Posted on 02/01/2010 12:31:22 PM PST by JoeProBono
Is Stranger in a Stranger Land by Robert Heinlein the Catcher in the Rye for the science-fiction set? Yes, I think you could say that about the 1962 Hugo winner in one important sense.
When author J.D. Salinger died this past Wednesday, I must confess it was convenient for me (if not for him), because it got people talking about his most famous novel. The Catcher in the Rye occupies an interesting position in the literary landscape: It's inarguably a classic, and inarguably a popular classic at that — a book that a lot of people have not only heard of but read, and that has touched them on a real emotional level. But for all that, it's also a book many of those same people are sort of embarrassed of.
Catcher in the Rye is famous as a book that means so much when you read it as a young person — your mileage may vary, of course, but that's what it's famous as, nonetheless. It's full of confusion and anger and easily bruised cynicism, and other adolescent emotions, and climaxes in a kind of sublime but immature optimism. It's a story that carries you away — or has carried many of us away, anyway — when you're somewhere between, say, 15 and 20, but leaves you feeling a little foolish the older you get, especially because of the tendency among allegedly cooler, smarter people to dismiss it or scorn it.
Stranger in a Strange Land does not trade in the same kind of emotional content — it's a much more detached book, except right at the end — but I think it suffers from the same kind of treatment as Catcher. At least, when it came up last weekend while I was out with some of the io9 powers that be, they were mild groans all around, and admissions that while, yes, it was certainly an important part of the canon, well, still. And that was certainly not the first time I've encountered such a reaction to it.
For the record, I don't want to give the impression that anyone from io9 said anything derogatory about the book, because they didn't — there was just some eye-rolling. Which I get. For one thing, it's Heinlein, and even his most die-hard fans ought to agree that he's earned his share of eye rolls. And for another thing, Stranger really is a hokey book.
In case anyone reading this hasn't read it, the story goes as follows: The first manned mission to Mars, consisting of four heterosexual couples, radios back that it has arrived on the planet and then is never heard from again. Years later, the second manned mission to Mars discovers that the fourth planet is inhabited by a native species, that two members of the first mission had a child before dying, and that the odd, inscrutable Martians have raised the kid as one of their own. The astronauts bring the young man, Valentine Michael Smith, back to Earth, where his presence shakes things up, to say the least. The first problem is that the world government wants to control him because he's the heir to an unearthly fortune. The bigger issue is that Michael's Martian heritage has given him a very different outlook on life from most of humanity's, as well as some godlike abilities.
Martians think differently than we do, in large part because they live much longer and because they don't really die — they just lose their bodies and evolve into what they call Old Ones. The upshot of this is that they're not in a hurry, and so instead of deciding anything quickly, they think about it long and carefully and from every possible angle — they grok it, to use their word.
To get an idea of the impact Stranger in a Strange Land and Heinlein had, consider that "grok" is listed in most modern dictionaries, from the OED to Webster's. (By comparison, "orc" still isn't in my Webster's 11th Collegiate, despite having been coined and popularized a quarter century earlier.) But it was not so much the idea of grokking that resonated with readers as what it leads to in the story. As Michael teaches his Earthling friends to grok and to think like Martians, their human patterns of thought fall away, freeing them from shame and guilt and jealousy and repression. Naturally, this leads to nudism and group sex.
And because it's Heinlein, the group sex is warm and touchy-feely, but ultimately just as heterosexist and chauvinistic as a Penthouse Forum letter. Beyond that concern, there's the fact that successfully applying Michael's philosophies seems absolutely unrealistic outside of the world of fiction. It's easy to gloss over these problems with the book, though, especially if you're young and reading it for the first time, because so much of the setup and philosophy is not just appealing but logical, if highly idealized, in the abstract. It's only upon a more critical reexamination that one sees that gosh, maybe the stuff that sounded so wise and deep isn't so pat; maybe it's so overly simplified as to be a little ridiculous.
