Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Literature / ForUsTheLivingAComedyOfCustoms

Go To

1[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ForUsTheLiving_1156.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:310:]]
3''For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/RobertAHeinlein, written in 1938 but published for the first time in 2003. Heinlein admirer and science fiction author Creator/SpiderRobinson entitled his introductory essay "RAH DNA", as he believes this first, unpublished novel formed the DNA of Heinlein's philosophy.
4
5The published version of the novel contains an afterword by Robert James, Ph.D., Heinlein Society member and Heinlein scholar, explaining how the only known surviving typescript of this "lost" work was finally discovered in a garage.
6
7Perry Nelson, a normal 1939 engineer, is driving his automobile when he has a blowout, skids over a cliff, and wakes up in the year 2086. Though he was apparently killed in the summer, he re-appears in extremely cold snow, nearly dies again by freezing, and is saved by a fur-clad woman named Diana. The exact circumstances of his being killed and reborn after a century and half are [[ExcusePlot never explained]].
8
9The later 21st Century people seem strangely incurious, showing little interest in how he had come to be among them and rather take his appearance for granted and proceed to explain to him the details of the social and political set-up of their world.
10
11----
12!! Provides Examples Of:
13
14* AuthorFilibuster: Heinlein has a great history of this. It is very apparent that this was one of his first works as he seems to build the story around what he wants to talk about, rather than working it into a well developed plot.
15* ExcusePlot: Heinlein seems to put very little thought into ''how'' Nelson gets to the future. The point of the book is to explain the future society he ends up in.
16* TheExile: The inhabitants of Coventry.
17* RescueRomance: Diana saves Nelson from freezing to death when he wakes up in the future.

Top