Pre-Owned Friday

“Friday” by Robert Heinlein is an entertaining Science Fiction book that centers around a man-made engineered creation who has it all. Friday is a character who has great brainpower, beauty, impeccable fighting skills, and is popular with both men and women. There was at least one circumstance in the book that I took issue with. For instance, pages 9-10 deal with Friday being violated. I understand that the author probably meant well when writing a character who can supposedly force herself to act like she likes it. However, the only issue with this inclusion is that even with fiction writing, the questions raised from the incident would potentially muddy the waters of the hurt that some other survivors may have suffered. Aside from this caveat, there are also some controversial circumstances in the book that were ok with me. For example, on page 40 Friday is asked about her marital status and the number of husbands that she has. This was also alluded to on pages 48-50 where Friday is given a choice of joining a marriage unit that consists of at least two wives(aside from herself) and three husbands. Yes, the multiple marriage concept does sound far-fetched but I humbly predict that it may become an actual reality within the next 300 years at the most. For this reasons, “Friday” by Robert Heinlein is a classic science fiction book for those who are open-minded to potential scenarios in a futuristic society.