Most of Gerrold's career seems to have been based on rewriting Heinlein.
Heinlein himself noted the similarity between tribbles and the Martian
Flatcats in THE ROLLING STONES. Gerrold's The Galactic Whirlpool was a
rewrite of ORPHANS OF THE SKY. Gerrold's THE MAN WHO FOLDED HIMSELF simply
carried on the extrapolations of "By His Bootstraps" and "All You Zombies."
His character of Solomon Short is an obvious homage to Lazarus Long.
Of course, one could say similar things about Alexei Panshin, but
he doesn't tend to get mentioned or stay in print, though his RITE OF
PASSAGE is certainly an above average SF teen story....
|