Diabolical Book Club #2: Starship Troopers
"The only good bug is a dead bug."
I thought it might be fun to read something a bit lighter this time around for our second diabolical book club. A Clockwork Orange was somewhat exhausting, after all, and a bit on the heavy side thematically. It’s a dark and sordid cautionary tale. I imagine Starship Troopers will, at the very least, be less tedious and more fun.
But I’m not sure. I’ve never read it. I’ve read Heinlein, but not this one somehow. I think Friday is the one that sticks with me the most, though it’s been years and years since I read anything by Heinlein.
Of course, in keeping with our diabolical book club theme, Starship Troopers isn’t just a novel from 1959, it’s also been made into a Major Motion Picture, which I have seen (though this, too, was years ago). I remember not being a huge fan of the film at the time, though it was certainly entertaining. I’m curious to see whether reading the book will change my perception of the movie in any way.
We’ll start reading right away and I’ll post thoughts as we go. I know we sort of dragged out A Clockwork Orange for too long, but it was our first Book Club and I was tackling too much all at once—this newsletter, relaunching my YouTube channel, starting the diabolical podcast and kicking off a Patreon, on top of my work at Forbes. I guess I earned my Montana vacation . . . .
In any case, I hope this sounds like a fun entry in the Book Club. It’s a bit longer than A Clockwork Orange, but hopefully less of a slog. You can find a copy of it right here (affiliate link alert).
P.S. I’m opening the Book Club up to the full subscriber list so that we can get more people involved. I will keep comments closed to paid subscribers only, and I really do urge everyone to comment and add to the discussion each week. We’ll shoot for 4 weeks to read the book and one more to watch the movie.
As always, thanks so much for reading and subscribing!
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Ohhhh, my God I have to subscribe NOW.
Please put whatever you remember about that POS movie completely out of your head. The Dutch d-bag who directed that never even read the book, or so the story goes (he was telling the story). He had somebody tell him about it.
The movie is widely regarded as a parody of the book, and ultra-nationalistic militarism.
Johnny Rico looks nothing whatsoever like Casper Van Dien in the book. You'll find out why.
A good excuse to finally read this one. Everything I've ever heard about it says it might be kind of a slog to read, though. Famously different from the movie.