The Year of the Jackpot by Robert Heinlein Page B

that passion led him to California, where he spent his last decades deeply involved in the medium of independent film and its community. He abandoned illustration: in Carol’s words “When Ed was through with something he was really through with it.” He died of cancer in 1990. His son, Peter Emshwiller, published a fair amount of science fiction in the 80s and 90s.

eForeword
    Very few writers of the fantastic are accorded full-length scholarly biographies. J. R. R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, James Tiptree, Ray Bradbury—and, just recently, Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988), with William Patterson’s
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1 (1907–1948): Learning Curve
. Patterson’s study is testament to the ongoing titanic influence Heinlein exerts on the field he helped to modernize and define. With his novels nearly continuously in print and read anew and debated by each generation, Heinlein still overshadows nearly all science fiction being written today, whether as a guiding light or
bête noire
. And while his excellent
Galaxy
novella “The Year of the Jackpot” is not part of the canonical “Future History” that defined a central part of Heinlein’s legacy, it certainly fits neatly into that schematic—save for its continuity-violating climax—offering us not only fine entertainment, but also some insights into Heinlein’s themes, beliefs, and tricks of the writerly trade.
    Readers of this introduction should be aware that major plot points will be revealed, and those wishing a spoiler-free experience might choose to read the novella first.
    Now, onto the discussion!
    Heinlein’s “Future History” stories—the very model for Campbellian science fiction and its like-minded successors—are laid out on a graphic timeline reprinted with most editions of the stories. This correlation of related narratives by internal chronological order was in itself a very useful milestone in science fiction, and we are not even considering the high quality of the fiction on the chart.
    Astute readers have noted that there are no stories listed which chronicle a twentieth-century period dubbed “The Crazy Years,” except for “Life Line,” Heinlein’s very first sale. And even that landmark story is problematically pegged to the earliest years of that era.
    Here is the description of those decades from the chart itself: “The Crazy Years: Considerable technical advance during this period, accompanied by a gradual deterioration of mores, orientation and social institutions, terminating in mass psychoses in the sixth decade, and the Interregnum.”
    Readers encountering “The Year of the Jackpot” who are also familiar with this description of the “Crazy Years” will instantly experience a shock of recognition. For the mad, mad global landscape of fads, follies and febrile phantasms that Heinlein conjures up in the first half of his novella is the pluperfect essence of the “Crazy Years”: “This year the human race is letting down its hair, flipping its lip with a finger, and saying, ‘
Wubba, wubba, wubba
.’”
    Our hero is Potiphar Breen, unassuming and innocuous mathematician—a statistician, to be precise. For some time now, Breen has been analyzing the cycles of history and collating new data which indicates that mankind has collectively gone off the rails of sanity. A living datum in this regard is Meade Barstow, a young woman who finds herself inexplicably compelled by the zeitgeist to strip nude in public. Rescued from her embarrassing situation by Breen, Meade serves as a sounding board for the statistician to reveal his theories—to her and to the reader. This comprises the first third of the story.
    The second third finds Breen continuing his studies, deepening his chance-founded relationship with Meade, and, when he senses that a crisis point has been reached, escaping the collapse of civilization and entering a wilderness refuge with Meade.
    The final section of the story