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Stranger in a Strange Land
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Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) (edit title/settings)

by Robert A. Heinlein (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Stranger in a Strange Land is the story of a human brought up on Mars and returns to Earth. Not only does the new arrival, Valentine Michael Smith, need to learn the languages, he must decipher the strange behavior of the people he encounters.

Summary edit see section history

Child is born to earth parents while they were on a mission to Mars, and is brought up by Martians. Decades later another Mars mission brings Valentine Michael Smith, now a full grown man, back to earth. Culture shock. Earth customs and values are alien to the human returned to Earth. While... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Child is born to earth parents while they were on a mission to Mars, and is brought up by Martians. Decades later another Mars mission brings Valentine Michael Smith, now a full grown man, back to earth. Culture shock. Earth customs and values are alien to the human returned to Earth. While the politicians, voyeurs, and fortune seekers try to take advantage of the naive young man, he tries to make sense ( grok ) the cultures he encounters.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Troy Swinehart: So this is the first of my 36 book year. For those of you not keeping up I have a goal of 36 books in 2013 with at least half of those books having been banned for some reason or another. The other half will be technical and/or business related.So SIASL, written by Heinlen in 1961 clearly is showing it's dated precepts about Mars and the life contained there. I know this is a classic sci-fi text but I think the true indicator of a good sci-fi is the timelessness of the fictitious technology. I really didn't find this in a book that I remember eyeballing as a teen with the promise of aliens and out of this world technology. I can say honestly that I am happy that I deferred its reading until my mid 40's because I really don't think I would have "fully groked" its meaning and intent.SIASL is a pro-religion, anti-theist book about free love and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that was banned somewhere in TX near the time of its publication. Even being cited all over as a banned book I failed to find out exactly who banned it, and why it was banned. I assume because of the free love teaching of its Jesus-figure Mike Smith and its close proximity to the the wild 60's and easily correlated relationship to the hippy movement - communal living and all - that some uptight preacher freaked out when he read it. While I can see in context of the times in which it was written where this book could be seen as racy or scandalous given the yardstick of 2013 this is an extremely mild and unoffensive read.I'll likely never read SIASL again but if you would like a peak into the future thinking of people from the 50's and early 60's this would be a neat trip. However, I don't think this particular Heinlein book holds with "the fullness of time."
  • Valentine Michael Smith: The first human born on Mars and raised by Martians. He comes to earth as one of the richest and most influential man in the world though he lacks the understanding of human civilization.
  • Jubal Harshaw: A doctor and lawyer who takes in Smith and teaches him a great deal about the world and human existance. He is later honored as the first human to have Martian understanding without ever having had Martian training.
  • Captain Michael Brant: Leader of the Envoy mission to Mars and biological father of Valentine Michael Smith.
  • Frisby: Add a description of this character.
  • Mrs. Douglas
  • Gillian 'Jill' Boardman: An undercover reporter who frees Michael from his quarantine and takes him to Jubal Harshaw.
  • Ben Caxton: A newsreporter and friend of Jill. He is at first wary of Michael but eventually becomes his friend.
  • Dr. Mahmoud: The first to study Martian language. Officer of the Champion. These people became "water brothers" to Mike on Mars or during the trip back, but this information is only revealed to Mike's earthbound human friends when they meet the officers
  • Patty: A tattooed lady Smith and Jill meet at a carnival.
  • Dorcas: One of Jubal's secretaries.
  • Larkin
  • Anne: One of Jubal's secretaries and a Fair Witness.
  • Larry
  • Agnew
  • Miriam: One of Jubal's secretaries.
  • Boone
  • Patricia
  • Becky
  • Berquist
  • Sam
  • Gillian
  • Dr. Nelson
  • George
  • Ruth
  • Maryam
  • Mrs. Paiwonski
  • Heinrich
  • Sven
  • Mackenzie
  • Duke: Jubal's technician
  • Bradley
  • Madame Vesant
  • Martian
  • Allie
  • Joe Douglas
  • Patricia 'Pat' Paiwonski: A Fosterite who becomes Mike's friend and undergoes Martian training.
  • Mary Jane Lyle Smith: Mother of Valentine Michael Smith and inventor of the Lyle Drive.
  • Dr. Ward Smith: Husband of Mary Jane Lyle Smith and one legal father to Valentine Michael Smith.
  • Mrs. Agnes Douglas: Wife of secretary general Douglas
  • Joseph Egerston Douglas: Master Secretary General of The Federation
  • Captain Michael Brant: Captain of The Envoy and biological father of Valentine Michael Smith.
  • Dr. Winifred Coburn Brant: Crew member of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars.
  • Mr. Francis X. Seeny: Crew member of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars
  • Dr. Olga Kovalic Seeny: Crew member of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars
  • Mr. Sergi Rimsky: Crew member of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars
  • Alvarez: Crew member of the Envoy, the first human attempt to travel to Mars
  • Captain van Tromp: Officer of the Champion. These people became "water brothers" to Mike on Mars or during the trip back, but this information is only revealed to Mike's earthbound human friends when they meet the officers
  • Dr. Sven Nelson: The Champion's physician and personal physician to Mike at Bethesda Medical Center until he withdraws from the case in a confrontation with the Secretary General (see below)
  • Gil Berquis: Assistant to Secretary Douglas. Mike makes him and a policeman disappear during a confrontation with Jill.
  • Assemblyman Kung: De facto head of the Eastern Coalition, a political bloc opposed to Douglas in the Federation
  • Senator Tom Boone: He's responsible for Mike's death
  • James Cavendish: Fair Witness employed by Ben in an attempt to expose a fake Man from Mars shown on stereovision. Fair Witnesses are a legal institution created to provide impartial and accurate observation of potentially contentious legal situations.
  • Foster: The founder of the Church of the New Revelation (Fosterite); apotheosis after poisoning by Digby. An Archaengel
