Stranger in a Strange Land

[matgb]

So, having been regularly getting books out from the local library[1], I was tempted to try the "classic" Heinlein that I'd never read. It's recommended in the Guardian's 1000 books list, the only one of his works, and as I've enjoyed[2] many of his other books, even those dated, I finally got around to taking it out and trying to read it

Comments

[paulatpingu]

I like Heinlein, I just to tend to find myself reading his books very slowly as I have to roll his ideas around in my head a lot to figure out precisely why I often don't agree with them. There's a lot to like in Heinlein's ideas, but, and the obviously example here is Starship Troopers, I can't help but feel that there's a touch too much militarism and general anti-socialist sentiment going on in a lot of his work.

That said, I've certainly not read his whole back catalogue and his article on wikipedia is keen to point out that he offers widely different ideas in different works. So maybe other people's experience is different.

I'm currently up to date with Charlie apart from the Laundry books, which for some strange reason I couldn't stomach. I think Cthulhu, MI5 and the approaching Singularity just came out all a bit twee when you mix it together. That said, most everything Mythos related not actually written by Lovecraft missed the mark by a fair margin - guess I'm just a purist :-P

[andrewducker]

His politics changed from wife to wife. He clearly changed from being a left-wing type to being a libertarian type over time.

Compare "Beyond This Horizon", which posits a happy world where everyone gets food for free, and the world is run by a genetic board, and his later novels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_This_Horizon#Literary_significance_.26_criticism
is worth taking a quick look at.

The only constant thread is believing that personal liberty is important - it seems that he gave up on the idea of government being able to help with that over time.

[davegodfrey]

You left off "Have heard the Iron Maiden song". :P

[nannyo]

I wanted to say that I liked stranger in a strange land when I was an impressionable early teen, but find it patronising and ridiculous now. The idea of a community based on openness and love is wonderful, but he's not the first to think of that, and other people have discussed it in a much more appealling and enjoyable way.

The sexism in it drives me crazy now, too.

[fridgemagnet]

Honestly, Heinlein's politics are embarrassing. I haven't read much of his later stuff, but the earlier is all awful, and it really _does_ get in the way of the story.

In fact it isn't just the politics - Heinlein is "old school SF" in the sense that he really doesn't seem to understand people (particularly women) very well at all, yet insists on writing about them. Worse than Niven. This is I think what informs his politics; it's student stuff, naive libertarian and then naive hippy.