Starship Troopers is a novel for adolescents. It is narrated in the Ozzie and Harriet, and Leave it to Beaver “awe shucks” jargon, characteristic of the late 1950s. Even in the tightest situations, hardened drill sergeants rarely to curse or swear – and when they do, Rico carefully censors the key words. Recruits, after enduring weeks of boot camp celibacy, and hardened warriors, awakening from incubation on extended cruises across the universe, still talk of women in prim and proper terms.