Stranger in a Strange Land

  Hello ladies and gentlemen and to all ships at sea, welcome to the very first book review of Classics of Pop Culture,…yes you read right, an actual book with pages and no illustrations and big words. If this is your first time being exposed to my website and you decided to click on this review then congratulations, you’re braver than you thought. Stranger in a Strange Land is by Robert A. Heinlein and if you don’t know who Heinlein is then don’t worry, you’ve seen his work.

Whether it’s The Puppet Masters which was adapted into the classic sci-fi movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Starship Troopers, Heinlein can be placed on the same level as other sci-fi luminaries as Issac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Ray Bradbury.

   Stranger in a Strange land was released in 1961 to a reception that was the literary equivalent to tear someone’s heart out, throwing it in the trash and then lighting it on fire. One critic went so far as to call the book:”…..an affront to the patience and intelligence of the reader.”

    Since then however it has gained status as a classic of the sci-fi genre and is considered a huge influence on the counterculture of the 1960s with its discussions of examining traditional concepts of religion, monogamy, money, and death and experimenting with a course of life that would work for them as opposed to shoehorning themselves into traditional mores. The only negative aspect I can find in this is that it stills holds onto the idea of males being dominant over females, which is fairly prevalent throughout the novel. However its popularity did grow to the point that fans of the book were known to visit Heinlein at his house and discuss the philosophies presented in the story. 

    Stranger in a Strange Land came about from a brainstorming session between Heinlein and his wife. The story was described as a retelling of the Jungle Book but with the human character being raised by Martians rather than wolves. Thankfully they decided to avoid the signature Disney sing-a-long. 

    The story centers around Valentine Michael Smith, a child born to explorers on the very first expedition to Mars that ended in disaster. Another expedition twenty years later finds young Mike alive and well having been raised by the native Martians. Once he is returned to Earth, Mike is confined to a hospital to allow him to physically acclimate himself to the gravity of Earth. Sadly that’s only the beginning of Mike’s problems.

    Since he wasn’t raised on Earth Mike has no understanding of customs and concepts that humans hold in high regard and in some cases that naiveté gets used against him. One early example comes as Mike is very nearly tricked into signing away his inheritance, you see the explorers of the first expedition to Mars were an extraordinary group who were in the upper echelons of their fields and whose contributions to Earth society not only advanced it technologically but also makes Mike a very,very,very rich man due to his being their only direct descendent. How rich are we talking here? Imagine if Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Scrooge McDuck, and Richie Rich decided consolidate their wealth into one pot…..it wouldn’t come close to the wealth that Mike now has access to.

    Luckily, Mike has made plenty of friends along the way who enlightens him about the ways of the world. One key friend is a nurse from the hospital named Jill who not only became Mike’s first female friend or “water brother” according to the customs of the Martians, but is the first human female that Mike ever meets. It’s Jill whose concern for Mike’s well-being encourages her to take a chance and help Mike to escape the hospital.

   Another very important water brother is a man by the name of Jubal who is a lawyer/doctor/writer and also happens to be a cynical curmudgeon who takes Mike and Jill under his protection on his personal island along with his entourage of secretaries and maintenance crew. It’s Jubal’s knowledge and craftiness in political circles that allows Mike to gain his freedom. He also becomes a father figure to Mike helps him to learn the customs and culture of Earth and in turn helps him to grow in his understanding or “grokking” of what’s going on around him.

   In turn, Mike also teaches his water brothers the philosophies and language of the Martians, one concept that seems to stick almost right away is the word “grok”. “Grok” seems to be the Martian word for “to drink” but is also used to describe comprehending or understanding and ironically, it’s the first Martian concept that Mike’s water brothers tend to grasp. Mike also begins to grok the concepts of love and sexuality which result in Mike and Jill getting together as well as gaining experiences with Jubal’s secretaries.

   As Mike grows in his grokking he’s exposed to the religions of Earth, specifically the Fosterites who try to entice Mike into joining their sect mainly to have access to Mike’s wealth. Mike senses“wrongness” to the sect and is put off by them, but groks their need to find meaning in their lives. In his exploration of religion and philosophy he finds that all of them have a piece of the bigger puzzle which he boils down to a Martian saying that even he admits is a rough translation: “Thou art God”.

   Eventually it’s from this grokking that Mike decides to try to teach these concepts through the veneer of religion and creates his own which attracts followers from all sects of religion attracted to the Mike’s charisma and the freedom of self that he offers those willing to practice his teachings. This of course pisses off the hierarchy of many, chief among them the Fosterites who actually set fire to Mike’s temple.

     I don’t want to spoil the ending of the book because I’d like to encourage listeners to read this book, there so much more to the story than what I’ve described here. It’s interesting to note that after Heinlein’s death, his wife released a version of “Stranger” with an extra 100+ pages. I haven’t read this version but it might be worth it to some listeners to seek this version out and see for themselves the version of the story that Heinlein wanted to release and what those extra pages could have that shapes or reshapes the story.

   So in the end this book definitely fits the definition of a classic and is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in science fiction. There are many others that I could recommend as well but this is one of the few where I would say “read first”. Well I hope you folks enjoyed the review and ‘til next time, cheers to you all.