Stranger In A Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
1961
Stranger In A Strange Land tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith’s arrival on the planet Earth. He is a human born on Mars and raised by Martians, ignorant of the ways of his species. The book describes his interactions with a handful of people as he learns the ways of human culture, and then begins to forge his own influence into the culture through the formation of a new church. Central to this book the concept of ‘grokking’, a term my sweetheart uses a lot. Basically the expression describes complete and totally understanding and oneness with a subject. The book was written at a time of great upheaval in North American culture, and you can see Heinlein pushing at the acceptable in this novel.
I found the first half of the book the most enjoyable, while Mike was discovering the world and how it worked. The second half of the book was really odd, revolving around Mike’s new church, which seemed like a cross between a hippie commune and a cult, and sex and its role in human culture. All in all, though, I did really like the book.
One other little thing that bothered me was Heinlein’s lack of use of quotation marks. This book is mostly dialog, and it was often difficult to know exactly when something was speech, thought, or simply exposition.
I’ve been reading a lot of ‘golden age’ science fiction lately. This is the first Robert A Heinlein novel I have read, and I quite enjoyed it. It is not an action-based sci-fi book, but more about human interaction, as is most sci-fi from this era. However, I am getting frustrated by the role female characters get to play in this era, relegated to traditional roles of cook and secretary when important dialog is occurring, and in a book that pushed the envelope in so many other ways, it is unfortunate that this role wasn’t expanded into non-traditional areas more.