And I think that it's the feeling of having been taken in so hard, and then finding out that what you thought was brilliant might be kinda silly, that leaves people rolling their eyes at and dismissive of Stranger in a Strange Land. Or just the fact of all the SF that came along later that grapples with sexuality and morality in a much more complex way.
Likewise, there are plenty of works out there that deal with much more sophisticated issues than The Catcher in the Rye does. And we have this tendency to rank works that are more complex or more sophisticated as better than those that are simpler. I get why — if it works, a more complex piece of art by definition took more skill to pull off than a simpler piece.
But if we stop and grok it, that's not a judgment about the merits of the pieces of art — it's a judgment about the ability of the artist. A more complicated piece of art isn't better than a simpler piece; rather, it was created by a better* artist — maybe even the same artist who created the simpler piece, at an earlier time......
Never could understand the acclaim given to Catcher in the Rye
I thought it was depressing
Cult type following
You bet.
Presents some not exactly standard morality, but in a more believable way.
Boy are you way off
The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) was productive during a writing career that spanned the last 49 years of his life and thus the Robert A. Heinlein bibliography includes 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections published during his life. Four films, two TV series, several episodes of a radio series, and a board game derive more or less directly from his work. He wrote a screenplay for one of the films. Heinlein edited an anthology of other writers’ SF short stories.
Better not read much of the old testament then
SSL (1961) predated several of Heinleins more “hard SF” works, like “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”, etc. Heinleins 1960’s were very productive.
The real problem book isn’t SSL (which does suffer from some of Heinleins “structural issues” but he kept his focus and it still has a discernible plot) but “I Will Fear No Evil” (1970). That one went entirely off the rails and wandered willy-nilly around the countryside, after a promising beginning.
Most of Heinlens work after that suffered from the same faults - massive, digressive, plotless, kitchen-sinks of occasionally brilliant writing, with the one exception of “Job”, which isn’t for everybody but still works very well as a novel.
My suspicion is that Heinlein badly needed a nasty editor, and by 1970 nobody was willing to question the master. A pity, because all the material he had in those 6 enormous “novels” could have supplied a dozen good, real novels, and probably the same number of short stories.
Those are excellent observations. Earlier in his career, when there were fewer publishers or magazine outlets for science fiction, he did have tough editors.
I was talking about Salinger.
And just what is that snippet supposed to mean? Nice drive by.
From Heinlein’s perspective it was completely ‘moral’. Not unlike the viewpoint of say Ayn Rand in her various fictions. One can suggest a phlosophical idea in fiction and explore it in ways that other forms would not allow.
Heinlein liked sex -— no doubt about it. He also was a huge advocate of personal responsibility. He remained to the same woman without divorce. There are no ‘scandals’ or rumors of scandals’ or rumors of scandals regarding him.
Words is words. They are not actions.
I had that thought after I had posted.
But really since the article was speaking of Heinlein why bother with any Salinger comment at all???
I favor the New Testament, heh
Why not reply when I post something to you instead of just randomly adding nonsense when you feel like it???
There is no New Testament without the prelude....
True enough. On the third try.
The philosophy of Stranger has always seemed to me something that a college student would think deep. The guy was over 50 when he wrote it.
Your post is a public ‘speaking’ and is due any reply necessary to request clarifying it. What exactly is to be read about in the Old testament that one would not want to read about?
The nonsene that was posted is all yours, just a disparaging remark, no backup, typical drive by.
I was quoting a line from the article and responding to it.
I was responding to this statement
“Thats a Heinlein book I don’t want to read.
Morality is important.
Otherwise you get liberals.”
Not all of the Old Testament serves as a moral example. In fact the Hosea was instructed to marry a whore.
Amen! First Heinlein book that I read (In Jr. HS). Made me a life-long fan...
That doesn’t mean I agree with group sex with children or anything. That is still immoral. bullet in the brain time.
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