Stranger In A Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land (1982) – Robert A. Heinlein
New English Library | ISBN: 0450050777
Condition: Good | Sold by Crappy Old Books

What happens when you take a perfectly innocent human being, raise him on Mars, teach him absolutely nothing about the peculiar habits of Earthlings, and then send him home to discover religion, politics, sex, money, jealousy, and the extraordinary human talent for making life unnecessarily complicated? You get Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein’s gloriously provocative science-fiction classic, a novel that asks whether humanity might actually make more sense to somebody who has never met any humans.

Originally published in 1961, Heinlein’s extraordinary tale introduces Valentine Michael Smith, the human survivor of an ill-fated expedition to Mars, raised entirely by Martians and consequently blessed with an understanding of the universe that makes conventional human wisdom look like something scribbled on the back of a beer mat. When he arrives on Earth, he encounters a civilisation obsessed with possessions, power, propriety and peculiar moral restrictions, none of which seem particularly sensible to someone whose formative years were spent among philosophical extraterrestrials.

Fortunately, Michael finds an unlikely guide in Jubal Harshaw, a wealthy, cantankerous, wonderfully opinionated writer and lawyer whose principal hobbies appear to include thinking independently, annoying authority figures and delivering lengthy speeches about everything humanity has managed to get wrong. Between them, they embark upon a philosophical demolition job involving religion, sexual conventions, social conditioning and the uncomfortable possibility that most respectable institutions are little more than elaborate exercises in collective self-deception.

Along the way, Heinlein introduces the concept of grokking, a Martian expression meaning something considerably deeper than mere understanding. To grok something is to comprehend it so completely that the distinction between observer and observed begins to dissolve. It’s a wonderfully useful idea, although probably best avoided when explaining to your employer why you haven’t finished the quarterly accounts.

The novel became a countercultural phenomenon during the 1960s, embraced by readers who suspected that organised religion, conventional morality and unquestioning obedience might not represent the pinnacle of human achievement. Heinlein, never a man frightened of upsetting people over breakfast, gleefully challenges assumptions about sexuality, spirituality and individual freedom. Some of his attitudes now seem distinctly dated, but his determination to provoke thought remains magnificently intact.

This 1982 New English Library edition offers a chance to revisit one of science fiction’s most ambitious and argumentative novels, a book that manages to combine Martian mysticism, political satire, philosophical speculation and enough controversial ideas to keep a dinner party arguing until the following Tuesday.

Offered in Good condition by Crappy Old Books, it’s an excellent addition to any serious Heinlein collection, or a fascinating introduction to a novel that helped convince an entire generation that perhaps the aliens weren’t the strange ones after all.

A remarkable journey through the absurdities of being human. Read it, question everything, and perhaps learn to grok. Just don’t expect the neighbours to understand.

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