Talk:The Star Beast (novel)

This was in the article "Star Beast" before I redirected it. Someone with more ambition than I may move some of this to the main article:

The Star Beast was a novel by Robert Heinlein in his juvenile science fiction phase, but which showed the signs of what his works would come to be, with good old science fiction intermingled with a story of love and honor, underlying which Heinlein's sly humor sneaks through.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Star Beast was a semi-intelligent alien, who had been picked up by a starfaring earthman during humanity's early exploration of the galaxy. He brought the creature home, and as generations passed, (it proved extremely long lived), each generation of John Thomas's, (the lineal descendant of the original wayfarer who had found the creature and brought it home), cared for the Star Beast. John Thomas Stuart, one of whose ancestors brought "Lummox" home from an interstellar voyage, now has a problem. The pet he inherited has grown to gargantuan proportions; it eats steel, and destroyed a neighbor's flowers. His mother wants him to get rid of it, and a court orders it destroyed after finding it's great strength a public danger.

Johnny's only alternative is to sell his pet to a museum (which would study it to death, if they didn't dissect it immediately). Feeling honor bound to save this creature he considers more a friend than a pet, he runs away to the hills, riding on his talking pet's back. His girlfriend joins him and suggests bringing the beast back into town; they could hide it in a neighbor's greenhouse. But when they are caught, both Johnny and his girlfriend are prepared to die to try to defend their pet.

The rest of the novel describes the discovery of the alien pet's true nature, and the diplomatic repercussions of this fact.

The humor of the story comes when an awesomely powerful heretofore unknown alien race appears and demands the return of a lost child of theirs, evidently an heir of some sort to their empire. At first, no one associates the Star Beast, by now larger than an elephant, and who can barely talk at an elementary level, with these all powerful strangers. But it is discovered that indeed, the lost child is the lost "princess" of the strangers. The irony of the story, and what raises it far above the run of the mill juvenile fiction Heinlein was writing, was that from the perspective of the humans, they had a long lived pet. From the perspective of the Star Beast, she had grown up over generations raising humans as her hobby, and had no intention of stopping. Heinlein's ability to show how appearance is sometimes not conversant with reality was never better than in this novel, and it's unique ending makes it one of his better works. For supposedly juvenile fiction, it also managed a good touch on the cost of love and loyalty.

I wrote the original section which was redirected, and had no touble moving it back to the article, where it belonged. OLDWINDYBEAR

Location of "Editions" section
I have moved this to precede the plot summary to make it easy for readers to find editions without having to read the spoilers. Hu, do you strongly disagree? A uniform policy should be followed. (I applied the same principle previously to some other Heinlein books.) Zaslav 04:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Miscellaneous
I removed the list of Heinlein novels. From the encyclopedist's viewpoint, that belongs with the Heinlein bio, not in an individual novel article. Zaslav 04:21, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Two pages missing
Zaslav asserts all editions except the Scribners first omit two pages. What is the basis for this assertion, and can the content of those pages be elaborated? I have done a quick comparison of the hardcover with the various editions I have and can find nothing omitted. I'd be delighted to learn of this difference! Signinstranger 22:52, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the late reply! The missing pages are largely (I recall; no book with me now) extended quotations from something like the diary of J.T.S. VIII, who was crew on the ship that visited the Hroshii homeworld, and tell about previous J.T.S.'s.  They fill in valuable background: how and why Lummox got picked up and brought to Earth.  Zaslav (talk) 01:45, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Discuss Deletions!
Rydra Wong I am perfectly willing to discuss any edits I make, and if you dispute their value, refer them to a third party, or ask for consensus. But please cease simply reverting my edits without discussion in complete violation of wikipedia policy. I have no idea why you reverted - your failure to discuss the reversions leave me wondering whether you did so because you consider them original research, or whatever. So please stop, and discuss reverting before simply doing so. Unless you discuss your reversion, I am simply reverting back. Stillstudying 17:14, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Removal of redundant clause in last plot paragraph.
A previous edit read thusly:


 * Lummox has been pursuing her only hobby and principal interest: the raising of generations of John Thomases. She explicitly states that it is her intention to continue doing so. This gives the chief human diplomat, Under Secretary Kiko, the leverage he needs to prevent the destruction of the Earth. At the request of Lummox (who wishes to pursue her hobby) the recently wedded John and Betty accompany her as part of the human diplomatic mission.

