From the Bookshelf of RMFAO (Reading My Frigging A** Off)…

Stranger in a Strange Land

Robert A. Heinlein,

James Warhola (Illustrator)

Start date: January 1, 2015

Finish date: January 31, 2015

Discussion: Buddy-Reads

Discussion leader: Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi

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Sep 20, 2022 Michael Finocchiaro rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american-20th-c, sci-fi, fiction, classics, hugo-awards-winner, novels

Heinlein's classic was an interesting read, but also infuriating, frustrating, and a bit too far out. It was interesting because of how it starts out as a sort of kidnapping, XIII or Largo Winch kind of rich-guy- can't-remember-who-he-is story and then goes off into a wild Manson-like dystopian fantasy.

The book is about a human survivor of a crash on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith ("Mike" to his friends) who comes back to Earth and immediately is a sensation that everyone struggles to control. H Heinlein's classic was an interesting read, but also infuriating, frustrating, and a bit too far out. It was interesting because of how it starts out as a sort of kidnapping, XIII or Largo Winch kind of rich-guy- can't-remember-who-he-is story and then goes off into a wild Manson-like dystopian fantasy.

The book is about a human survivor of a crash on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith ("Mike" to his friends) who comes back to Earth and immediately is a sensation that everyone struggles to control. He is initially taken into custody in an ersatz hospital with a military guard. Gillian Boardman manages to penetrate the security and befriend him. At that point, we started to learn about Martian culture and the concept of "water brother" which is a strong personal bond based on sharing water (water being exceedingly rare on Mars). One thing leads to another, the situation escalates and eventually involves the Secretary General of the Federation (a sort of United Nations in this world) and Mike is moved to the palatial digs of Jubal Harshaw. Jubal has three young, beautiful secretaries (it is left ambiguous whether he is sleeping with them or not) working for him at his beck and call ("Front!") and is one of the first humans to take the time and try to understand Mike. It is during this stay that his awesome, deadly powers are demonstrated (disappearing a police chief and brigade of police officers) and where Mike starts to "grok" his environment. "Grok" is Martian for "to drink" but the concept goes beyond just water to mean in general becoming one with some kind of knowledge ("I grok driving" would mean I feel like a car and I am driving down a road somewhere). The word has actually found itself bound into the English language now, proving the lasting influence of this crazy book. One of Jubal's servants is a Fair Witness, another invention referring to a person with an absolutely objective view of reality unclouded with opinions or interpretations. This was a really fascinating idea and one of the reasons I gave the book 3* instead of 2*.

Heinlein apparently had huge bones to pick with organized religion seeing how he describes in Chapter 3 the Fosterites who had gambling, prostitution, and alcohol during their services (much like one would imagine a church based on the heinous, preposterous Helgard Müller book would look like on a Mar-a-Lago Sunday (complete with a fire sale on nuclear secrets) - and I will not link it because I would not want anyone giving any credence, credibility, or social credit to such a worthless effort). Mike's answer to it (Chapters 4 and 5) is just as hedonistic but with a very Manson-like adulation of Mike at the center ("Thou art God") where all females were expected to "grow closer" to him regardless of age. It is troubling that at one point, the Fosterites accuse Mike's church of child prostitution and child abuse and this isn't even challenged or rebutted by anyone. It was intended as a sort of paradise on earth, but only for women who give their bodies freely to anyone and one where, if sapphic love is allowed (encouraged?), male homosexuality is not accepted. Another alarming moment is when Maryam says that she will sell her daughter in Central American because she wants a son. I mean, ok, it is fiction, but pushed my own sensibilities a bit too far at many points.

The book was infuriating because, like Starship Troopers, it is chock full of misogynistic and racist stereotypes; I think the lowest point might be when the Jill character says that "nine times out of ten, if a girl gets raped, it's partly her fault." (p. 281), the Jewish characters are the ones obsessed with money, the black Dorcas character is only good for sex and motherhood (well, we could say that for all the characters) and there are no black male characters, etc., etc.

It was frustrating because it was held back by its own misogyny and the story dragged at many points. There was potential here that was what made The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress a great book, but here it just slogs along. The Jubal character is such a clownly self-caricature that he inspires more pity than sympathy, Mike's superpowers are bizarre and unpredictable and just wasn't enough differentiation among the female characters. Frustrating too because the concepts of grokking and Fair Witness were really interesting, but drowned in the cacophony of the rest of the narrative. I think this book got progressively more unreadable as it went forward.

It was a bit too far out because, after having landed on Mars in the 60s and knowing there was no life there, it felt a bit too much to suppose that there were Martians and particularly Old Ones living on Mars with superpowers and unfathomable motives. We never see a Martian in the book, we just hear about them from Mike. Mike himself comes off rather stiff, especially at the beginning of the story. He does grow and learn, but in a strange and self-destructive way.

What could have been an interesting take on reimaging sexuality and utopias as Ursula Le Guin did so well in her Hainish Stories, comes off as a masturbatory male fantasy world without limits of morality or conscience. Did anyone else have a similar reaction? Besides its contribution to popular culture with the work "grok", is it still a credible piece of writing in 2022? I am on the fence...For example, (view spoiler) ...more

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