Stranger in a Strange Land

[Linked]

Some spoilers ahead:

Stranger in a Strange Land is a science fiction book by Robert Heinlein about a human who was born on the moon, raised by Martians, then brought back to earth. The Martians taught him their ways which make him very different from earth humans; and give him super powers.

Up to this point in the book I was really enjoying it. But then it takes a hard left turn into him creating a sex cult. Everyone is open sexually with everyone else. The cult leader is with the wives of his friends. He is trying to teach everyone his super powers and super sexually open views. This reminded me of the early mormon church. The book even mentions Joseph Smith in it. As a person who rejects Joseph Smith's polygamy as morally abhorent I found this disturbing. It seemed like the author might be interpreting polygamy in the early mormon church as sexually progressive. However, I also find myself with more sexually progressive views than current mormonism.

It bothers me that someone might think Joseph Smith was being sexually progressive with the way he practiced polygamy. But I agree with being sexually progressive ethically.

Has anyone else read the book? What did you think?

[dogbite]

I was a teenager. I don't remember a lot about it. It ties into a few others if his novels as well.i prefer Heinlein juveniles or his short work; at novel length he tended to the weird. He did overthink sex. See All You Zombies.

[Hagoth]

I was a teenager. I don't remember a lot about it. It ties into a few others if his novels as well.i prefer Heinlein juveniles or his short work; at novel length he tended to the weird. He did overthink sex. See All You Zombies.

What dogbite said. His later novels got even weirder. The last one I read seemed to have way too many mentions of nipples. I read a lot of sci-fi when I was younger and Heinlein was never near the top of my on my list (Clarke, Niven & Bradbury were my holy trinity). I was going to mention something that happens at the very end of the book but I'm not sure if you got there yet, Linked. Overall, it felt more like L. Ron Hubbard kinda thinking than Joseph Smith, although I think Joseph would probably have really grokked it.

[Reuben]

I have a theory that male science fiction writers tend to turn into dirty old men. It might be because they secretly wish to write for Harlequin.

[moksha]

To totally grok Stranger in a Strange Land you had to be clued-in to the promise of a brave new world represented by the 1960s - either that or a confirmed science fiction aficionado. I remember reading most of Heinlein's books.

I enjoyed a good article about the friendship of Robert A. Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard many years ago. I was bemused when Hubbard was telling Heinlein about his epiphany that one would never get rich writing Sci-Fi, but that one could convert the ability to tell tall tales into a very lucrative religion creation business. Hubbard cited the example of Joseph Smith. Heinlein was skeptical, but Hubbard did succeed in having his own ocean liner and many faithful adherents.

[deacon blues]

"Stanger in a Strange Land" was one of my favorite books back in my early adulthood. I've read one other Heinlen book and it didn't impress me. As I get older the Utopian and magical view of "Stranger" is less realistic, but I still think it's a great book.

[Corsair]

As others have noted, Heinlein really enjoyed writing about sex. I read most of his books when I was a full believer and simply had to roll my eyes at the foolishness on display. Since my loss of belief, Heinlein's stories still contain a lot of fascinating concepts, but his sexual relationships do not look any more viable.