Talk:Job: A Comedy of Justice

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The original text here included "(no relation to the real God)" after Jehova. I think it's totally disingenuous to suggest that Heinlein didn't intend the Jehova character in the book to actually be the God of Moses, just as Loki was meant to be the real Norse god, etc. --LDC

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Are there any science fiction motives in the story at all? AxelBoldt 20:52 Sep 10, 2002 (UTC)

Depends on what you call "science"; the premise of the novel was that these dieties were just powerful immortal beings (that power could be construed as technology, for example) that viewed Earth as a work of art that just happened to include sentient (but lesser) beings. They basically spend their time acting like spoiled brats fighting over toys. But I suppose you may be right that it's classified as sci-fi primarily just because it's by Heinlein.

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Yer both right. I was being disingenuous, and it's not really a SF novel. It's a satirical fantasy _written by_ a SF author. BTW, the petulant Jehovah character also appears in The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, I think. --Ed Poor

I see the similarity to the creators in Hoag, but I don't think the name "Jehova/h" ever comes up. Don't have a copy accessible, though. --Parcequilfaut 19:03, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

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Is it really a satire on American evangelical christianity, or just on christianity? AxelBoldt

It particularly lampoons the Rapture, an Evangelical concept that not all Christians believe. Have you read it? --Ed Poor

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Probably should mention that Maggie worshipped Odin, but I don't know the best way to phrase it. Lefty 02:32, 2004 Apr 12 (UTC)

I think the article as it is presently ("pagans don't go to heaven") addresses that without giving the whole game away. Ellsworth 23:49, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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I know of an off-site review of this page at http://srehn.com/books/rh_jobacomedyofjustice.html but I feel it would be dishonest for me to link to it because it's on my site.

If anybody else feels it's appropriate to put that link there, do so, but I won't.

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Is there any analysis of the different realities that Job visits? Are any of them connected to the timelines of the World-as-Myth novels? Albmont 22:40, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

I would love to see this done in some way... I have a copy of the book and it would be entertaining just to try and see how many different timelines are actually covered. I loved the theoretical exercise of having a succession of three different Kennedy's in succession becomming president (John, Robert, and Edward) over the course of 24 years of having the same family running the White House, and RAH even makes mention of Chappaquiddick. There were certainly some other interesting timelines, especially when RAH tries to describe a traffic signal from the perspetive of somebody who has never seen one before, or trying to describe an interstate highway. That would be an interesting task to try and do that sort of analysis. --Robert Horning 00:01, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

In The Number of the Beast, when the writers meet in the Congress at the end of the book, Lazarus tells a list of USA presidents as: Woodrow Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy, ..., Neemiah Scudder Interregnum. This is in disagreement with the rest of the Future History, but maybe this sequence of Kennedies [3 brothers, then 3 from the 2nd generation?] could be what would motivate the religious dictatorship. Albmont 00:52, 7 October 2006 (UTC)