The Istoriaphile’s Corner

Writers steal, that’s a fact.  You can call it an homage, revisionism or Fried Wild Peacock, but the fact is the roots of almost every popular written work can be traced to some other writer’s creation or an event the writer experienced.  What makes the work interesting is what happens to the source material once the writer pushes it through the filter of his or her imagination.   That’s when you get parodies, like Bored of the Rings or revisions like Wicked or Wide Sargasso Sea.   With Robert Heilein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, you get a recounting of what the American Revolution could have been like, if America had been in outer space. It goes like this: after creating a life-sustaining habitat on the moon, mankind initially developed the sphere as a planetary sized Alcatraz for its criminals and political malcontents.  No guards or monitoring are needed since the prisoners cannot escape and Earthlings enjoy a serene existence with their agitators gone.   Decades after transportation been halted, the descendents of the original settlers (Lunar colonists or “Loonies”) now supply Earth’s population with food.  Of course a lot of technology is used to run the colony and one of…