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/lit/ - Literature

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3821207 No.3821207 [Reply] [Original]

What did you guys think of Stranger In a Strange Land?
>inb4 anything other than greatest novel ever written.

>> No.3821220

self-indulgent. it had a vaguely good idea at its core (human raised by martians), which was buried in Heinleinian masturbation over a woman's place and how she should just shut up and get Jubal another drink while the menfolk listen to his opinions on everything.

>> No.3821250

>>3821220
I think you're right about the 'masturbation over a woman's place'. I would argue that that was largely due to the time at which it was written.

>> No.3821253

Pretty horrible. Great-sounding title, pretty cool concept, but the book is just horrible. Damn shame. First 100 or so pages are acceptable. The rest are just nonsense.

>> No.3821263

>>3821253
Clearly you didn't grok it.

>> No.3821269

>>3821263

And that horrible word. God damn. At one point I swear he used it like 10 times every page.

>> No.3821273

>>3821250
>due to the time at which it was written
that's no excuse at all, by that reasoning everybody writing in the 60s would have spouted that kind of nonsense

>> No.3821275

>>3821207
as has been said, the core concept (how different would the outlook of a man raised by aliens be?) is buried under meanderings about politics, religion, and sex.

>> No.3821298

>>3821207
I see Stranger in a Strange Land as a pretty silly attempt to justify 60s counterculture. At least, that was how I read it when I was in high school.

On the other hand, once my 17 y.o. self got around that, it was an entertainingly-written, eye-opening introduction to concepts of gender roles and what science fiction might have to say about that subject. It's not deep on the subject, but before this book I wasn't really concerned with the subject.

Also, people seem to be ignoring the religious side of the story, but it's also there to consider. A sort of "what if Jesus (or whoever/whatever your messiah may be) turns out to be martian?" question.

The great thing about liking SF is that it is slowly (over the course of my lifetime) getting me interested in just about everything. YMMV

>> No.3821304

>>3821298
Published in 1961. It pre-dated and inspired most of that 60s counter-culture.

>> No.3821311

>>3821207
is it good?

i wanted to read that for some time now.
isnt that the book that the guy adored who killed john lennon?

>> No.3821335

>>3821304
OK, I didn't actually know that (It's been years since I read the book), but that doesn't actually invalidate how my teenage self saw the book.

Heinlein was ahead of the cultural curve, trying to justify what would BECOME the predominant counter-culture because he himself already believed it. But hey, I'm not an expert on Heinlein and he's a pretty complex guy.

But if you don't buy that, I still think it's interesting to draw comparisons between this book's narrative and the counterculture's narrative of the 60s.

>> No.3821343

>>3821335
It does invalidate the teenage you's opinion that it was a justification for something pre-existing. But whatever. Other people have been less informed.

>> No.3821382

>>3821343
I'm just stating that the culture was preexisting in the mind of Heinlein (and a few other people, Beats etc.). After all, it's not as if the counterculture of the 60s simple arose out of nothing in 1960. Like all culture it evolved. The 1950s aren't my strong point, but my guess would be that the counterculture got its start among the avant garde intelligentsia (for lack of a better term) of the 1950s.

Knowing what you have told me now though, it's more productive for me to amend my teenage conception of the novel and instead note that the book appears to be a work of evangelism, rather than an apologetic.