This adequately explained Lummox's desire to continue breeding John Thomases and its effect on the personnel assigned to the human diplomatic mission

A recent edit included the clause shown in bold:


 * Lummox has been pursuing her only hobby and principal interest: the raising of generations of John Thomases. She explicitly states that it is her intention to continue doing so. This gives the chief human diplomat, Under Secretary Kiko, the leverage he needs to prevent the destruction of the Earth, since without a fresh supply of humans, Lummox cannot continue her hobby. At the request of Lummox (who wishes to pursue her hobby) the recently wedded John and Betty accompany her as part of the human diplomatic mission.

This clause is an unnecessary reiteration of information already provided and has been removed to avoid redundancy. -- Rydra Wong 02:39, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Rydra Wong Hello Rydra, I disagree - I think without the more detailed explanation, you don't know exactly why Lummox needed humans! But I don't want to argue with you, I think your intentions are good, and you went to the trouble of discussing this, so I will go along with your reasoning, even though I disagree. (we have to find consensus somewhere!) Stillstudying 14:22, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree with Rydra. The addition doesn't do any particular harm, but it's not necessary. Clarityfiend 16:59, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Good morning Rydra Wong and Clarityfiend. Then that is settled; I did add some detail - such as the fact the aliens were contemplating and threatening the destruction of Earth - that I thought needed to be added, and welcome input.  The phrases that Rydra objected to are NOT part of these additions. Stillstudying 12:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Lummox did not need a supply of humans. That's tone deaf!  She was raising John Thomases, not any humans.  She was very fond of them (in her way).  Zaslav (talk) 01:47, 24 May 2017 (UTC)
 * It is a bit tone deaf, but unless she intends to cross the offspring of JT and Betty, she'll have to import fresh blood in due course. Another point is whether she does not wish Terra destroyed precisely for the sake of this supply, which is of course a valid reading, but somewhat hard to reconcile with what we are told: Kiku is unsure till the very end of the novel whether the might of the Hroshii might not have been vastly exaggerated by the Rigellian interpreter for the purpose of leveraging negotiations for his clients the Hroshii; and that Lummox herself states that Terra is to be spared since John's friends are her friends. I think for the novel it works if her discourse in English is highly simplified, but not to the point of being disingenuous. 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:1508:FC82:66CC:D167 (talk) 15:35, 9 May 2023 (UTC)

Editions that omit page 148
I've added "" to the claim that "All paperback editions and the Science Fiction Book Club hard cover edition omit page 148 ...". I can personally testify that the Del Rey Books edition of the 1980s and the current Baen edition are missing this page, but I daresay there have been several other paperback editions in the past 60 years, and it would be nice to have a source for this rather broad claim.

It would also be nice to have some information as to why that page is missing. Surely all those editors weren't so incompetent? I noticed the omission right away back in the 80s.

Tualha (Talk) 17:27, 24 February 2014 (UTC)


 * I believe it was two pages, not one. I used to be able to compare editions.  The explanation seems simple: The paperbacks and SFBC edition were prepared cheaply and there was not time to be sufficiently careful.  (I say this based on SFBC's answer to my complaint&mdash;if my memory doesn't fool me.)  Paperbacks and SFBC and even the later Scribner's printings of Space Cadet have a shorter but even more crucial omission, when the Astarte is recommissioned.  And there are smaller errors in other SFBC Heinlein reprints, like "Aerography" for "Areography" in Red Planet.  Zaslav (talk) 01:56, 24 May 2017 (UTC)

Race
I appended a sentence to the discussion of Heinlein's advanced view against racial discrimination to point out how strongly he makes the case: "Even more remarkably for its time, Mr. Kiku is outstandingly competent and dominates the plot." I know this may be considered "original research" because I don't have a source, but it seems so obvious (and relevant) that I added it anyway. If it's outside the guidelines, feel free to remove it. Zaslav (talk) 03:05, 24 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Only all of this looks like it's WP:OR or WP:POV. As such the whole section should be deleted. Duckwalk71 (talk) 18:23, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

secondary protagonist
that would be a deuteragonist. it appears that many now believe that protagonist is Greek for a "good guy" and antagonist is Greek for a "bad guy" but such is an idiotism 2A01:CB0C:CD:D800:1508:FC82:66CC:D167 (talk) 15:23, 9 May 2023 (UTC)