I recently re-read (well, listened to) the 1961 science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I read this while I was a teenager, but yeah, that was 20 years ago.
The main premise of the book is that there is a human man, Valentine Michael Smith (“Mike”), who ends up on Mars and is raised by Martians without the influence of humans. Eventually, he comes back to Earth, as kind of a Martian ambassador, and through him and his experiences we learn about Heinlein’s vision of a possible other race, another way of being, a way of thinking, and observations about humans and earth.
This book is classic for a lot of reasons, and those concepts keep it relevant and interesting today – and it is a very rational look at things. Sexuality, religion, politics, society. Some of it is amazing – this book has as one central plot line a megachurch run by the Fosterites (a church with weekly attendance of thousands, with music and all sorts of service for congregants and a casino and a bar and….), a movement that I associate with the 1980s, but Wikipedia tells me actually started during the time Heinlein was likely writing the book – the 1950s. To have this fledgling movement so clearly defined in a work of fiction, described by Heinlein, in a prescient way, so closely to what churches have actually become, is quite amazing to me. Though, in the book, Fosterism and later, the Church of All Worlds, have in their inner circle an element of sexuality that is fascinating and probably reflects and contradicts the air of muted or hidden sexuality in the ’50s.
I also like that Heinlein makes suppositions about humans. Mike, raised on Mars, has a different way of interacting in the world and a different set of abilities, like being able to control his body with his mind – slowing his heartbeat when necessary, losing or gaining weight, etc. He can also do much more than that, things like telepathy and moving objects with his mind – Heinlein is supposing, at least in the universe created for this book, that humans these abilities exist within humans and can be brought out with training.
What I like most about the book is the “water brother” relationship. On Mars, water is a scarce commodity, and sharing water with someone (like, drinking out of the same glass) is a ritual that signifies the beginning of an important relationship, becoming “water brothers.” This relationship is one of family, trust, unconditional love. You don’t enter into it lightly or without considering the consequences. You can’t lie to a water brother, you accept and support them, you defend them – these are all reflected, in some way, in the traditional and ideal relationship of marriage. Where it differs is that Heinlein takes this relationship, combined with his open discussions of sexuality, to the next logical step – that people who are in the same water brother family (“the nest”) share partners and there is a complete lack of possessiveness and jealousy. While the water-brother relationship is not necessarily sexual, and all water brothers in the same nest don’t necessarily pair up, there is an ease and acceptance of sexuality, and a separation of sex from the love relationship. How is that possible? Because within that family unit there is an underlying base of trust, reassurance, support, and love. Mike is very logical. If you think doing something will make you happy, you should do it. If you want to experiment, you should do it. You can see why many many free-love hippies from the ’60s love about this book. It’s fascinating. I like the logical-ness of it, the emphasis on self awareness and self-reflection. This is very much a part of my thought processes (particularly about open relationships), and I wonder how much this book influenced me in that direction when I was a teenager. I also see the trend of how this issue – a long for stability, love, closeness – is reflected in the books that I have been choosing and enjoying lately, such as a totally different and fascinating in its own way book that I also loved called the Likeness by Tana French.
A few final thoughts. Heinlein says through this book is that makes humans unique and not Martian or animal is their ability to laugh. Mike learns to laugh and makes the supposition that all laughter is based on tragedy, on misfortune, or in the language of the book, “wrongness.” I’m not sure how I feel about this, as I believe there is laughter that comes from delight and happiness.
And one small caveat about an otherwise glowing review of this book: there are a lot of sexist aspects, such as how male characters talk to and interact with female characters, and there is one blatantly sexist remark, where the main female character, Jill, says that everyone knows that in 9 out of 10 cases a woman does something to cause a rape. While readers should keep in mind that this was written in the ’50s, that’s really no excuse.
Jen Angel
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DeAnna Tibbs
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