Stranger in a Strange Land - Discussion
December 26, 2007 10:28 pm Discussion, Finished, January 08, Science FictionOfficial discussion thread for Robert A. Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” (Amazon)
Science Fiction book of the month, January 2008
Description:
Stranger in a Strange Land, winner of the 1962 Hugo Award, is the story of Valentine Michael Smith, born during, and the only survivor of, the first manned mission to Mars. Michael is raised by Martians, and he arrives on Earth as a true innocent: he has never seen a woman and has no knowledge of Earth’s cultures or religions. But he brings turmoil with him, as he is the legal heir to an enormous financial empire, not to mention de facto owner of the planet Mars. With the irascible popular author Jubal Harshaw to protect him, Michael explores human morality and the meanings of love. He founds his own church, preaching free love and disseminating the psychic talents taught him by the Martians. Ultimately, he confronts the fate reserved for all messiahs. The impact of Stranger in a Strange Land was considerable, leading many children of the 60’s to set up households based on Michael’s water-brother nests. Heinlein loved to pontificate through the mouths of his characters, so modern readers must be willing to overlook the occasional sour note (”Nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it’s partly her fault.”). That aside, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of the master’s best entertainments, provocative as he always loved to be. Can you grok it?Please leave your comments below. Be sure to include your reading progress as you post.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm
[…] Well, 2008 is upon us and it’s time to get going! Of course this is a bit hypocritical as I haven’t actually started myself yet, but tonight’s the night! I’ll be starting with “Stranger in a Strange Land“. […]
January 7th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Well I’ve completed the first section (of four that the book is divided into). I’m really pleased with the book so far, though it’s completely different than I imagined.
To me, it’s a lot like the classic sci-fi flick “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, when a Martian ship lands on Earth in an attempt to warn the human race about the dangerous path that nuclear arms was leading them down. The plot isn’t the same really, but the idea of the Martian protagonist being captured and held by the government and learning what makes those he meets “human” is strikingly similar.
Although I’m still quite early in the book, there have been a lot of interesting and fantastic ideas presented, and wondering what direction Heinlein will take has made it more exciting. It’s been a fairly simple read thusfar, and is not extremely challenging, with even the scientific principles and ideas being presented in a simple fashion. He seems not to dwell on details of the technology and science of the situation; likely because in 1961 he was pulling much of this from nothing but his imagination. It’s even a little humorous to see his predictions on certain technologies: When a certain character talks about having made video recordings of the Martian landscape, he said they obtained “thousands of feet” of footage - clearly referencing the old tech of reel-to-reel video tape footage. Similarly, a small audio recording “bug” was described as having tape cartridges that needed replaced daily. Although it’s easy to balk at such seemingly crude technology descriptions in a book that is intended to be a vision of the future, it’s actually quite forgiveable: The technology and science is not the core of the novel, and such details seem trivial when compared to the fast-moving plot and character descriptions.
Wow, that was way too long. You could’ve read the dang book by now. Meh.
So far, so good
January 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Great review so far. I look forward to reading it and I’m about to start it. I was talking about the old school predictions of ‘the future’ with someone else the other day as well (which you’re going to get a good taste of from BNW). That stuff is always good for a laugh, but like you said, it’s the principle more than the details.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:00 am
so, i’ve finally got into the book (i had to polish off another book between these 2 because i bought it a couple months ago and hadn’t yet read it, lol). i’m on page 51, IIRC. first, let me say i was worried about the physical size of the book and that small type on those ugly colored pages.. it’s very unpleasant to hold / read but what can you do. so far, the story itself has been very entertaining. comparing this to BNW, i’m enjoying Heinlien’s delivery more than Huxley’s. It has more of a story feel and less of a political message feel. I’m sure the message will rear it’s head at some point but i’m enjoying this as a story to read purely for enjoyment. as you mentioned some of the ‘technological’ references are humorous. the bug that she plants which has a coil that needs replaced each day and possession of the bug results in jailtime just like that, haha. anyway, i’m enjoying this one so far. good pick, jesse.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I finally crossed the halfway mark in this book last night. It’s definitely a longer read than I anticipated - I didn’t realize until last night that it was over 400 pages, and the small type that you mentioned Alan makes it all the longer. Not a bad thing by any means though, as I’m really getting into this book!
I stopped when I got to section 3 of 5 last night, so things are really warming up. Section 2 was fantastic, a lot of really cool plot and character revelations. My favorite thing about this book has to be Heinlein’s masterful dialog: It’s machine-gun paced, full of wit and extremely intelligent. Jubal, who you may or may not have been introduced to yet, is a fascinating character that commands your attention while reading. The dialog between he and his cohorts is riveting and reads like an early-20th-century film: Clever lines rattled off almost faster than you can soak them in. That’s something I’ve always loved about old films. An example from the top of my head is the interaction between the mildly psychotic protagonist and the leading lady in Hitchcock’s “Rope”: Fast-paced, witty banter that holds your attention and incites the slightest twinge of jealous (I mean, who doesn’t wish they conversed that way today?).
And the messages are definitely becoming apparent at this point. I have a feeling some of the points will be driven home as the book climaxes, but already I’m seeing strong elements of disdain for the corrupt political systems, including (especially?) the democratic “superiority” of nations like the US, and the overall questioning of humankind’s conceited smugness with their accomplishments. This book is definitely an eye-opener and calls to question what we think we know about our own little world(s) and the universe in general.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I finished the book today.
