine Lewis being impressed by Heinlein's views on se x. I'm not now very impressed with the whole Niet chen/fasch ist thing that underlies it
What i think Lewis might have appreciated was Heinlein's story of the three monkies that make Mike laugh. He'd have grokked that!

For those who don't know there are three monkeys in a cage. the big one steals something from the medium one so the medium one hits the little one. Mike the human brought up by aliens who has never been able to laugh bursts into uncontrolable laughter and says 'Now I grok people.'