  • Digby: Supreme Bishop Digby, Foster's successor as head of the Church of the New Revelation; apotheosis to angel under Foster after Smith causes him to disappear.
Show all 55 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “May you never thirst.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “I grok”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “Love is that condition under which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
    Jubal Harshaw
  • “I've found out why people laugh. They laugh because it hurts... because it's the only thing that'll make it stop hurting.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “I looked at a cagefull of monkeys and suddenly I saw all the mean and cruel and utterly unexplainable things I've seen and heard and read about in the time I've been with my own people - and suddenly it hurt so much I found myself laughing.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “But find me something that makes you laugh sweetheart... a joke, anything - but something that gave you a belly laugh, not a smile. Then we'll see there isn't wrongness somewhere and wether you would laugh if the wrongness wasn't there.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “I had thought - I had been told - that a 'funny' thing is a thing of goodness. it isn't. Not ever is it funny to the person it happenes to. The goodness is in the laughing. I grok it is s bravery... and a sharing... against pain and sorrow and defeat.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “Thou art god.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “Then why are there so many jokes about death? Jill, with us - us humans - death is so sad that we must laugh at it. All those religions - they contradict each other on every other point but each one is filled with to help people be brave to laugh even though they knew they were dying. Jill? Is is possible that I was searching them in the wrong way? Could it be that every one of all religions is true?”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • “Anybody can see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be. A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is... and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be... more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo see that this lovely young girl is still alive, prisoned inside her ruiner body.”
    Jubal Harshaw
  • “But goodness alone is never enugh. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always acomplishes evil.”
    Valentine Michael Smith
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • ‘Love’ is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
    Highlighted by 198 Kindle customers
  • A desire not to butt into other people’s business is eighty percent of all human wisdom.”
    Highlighted by 131 Kindle customers
  • Age does not bring wisdom, Ben, but it does give perspective . . . and the saddest sight of all is to see, far behind you, temptations you’ve resisted.
    Highlighted by 114 Kindle customers
  • Democracy is a poor system; the only thing that can be said for it is that it’s eight times as good as any other method. Its worst fault is that its leaders reflect their constituents—a low level, but what can you expect?
    Highlighted by 100 Kindle customers
  • Though I’ve never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith—it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe.
    Highlighted by 90 Kindle customers
  • There was one field in which man was unsurpassed; he showed unlimited ingenuity in devising bigger and more efficient ways to kill off, enslave, harass, and in all ways make an unbearable nuisance of himself to himself. Man was his own grimmest joke on himself.
    Highlighted by 89 Kindle customers
  • My dear, I used to think I was serving humanity . . . and I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered that humanity does not want to be served; on the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it.
    Highlighted by 88 Kindle customers
  • “Abstract design is all right—for wallpaper or linoleum. But art is the process of evoking pity and terror. What modern artists do is pseudo-intellectual masturbation. Creative art is intercourse, in which the artist renders emotional his audience.
    Highlighted by 85 Kindle customers
  • Government! Three-fourths parasitic and the rest stupid fumbling—oh, Harshaw conceded that man, a social animal, could not avoid government, any more than an individual could escape bondage to his bowels. But simply because an evil was inescapable was no reason to term it “good.” He wished that government would wander off and get lost!
    Highlighted by 61 Kindle customers
  • “But goodness alone is never enough. A hard, cold wisdom is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.”
    Highlighted by 49 Kindle customers
Show all 21 quotes from this book

Organizations edit see section history

  • Church of All Worlds: Church created by Valentine Michael Smith in the book. A version of it was later created by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in the real world.

First Sentence edit see section history

Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part one
His maculate origin 1

Part two
His preposterous heritage 69

Part three
His eccentric education 227

Part four
His scandalous career 317

Part five
His happy destiny 371

Glossary edit see section history

  • grok: Grok means to drink, and to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthly assumptions) as color means to a blind man.
  • Fair Witness: The novel introduces a new profession, a Fair Witness, who is specially trained to be completely objective. A Fair Witness, once trained, is assumed to be completely objective and does not lie while performing their duties.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 16 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
This is book 444 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 41 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This is book 21 of 24 in io9 Science Fiction 101. (community list)
This is book 8 of 10 in Top 100 Sci-Fi Books. (community list)
This is book 17 of 99 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Robert A. Heinlein (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Putnam
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1961
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 408

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3515.E288 S88 1991
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

The book has suggestive scenes and, while undescribed, it is obvious that central characters engage in intimate relations.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Man Who Fell to Earth

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Martian Named Smith

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