I need waiting to grok it in fullness. Stay tuned.
January 22nd, 2008 at 11:28 am
haha! nice reference, jesse! i finally got some time to pick it back up last night. I think I’m on pg 121, IIRC. You’re absolutely spot on about the dialog! i just read an entire section and almost the entire thing was dialog. it was incredible! it was very well done and get me interested the whole time. dialog on TV tends to lose my interest but the way Heinlein has been able to capture the surroundings, and conversations between multiple characters is amazing; it flows so well. At this stage of the book I have several ideas as to which direction it could take but I’m going to reserve those ideas until later on.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I just finished the fourth part of the book so I should have it finished up this evening. I have to admit I really don’t like the direction it’s taken so far. All the sex and stuff in Mikes church is really disturbing to me (and you know I’m completely non-religious) and made even worse by Jubal’s essentially commending Mike for the church and demeaning Ben for being appalled by it even convincing him to put his jealousy aside and return to the church. I don’t know where the fifth part will take off or what the conclusion will hold but I hope it becomes a little less perverted and a little more hopeful than what Heinlein is currently portraying.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Alan, that’s precisely how I felt when I finished part 4.
All I will say is… Don’t worry. You’ll grok it. We’ll have to talk it over when you’re done
February 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Well, I finished it up last night and I’m still very undecided on how I feel about it. I enjoyed it so much all the way up until he had his own church. I understand now that it wasn’t necessarily a church so much as a means of masking teaching martian language and ways to people. However, the end result still suggest one which requires a perverse nation filled with everyone having sex with everyone else (at least if it were to become ideal). I know that the characters who followed this mindset were happy and experienced love and all that but I couldn’t seem to get myself to buy into the story. I kept catching myself bashing Heinlein for just being a perv who wanted to write about an ideal world where everyone (females in particular) are able to become objects of extreme beauty that anyone could have sex with at any time. I couldn’t sink back into the story being told as I found myself questioning the motives which wrote it? Of all the ways the Man from Mars could teach humans love, it involved teaching them that monogamy was essentially a failure and you can’t be happy that way. I just couldn’t get into it. It let me down a little but I did still enjoy the book as a whole. It was a very well told story.
Did you find it odd that both of these classic sci-fi books involved polygamy? haha!
February 7th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I was put off at the sexual polygamy but a lot myself, but after finishing this book I sorta grew to understand it in a way, I think.
To me, it’s not about the sex per se. I don’t think Heinlein was just a perv with some all-encompassing sexual ideologies. I just think that’s how he chose to portray the idea of human “oneness”. The whole point was that it wasn’t the physical act of sex but the emotional bonding that grew out of it. Martians had their own form of “growing close” that was much different and not physical; Mike’s discovery of human sex acts allowed him to realize that humans are in some ways superior to their intellectually advanced neighbors.
And I don’t think that the message was that monogamy cannot lead to happiness; instead I think it was a general way of saying “Can’t we all just get along?!” The focus was emotional unity.
And yes, we’re unsettled by the idea of rampant polygamy because we’ve been ingrained with a sense of wrongness about such an idea. Our moral code doesn’t allow us to agree with the idea of a polygamous society, simply because that’s contrary to how we’ve been brought up. But that doesn’t necessarily imply that such an idea is wrong or inherently bad.
Of course, I have to temper that by saying that I personally cannot agree with such a concept, due to my personal and religious beliefs. But that doesn’t mean that it’s automatically wrong.
I think the whole thing is summed up by Jubal’s argument with Duke over Mike’s cannibalism. Duke couldn’t get it through his skull that just because he was repulsed at the idea doesn’t mean it wasn’t a normal, moral, and encouraged mode of life for someone from a completely different culture. And I think Heinlein was trying to open our eyes to the possibilities that are available if we push the envelope a little bit and “go against the grain”. I think he’s encouraging us to question ourselves and our society - why do we shudder at the idea of cannibalism, or gross sexual polygamy? I certainly don’t think he’s encouraging us to take place in mass orgies any more than he wants us to start feeding on each other, but I do think that he wants us to open our eyes and think about our ingrained beliefs and ways of life. Maybe there is a better way.
I personally loved this book. I have a feeling I’ll read it many more times down the road, to “reach fullness”.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Yeah i can definitely see where you’re coming from on that. It makes sense to use something shocking to the average person’s belief system such as the cannibalistic mentality. I don’t know why but the polygamy in this book really unsettled me. And I’m a person who is all for people having an open relationship. I don’t personally have or want one but we have thrown the idea around of having another girl join. We’re both really into things like erotic photography (we have several erotic photography books including a very nice one on the coffee table) and even porn. There was just something about the particular portrayal of it in this book that really made me think that Heinlein was writing simply because it excited him and not because he was wanting to hit the shock value of the human core. I may very well be reading too much into it though and will probably reread it to get a better grasp of the reasoning and thought process. I definitely enjoyed the book, don’t get me wrong, but I wouldn’t say I loved it. I did love the first three parts though.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Understood. I can definitely see your point of view too, it was/is unsettling.
Funny, I would’ve thought you and I would’ve had the opposite viewpoints on this topic
February 7th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
i know! that makes it all the more funny! lol!