Feath
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http://www.kentaurus.com/troopers.htm
This quote from that page highlights the major concept difference between the book and the film:
This quote from that page highlights the major concept difference between the book and the film:
The second scene takes place sometime later. Zim and the recruits are practicing with throwing knives, when one of the recruits asks "what possible use" is learning how to use throwing knives when "one professor type can do so much more just by pushing a button?" In the book, Zim responds (in part):
"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how -- or why -- he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people -- 'older and wiser heads,' as they say -- supply the control. Which is as it should be." [Heinlein 1959:63, emphasis and ellipses in original]
Notice the salient points of Zim's response: While surprised that the recruit doesn't know the answer at this stage in his training, he does not discourage the recruit from asking questions or thinking -- he treats it as a serious and reasonable question, which deserves a comprehensive, thoughtful, and respectful response about the role of civilian control of the military, and the necessity for the military to train for something less than all-out high-tech warfare.
In Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, on the other hand, Zim tells the recruit to put his hand flat against a nearby vertical surface, and with a deft throw of the knife pins the recruit's hand in place. While the recruit is screaming with pain, the knife sticking out of the back of his hand, Zim laughs and says something to the effect of "because that professor type can't push that button if there is a knife sticking out of it!"