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A review by beeostrowsky
The Year of the Jackpot by Robert A. Heinlein
3.0
An interesting take on what Isaac Asimov called psychohistory—the idea that you could predict things in a rather general sense by using mathematics.
Although the narrator’s views of gender are knuckle-dragging, there’s an amusing anecdote:
“Transvestism by draft dodgers had at last resulted in a mass arrest in Chicago which was to have ended in a giant joint trial—only to have the deputy prosecutor show up in a pinafore and defy the judge to submit to an examination to determine the judge’s true sex. The judge suffered a stroke and died and the trial was postponed—postponed forever, in Breen’s opinion; he doubted that this particular blue law would ever again be enforced.”
Sure, it was intended to show how world-endingly topsy-turvy everything had become, but that was a funny story. The overall story, however, was rather bleak in the end.
Although the narrator’s views of gender are knuckle-dragging, there’s an amusing anecdote:
“Transvestism by draft dodgers had at last resulted in a mass arrest in Chicago which was to have ended in a giant joint trial—only to have the deputy prosecutor show up in a pinafore and defy the judge to submit to an examination to determine the judge’s true sex. The judge suffered a stroke and died and the trial was postponed—postponed forever, in Breen’s opinion; he doubted that this particular blue law would ever again be enforced.”
Sure, it was intended to show how world-endingly topsy-turvy everything had become, but that was a funny story. The overall story, however, was rather bleak in the end.